S01.E01: Years

[Mr. Sparkle]

Rick tries to find his place in a new world.

Sunday, February 25th on AMC. 

[Boofish]

Yeah. I'm in. That's it. That's the post.

[Straycat80]

I thought it was boring, and confusing. I’ll watch a couple more episodes before I decide if I’ll stick with it. 

[Starchild]

Is the South African character really South African, or was the actor faking the accent? I have to say I had a really hard time understanding them.

I didn't watch World Beyond, was that the Omaha city?

The whole secrecy thing seems strange. How do they expect to keep a city of 100K (and growing probably) secret forever?

[Brown44]

16 minutes ago, Starchild said:

Is the South African character really South African, or was the actor faking the accent? I have to say I had a really hard time understanding them.

Lesley Ann Brandt really is from South Africa. But when she was on Spartacus she didn't have this thick accent. Either this is her real accent and she was able to disquise it on Spartacus or the Spartacus accent is her real accent and she's laying it on a little extra this show.

[Brown44]

After 90% of episode being Rick centric, I'm making a wild guest that most of the episodes is gonna be Michonne centric.

[Boofish]

Personally I just find Rick one of the most compelling characters of any show I have watched. I went back and watched his "death" scene and realized Jadis called him a B so they wouldn't kill him.  But he has a presence/aurora that he can't hide his light under a bushel. And people recognized right away she was lying. He became who he was because even the strangers at CAMP COME AND GET US recognized this but never really saw that in Shane.

I'm interested to see if Rick Grimes saves the world or if he choose a quiet life with Michonne and the kids.

[maystone]

Well that didn't go the way I expected. I figured the first half was going to Rick and the second half would be Michonne.. I liked it better the way the show played out, and I was actually shocked when she showed up at the end. I recognized the cape and boots and the katana, of course, before they got to the big reveal. I think probably everyone did.

I'm hopeless at WD timelines. TOWL takes place before Dead City, right? I thought at first that Rick and Michonne would run into Maggie and Negan in NYC, and they may, but not in this show's current time.

I like Rick so it's fun to see his character back in play. I enjoyed seeing really-pissed-off Rick and his anger management issues slaying ALL the walkers, and everyone else standing back with their "Whoa!" faces on. I loved the two dreams of him meeting and immediately falling in love with Michonne. Danai looked gorgeous, and just seeing Michonne being relaxed and laughing was wonderful. It's great that that's the way Rick remembers her. We really didn't see that Michonne much once they hit Alexandria unless she was with Judith.

I like Thorne a lot; I liked Okafer, too. I think he was interesting and a good foil for Rick. I'm sorry that he's been killed off. Unless he shows up in flashbacks if they're even going to show any more for Rick.

So, yeah, I'm in. It's only one episode, but so far I'd have to say that I like it more than Dead City but less than Daryl Dixon.

[txhorns79]

1 hour ago, Starchild said:

I didn't watch World Beyond, was that the Omaha city?

World Beyond was set at a place called Campus Colony.  It was an old college that had been converted into a protected fortress for several thousand people.  They, Omaha, Portland and the CRM were all allied.  In the first episode of World Beyond, the CRM destroyed the Campus Colony, and later they destroyed Omaha.  The CRM led a walker horde to Omaha and blew up part of their perimeter wall.  If I remember right, Jadis later tells the main characters in World Beyond that the CRM destroyed Omaha because eventually it would no longer be able to sustain itself, or something like that.       

[maystone]

31 minutes ago, Boofish said:

Personally I just find Rick one of the most compelling characters of any show I have watched. I went back and watched his "death" scene and realized Jadis called him a B so they wouldn't kill him.  But he has a presence/aurora that he can't hide his light under a bushel. And people recognized right away she was lying. He became who he was because even the strangers at CAMP COME AND GET US recognized this but never really saw that in Shane.

I'm interested to see if Rick Grimes saves the world or if he choose a quiet life with Michonne and the kids.

I can't wait to see his reaction when Michonne tells him he has a son. I'm going to place my bet now that he and Michonne will want to save the world FOR their kids. Besides when did our guys ever walk into a place and not want to change it?

1 hour ago, Starchild said:

Is the South African character really South African, or was the actor faking the accent? I have to say I had a really hard time understanding them.

I didn't watch World Beyond, was that the Omaha city?

The whole secrecy thing seems strange. How do they expect to keep a city of 100K (and growing probably) secret forever?

CRM's secret would pretty much be doomed anyway if a lot of other citizens keep secrets the way that Estaban did. And good on Estaban!

