So, Walking Dead. Walking Dead, Walking Dead, Walking Dead. Fuck, it's gotten tough to get interested enough in this book to write about it. It's this comic about people who don't have working smart phones, so they start full contact LARPing over cans of ravioli. There's the Guy With A Tiger club, and the Pussy Posse, and the Greaser Warriors, and the Characters You Only Kinda Still Care About From The First Two Years That Haven't Died Already. There were these two newer Marty Sue characters that were getting on my nerves, but they take the piss out of Better Than Ezra and Charlie Adlard Thinks Jesus Looks Like a Hobo, so they're okay now. Andrew "Dice" Clay though-- man, they are shoving this asshole and his baseball bat right down everyone's throat. Comic book Andrea is still tougher and cooler than TV show Maggie, but the action movie sloganeering? And Rick is still a shit leader, regardless of medium.
This is boring. Let's talk about the TV show. I very much enjoyed the first half of season four. The storyline about a deadly infection running through the prison was strong. The super market set piece was innovative and exciting, while the various prison rampages certainly held my attention. Most of the other tangents were unsatisfying, but I did like the young couple Rick & Carol found in the suburbs. Michonne got back to human moments, instead of just serving as a stewing vehicle for vengeance. Tyreese was put in a situation where he continues to kinda suck, even dipping into Andrea 2.0 territory. Luckily, the flawed but valuable TV original Bob Stookey's struggles have rung truer. Beth Greene shocked everyone by becoming interesting by her sugarcoated nihilism. Carol's brutal pragmatism makes perfect sense for her character arc, and I'm hopeful it will be further explored in the future. Carl got dialed down in a necessary way, still cool if back to being a bit whiny. Rick Grimes remains the most boring character of the lot, but Glenn and Maggie seem to have joined him in development limbo. The season of course belonged to Hershel, the heart of the group and recipient of his character's finest moments this season.
The half-season pulled a Lost with the two episodes leading to the season break, and while I recognized the need to move certain pieces around to revive the threat of the Governor, it all felt like a retcon to fix the failings of the third season finale. In a very short span of time, new characters were introduced that improved on any featured citizen of Woodbury. After the interruption, the closing episode was all-killer, no-filler, leaving me greatly anticipating the resumption of the season tonight. The great thing about AMC's The Walking Dead is that it has already covered the best period of the comics, and looks to be course correcting for Robert Kirkman's missteps going back to 2009's Here We Remain. I'm already paying for cable, and the show gives me so much more pleasure these days, I'm looking forward to finally ending my too long bitching streak over these trades with #21.
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