AMC's WALKING DEAD: Ep. 3, "Tell It to the Frogs"

I said this episode needed to be stellar.  While I'm not sure I'd go that far, I'd say it was good enough.  It's funny--it's become a truism with comics that long arcs read better in trades; it's possible some of my prior criticisms of this tv show might seem premature or overblown when this season is watched as a dvd set.

I haven't been very positive so far about the Lori/Shane subplot, but I think tonight's episode delivered a smarter, more nuanced payoff than the blunt soap-operatics of the first two episodes led me to expect.  For the first time, Lori and Shane seemed less like one-dimensional plot devices, and more like ordinarily fallible people who've made questionable decisions in unimaginable circumstances, and now might have to live with unfairly punitive consequences.  Lori's harsh and abrupt cutting Shane off (which gives this episode its title) seemed as hurtful to her as to him.  Both of their ambivalence about Rick going back into danger, perhaps to death, came across with a subtlety that didn't sacrifice clarity (and vice-versa).  I felt like Shane's rough justice for the wife-beater (a scene not in the comic), cliche as it may have been, was actually an earned moment of regrettable humanity.  And Carl is coming along nicely--not quite Sixth Sense awesomeness yet, but the series is still young.

On the topic of growing into a role, it will be interesting to see how bearded, long-haired, unkempt, hollow-eyed, haunted, and one-handed Lincoln can be in the role of Rick.  That last point will be especially interesting, since Michael Rooker's over-the-toppedly despicable Merle now seems to have sawn one of his own hands off.  Considering that I recently suspected him of being a proto-Governor, that's really flipping the script!  Which isn't to say I was necessarily wrong.  Suffice it to say, I'm intrigued now and enjoying the departure from the comic that has taken Rick, Glenn, and these other new characters back to Atlanta for a realistically muddled mix of pragmatic reasons and dirty consciences.

So what about the zombies?  I don't care how many critics rhapsodize about how this series "isn't about the zombies" (a new shorthand for "transcending the genre"--if they so badly want something that "isn't about the zombies," they can fucking well find it on any other channel).  This series really does need to deliver on the zombies, and I think this episode nicely delivers on the promise of "bicycle girl" from the pilot.  Deer zombie, from the comic, is remarkably realized.  His destruction is even more brutal, and in its visual quotation of the Rodney King incident, is somehow simultaneously more poignant and desensitizing.   This is zombie action some feature films would shy away from.  Good on Darabont and AMC.

I just have to mention that this is about as awesome an initiation into horror as any young kid could hope for.   Twenty-some years from now, many directors will be mentioning in commentaries how defining and influential this series was for them.   It's the kind of show I would have snuck into the living room for an 11:00 encore presentation of, with the sound turned down to 1, so I could talk about it the next day in the schoolyard. 

This episode definitely has me back onboard.  Here's hoping next week's episode rocks this hard!