Edited February 26 by maystone
Because I was way off on the main characters home.

[Boofish]

21 minutes ago, maystone said:

I'm hopeless at WD timelines. TOWL takes place before Dead City, right? 

So, yeah, I'm in. It's only one episode, but so far I'd have to say that I like it more than Dead City but less than Daryl Dixon.

I believe original recipe, Maggie/Negan, Le'Daryl are all in the same time line. 

They time jumped Fear as well when Morgan got there.

TOWL started 5 years after the bridge. Original recipe jumped an extra 5 after the bridge.

I assume we are to infer Rick settled in, another 5 years passed and now everyone is in the same time. 

We pretend the World Beyond was never born. But I believe they were the Omaha that was destroyed in Rick's timeline. 

Edited February 26 by Boofish

[maystone]

17 minutes ago, Boofish said:

I believe original recipe, Maggie/Negan, Le'Daryl are all in the same time line. 

They time jumped Fear as well when Morgan got there.

TOWL started 5 years after the bridge. Original recipe jumped an extra 5 after the bridge.

I assume we are to infer Rick settled in, another 5 years passed and now everyone is in the same time. 

We pretend the World Beyond was never born. But I believe they were the Omaha that was destroyed in Rick's timeline. 

TXHORNS79 posted an excellent response above to a question about Omaha. The Beyonders were from a smaller settlement called Campus Colony. I'd recommend reading his post; it has a lot of good info.

You know, I agree that Le'Daryl (heh) and TOWL are in the same timeline, but by the time that M&N get to NYC, it really is a dead city with a population in the low hundreds. Although it might have happened - going Dead - while Rick was training in Portland and reuniting with Michonne. Hopefully the show will tell us something definitive.

[Starchild]

1 hour ago, txhorns79 said:

World Beyond was set at a place called Campus Colony.  It was an old college that had been converted into a protected fortress for several thousand people.  They, Omaha, Portland and the CRM were all allied.  In the first episode of World Beyond, the CRM destroyed the Campus Colony, and later they destroyed Omaha.  The CRM led a walker horde to Omaha and blew up part of their perimeter wall.  If I remember right, Jadis later tells the main characters in World Beyond that the CRM destroyed Omaha because eventually it would no longer be able to sustain itself, or something like that.       

So all that stuff on TV that Rick was watching was a cover up? CRM saying they're investigating something that they did?

[maystone]

6 minutes ago, Starchild said:

So all that stuff on TV that Rick was watching was a cover up? CRM saying they're investigating something that they did?

Yep. They lied. And that's why they want everything kept secret.

[heisenberg]

2 hours ago, Brown44 said:

Lesley Ann Brandt really is from South Africa. But when she was on Spartacus she didn't have this thick accent.

Neither in The Rookie.  It was very annoying and one of the reasons I did not really like this episode. 

Edited February 26 by heisenberg

[catrox14]

I am so damn happy to have Rick Grimes back. I dipped out of WDverse(minus the series finale )after his final episode and this was so satisfying.

I don't even mind that he lost his hand because it was by his own hand for a good reason.

Lastly, RICHONNE!

[Mr. Sparkle]

I'll put it under "didn't hate." A bit slow starting and confusing, so I'll give it the full 6 episodes to really see how it is. Agree that Rick is the heart of the show, the franchise has no center without him. 

The CRM stuff could be interesting, but I watched all of World Beyond much to my chagrin. Hopefully they'll do it better here. 

[Starchild]

7 hours ago, maystone said:

Yep. They lied. And that's why they want everything kept secret.

Was there a reason given in World Beyond for why they destroyed one of their own?

[seacliffsal]

I am just so happy to see Rick Grimes again!  After he left the story on the Walking Dead it was never the same.  I think Andrew Lincoln does a great job embodying the character.  I didn't understand hardly anything the main actress said and it took me a long time to realize they were in Philadelphia.  But, overall, just having the whole episode focus on Rick was enough to get me into this series.

[Enigma X]

For years, I only watched the original show for Rick and Rick/Michonne, even when I felt the plot was tedious. When Rick left, so did I.

So, I am watching this for Rick and the Rick/Michonne relationship, but I also hope the background plot (because that is what it is for me) is interesting. So far, I think it is. I am here for the politics, not the zombies.

[heisenberg]

I did not like the way they did this episode.  CGI was not doing it for me it was very disturbing. 

The pace of the story. Maybe I am scalded from the other spin-off who did not delivered,  it seems like the same story with different protagonists again and again. 

