by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

5×12: “Remember”

Subtlety? Discretion? Strategy? Characters acting sensibly? What’s happened to The Walking Dead?

While not a lot happened in this week’s episode, there was a lot going on on more personal levels as our heroes decompressed and relaxed just a little a bit into the seemingly very real possibility of normalcy. Particularly towards the earlier parts, the episode really felt like a great, big, comforting bear hug from your therapist, like the moment when the hardened, emotionally distant protagonist who’s clearly been through a lot finally feels comfortable crying in front of people. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

5×11: “The Distance”

For a long time now, The Walking Dead has had a huge problem with developing a certain type of character — voices of dissent. From Dale to Andrea to Tyreese, anyone who might have had a valid opposing point and who was clearly operating as the group’s conscience in the face of unrelenting death and violence invariably ended up becoming incredibly annoying even as our heroes slowly became the monsters others should fear. It’s a change perhaps best highlighted early this season with the group’s massacre of the remaining Terminites, but one that’s been been glimpsed as early as season two’s “Nebraska” when Rick shot Dave and Tony in that bar. Right or wrong, our surviving group members have moved further and further away from the virtuous beings they would rather be and have, by now, gone pretty far down the path of straight-up murder as first resort, mostly because the Dale’s and Andrea’s and Tyreese’s tend to die out, and with them their morality. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

5×10: “Them”

The very first point I ever made in assessing The Walking Dead on a weekly basis (and by extension heavily serialized fiction in general) concerned whether or not you can skip an episode and not miss anything. Especially with a show where the season’s aren’t stretched to fill out more than twenty weeks of television, it’s important (and should be a given) that every episode is vital in achieving the season’s goals. The first half of season five, which has been widely praised as a fairly drastic improvement over previous seasons, is a strong example of this as each episode had an important role in moving the needle forward in our hero’s quest for post-zombie apocalypse existence, and I’ll admit that even episodes that I didn’t like at least informed us on what’s going on or what we’re supposed to be feeling.

I’m going to say upfront that you may as well have skipped “Them”. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

5×09: “What Happened and What’s Going On”

Under normal circumstances during a zombie apocalypse, you’d be pretty happy if not thrilled to run across a guy like Tyreese in the midst of your struggles. He’s big, he’s strong, doesn’t seem particularly opinionated; he’ll be good in a fight, he’ll be useful. If there’s one thing your group probably doesn’t need through said apocalypse though, it’s another moral centre, whether it’s the quiet religious guy who slowly goes crazy or the seemingly strong character who basically acts like a freshly neutered Rottweiler until his untimely demise. For a little while, this show actually had both.

So welcome back to our Walking Dead season five coverage, and doesn’t it feel like a lifetime ago that we last met here? Continue reading →