After an episode that left my expectations for this episode in the same shape as Lori’s car. I was ready to quit. Done writing recaps. I don’t like crapping on TV that other people like.

Unless it’s Heroes. Because, seriously, f— Heroes.

But with that said, last Sunday’s installment was… good? Yeah, it was good. It was definitely good. In fact, it is only the proximity to the previous week’s poop storm which qualifies my praise.

Like a beaten dog, I can’t help but flinch even when given a treat. I digest this snausage AFTER THE JUMP (more…)

“There’s no hope left, I see that now.”

Herschel, our ever-optimistic farm host is now crestfallen over the events of the zombie barn party. He’s now come to the conclusion that he was wrong about zombies, it’s not a disease, it’s a death sentence.

But he isn’t really talking about walkers. No. He’s talking about this show. One insanely stupid character decision piled on top of more trite plot devices and topped itself off with a TWD hallmark, repeated conversations between characters that aren’t that interesting the first place.

Abandon all hope ye who click AFTER THE JUMP. (more…)

Finally.

This is the show I fell in love with. These are the conflicts caused by the world rotting from the inside out. These are the decisions made by compelling characters with conflicting points of view. This is the genre violence that sets The Walking Dead apart from anything else on television.

If for one moment before a horrific mid-season break, The Walking Dead cashed in on the promise of the first season.

It’s good to be home. Read all about it AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

Holy crap.

Stuff actually happened on this show. Sure, there were some pretty maddening plot problems and we rehashed a few issues for the millionth time, but at the end of the episode people said important things to each other that might actually move the plot along. You hear that world! We might actually be heading in the right direction with this GD series! Yippee!

And then… there are two bits of news that almost completely ruin your joy. Find out both of those and everything else you need to know about Secrets AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

Like a zombie whose brain has been cleaved in twain by a last minute arrow, this episode of The Walking Dead was of two minds. The first, let’s continue to put our characters on the path of the most boring, pointless plot arc in history. The second, let’s continue to give the audience slight glimmers of the promise that this show once found bursting out of every seem.

Also, Michael Rooker is back. Or is he.

Find it all, AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

Would you rather an adaptation of a source material be a literal copy or a totally new story with the same characters and themes?

It’s a fundamental question, which I believe is at the heart of the ever raging debate amongst The Walking Dead viewers and fans of the Robert Kirkman funny book. Do you want to see actors portray stories you know on sets that resemble what you’ve seen before? Or do you want the story to surprise you, like the source material once did, with new twists and turns?

If your answer is the latter, then there is nothing that could shake up the story in the AMC series than to kill our hero Rick Grimes. I explain AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

In a story about a band of survivors in constant peril the sin of safety is major one. Thankfully, this episode did a little bit to shake things up in this frustratingly slow season but some major issues still remain.

Well… one issue. Which is driving me insane.

Seriously crazy.

Glen causes a clean up on aisle four, Daryl picks a lovely metaphor for a lady in need and splish splash someone is taken a bath AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

So this is how the short, explosive reign of Frank Darabont over The Walking Dead ends. The final script he had a hand in (he’d long since been removed from the post process) gives us some all time great visuals, memorable genre beats and meaningful character turn. But, it also left our main plot in neutral and saw fit to see some of our alleged main characters have the same arguments over and over and over and over again.

What was good? What was boring? What will change? It’s all coming up, AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

One little girl missing in a woodland area littered with zombies. Her mother is on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Another of her rescue party is barely hanging on to the will to live.

These are three of the major problems we barely deal with in The Walking Dead episode Bloodletting. Which means you know things have really upshifted from “this is heartbreakingly awful” to (collapse into a helpless, weeping heap).

There’s a one-handed man wishing he’d brought his bag of fun, Shane should really avoid schools and Rick finds the best doggone doctor he can. Let the blood flow, AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

There is a breath of fresh air, a unique buoyancy, to viewing a television series where you trust the storyteller. Gone is the nagging sense of second guessing or internal apologizing for obvious flaws because you so want to love the project as a whole.

It’s just you and the story, riding the rhythm of plot.

That is The Walking Dead.

Of course any informed fan of the series is living in fear, not unlike Andrea trembling behind the RV door with a curious walker sniffing inches away, as to when the current sense of rapture might abruptly end after AMC’s senseless in-production banishing of series mastermind Frank Darabont.

But enough of the dread, let’s focus on the now.

The zombie apocalypse survive-a-long returned to television Sunday after a nearly yearlong absence with nothing short of the best episode the series has delivered to date. Characters reset, season plots began to emerge and a few Lost tropes were dusted off for good measure.
The End is back, read on AFTER THE JUMP to get all the details on “What Lies Ahead” including the episodes best moments, ratings triumphs and a countdown as to when we can all start panicking about the quality of the series… (more…)

Walking Dead mastermind Robert Kirkman has famously said his most popular franchise was borne from wondering what happens after a zombie movie. Typically, a zombie outbreak story begins with a relatable reality, add zombies, initial crisis ensues, survivors band together and after a few casualties the initial crisis is solved. But when the credits roll, our main characters are left in a world changed forever.

What happens to them? How do they cope? How do they eat? Do they forget the past? Do they make a future?

The Walking Dead is that story and Kirkman is telling it twice. Once in the original comic incarnation and simultaneously on AMC as a surprisingly popular hour-long drama (returning with a second season this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on AMC) of which he is a writer and executive producer. There is a reason his second draft, initially reshaped by mastermind Frank Darabont, is more popular.

Thanks to more consistent relatable characters, key revisions in the canon story and new wrinkles added exclusively in the AMC series it’s way, way better than the source material. Some might disagree but we survive by pulling together and not apart, with a warning of heavy spoilers through the first season of the AMC show and the first 25 issues of the comic, I’ll explain my position. (more…)