Cthulhudrew

Especially when there are no zombies to be found. I bet Detroit would have been willing to let them film there at a discount rate. :D

That would explain his reluctance to kill the zombies.

I'm still trying to figure out why this particular neighborhood of Silver Lake was selected as a base camp/survivor's enclave. It doesn't appear to have any strategic significance, is populated by a mix of well-to-do people and people who can't even afford to get their front windshield fixed (it would be easier to fix it than to pay off all the tickets he must get for driving around with that thing). The city appears largely abandoned, as has been pointed out time and again. Did the military set up here because these were apparently the only idiots in the city to completely fail to observe what was going on around them and get out of town? "Guess who drew the short straw, Moyers? Looks like you get moron babysitting duty, haw haw!!" Honestly, would you have noticed if either one of those characters hadn't shown up at all last night either? :D

"Not like that Nick! Middle out! MIDDLE OUT!" That would be cool. Turn them all into zombies, and then have the next season follow their wacky cannibalistic antics as they roam across country and eventually reach Atlanta, where they are all killed by Rick and Co. It would be a crazy zombie Road movie! (But seriously, as I think on it, that might be kind of cool. The main characters would be zombies, roaming the country as it collapses into anarchy, and we see- through their eyes- the depths of despair and extremes that the living have to go to in order to survive. It would be sort of the Anti-Walking Dead, with just as much cast turnover.)

Ironically, the budget for this should have required less allocation for makeup, as the walkers are "fresh." :p

I liked Ruben Blades' performance; he's been the only really solid, consistent one in the series so far. Of course, I enjoyed the same storyline his character had here back when it was Sayid and Sawyer on LOST. I'm hoping the soldiers took advantage of their zombie situation to frag their ridiculously nefarious leader.

What's most odd about the sonic screwdriver is that I distinctly recall an interview with RTD during Nine's early days, when he addressed that he didn't want to overuse the sonic screwdriver, since it's universal toolishness was often used as a cheap escape from plot. And yet, even from Nine onwards, it nevertheless has been used in just such a fashion.

Someone saying "I'm not going to blow up, but keep cool" and then going and blabbing about it to everyone except the other party involved? That's just turning aggressive behavior into passive-aggressive behavior, and to the same end. Any reasonable person with half a brain knows that it is going to get back to the other party. So she really wasn't showing any great improvement from her old ways. And I have very little doubt that if her P-A pressure hadn't prompted Peih-gee to come talk to her, that she wouldn't have been able to restrain herself from eventually blowing up at her anyway.

I really hope the "old school/new school" stuff gets dropped starting next episode. It comes across entirely as a catchphrase production shoved down the contestants' throats.

So I guess this means no Competitive Yoga challenge between the teams? I really thought that was what they were building towards with the Joega and Vyga clips. :'(

They had the perfect setup for Nygma to become the Joker last season; brilliant crime scene investigator, constantly dismissed and overlooked by his peers. What better reason to become a villain than to be able to use his criminal (and csi) genius but to create the perfect crimes to stymie the police? And then, flattered and flummoxed when they prove unable to solve them, he begins to leave ever more blatant clues (his "riddles") in order to try and at least help them along (and then they still can't do it, at least not until a certain "bat" themed detective arrives on the scene and brings a fun new element to the game?) But instead, what do we get? The meek guy who falls into unrequited love and, in a moment of passion driven by misplaced overprotectiveness, kills someone, and then he turns into a multiple personality homicidal maniac. Much less interesting and nuanced, IMO. On the other hand, since they seem to have moved all the drama out of the police station (at least for an episode) by shunting Gordon, Bullock, Essen, and- apparently- Thompson off into other realms of interaction, that didn't leave Nygma anyone else to play off of, so let's give him a second personality to talk with? This show.

That was part of Davros' message to the Doctor. That he remembered. My best guess? The Doctor actually did save Davros all those years ago and only just now realized it in his current incarnation, and that Davros is now remembering and will probably repent or have death bed recriminations about the evil he's caused since forgetting, even if he did believe that it was all for a good cause. Maybe not, though.

I don't know. It's been a long time since I've seen the episodes, but I seem to recall that Ainley and Peter Davison had that element to a degree (the arc that comes to mind is The King's Demons). But generally speaking, yes, I would agree. I think there were a couple of moments between Simm and Tennant that worked, but were largely overshadowed by hamfisted plots and Simm's hamminess in the role.

