Because The Walking Dead season 10 finale has been delayed thanks to the real-world virus, I have decided that to fill the void left in the schedule, to start a re-watch of the series. I live tweeted the episode as if it were playing live in the regular 9pm GMT slot on FOX TV UK. You can see all the tweets here or embedded below.

Tell It To The Frogs is an episode that is mainly used to flesh out the survivors in the camp. We see some more of Carol (Melissa McBride) and her husband Ed (Adam Minarovich) and the abusive nature of their relationship. What’s surprising is how open Ed is about treating Carol like dirt. He wants her by his side all the time, doing everything he says. The women are doing the clothes washing and Carol manages to open up and laugh with them, only for Ed to come along and verbally abuse her in front of everyone.

There is a good call made in this scene, in the division of labour has seen the women do the cleaning and the men do the hunting. This is another interesting thread that doesn’t get pulled on too much, eventually everything will even out, but in the early days of a crisis, it’s interesting to see how we fall into our neanderthal ways.

One of the hunters is Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), brother to Merle (Michael Rooker). When his deer kill is eaten by a walker – who is brutally pounded on by all the men in the camp who look to be trying to vent their frustrations – Daryl begins calling out for his brother. When he’s told what happens, a scuffle ensues but is quickly resolved by Shane (Jon Bernthal) who is not happy Rick (Andrew Lincoln) wants to take a small group back to go and fetch Merle.

Venting frustrations continues after Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) tells Shane to keep away from her and her family. It is revealed that Shane told Lori that Rick had died. It isn’t clear if this was just so he could try to woo Lori or if, like anyone would have thought, he genuinely believed Rick would not have survived. Lori’s revelation comes just as Ed is beating on his wife, so Shane goes over and smashes Ed’s face in. It’s brutal and we learn we should never mess with Shane.

The episode is bookended with Merle on top of the roof of that department store. At the start he is rambling incoherent mumbojumbo and begging God to help him. But that quickly turns to hate for a God that he never asked for help from before. He tries to reach Dale’s tools in the hopes something will be able to get him out of the cuffs as zombies bash at the door. At the end of the episode, when Rick and crew arrive, Merle has gone. All that is left behind is his hand.

Rooker is excellent as Merle and this last scene is pure horror. An excellent way to end the episode, even if we do think Merle is the kind of person who would have taken his hand with him. It also begs the question, if you could saw through bone with that hacksaw, you could have gone through the pipe…but that aside, another great episode.

Overall Rating: 8

S01E03 Tell It To The… – Curated tweets by Zombie_Scribe

Because The Walking Dead season 10 finale has been delayed thanks to the real-world virus, I have decided that to fill the void left in the schedule, to start a re-watch of the series. I live tweeted the episode as if it were playing live in the regular 9pm GMT slot on FOX TV UK. You can see all the tweets here or embedded below.

Whilst Days Gone Bye was an incredible introduction to the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead, Guts opens that even wider by expanding the group of living survivors and exploring more of what the dead can and can’t do. Again, we learn some new zombie tricks here, like they can climb, but this won’t happen outside of the season so we’ll ignore it.

Rick manages to escape the tank with the help of a voice over the radio, the plan – just run for it. Rick meets Glenn in an alley and together they climb to the roof of a department store and meet up with more survivors inside. We meet Andrea who blames Rick for getting them into this mess by shooting wildly outside and attracting the dead. But up on the roof we meet the real star of the episode, Merle Dixon.

The first season of The Walking Dead was a lot like the first season of Game of Thrones. It threw in excessive violence and nudity (in the case of GoT) to attract an audience. Once that base was there, the subsequent seasons were toned down somewhat, maybe to appease the censors or maybe to secure a better time slot. Guts uses Merle to showcase some of the more adult themes. He’s a redneck hick, racist to boot who throws around the ‘N’ word as well as spits on T-Dogg just because of the colour of his skin.

In any other circumstances, Merle would be the person you keep away from or exclude, but in this world, he might be just crazy and sadistic enough to save you from the dead. But Rick doesn’t think his attitude is fit for the world before or the world now and so handcuffs him to a pipe. Despite his viciousness, Merle is an interesting character and his dynamic that can be used to bounce off Rick and the rest of the group is very much what he is there for.

