S01.E06: The Good Man

[peach]

 

Love explaining to Mr Ripley about the Los Angeles river.  Have to agree, every road would have been blocked.

 

There weren't even any parked cars!  And we've already noted the lack of living or dead people.  LA seems like a looter's paradise about now.  Why leave?

[For Cereals]

Do we know that they can't swim? In WWZ (the book) they walked on the sea floor. We haven't really seen Kirkman's zombies around any major bodies of water...

No matter how bad this show is, I'm in until the bitter end because I'm OCD about zombies and have seen just about every piece of crap campy movie or show, so by comparison, it's good? (I don't think Z Nation is crap.)

Now, if we start seeing smoke monsters or domes, I'm out. I'd even be up for a WD/FTWD Ancient Aliens crossover.

I agree, totally rude to leave the gate open. They could've easily jumped out and locked it and been back in the truck before it shut.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Forcereals

[peach]

That was the Los Angeles River, which is mostly paved.

 

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=images+of+los+angeles+river&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004

No, on the way, and in all the overhead shots, all the roads were clear except one highway.  Then they went down in the Los Angeles River.  I know what it is, lol. 

 

I've seen Grease, and Terminator 2, and, and, and....

Edited October 5, 2015 by peach

[oakville]

Right? It seems like he's pretty unpopular here (and I'm not going to argue with that, he did some bad thigs before the ZA and now) but I'm having a hard time not liking a man who nonchalantly led a horde of like 2000 fresh walkers exactly where he wanted them, two weeks into the ZA like it was nothing. Most people are still scared shitless of them, but Daniel was just like, come this way, bitches, I have some tasty soldiers for you.

Daniel is the Zombie Whisperer

[truelovekiss]

I'm still so mad that Liza's gone because that's exactly what Madison wanted. And Travis might be grieving but Liza out of the picture makes it a lot easier for him too. Turd.

It also is going to set up a lot of "family drama" for season 2 (joy...) because Liza and Chris were pretty much each other's #1 in that group/family. Chris wasn't really accepting of his new step family, and has only recently started to bond with Alicia. So losing Liza really forces Chris to accept Travis and the Clarks as his family.

Daniel is the Zombie Whisperer

A skill that will surely come in handy.

[Iguessnot]

There weren't even any parked cars!  And we've already noted the lack of living or dead people.  LA seems like a looter's paradise about now.  Why leave?

That was my thought even with soldier cufflinks. He could loot any baubles he wanted, so why was he allowing himself to be bribed by them?

[william0102]

I'm kinda interested to see the whole yacht scenario, so I'll probably watch a second season. My main problem is with Travis. I do not like him, I think he's weak. Not because he couldn't kill, but because he can't take care of his family. Chris didn't/doesn't like him. He tried to make good on being supportive about Nick- and I actually think he mostly succeeded there. He had almost no interaction with Alicia, so I have to assume there isn't much of one. Worst though is that he didn't really support Maddie or Liza. He always seemed to make choices that weren't supportive of either of them.

Maddie is fine for me, for the most part. Nick can be a new character since he may have finished going through withdrawals? Alicia they never really explored her, so I'll give a pass. Although she loses her boyfriend and  Zuzu, but we just see her reading a letter. (they actually have this same problem with some of the characters on the main show) I don't mind Chris either, I actually really liked him in this last episode. Salazar is okay by me, but Ofelia can gtfo anytime now.

I was really upset that the doctor killed herself. I would have liked to have her around next season.

[peach]

That was my thought even with soldier cufflinks. He could loot any baubles he wanted, so why was he allowing himself to be bribed by them?

BTSIS  (Because This Show Is Stupid)

[oakville]

There weren't even any parked cars!  And we've already noted the lack of living or dead people.  LA seems like a looter's paradise about now.  Why leave?

I assume the area around Strand's house was evacuated since the wealthy people would probably take off. Thus, they could go on "runs" from house to house to get supplies.

[peach]

Ooo Liza. I am confuzzed by this entire thing. Why'd he need Nick to leave? Why'd he bring these peeps with him?

 

Because Strand is the world's biggest deus ex machina who just happens to "need" Nick for nothing so he can take his whole family to his groovy waterfront pad and escape to a boat.  For no reason whatsoever.  Because it would be cool.  Apparently.

[SimoneS]

So wait there was no poignant farewell scene between Liza and Chris? I understand that she does not want to wait to get sick, but after spending days apart from her son, she did not take the time while she had it to tell him that she loves him and say goodbye to him? This show never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. 