To me, Daryl in France was a lot better than the other spin-offs because of the new characters behavior and their acting.  Also the pace of everything falling into place was cool and different.

For example the thick accent of Lesley Ann Brandt, well,  I watched The Rookie the day before and I could hear perfectly everything she was saying, in 6 seasons I never had any problems, that made the whole thing pretty cringe.

The way Michonne abandonned the children make it hard to me to have any compassion for her, but she might address it in a good way that make sense and make me flip on her side, who knows?

I'm still gonna keep watching maybe it will fall into place...  Or not. 

[tricknasty]

It was boring but Rick looked fine as hell. That’s all I got.

[maystone]

17 hours ago, Starchild said:

Was there a reason given in World Beyond for why they destroyed one of their own?

A brief one: something about Omaha not being able to sustain that colony. I believe there was also something said about doing the same to Portland, but I could be misremembering.

[Crashcourse]

15 hours ago, tricknasty said:

It was boring but Rick looked fine as hell. That’s all I got.

My sentiments exactly!  He looks even better than he did on OG Walking Dead.

[KeithJ]

Five minutes in and I already want to turn this off.  I don’t think Rick would ever contemplate suicide and then did he really think he was going to get away (let alone survive) by cutting off his hand?

[rmontro]

Boring.

[KeithJ]

On 2/26/2024 at 6:00 PM, heisenberg said:

For example the thick accent of Lesley Ann Brandt, well,  I watched The Rookie the day before and I could hear perfectly everything she was saying, in 6 seasons I never had any problems, that made the whole thing pretty cringe.

She's not on (and hasn't been on) The Rookie.

[LeesburgLee]

Lesley Anne Brandt also played Mazikeen (Maze) on Lucifer.

[mojoween]

I am just tiptoeing in because I only watch TWD universe by osmosis when the hubby watches.  I hope this question isn’t out of line, or if someone just wants to point me in the direction where I can find out?

Rick was once married to Lori, right?  And they had Carl and the baby?  (The hubby did tell me about Carl, but not the baby)

But in this timeline Rick and Michionne are a great love and he’s known her a long time?  I think I need to go find a crash course in the universe.

[Mr. Sparkle]

9 minutes ago, mojoween said:

I am just tiptoeing in because I only watch TWD universe by osmosis when the hubby watches.  I hope this question isn’t out of line, or if someone just wants to point me in the direction where I can find out?

Rick was once married to Lori, right?  And they had Carl and the baby?  (The hubby did tell me about Carl, but not the baby)

But in this timeline Rick and Michionne are a great love and he’s known her a long time?  I think I need to go find a crash course in the universe.

Yes, all this happened. Basically, Rick and Michonne happened some years after Lori died. 

[nodorothyparker]

18 hours ago, KeithJ said:

I don’t think Rick would ever contemplate suicide

He put his gun to his head in the very first episode of the mother show and probably would have blown his head off and ended all of this there had he not found the conveniently located hatch up inside the tank in Atlanta. I just rewatched the pilot episode with my teenager who was a baby when this franchise started and is now old enough to be getting into ZA lore herself. The parallels and callbacks to that episode are really strong.

I liked this a lot more than I was expecting to because Rick was feeling really played out by the time he went trip trip tripping off that bridge and into the black helicopter in the sky. But while the franchise made some er, interesting attempts at world building, it never really recovered from the Rick-shaped hole that he left.  So to see him step back into those boots as a Rick we recognize but don't quite anymore was lovely and a nice reminder that Andy Lincoln was sometimes a much better actor than he was given credit for. The show did a nice job of integrating the bits of story about government response and what little we knew about the CRM from the mother show and each of the spinoffs in a way that felt organically cohesive, and like the Daryl spinoff pulled off some really nice bits of cinematography as a reminder that this series started out as what was supposed be a couple of films. 

I of course have questions. All of the talk about secrets and saving the world was unsurprisingly vague, but this was a good enough start I'm willing to give it a bit to see how it plays out.

[rmontro]

10 hours ago, mojoween said:

But in this timeline Rick and Michionne are a great love and he’s known her a long time?  I think I need to go find a crash course in the universe.

The good news is that if you want to find out about this stuff, you can go watch the earlier seasons of The Walking Dead, and those were the best years of the series.

[KeithJ]

19 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

He put his gun to his head in the very first episode of the mother show and probably would have blown his head off and ended all of this there had he not found the conveniently located hatch up inside the tank in Atlanta.

A lot has happened since the very first show.  How his character has grown, I just don't see him attempting it now.

