It seems although viewers are currently in the "honey-moon" stage when it comes to this TV show. The rating for this show is currently abnormally high. While I will certainly admit the series premier was strong, this show is off to a pretty shaky start. Episode Three showcases the program's serious faults. "Tell it to the Frogs" was full of wasted dramatic space, and demonstrated the show's uninspired character development.
The opening scene hit the mark. Merle's opening monologue was unsettling and provided excellent insight into the psychological realities of an individual in such a dire situation. The image of the 'walkers' attempting to break through the door in conjunction with Merle's howls of desperation and terror was truly haunting. Immediately following this, however, the episode flopped. While the reunion between Rick and his family was touching, the emotional resonance failed to extend throughout the rest of the episode. The tent scene between Rick and Lori was painfully circular and clichéd. The dialogue went no where, and the phrase "I came back for you" or something to that effect was uttered repeatedly like a dull mantra. This scene combined with Episode Two's laughably bad wallet eulogy pre-hack scene demonstrates how the writers and actors within the show are inept at handling emotionally turbulent situations.
In order to sidestep simply being a "Zombie Show" and to be taken seriously, "The Walking Dead" will have to prove itself to be a compelling human drama which just so happens to take place in a post- apocalyptic zombie infested world. Characters will have to be developed fully and uniquely, clichés will have to be avoided, and relationships will have to be carefully crafted and executed. Unfortunately, so far, this is not the case. The show is almost entirely composed of predictable character archetypes. We have the ghettoized African American male (Offensively named T-Dog), the racist redneck (Merle), the wife-beater, the submissive wife, the (once) rich/successful black female with just a touch of "soul", the geeky Asian kid, and so on. These characters are uninteresting and strictly adhere to preordained cinematic archetypes. Unless characters are developed more fully and creatively, the show will invariably be placed within the mostly uninspired and repetitive action genre, where it will sit alongside sophomoric and soon-to-be forgotten cinematic bores such as "Lost", "Heroes", "CSI" and the like.
The opening scene hit the mark. Merle's opening monologue was unsettling and provided excellent insight into the psychological realities of an individual in such a dire situation. The image of the 'walkers' attempting to break through the door in conjunction with Merle's howls of desperation and terror was truly haunting. Immediately following this, however, the episode flopped. While the reunion between Rick and his family was touching, the emotional resonance failed to extend throughout the rest of the episode. The tent scene between Rick and Lori was painfully circular and clichéd. The dialogue went no where, and the phrase "I came back for you" or something to that effect was uttered repeatedly like a dull mantra. This scene combined with Episode Two's laughably bad wallet eulogy pre-hack scene demonstrates how the writers and actors within the show are inept at handling emotionally turbulent situations.
In order to sidestep simply being a "Zombie Show" and to be taken seriously, "The Walking Dead" will have to prove itself to be a compelling human drama which just so happens to take place in a post- apocalyptic zombie infested world. Characters will have to be developed fully and uniquely, clichés will have to be avoided, and relationships will have to be carefully crafted and executed. Unfortunately, so far, this is not the case. The show is almost entirely composed of predictable character archetypes. We have the ghettoized African American male (Offensively named T-Dog), the racist redneck (Merle), the wife-beater, the submissive wife, the (once) rich/successful black female with just a touch of "soul", the geeky Asian kid, and so on. These characters are uninteresting and strictly adhere to preordained cinematic archetypes. Unless characters are developed more fully and creatively, the show will invariably be placed within the mostly uninspired and repetitive action genre, where it will sit alongside sophomoric and soon-to-be forgotten cinematic bores such as "Lost", "Heroes", "CSI" and the like.