Edited October 5, 2015 by SimoneS

[Macbeth]

Right? It seems like he's pretty unpopular here (and I'm not going to argue with that, he did some bad thigs before the ZA and now) but I'm having a hard time not liking a man who nonchalantly led a horde of like 2000 fresh walkers exactly where he wanted them, two weeks into the ZA like it was nothing. Most people are still scared shitless of them, but Daniel was just like, come this way, bitches, I have some tasty soldiers for you.

 

I am totally with you.  I still loved Strand who wouldn't take the time to unlock other people.

 

The nonchalance attitude by everyone on this show was amazing to me.  Nobody brought energy.

Not Daniel, who was the Zombie Whisperer.

Not the zombies, who were following Daniel like trained mice.

Not the kids, who were sunning themselves during the drive among the ruins and eating popsiciles afterwards. 

 

Well Liza brough a lot of energy but they killed her.  

Edited October 5, 2015 by Macbeth

[jcin617]

So I'm supposed to be interested in this group after they just caused the deaths of all those people at the compound, soldiers, detained and injured alike?

[calliope1975]

There weren't even any parked cars!  And we've already noted the lack of living or dead people.  LA seems like a looter's paradise about now.  Why leave?

 

My daily commute tells me what bullshit this was. I wish I could find a freeway in LA that was empty. 

[candall]

I really liked it when Liza told Maddie to shoot her because Travis would be destroyed by having to do it.  That's a nice mirror to the early scene when Maddie was presumptuous enough to be explaining Travis to Liza and how he wouldn't be able to carry on if he ever lost her. 

 

I think it was [another] poor decision to eliminate the potential for complex social dynamics among those three.  They got a lot of mileage out of her kids/my kids this season.

[Raven1707]

No, on the way, and in all the overhead shots, all the roads were clear except one highway.  Then they went down in the Los Angeles River.  I know what it is, lol. 

 

I've seen Grease, and Terminator 2, and, and, and....

 

Oops, sorry, I thought you were just referring to the "road" they were taking.

 

I'm watching the show online, so I switch back & forth between the AMC LiveStream and PTV, so I often miss the finer points of discussion. But I'll have to rewatch, because I think I saw at least one side of a couple of freeways blocked with cars.

[Valhalla]

Someone in another thread said that the zombies are the most realistic part of this show, and I have to agree. This bunch of absolute idiots are the luckiest group in the history of zombie apocalypses. First, they luck out by living in one of the few army-protected zones in LA. All the main characters survive despite taking numerous stupid and unnecessary risks, eg Madison's foray outside the fence. The don't even have to do light scavenging in their neighborhood, since the military delivers up all the essentials daily. They have so little to be concerned about in the midst of the apocalypse that the kids get in trouble through boredom and Mom becomes absorbed with redecorating.

Then finally there's some bit of actual jeopardy but they just happen to hook up with super-rich guy because he's taken a weird shine to their junkie son AND who just happens to have a beachfront property with limited road access and a freakin' escape yacht!?!?

Give me a break. I came closer to experiencing the apocalypse this last winter just living in the northeast.

[mightysparrow]

I hated that they made Andy (not 'Adam' Mr.Executive Producer) a bad guy.  He was victimized by those people after he tried to help them.  Travis does the decent thing and lets him go but because he's an EVIL SOLDIER, Andy comes back to wreak vengeance on Salazar instead of doing what any sensible person would do and beat feet out of there.  I'm not a 'all military are heroes' person by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't understand why EVERY SINGLE military person was evil.  I call super bullshit on that one.

 

Strand is my boy and if, by any slim chance I watch the second season, it will be for him.  The one thing I HATED about Strand was his inexplicable need to drag Nick along with him.  Grizelda would have been more help to Strand.  An intelligent man like Strand would see Nick for the complete and utter loser he was and leave him with the rest.

[peach]

Oops, sorry, I thought you were just referring to the "road" they were taking.

 

I'm watching the show online, so I switch back & forth between the AMC LiveStream and PTV, so I often miss the finer points of discussion. But I'll have to rewatch, because I think I saw at least one side of a couple of freeways blocked with cars.

The freeway was blocked with cars but the roads leading to it had NONE.  Which...how does that work?  lol  I guess the very last cars in the city merged and got stuck.  Super bad luck.

[Lexx]

So I'm supposed to be interested in this group after they just caused the deaths of all those people at the compound, soldiers, detained and injured alike?

