Season 2: Hangin' Out on the Farm

[BooksRule]

Quote

I think this is a show that really is better when you binge watch it

I usually watch it 'live' (meaning I record it and watch it later that same evening so I can FF through the commercials), but I appreciate it more when I can binge watch.  I binge-watched the entire series of 'Lost', and I've always been glad I did it that way.  I would have gotten really frustrated if I had watched that series live.

[VCRTracking]

I posted in the season 1 thread that character first impressions are so important. Maggie riding in on  horseback and swinging a baseball bat, saving Andrea from a walker was so badass. As Glen said "This chick rode out of nowhere like zorro on a horse!"

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

Maybe my view has been 'corrupted' (in a good way) of the first 4.5 seasons, as I binged them to get ready for finally digging into the show when the second half of S5 started up in February (or was it March?) of '15... but I have to agree, binging seems the best way to really be able to fully appreciate a show like this.  Looking back, from memory, I think - despite having to give "Days Gone Bye" the nod for overall best episode - that S2 is the pinnacle of this show (so far), as far as judging seasons from start to finish.

I found that some parts of last season really dragged and was unnecessarily overwrought with suspense, having watched 'live' from week to week.  And now this current season?  Best to just stop now.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

If there is one thing I wish had been done different in S2 - and the series' future - is something from the comics that was blatantly not in the show [haven't actually read the comics, but have unknowingly stumbled on 'spoilers' about them from time to time]

Spoiler

that being the Rick/Andrea relationship, especially with writing Lori out of the show just a few episodes into the next season

I liked Andrea and the potential for her future characterization on the show, but instead (in the last part of S2 and through S3) she was written as falling in with crazy!Shane's take on things and even screwing him & then TPTB felt the need to further 'ruin' the character farther with having her shack up with the Governor and then being killed off right at the point of escaping his clutches.  Its now years later, and thinking about it still chaps my ass.

Edited February 8, 2017 by iRarelyWatchTV36

[KimmieB]

On 8/22/2014 at 5:12 PM, ghoulina said:

So I thought I'd start a topic where we can discuss everything - the journey our characters have taken, comparing and contrasting, etc. Perhaps other people are marathoning leading up to the premiere - or maybe I'm the only one, haha. But I have thoughts all the time as I re-watch and there isn't one good place for them. 

 

 

So I'm currently in the beginning of season 2, and I was thinking about CDB basically taking over Hershel's farm. I know a lot of people hated on them for that, and I do agree that if someone tells you to get off of their property you should. But then I have to wonder what would have eventually become of the Greene family? They were woefully under-armed and incredibly naive about the entire situation. Is it better for them that CDB showed up in their lives? Or not? If they had never come upon the farm, OR if they had left right after Carl recovered, would the Greenes still be riding it out in moderate tranquility? 

 

That herd that took over the farm at the end - I think it's much speculated they were attracted by Shane's crazy barn shooting. If so, you could say CDB brought that upon them. But if that hadn't happened, do you think they would have been safe forever? Or do you think a herd would have eventually made its way there? Or marauders of some sort? Perhaps Tony and Dave would have found them, having never been killed by Rick in the bar. 

 

Putting aside the fact that it's really no one else's  job to determine what is best for you, were the Greenes essentially better off in the long run, being brought into CDB?

The herd was directed toward the farm by the helicopter then on to the farm by Carl's single gun shot to put down walker Shane not when Shane shot the walkers in the barn. Js. It shows this in season 2 finale "Beside the Dying Fire"

[ghoulina]

On 12/8/2017 at 11:05 PM, KimmieB said:

The herd was directed toward the farm by the helicopter then on to the farm by Carl's single gun shot to put down walker Shane not when Shane shot the walkers in the barn. Js. It shows this in season 2 finale "Beside the Dying Fire"

When Carl shot Shane, they were already RIGHT there. Immediately after, Rick sees them and freaks out. Something drew them before that. I don't know about the helicopter. It possibly drew them some of the way. But I absolutely think the barn shooting accounted for a great deal of that. It was loud as hell and went on much longer than either of the other two incidents mentioned. I suppose it may have been a culmination of all 3, but the walkers were already on the farm when Carl shot Shane. 

[Nashville]

4 hours ago, ghoulina said:

When Carl shot Shane, they were already RIGHT there. Immediately after, Rick sees them and freaks out. Something drew them before that. I don't know about the helicopter. It possibly drew them some of the way. But I absolutely think the barn shooting accounted for a great deal of that. It was loud as hell and went on much longer than either of the other two incidents mentioned. I suppose it may have been a culmination of all 3, but the walkers were already on the farm when Carl shot Shane. 