Yes, cracked me up. I was a bit on the fence about her blatant innuendos and flirtations with the Doctor last season, given that she has been a male character for all of her known incarnations up to this point, and it almost felt a bit forced. Like "she's a girl now, so we can have her hit on the Doctor all the time!" That said, one of the best parts of her friendship speech tonight was addressing that the feelings of affection the two Time Lords have for one another are of a different caliber than that which we baser, more hormonally driven humans tend to consider in regards male/female relations, and that acknowledgement by the character (and presumably, the writers) allowed me a bit more reserve to appreciate the overtly "sexual" antics of Missy. It's just another nuance of her ability to make light of and manipulate others, not so much an actual representation of her own feelings and inclinations vis a vis her sexuality. Just as the Doctor tends to be prudish about such things, Missy's new incarnation has given her a freedom to play around with the concept of gender and the expectations and apprehensions others have about such things. Certainly it's fitting with the character, who uses every trick at his/her disposal to set their enemies off-guard (and just have a crazy good time). I actually hope they continue to explore- if only in a very playful, off-handed way- the attitudes of Gallifreyans towards gender and identity, through both Missy and the Doctor. It's never really been something that they've been positioned to deal with, or until the recent series, have had a public environment in which to do so. Obviously, that changed somewhat with Ten (and his comments to Rose and Jack Harkness about gender) and Jack Harkness' own polyamorous tendencies- but this is the first time we can really kind of have fun with it from a Gallifreyan perspective. (I actually kind of find myself wondering at the antics Anthony Ainley's Master might have had if attitudes in the 80s had been a bit more lenient; his Master always did kind of toe the line between nemesis and flirtation.) Thought it rather humorous, myself. Kind of makes the whole "Susan is the Doctor's grand-daughter" thing take on a possibly new meaning. :D

I really enjoyed this episode, myself. I like how it tied in with previous Who continuity (the Tom Baker bit was particularly clever, I thought; wonder if that is what inspired the story or if they just found that ref while creating it and tied it in?), and I really enjoy Michelle Gomez' Master/MIssy. I haven't liked the Master so much since Anthony Ainley (and I had such high hopes for John Simms' version, but was sorely disappointed). At this point, I hope Missy takes over Clara's place as the Doctor's companion, at least for a while. That would be such a great show. (And the friendship speech she gave was awesome.) I also appreciate that we are going to be shown- rather than told- how Missy survived last season's finale. Clearly, whatever trick she pulled then is the same one she used this episode with herself and Clara. EDIT: I should also mention, the dynamic between Missy and the Doctor since Gomez took over not only has turned me around to the concept of a female Master- which I was skeptical of- but this episode really made me think that it might be time for a female Doctor as well.

The whole "no zombies" thing is such a silly conceit that doesn't really add anything to the world these characters live in. I've seen people argue that Kirkman wanted his world to be set in the same world as Romero's Night of the Living Dead, where the word isn't mentioned* as if that is an excuse for it. Yet the word is used in the sequels to NOTLD, so clearly even in Romero's world it's a "known" thing. I've also seen Kirkman state that they didn't want to use the term because it draws to many parallels to existing zombie movies, and that he wanted the people in his world to see this as a new thing, particularly vis a vis shooting them in the head as a way to kill them. Which, again, seems like a really silly conceit; just because we- yes, you out there- are familiar with zombies from pop culture doesn't mean that they would be any less terrifying or hard to conceptually come to terms with if they were to suddenly show up outside our doors. And just because we "know" that you have to shoot them in the head, doesn't mean it would somehow lessen the threat of them. (If anything, its far more unbelievable that so many characters in TWD/FTWD/Zombie Movies are able to pull off these remarkable headshots off the cuff and often while in motion. The reality is far, far different.) *I've never seen Kirkman state this to be the case directly, though I'm far from a scholar when it comes to his interviews.

This episode put me to sleep. Literally.

She was Mayor Woody's daughter during the second season. She also reprised the role in the Veronica Mars movie.

I'm liking what I've read so far as the casting and roles goes; it appears on casual glance that they may be really going back to the roots of the character in his Luke Cage: Hero for Hire series. There was some cheesiness and (of course) non-political correctness about those books by today's terms, but the core of who Luke really is comes from there, and I still feel they got more right than wrong. It was really as Luke continued onwards, and in particular when they hooked him up with Iron Fist, that things started to go astray (for both characters). Much as I love their partnership, most writers never quite seemed to know what to do with them, and their personal storylines and characters have been all over the map in the decades since both were introduced. I really hope they go back to the Marvel Premiere stories for Danny's Iron Fist series for the same reason. I've read that there is apparently a lack of focus on what/where to go with that series right now. I say they should stick to his more gritty 70s kung-fu origins; Danny as falsely confused killer on a mission of revenge/justice, and only layer the more mystical K'un-L'un stuff in gradually. In any case, looking forward to both of those series as well as Daredevil. I'm even looking forward to Jessica Jones, although I never picked up the book after the first issue (Bendis. Ugh.)

