S08.E01: Remember What They Took From You

[Mr. Sparkle]

After going undercover at PADRE, Morgan and Madison find themselves back at odds trying to do what's best for Mo while struggling to accept their new lives under the watchful eye of PADRE.

Streaming on AMC+ 05.11.23 and premiering on AMC 05.14.23 9:00 PM EDT.

Proceed at your own risk for spoilers before the AMC airdate.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Of course, it's the writing that kills this. Acting, action, effects are fine. Dialogue is so stilted, plotlines are ridiculous. How many times are we going to hear "we need to make a better life for Carl Mo!!" 

Also, I know it happens a lot on TV, but if Mo is 8, then I'm 22. 

Spoiler

I aint 22. 

 

[maystone]

On 5/12/2023 at 9:17 PM, Superclam said:

Of course, it's the writing that kills this. Acting, action, effects are fine. Dialogue is so stilted, plotlines are ridiculous. How many times are we going to hear "we need to make a better life for Carl Mo!!" 

Also, I know it happens a lot on TV, but if Mo is 8, then I'm 22. 

  Reveal spoiler

I aint 22. 

 

I agree, especially about the writing. That whole last part, the scenes with Madison, Morgan, and Mo, Attorneys at Law consisted of maybe 12 unique lines repeated with varying intensity: to recap - Morgan really wants to take Mo back to PADRE; Mo really doesn't want to go back to PADRE; Madison thinks Morgan will regret this for the rest of his life.

Did I hear correctly that Morgan told PADRE the position of the rafts that the rest of our merry crew were traveling on? And that the number of survivors weren't as many as climbed into those rafts at the end of S7? I'd say that Charlie would be a given unless PADRE came up with a cure for radiation poisoning. I know some of the other survivors from the trailers, but it was said by the PADRATS that Strand wasn't among them. I don't think the show would send Colman Domingo off without a big final scene, so I'm sure he'll show up.

I think they did a great job casting Mo. I hadn't seen any spoilers for S8, so the time jump was a surprise; but I gotta say when I saw that girl's face, there was no doubt in my mind that I was looking at Morgan Jr. The kid can act, too, which is a blessing because it looks like she's going to be the young Jedi and the center of the show.

I liked what I saw of the training compound, if that's what it was. I watched the commentary after the episode, and one of the show runners said they were basing it on Sparta: all of the children were separated from their parents and trained to be warriors. That's an interesting concept; makes me wonder who they'll be warring with. CRW? You know - the helicopter people. (I never watched The World Beyond, so I'm not even sure if I have the initials right.)

It was great to see Kim Dickens again. I know a lot of folk don't like her, but I've been a fan for years and enjoyed everything I've seen her in. Here's to Madison Clark making it to the end of season.

The writers stumbled in this episode, but I'm still interested to see how this plays out. I smell a revolution brewing in PadreLand. Hey, it's our guys. You know they're going to take a smoothly running - if fascistic - enclave and turn it inside out & upside down, spill a lot of blood, and create chaos everywhere.

Yeah, I'll be here for that.

Edited May 14, 2023 by maystone

[Starchild]

WTF was that? I got whiplash watching that.

There had to be a more skillful way to tell that story.

I know Morgan is the lead, but for us OG fans, the relationship we want to see is Madison and Strand. They need to get those two back together ASAP. I have absolutely no interest in 3rd-tier characters like Grace and Mo.

Which is too bad, because it looks like Mo is going to be this show's Mary-Sue Judith. Blech.

[Brown44]

It looks like they incorporated some things that they wanted to do in "Worlds Beyond" into the final season of Fear.

[Starchild]

Like what? I didn't watch "Worlds Beyond"

[Brown44]

8 hours ago, Starchild said:

Like what? I didn't watch "Worlds Beyond"

Stuff with kids learning how to fight.

[Brown44]

The original is over but was this a time jump to get it closer time wise to the original show? With 2 shows with 3 cast members bringing Fear closer to the original means you can have guests appearances on there shows.

[Starchild]

Hm, I hadn't thought of that. I've always thought it would be cool to see Carol and Madison working together.

[nodorothyparker]

The showrunners claim it was happy coincidence that their big time jump just happens to make this show line up with where the others have so far left things. Which, sure, okay, whatever even if it reads a whole lot more like they want to keep all the various properties more or less on the same time line for any further crossovers and additional projects. But at the same time, the big time jump is an awfully convenient way to just drop whatever of the cast that never seemed to have enough to do anyway with a "oh, I don't know, it's been years since anybody's seen them" hand wave.