Only problem with that hypothesis is time.  According to the TWD Wiki timeline, the barn shooting occurred on Day 71 and Carl shot Shane on Day 82 - a time interval between the two events of eleven days.  

There are a LOT of variables governing how far a gunshot can be heard - hilliness of terrain, presence of sound obstacles/mufflers/baffles like buildings, trees, and brush, presence of flat water bodies, etc.  Even under the most optimal conditions, though, a high-powered rifle shot will be heard 3 or 4 miles away at most.  So long as a walker is actually walking (moving around on two moderately functional legs), they should be able to maintain a walking speed of 1 or 2 mph; average human walking speed is 3 or 4 mph, so 1/2 of that should be well within walker capability - 1/3 almost surely.  This means even the slowest walker would be able to cover that distance in a few hours, almost certainly less than a day (and that’s not even taking into account the fainter/further off a sound is, the harder it is to pinpoint its directionality).

So - even if we were to be exceedingly generous and just flat-out double the range at which the barn shootout could be heard, any walker herd within earshot and prompted by the sound would have been upon the Farm in much less than a week and a half.

But yeah, I know - #TVPhysics .  :>

[ghoulina]

Valid point, but I still maintain that they were already AT the farm before Carl shot Shane. So that was not really his fault. 

[Nashville]

1 hour ago, ghoulina said:

Valid point, but I still maintain that they were already AT the farm before Carl shot Shane. So that was not really his fault. 

They were definitely right along the edge of the Farm property, but I just took them as a wandering herd generally funneled by roadside fences to following the course of the road - at least, right up until direct external stimuli (such as gunfire and stupid-ass people shouting out in the open) provided enough impetus for the herd to push up hard against the fence proper.

[Iju]

i'm on ep 8. and i must say, this arc freaking sucks so badly. it's so damn slow. does the writers have any idea how agonizing it is to have 50 minute episodes circling on the same boring subject over and over? at this point who gives a shit about sophie audience wise? we only have had glimpses of sophie and her mother in S1. we don't even know how old they are. WHO CARES. WHY would the writers focus on this girl. moreover, this entire setting is set on this stupid ass farm with this dumbass family. and again, who the hell cares about glenn and maggie audience wise? their chemistry is as attractive as wet mud and we all know they don't really care about each other, they just want to be screw buddies until the story does whatever with either one of them, but no we're supposed to be convinced their soulmates or something?????

i was seriously about to drop this tortuously slow season until i saw shawn let loose on what must have been bottled up inside of him or weeks. firstly, i didn't like his character at all because ever since S1 he was the equivalent of a female stereotype being obsessed over her love interest. it's not cute he pines after the family he can't and will never have. it's pathetic and creepy. for him to even think there's a chance that lori's kid has some of his DNA made me cringe. what the hell dude? she's been with her husband for a fat minute. you know, i thought his whole obsession with her ended with his drunken almost-rape with lori since he knew he went entirely too far. but nope he keeps hanging around her a forcing conversation on her. and as a classic "I don't want any trouble uwu" female she doesn't end that shit by going to her husband to nip it in the bud. how could that be possible? that would mean the plot would end and make sense, also shawn wouldn't have anything else to his character. 

but now, i finally have no blame on him. he was right to completely lose his mind on seeing this delusional old man drag freaking zombies into a barn for what? NOTHING. he's just throwing them in there and waiting for a "cure"? great job, you're such a genius. but anyways.
even though shawn is 100000% annoying on his obsession, i know that he really cares for lori and carl and just wants to keep them safe. he had suffered and waited on rick with his kumbaya singing and it got them absolutely nowhere. he was the only person to understand that this farm isn't enough for everyone and they have to get out and keep surviving and come to reality again, which is what i was thinking as well. he had every right to barge in the barn to let those monsters loose and kill them. but for some reason the context of the scene was trying to make it seems like he was the bad guy. and then afterwards dale tries to make him killing otis as a bad thing LMFAO. maybe if otis wasn't grossly obese he could have made it back to the farm. right now it's survival of the fittest, and in his case it's literal. carl would have surely died if he had to wait for otis' fatass hobble around and get into the car. this kind of life doesn't allow for people to leisure around and make happy choices that rick would want. you have to make hard choices because that's the most you are given.

this season is so boring, but a lot of the characters are very complex. i don't know if its the comic's doing or the show (ideally, i would like it to be the comic because i don't have a lot of faith in them, and it would be great if it actually be great if a comic had this amount of depth to the people) but i would really like to see more of them, just not in this arc anymore, ever.

[Iju]

also i apologize for mistaking shane for shawn. it takes me a while to remember names. rick's name only stuck with me 2 days ago lol

[AngelaHunter]

5 minutes ago, Iju said:

also i apologize for mistaking shane for shawn.