And deprive them of the opportunity to have her shocking moment of discovery when she slips away to check on her boyfriend only to discover him dead, and worse- to her abject horror!- he rises again and tries to kill her!?!?! Because, you know, DRAMA! :p

Anyone think that Piper's secret ally will turn out to be He-Of-The-Single-Episode-Casting-Maybe-Entirely-Dream-Sequence-Father-of-Emma? (And maybe it will turn out he was the real serial killer all along and it wasn't Brandon James after all?) Just a thought. Another thought: I know that most of the actors on this show aren't stellar performers by any means, but I was really struck in this episode by how little the writers? director? give them in terms of opportunities to try to emote. Notably: 1) The scene where Daisy watches the Sheriff die? On the one hand, I'm glad they didn't drag it out too melodramatically, but they should have let the two actors play it out at least a little bit, give the audience a chance to actually feel their grief. 2) "Kieran- you didn't hear? Your dad is dead." Kieran bangs his head against the wall for a second, then they all run right back off to try and find the killer. (side note: useless ass Kieran mysteriously disappears again right when he is needed most. Maybe he was having an off-screen cry? Dunno) 3) Emma and Will in the truck. "We should really call the police." "No, all of our friends died and more will if we call them. We have to end this ourselves." If Emma would (could?) have actually brought some kind of feeling to that exchange, it might have sounded believable. 4) Even, looking back, Emma's whole reaction to Will's death was so blase; heck, we didn't even really see his mother's grief, just a brief scream and a cutaway as the camera tracked bloody Emma. The entire premise is pretty hokey, I think we all agree, but what brings it to ground, what sells is, is making connections with the characters, and their relationships Also some witty dialogue and clever plotting like the movies had, but in the absence of the latter, we really need more of the former. I think if the creators of the show would just allow some of these dramatic moments to actually play out a bit, the show would be much better off for it. There was another moment (or maybe more than one, I can't recall now) where I swore I saw her smirking inappropriately at something Emma did that tipped me to her way back when. And of course, on this episode, her "don't trust anyone" line at the dance was a big blinking light. I was only surprised she didn't parrot it back at Emma at the end like I was expecting her to ("Surprised? I told you not to trust anyone!") Another thought that occurred to me: Anyone want to take bets that Piper shows up next season even though she's dead? As pre-recorded podcasts, maybe?

Everything you wrote is on point, but this in particular- this is why I never read any of TWD beyond the first GN that I'd heard so many good things about (and even reading Kirkman's expectations/hopes for what he was doing in the forward I thought "he gets it!"; and then quickly realized- he may get it, but he can't write it well.) It's also why TWD has gotten increasingly rote and underwhelming to me as they more closely mirror the plots and dialogue in the books (as I've been understanding is the case) as opposed to when the writers seemed to have a more free hand to use the broad strokes but then write around it and for the characters as they did more effectively in the first two seasons.

That bugged me, too, but mostly because I wondered why she didn't just keep jimmying the bottom half the same way she did the top.

Speaking of which, another silly fakeout in the beginning of the episode when Nick was flipping through the radio stations and happened up on the broadcast where the guy was talking about the end of the world... because of a football team. Ugh. That and when he's all "It's okay, go with your mom and leave me here in misery" when Madison keeps pushing. At this point, I'm not entirely certain why Madison necessarily knows that the "flu" is what is causing all of this (although she rightly has suspicions there is something behind it), but her daughter and Matt definitely shouldn't know, so why is he rolling over and giving up already? That kind of thing is de rigeur on TWD, where they know what the causes, symptoms, and inevitable horrid reality is, but here? Too early. The show seems to want to simultaneously play with the tropes of full-blown zombie apocalypse stories and all their inherent moral choices, yet not want to concede yet that there actually is a zombie apocalypse going on, and as a result their characters are vacillating inconsistently.

Two episodes in, and the thing that most draws my attention about this show is the ongoing continuity gaffes with the truck's cracked/not cracked windshield.