Episode Commentary: What Lies Ahead
After they escaped the center for disease control last season, you’d think the characters in AMC’s “The Walking Dead†would have at least a second of euphoria.
That’s how the comic book has been over the years, as writer Robert Kirkman has done an amazing job of forcing the characters to grow through immense pain and sometimes-beautiful pleasure.
On the television show however, the group’s struggle has only begun.
They haven’t gotten an ounce of real happiness yet.
As their emotional and physical fortitude was challenged as they lost Sofia, their mettle continues to be tested every second.
Rick, of course is at the forefront of that challenge. In the middle of a transformation from a straight arrow sheriff to more of a leader and man of action, Grimes’ character is developing into something much tougher. Andrew Lincoln’s portrayal of Rick Grimes has been solid since the beginning, but it’s easy to see he has more baggage on his shoulders this season. It’s making for a show that never lets up and is constantly growing.
His talk in the beginning of the episode to Morgan and his later chat with god lend themselves to the Kirkman style. This is a man torn. He wants to keep his friends and family safe.
Other characters have problems too. The drama between Shane and Laurie, as well as Dale and Andrea is interesting; it takes the show in a completely different direction. At this point in the comic, Shane was dead and Andrea was a completely different character. The same thing goes for Laurie, who is far more supportive of her husband than she ever was in the comic.
Some may think this hurts the show, but it actually separates it from the source material enough to open up a whole league of possibilities.
From here on out, it’s up to the writers to truly scare and entertain. While the characters and scenes are somewhat similar, sometimes enough to make us think of exact moments, this cannot be compared to the comic book anymore.
The cinematography was fantastic as well, as the wide-open roads and horde of zombies early on set the scene, while the closed-in chase scenes in the forest put knots in your stomach. The intro segments scenes where the group was stuck on the road were simply chilling.
It was hard to escape the impatient feeling this episode induced; more needed to happen; safe the build up for a later episode.
The cliffhanger ending involving Rick, Shane and Carl made up for much of that though, but the tempo needs to be kicked up a notch next week.
The drama was good and it was gory, but there needs to be more action.
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