Hey, I'm the same. I never forget a face but names leave my head 10 seconds after I hear them.

Your post had me laughing like a loon, but all in all - I agree. Se02, as I understand it, was done on a tight budget so I guess filming at the farm was cheap. This season irritated me so much I gave up on watching. Don't quit. If you can make it through this soap opera (Everyone seems to care about Lori's damned pregnancy more than they care about the loss of their families and life as they knew it) Se03 is so much better. 

Agree that Maggie and Glenn have so little chemistry that their so-called sexy scenes are just very uncomfortable for viewers, well, to this viewer anyway.  That remains the same throughout, IMO. 

Good part: We got rid of that annoying old busybody, Dale.

[Nashville]

17 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

Good part: We got rid of that annoying old busybody, Dale.

Much as I like Jeffrey DeMunn as an actor - no argument there.  As the show’s first stab at a moral compass, Dale blew preachy chunks.

[AngelaHunter]

On 4/29/2019 at 1:02 PM, Nashville said:

As the show’s first stab at a moral compass, Dale blew preachy chunks.

Aside from AJ on the Sopranos, I can't remember when a character irked me as much as Dale did. You'd think after an apocalypse, he'd have better things to do than poke his snout in everyone's business and creep on Andrea. 

[Nashville]

29 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Aside from AJ on the Sopranos, I can't remember when a character irked me as much as Dale did. You'd think after an apocalypse, he'd have better things to do than poke his snout in everyone's business and creep on Andrea. 

Well, to be fair: a civilization-collapsing apocalyptic scenario is about the ONLY context in which Dale is going to find himself with two moderately hot blond sisters living in his RV - so we can hardly fault him for trying to exploit the situation. 😉

Edited April 30, 2019 by Nashville
Too wordy

[AngelaHunter]

On 4/30/2019 at 2:43 PM, Nashville said:

Well, to be fair: a civilization-collapsing apocalyptic scenario is about the ONLY context in which Dale is going to find himself with two moderately hot blond sisters living in his RV - so we can hardly fault him for trying to exploit the situation.

I guess that's true and all that hot blondness helped  him get over the loss of his wife PDQ. The only thing about him I liked was his funeral, where Rick conducts the eulogy with (as best as I remember), "Dale would give that look. You know the look I mean." I couldn't help wondering how many times they had to do that scene before they could finish it without hysterical laughter.

Edited May 3, 2019 by AngelaHunter

[slf]

Rewatching this on Netflix and damn, Andrea is fucking annoying. She should have died this season. I can't believe she got to be the first of their group to meet Michonne.

The Greenes really should have kicked the group off their land. They had a decent setup going.

The barn scene still hits hard. Shane, Andrea, T Dog, Daryl, Glenn, etc., all lined up firing on the Greenes' family and friends like they're at target practice, completely uncaring. Until Sophia stumbles out of the barn, someone they care about. Then they all lower their weapons and their eyes, and can't being themselves to shoot her. Fucking punks. Especially Shane. "Shane was right, tho. Shane was the alpha of that group!!" my ass. Shane punked out like a little bitch. 

Edited October 2, 2019 by slf

[Persnickety1]

Season 2 has always been my favorite season.  I really enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the fleshing out of the characters, etc.

And probably because one of my all-time favorite lines from the show came from season 2:

"YOU PEOPLE ARE THE PLAGUE!"

RIP Herschel  ❤️  

[nodorothyparker]

On 10/2/2019 at 3:37 AM, slf said:

The Greenes really should have kicked the group off their land. They had a decent setup going.

The barn scene still hits hard. Shane, Andrea, T Dog, Daryl, Glenn, etc., all lined up firing on the Greenes' family and friends like they're at target practice, completely uncaring. Until Sophia stumbles out of the barn, someone they care about. Then they all lower their weapons and their eyes, and can't being themselves to shoot her. Fucking punks. Especially Shane. "Shane was right, tho. Shane was the alpha of that group!!" my ass. Shane punked out like a little bitch. 

The barn scene does hit really hard for all those reasons.  It was also still early enough in the show's run that we hadn't cottoned on yet to the reality that this show would lead us down many a storyline dead end just to sucker punch us, so seeing Sophia shamble out of the barn after half a season of looking for her still made us feel something.

I always figured there was a reason Herschel was so adamant the group members not wander around armed.  They had the guns and the numbers that it was mostly a polite fiction enforced by Rick that either side ever acted like Herschel could really force them off if they decided to dig in their heels on staying.  Rick at that point was still acting like the world or property rights hadn't fundamentally changed while if Shane had been the one in charge, I seriously doubt he would wasted much time going back and forth "negotiating" with Herschel.