Monday, February 27, 2012

"The Walking Dead" and Two Stories of the Macabre: A Television Review ("18 Miles Out")

*here be spoilers.

Creator: Frank Darabont.

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson.

Writers: Scott Gimple and Glen Mazzara.

Episode 9 of "The Walking Dead," "Triggerfinger," drew 6.5 to 8.5 million viewers to the show. This is easily the most popular show on the AMC. Since the mid-season break there has been an overall improvement in the quality of "The Walking Dead." Two shows in after the break and "18 Miles Out" is balancing the drama with the action to some pretty gruesome effect. This episode incorporated a minor story at the farm involving suicide while the second major story involved a falling out between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Shane (Jon Bernthal). The use of dramatic irony, moral ambiguity, symbolism and some gory scenes made both stories memorable.

The first story focused on a vicious fight between Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) over women's roles and Lori's "loose" morals. Apparently, Lori believes that Andrea is shirking her laundry duty. On the flipside, Andrea thinks Lori is sleeping with too many men. Then, this story shifted into a pro-suicide versus anti-suicide debate with Andrea still promoting her maniacal beliefs. Maybe Lori is right about Andrea's lackadaisical behaviours as Andrea shirks her suicide watch. Beth (Emily Kinney) moves ahead with her planned suicide after grief over her murdered mother overwhelms her. This is a bad move on Andrea's part. Leaving a suicidal person alone is almost always a bad idea. The moral discussions about death and living continued with Shane and Rick on the road.

Their (Shane and Rick) purpose is to drop a captive 18 miles out from the farm. They do not have much luck with that. At a municipal yard, Shane and Rick prepare to leave Randall (Michael Zegen) behind. Then, as seen in the first series of cuts, events go awry. Rick and Shane do battle over Lori while the undead do battle with anyone they can get their teeth into. There is plenty of gore to go round. Rick's triple fire on a dogpile of zombies is the climax in an action focused sequence. In the end of this second story, Randall has not been left behind. This scene will not be forgotten quickly with writers Scott Gimple and Glen Mazzara including elements of dramatic irony and symbolism to intensify the story.

The first scene in "18 Miles Out" acts as one of the last scenes in the episode and two security guards foreshadow a possible fate for Shane and Rick (or is this a moving on?). The viewer knows what will happen later in the episode; the characters Shane and Rick are less aware. This is an element of dramatic irony and it is underused in television, in this critic's opinion. Another scriptwriting element is worth mentioning. The pairing of two guards together and dead allude to a possible outcome for Shane and Rick. Both of these characters (Rick and Shane) are former police officers. It is difficult not to see some similarities between Shane and Rick's previous uniformed life and the guards lying peacefully on the ground. Maybe this was a possible outcome for these two characters earlier in Season 1. Either way, these two strong writing elements of dramatic irony and symbolism show that care is being attached to the script.

There were more great elements in the story and the show in general including: great choices of music, a balance of serious and light tones and some groan inducing gory elements; there were some poor scriptwriting choices as well, however. The final song in the episode, "Civilian" by Wye Oak, was evocative and this melody seemed like a good choice to the bloody episode. As mentioned, the balance of genres, action and drama, was just right. Action seemed more prevalent in the second story with the undead showing a weakness for knives to the skull. Is there an antacid in the house? On the negative side, this episode focused on micro story elements like character development, but where is the macro or larger story arc? The apocalypse seems to be slowing down. As an aside, a better explanation is needed for how the disease passes from zombie to person. In the showing here there was evidence that cuts and scrapes from the undead can become infectious. Yet, blood splatter all over Rick does not cause him to become a zombie. Where is the line being drawn? There also needs to be some forward progression into the zombie apocalypse and away from the safety of Herschel's (Scott Wilson) farm. Some early reviews of Season 2 of "The Walking Dead" are hinting that this might happen later in the series.

With only three episodes to go, their needs to be an impetus to get Rick and his group moving, but the episode here was entertaining. Overall, "18 Miles Out" introduced some character development into the series like many of the previous episodes. The story seemed circular with Shane and Rick unable to solve the problem of a chatty but threatening Randall. Meanwhile, Andrea continues to play a minor villain back at the farm by inciting minor characters to their doom. Plot and character development aside, this episode introduced some compelling writing elements including dramatic irony and foreshadowing or symbolism. Two stories were unified by themes of death, social roles and survival. The music matched the drama of the show and this viewer is again excited about a television show that is gaining in popularity. See this showing before the next, which airs Sunday, March 4th.

Overall: 8 out of 10 (good action and drama, steady character development, some lack of forward progression in the overall scheme of things).

"The Walking Dead" at the AMC:

"The Walking Dead's" Homepage

Another review of this show is available at Hitflix (Alan Sepinwall):

18 Miles Out Reviewed at Hitfix

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