To escape the department store, the survivors need a vehicle. There is a van in a construction site, but it is a few blocks over, through a swarm of the undead. To get to it, Rick and Glenn decide that they should smell like the dead, so chop up a corpse – after giving him a sort of send-off. This idea of the dead being people too is explored in the second season but doesn’t really continue. In the early days, it’s understandable. The dead haven’t been walking long and murder is against the law so it can mess with your head.

Covered in sticky, stinky guts, Rick and Glenn head for the van, but rain comes and starts to wash off the scent. But it is an important lesson learnt that you can smell like the dead and they won’t attack. This obviously becomes more prevalent in season 10 and sort of surprising that it was found out so early on.

Back at the store, T-Dogg goes to release Merle but he drops the key. That shot was a one-in-a-billion, but of course it goes down the drain leaving Merle trapped. Without really explaining anything to him, T-Dogg runs off to escape in the van, he could have promised Merle he’d come back for him later. The rest give him a disapproving stare, but its clear they all thought Merle was a bad egg.

At the camp, Andrea managed to radio in and tell them they were trapped, but Shane refuses to send anyone to help them. He is brutal in his honesty. Although that doesn’t make for a very good leader. Why are the rest of the camp accepting of this? Just because he was a cop?

The series continues strongly and the world is opening up to us, but it’s not looking any prettier.

Overall Rating: 9

S01E02 Guts – Curated tweets by Zombie_Scribe

Because The Walking Dead season 10 finale has been delayed thanks to the real-world virus, I have decided that to fill the void left in the schedule, to start a re-watch of the series, starting at season 1, episode 1. I live tweeted the episode as if it were playing live in the regular 9pm GMT slot on FOX TV UK. You can see all the tweets here or embedded below.

The debut episode of a series that would go on to spawn at least ten more seasons, was really rather good. We are introduced early to Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his search for fuel. He stumbles upon a little girl who has turned into a zombie. He does not hesitate to pull the trigger and put her down. Cut to pre-apocalypse. Rick and his buddy Shane (Jon Bernthal) share their woes on a lunch break. They are both cops and a call comes in about a car chase. They’re off and this results in a crazy shoot-out where Rick gets hit and puts him in hospital and a coma.

When Rick awakens, he finds the world has gone to the dogs. The hospital has been decimated, bodies devoured and something is moving behind locked doors. He finds body bags, army vehicles and half a moving corpse by a bicycle. He heads home where his wife and son are gone. He meets Morgan (Lennie James) who explains the new world to him. Don’t get bit. Hit them in the head. They are attracted to sound and light. Rick heads to the police station and teaches Morgan how to use a rifle before headed off to Atlanta to try and find his family. En-route, his radio call reaches some people in a camp, but he can’t hear them. It’s Shane and he’s with Rick’s family!

The camp are unable to warn Rick that he’s headed into danger, Atlanta is over-run with the dead. But he soon finds this out, taking refuge in an almost abandoned tank. The episode ends with Rick trapped in the tank surrounded by zombies when a voice comes through on the radio. There are others still alive.

Days Gone Bye is a great introduction to the apocalypse. We see things through Rick’s eyes who is also seeing it for the first time. Lennie James is outstanding as Morgan, showing such incredible emotion as he struggles to deal with his wife’s death and turn into one of them. We get the plot twist about Shane and his shenanigans to draw us to return as well as just how will Rick get out of that tank?

The zombies are gruesome and the special effects are so well detailed. We’re still on the rather fresh undead here so there isn’t too much rot to them outside of flesh wounds and crazy eyes but they sure know how to devour a horse. The zombies themselves possess special qualities that don’t follow through with the rest of the series or indeed the general tropes about zombies. These zombies appear to have memories. They can turn door handles as well as crawl and climb. If you know the history of the show then you know why this is and you know why it didn’t last. If you don’t know then I will explain everything in another post once this season is over.

Days Gone Bye is a juicy bite into the world of the Walking Dead and a fabulous set up for what is to follow.

Overall Rating: 9

S01E01 Days Gone Bye – Curated tweets by Zombie_Scribe