by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

5×15: “Try”

So things look bad right now for Rick and co.  Sasha’s got some kind of survivor’s guilt going on.  No matter who Deanna believes, Glenn or Nicholas, her son’s still dead and she’s not okay with to that.  And Rick, well Rick really could’ve handled his whole side of things a lot more diplomatically.

The big news this week is that everything’s falling apart. After four episodes of building Alexandria up as the safe zone our heroes need, yet another of our group has died, and Rick’s carnal desires may cost them everything. We finally get the confrontation we’ve been waiting all of two to three episodes for (even though it feels like forever) and Rick takes it to Pete in a way that’s actually pretty disappointing. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

5×14: “Spend”

Just when you think everyone’s safe… they go and kill the guy nobody really cares too much about! A lot of things happened in “Spend” and there’s a lot to unpack, so I’ll try not to go off on too many irrelevant tangents. Like I normally do.

“Spend” opens with a measure of hope and a look towards the future with Noah speaking to Reg, Deanna’s husband, about learning architecture (okay, so it literally opens with a small character moment for Father Gabriel, but I hate that guy and will address him later). So far most of the learned skills in our group have centred much more around hunter-gatherer tasks, so it’s refreshing to see one of our heroes learning something that’s still important, but not quite as directly practical as insert knife here. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

5×13: “Forget”

The Walking Dead is a show that’s had character and pacing problems ever since the showrunners decided to keep Shane around for so long past his due date, and that’s a trend that reached its crescendo last season when the Governor’s extended story was allowed to truncate the seasonal arc. While that may be an example of weak storytelling (no matter how valuable it may have been to learn more about the Governor), it’s also an example of how difficult it can be to write for a seasonal structure where a midseason break calls for two different climaxes. Even though the narrative through line should be strong enough to carry the entire season, it’s still tough to match up two different climaxes when they’re separated by eight episodes of material. Continue reading →

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 →