WALKING DEAD: Ep. 4, "Vatos"

Wow, another strong episode.  I really liked this one.

The cold open with the girls on the water was visually nice--not the kind of imagery associated with zombie apocalypses.  Their dialogue was . . . well, it served the expository purpose of differentiating them a bit.  And, of course, genre savvy watchers familiar with the comic probably saw the ending telegraphed by this idyllic moment.

I love that Daryl sentimentally keeps his brother's hand--and then busts it out later for some very unsentimental use in a twisted good cop/bad cop routine with Rick.  I also love it later when he barks, "Get that old lady out of the line of fire!"  Just the Southern gentleman in him, I guess.

Speaking of Merle, I'm impressed they kept him offscreen yet continued to develop him.  Depending on how long they keep this up, by the time they bring him back, I may even be excited to see Michael fucking Rooker!!

I like the way the Shane/Lori thing just simmered on the backburner this time.  That's where tv has it all over feature films--room for stuff like this to breathe.

Steven Yeun continues to impress as Glenn.  He has a nicely understated way of always being the most interesting character to keep an eye on whenever he's on screen.

This is the episode Robert Kirkman wrote, and I totally dig the drastic departure from the comic that's nevertheless perfectly in spirit with it.  I'm talking about the central conflict that emerges between our guys and some new group, who at first appear to be a Latino gang.  Fans of the comic may have been trying to figure out who these people correspond to, but Kirkman walks us right up to the brink in a nail-biter of a standoff, and then knocks expectations sideways by taking us in a direction we haven't seen from him before.  Visually, I found it quite effective to watch Rick and the others turn a few corners and find themselves in a different world entirely from the facade where they entered.  I had to watch the encore presentation to decide whether the appearance/reality distinction wasn't a little too pointed, a little too much of a moral about judging books by their covers, but no--I think it comes off pretty well.

Finally, this is zombie tv, bitches!!!!  We've been waiting to see human characters get chowed down on, and this episode finally delivers in a climactic show-closing attack.  Unfortunately, this is where feature films have it all over tv--for an effects-heavy scene like this, a big budgeter like Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead can bring top-shelf production values in a way a show like this just can't.  Even less budget-sensitive aspects like how this scene was plotted, paced, shot, and edited aren't as impressive as we've seen in movies.  The gold standard, I'd say, is that opening sequence in 28 Weeks Later, where a situation entirely under control unravels with shocking rapidity and savagery into one terrified survivor making an unthinkable decision that will haunt him the rest of his life.  Nothing like that here, I'm afraid.  The series is still young, though.  It wasn't until Deadwood's third and final season that it gave us The Fight.  Walking Dead could yet give us The Zombie Attack.  And this one wasn't so bad, after all.  The guy with the baseball bat really gave it a sweaty viscerality.

Here's looking forward to next week!