[catrox14]

1 hour ago, KeithJ said:

A lot has happened since the very first show.  How his character has grown, I just don't see him attempting it now.

Maybe after he found something with Richonne he might not have at that time

Sadly, since Rick was "saved" by Jadis, he's been in captivity for 5 years. He kept trying to escape, to the point his captors put him on an actual leash. To escape that torment, he chose to cut off his own hand only to be captured again. 

I don't see him choosing to end his own life after all that particularly out of character, given the givens now

[ParadoxLost]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:24 PM, KeithJ said:

Five minutes in and I already want to turn this off.  I don’t think Rick would ever contemplate suicide and then did he really think he was going to get away (let alone survive) by cutting off his hand?

I think that was just a nod to the comics.  I seem to recall living with a vague dread of Rick's hand going bye bye during the series.  

I quit the original run of the show due to its pacing and I find that I'm leery of the show for that reason.  I liked the episode well enough, I guess.  But I'm now expecting the next episode is going to be Michonne's journey. Which is fine. 

But I don't know if I can put up with Rick and Michonne immediately going their separate ways for episode 3.   And this episode makes it feel like they will.  It feels like that is why they did the whole thing with Rick nearly committing suicide then burning his letters to Michonne, etc.

 

[heisenberg]

On 2/28/2024 at 10:43 AM, KeithJ said:

She's not on (and hasn't been on) The Rookie.

My bad, i was mistaking her for Mekia Cox!🤐  But yeah I saw her in Lucifer and I could also hear everything she was saying, never had any problems with her.

[foxfreakinmulder]

It showed up on youtube so I watched. I bailed out on TWD after Negan killed Glen and was able to keep on living. I hate watch FTWD and haven't watched any of the other walking dead spinoffs. I would continue watching this one because it has Rick but I don't get the channel.  I too had trouble understanding the girl and sometimes the guy that got killed in the helicopter at the end.

[revbfc]

“Should I cut this leash, or sever my hand?  Oh that’s easy, my hand.”

-Rick Grimes

[BasilSeal]

On 3/4/2024 at 3:30 PM, revbfc said:

“Should I cut this leash, or sever my hand?  Oh that’s easy, my hand.”

-Rick Grimes

Yeah, there's also the bit where the plumber guy he's known  since getting to the CRM says 'hey, why not just play along with the  whole being a soldier thing and then take the chance to run off when you're out on a mission or something' and you can literally see the cogs in ricks mind working like this is some sort of great revelation.

 

[BasilSeal]

On 2/29/2024 at 2:27 PM, KeithJ said:

A lot has happened since the very first show.  How his character has grown, I just don't see him attempting it now.

this is a guy who's prepared to cut off his own hand with an axe in order to escape and get back to his  family, when even this doesn't work, contemplating suicide is a reflection of the despair he feels at accepting that escape is impossible.

In TWD, there are a lot of times when characters behave in ways that are psychologically unrealistic, or inconsistent with how they have  been previously portrayed, in all fairness to them though, this isn't one of them.

[BasilSeal]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:25 AM, maystone said:

A brief one: something about Omaha not being able to sustain that colony. I believe there was also something said about doing the same to Portland, but I could be misremembering.

this was one of many major plot  faults in World Beyond. 

The theory was that  the CRM had done some computer modelling  and  found out that the settlements at Omaha and the campus colony were  likely to collapse for, er, some reason.

Jadis gave this reason  during an episode of  World Beyond, and i've looked back at my old posts and found that i wrote this about her reasoning at the time.

It was kindness to commit genocide because we did some modelling and it turns out in a couple of years time we might be a bit short of food because although we have the resources to run fleets of helicopters and hummers and the logistical capabilities to supply an entire army, we couldn't grow enough food to feed 100K people with the landmass of the entire continental united states to go at. yes, that sounds plausible.

Essentially the CRM kill 100k people because they are worried that a possible shortage of food 10 or 15 years in the fuute might cause unrest in a community of people who have no idea where the CRM's settlement actually is, so if this did indeed happen, how would it be the CRM's problem?

This is the page with the main discussion of this issue on

you may as well read it there rather than repeat it all her but basically this particular plot point, and it's a really important one for that show and likely this one as well, makes absolutely no sense.

Yes there are obvious problems in feeding a population of  100k holed up in a closed city, but if you have the resources to run a mechanised army, with the manufacturing capacity and logistics needed to just keep the CRM working, are we seriously saying that this problem couldn't be overcome?

