S1 was a masterpiece. From its compact form, every episode building up to something, while having its own separate arc, the characters, the pacing, the music, everything all good, leading up to the finale and the first 'true' philosophical angle of the show of 'Whether it is worth it to stay alive in such a world?' was genius. Adagio in D Minor by default makes every scene a masterpiece, so there's that, but Jenner and Jacqui's death was a phenomenal moment, and even Andrea's decision to stay, THEN to leave to save Dale (while having been robbed of her autonomy of decision) are genius strokes. Loved it through and through.
S2 dropped the ball for me. First, I don't understand why they needed to pad it into 13 episodes, and not just 6-8. While the overarching story of Sophia Lost>Finding the farm>Herschel's refusal of reality>Finding Sophia>Shane's fallout, and everything burns up in flames was good, sometimes I felt that we were going from one random character (despite knowing FULL WELL that they shouldn't) just randomly walking off, and to now a new search beginning for someone else. I feel like it happened like 6 times.
Some of the more philosophical angles were a lot weaker, forced even, as if they were not sure if their audience was clever enough to understand their weight. Having a baby in this world? Even living in this world? The autonomy to commit suicide? The morality of taking a life? Most of it was so SPELLED OUT for you, even when it tried to be subtle, it was so obvious.
Beth's attempted suicide is a good example: The moment we see Lori bring her lunch with cutlery, we KNOW that she's gonna probably use that to try to commit suicide. Instead, we have like 3-4 individual scenes, where we are explicitly shown that oh, no, she's thinking about it etc. Instead, Lori could have just dropped the tray with the food & cutlery, some scenes later we would get to her attempting to commit suicide, then NOT going through with it, instead choosing life, would make it a far better scene than where we are blatantly told several times what's actually happening. Less is more, dear screenwriters!
The whole thing just felt so "written", plot-driven, things conveniently being there or not there or like this or not like this as the plot commanded, it was very hard to keep my suspension of disbelief up the whole time. Walkers are painted as a dangerous force, who tend to conveniently slow down at some moment for a good shot. Team decides to save ammo, yet continues killing lone ones with guns. Carl at one point is afraid of guns, then he is acting cowboy, then is back to being a kid again (okay, he is a kid going through hard stuff, I get it), fuel never seems like a problem, it was so weird seeing people just get in their priuses to go shopping, sometimes the walkers are strong, sometimes they are pushovers. The whole thing just feels inconsistent.
We're constantly just back-and-forth-ing between situations
- They can stay / they need to leave
- Killing is required / Killing is bad
- A gets lots / B gets lost looking for A / C gets lost looking for B
- Shane totally lost / Shane is ok now
Which brings me to characters.
Obviously Daryl is the coolest, while still being a fully rounded character.
Carol is surprisingly interesting, and their dynamic is probably my favourite right now.
Rick is still an excellent protagonist, but perhaps bursting out into 'keeping the group together monologue' too often
T-dog sadly ceased to be an actual character in this season, I wanted to see more of him
Dale was a favourite, but his death had its perfect place and timing
Carl... I wanted to like him, but he suffers from Andrea syndrome
Lori... okay I kinda see it. Pregnant, young woman in all this. But pretty bland otherwise.
Glenn, my boy, I just hope he survives. Probably the only relatable character for most people.
Shane was interesting to watch for the first time. His 10th time hesitating between being fully psycho/normal got boring.
Herschel & family: a nice contrast to the main group, man's refusal of the situation was interesting, but now it's time for them to be written out
Andrea, while one of my favourites in S1, became the worst character for me. I guess they wanted to write her into a strong female character, which I guess they succeeded, but unfortunately she also became an annoying b*&! in the process. I wanted so much from her after the whole (it was my choice to make and you took it from me). Becoming an angry ball of fluff, wanting guns, and being hot for Shane was just not how I imagined her transformation after that life-changing experience. Sad.
But at least (apart from some) the characters are all very well acted.
Guess due to the abundant cliffhangers that became a staple of our era, I guess I am hooked enough to continue, but I already feel such a huge downgrade of overall quality of the show's writing from S1, while still not being a bad show, it just feels like a more generic one. Still curious to find out how the whole thing happened, how the world got to be like this, which is probably a hook they'll keep for the rest of the seasons unlike let's say the Last of Us, where we know this info from the start, and the rest keeps you interested because of the drama.
At least I finally understand why people love Norman Reedus.
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