Aged up Mo/Wren is played by 12-year-old actress Zoey Merchant. I'm long past the point of caring much about any of this, but in the same way supposed 12/13-year-old Charlie's actress was almost 16 last season in her big doomed butterfly first/last romance, this kid was pinging closer to my middle schooler in appearance than an 8-year-old wunder Carl/Judith mashup.

Beyond that, I just don't have much. Wherever Morgan is on his big sliding scale of crazy that makes kiddie snatching and throwing back surrogate kids seem like a reasonable thing to be doing this week just isn't the draw for me it once might have been. 

 

 

 

[oakville]

I found the episode very difficult to follow. Why would Padre keep Madison prisoner for 7 years?

Why was it so easy for Madison to escape the cell ?

Morgan & Madison couldn't decide whether or not to escape with Mo. 

[Starchild]

Also, did anyone else notice that sometimes Padre was a place, and sometimes it was a person (referred to as 'him')? I didn't just dream that right?

[Mr. Sparkle]

10 minutes ago, Starchild said:

Also, did anyone else notice that sometimes Padre was a place, and sometimes it was a person (referred to as 'him')? I didn't just dream that right?

No, that happened. I think this is the first time they referred to Padre as a person. We have 11 more episodes to develop the Padre sub-plot, which I guarantee will be disappointing. 

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

Way too much whiplash from Morgan and Madison. Writing was dismal and pathetic going back and forth

[nodorothyparker]

20 hours ago, Superclam said:

We have 11 more episodes to develop the Padre sub-plot, which I guarantee will be disappointing. 

If the story of the "the tower" taught us nothing else, it's that this show will hype it endlessly across a half season or so as the last great hope of humanity only to start the next episode with whoops, blew it up/set it on fire/flew away in a hot air balloon/something. How did that happen? Oh, never mind. It's been getting this show's version of Terminus buildup for a full season or so already.

[econ07]

15 hours ago, oakville said:

I found the episode very difficult to follow. Why would Padre keep Madison prisoner for 7 years?

I don't see any incentive.  If she's a nuisance, they would either kill her or take her far away and release her.  What motive is there to keep her in a cell?

These time jumps also make no sense.  Over 7 seasons, they face all types of enemies, cults, nuclear meltdowns, crashing planes, overrun settlements, and on and on, all posing a risk to their lives.  Then, the same  characters in the same world seem to get through a 7 year time jump without incident.  

[iMonrey]

Quote

The kid can act, too, which is a blessing because it looks like she's going to be the young Jedi and the center of the show.

God help us. Why must the show be centered around another precocious moppet? Who the hell is directing this show, Steven Spielberg?

I think all the Walking Dead shows have beaten to death the trope of some community with a paramilitary-like force and a cult-like leader. Now it's PADRE. I'm sick of it. Are we supposed to chase our tails trying to figure out who PADRE is and what his goal is? Like we haven't been down this road a dozen times already with other communities and cult leaders? So tiresome. If this is all they could come up with (again), I don't know why they bothered with another season of this.

[Mr. Sparkle]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I think all the Walking Dead shows have beaten to death the trope of some community with a paramilitary-like force and a cult-like leader. Now it's PADRE. I'm sick of it. Are we supposed to chase our tails trying to figure out who PADRE is and what his goal is? Like we haven't been down this road a dozen times already with other communities and cult leaders? So tiresome. If this is all they could come up with (again), I don't know why they bothered with another season of this.

So much of this. It's just so tired at this point. I'm sure the spin-offs will be more of the same. 

[Iguessnot]

On 5/14/2023 at 11:02 PM, Starchild said:

Like what? I didn't watch "Worlds Beyond"

They did the exact same thing in Worlds Beyond, where a character who can reasonably fight a walker, goes off in dream land and is only saved when someone intervenes. I HATE that.

[heisenberg]

Hello!  Just found out today that this show was still on!  Nice to see you again.
I haven't read the comments yet and I will make mine while I'm still into it.

For me.  Mo in one picture:

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by heisenberg

[heisenberg]

On 5/15/2023 at 7:10 AM, Brown44 said:

Stuff with kids learning how to fight.

Or how to be overweight and walk 2000 miles without losing a pound.🙂

[Brown44]

Fitting.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Brown44