One interesting point in this episode is the details about the bombing of the cities at  the start of the outbreak, in a futile attempt to control the spread. One thing touched on in the first season of Fear was that the army were killing some people in order to concentrate on saving others. (an concept  dealt with in more detail in The Last of Us) What is implied with rick's conversation with General Beal, who is mentioned  but never seen in TWB, is that the CRM has been formed from a rouge element of the military who refused to go along with the  federal plan of  euthanising  population centers, and somehow coordinate with the  guy tasked with bombing the city they are protecting and get him to bomb the marine base  tasked with wiping out  the survivors of  the planned bombing of their city instead.

So we have this irony where the CRM is born from a military force disobeying orders to save a population who were  supposed to be wiped out because their survival was deemed hopeless, and now they are wiping out  settlements themselves because their survival has been deemed hopeless by a computer model.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Looking back at those posts, the show sucked, but at least we had some entertaining conversations!

[BasilSeal]

9 hours ago, Mr. Sparkle said:

Looking back at those posts, the show sucked, but at least we had some entertaining conversations!

yeah, the only thing worse that world beyond was the last season of  fear, now that really did suck, but i digress.

I think the show runners have made a mistake by tying this show to the lame duck that was TWB. the premise of that show was very poorly thought out, as above, 

Jadis is one of the most annoying characters in the whole franchise, (and boy, that's a high bar when your show has SHUTUPCARL in it) and yet they've managed to devise the new flagship star vehicle with her in a pivotal role while linking it to some ill thought out YA drivel that in an ideal world we'd all just agree  to never mention again and pretend never happened.

In fairness, so far it's not too bad, the standalone writing is quite well done by TWD standards and there's some subtle stuff in there. all that tine to find each other and  they are lying to each other, rick hasn't told her they can't escape, and Michonne hasn't told rick he has a son.

One more detail i've recalled from TWB, IIRC there was a civilian govt to the Civic Republic but the military had seized control and had the  colony under martial law, but this was supposed to last for only 10 years, which has now passed, so there's the potential for a power struggle with the  civilian leaders and the military, i'm wondering iof this is where the plot will go.

Edited March 6 by BasilSeal

[Daltrey]

On 3/5/2024 at 3:52 PM, BasilSeal said:

Yeah, there's also the bit where the plumber guy he's known  since getting to the CRM says 'hey, why not just play along with the  whole being a soldier thing and then take the chance to run off when you're out on a mission or something' and you can literally see the cogs in ricks mind working like this is some sort of great revelation.

 

Oh my god, I was practically yelling this at the screen while he was monologueing before he even met up with plumber dude! So much stupidity in the first ten minutes🤦🏻‍♂️... Ugh🙄, I forgot simple gimple was showrunning this; my high hopes went straight out the 🤬ing window...it's a good thing I live on the ground floor🤣. It got better in the middle then it got stupid again at the end. For whatever reason and what it's worth, I found the south African actress much easier to understand than commander cloak and dagger until Rick kicked the cotton balls out of his mouth for a brief moment. What a shame he's dead now.😏

[Iguessnot]

4 hours ago, Daltrey said:

Oh my god, I was practically yelling this at the screen while he was monologueing before he even met up with plumber dude! So much stupidity in the first ten minutes🤦🏻‍♂️... Ugh🙄, I forgot simple gimple was showrunning this; my high hopes went straight out the 🤬ing window...it's a good thing I live on the ground floor🤣. It got better in the middle then it got stupid again at the end. For whatever reason and what it's worth, I found the south African actress much easier to understand than commander cloak and dagger until Rick kicked the cotton balls out of his mouth for a brief moment. What a shame he's dead now.😏

By the end of the show, I had the feeling the actor was either deaf or had a speech impediment. He did so many monologues that the cadence of his speech became really noticeable. That made me look at him speaking and I could see the effort he was putting into forming his words. I liked him though.

 

[Daltrey]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:49 AM, Iguessnot said:

By the end of the show, I had the feeling the actor was either deaf or had a speech impediment. He did so many monologues that the cadence of his speech became really noticeable. That made me look at him speaking and I could see the effort he was putting into forming his words. I liked him though.

 

Some interesting points, for sure. Maybe he was going for a specific accent or trying to hide a real one🤔🤷🏻‍♂️. I didn't actually dislike him either, he seemed like someone who ultimately didn't trust the system and could've been an ally but by the end I was just annoyed with him because I found him so hard to understand, lol.

[For Cereals]

On 3/6/2024 at 3:04 PM, BasilSeal said:

some ill thought out YA drivel that in an ideal world we'd all just agree  to never mention again and pretend never happened

Best line ever!