 

Don't forget all the families back in their neighborhood, who went to bed not having any idea that A) the military was gone, B) the gates were wide open, and C) that THOUSANDS of zombies were just released into the area by Our Heroes.

[natyxg]

So wait there was no poignant farewell scene between Liza and Chris? I understand that she does not want to wait to get sick, but after spending days apart from her son, she did not take the time while she had it to tell him that she loves him and say goodbye to him? This show never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. 

 

She gave him a hug and told him she loved him right before she left the house. That's how I knew she was a goner.

[truelovekiss]

That was my thought even with soldier cufflinks. He could loot any baubles he wanted, so why was he allowing himself to be bribed by them?

My dad said something kind of like this when the soldiers stole the SUV, and Liza, wounded Ofelia and Daniel were riding in the back of the pick up truck. He asked why theu hadn't just taken another car, since the world had obviously gone to shit and looting is now acceptable. My pathetic attempt at reason was that since Travis and company (except for Daniel, who was probably a bit shell shocked on not thinking about getting a new ride) are so slow to pick up on the way the world is now, the idea that stealing a car is perfectly acceptable probably didn't register for them. In the same thread, that soldier guy didn't seem new to taking bribes. He could have been just operating as usual, thinking he could trade the cufflinks for alcohol or food or something.

Or maybe he just wants to look fabulous. I've often said I would hit up the Clinique counter as soon as looting was permissible. I might go quickly, but I will be the walker with the best damn smokey eye you've ever seen.

[candall]

First off, the breakdown of society is always the best part of every zombie flick so I really enjoyed the slow burn of this season.

It's a shame that Kirkman didn't jump on the Ryan Murphy style anthology bandwagon [...] following a different group in a different city ...

 

This would have been spectacular.

 

Instead of all the balderdash speculation--hyped on TTD--about "Which character is the new Rick Grimes!?"  And the votes are all over the map because not one of these losers even amounts to Carl.

 

(Although it was pretty funny with Cliff Curtis calling him "Rick James.")

Edited October 5, 2015 by candall

[truelovekiss]

Don't forget all the families back in their neighborhood, who went to bed not having any idea that A) the military was gone, B) the gates were wide open, and C) that THOUSANDS of zombies were just released into the area by Our Heroes.

But Ophelia totally justified it when she said that they did nothing when Griselda and Nick were taken away. Therefore, they deserved it? I'm starting to see more of her father in her.

[peach]

I hated that they made Andy (not 'Adam' Mr.Executive Producer) a bad guy.  He was victimized by those people after he tried to help them.  Travis does the decent thing and lets him go but because he's an EVIL SOLDIER, Andy comes back to wreak vengeance on Salazar instead of doing what any sensible person would do and beat feet out of there.  I'm not a 'all military are heroes' person by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't understand why EVERY SINGLE military person was evil.  I call super bullshit on that one.

 

Strand is my boy and if, by any slim chance I watch the second season, it will be for him.  The one thing I HATED about Strand was his inexplicable need to drag Nick along with him.  Grizelda would have been more help to Strand.  An intelligent man like Strand would see Nick for the complete and utter loser he was and leave him with the rest.

 

I thought maybe Strand wanted to use Nick for potential zombie bait/diversion.  (If I knew how to do spoiler tags, I would add an example).  But I guess he just needed a side kick.  I did half smirk when he said he could get along fine with "Nick's Mom."  I'm glad he could immediately intuit she was a fellow POS.  So season 2 can have an unholy alliance of Strand, Maddie, and Daniel. 

[truelovekiss]

I am totally with you. I still loved Strand who wouldn't take the time to unlock other people.

The nonchalance attitude by everyone on this show was amazing to me. Nobody brought energy.

Not Daniel, who was the Zombie Whisperer.

Not the zombies, who were following Daniel like trained mice.

Not the kids, who were sunning themselves during the drive among the ruins and eating popsiciles afterwards.

Well Liza brough a lot of energy but they kiilled her.

Secret to survival? Giving zero fucks.

[Iguessnot]

But Ophelia totally justified it when she said that they did nothing when Griselda and Nick were taken away. Therefore, they deserved it? I'm starting to see more of her father in her.

 

This reminds me, why did Madison apologize to Nick for letting them take him away? She had no power in the situation so why pretend otherwise now? Griselda needed medical attention pronto, so Ofelia can shut up about that.

[truelovekiss]

This reminds me, why did Madison apologize to Nick for letting them take him away? She had no power in the situation so why pretend otherwise now? Griselda needed medical attention pronto, so Ofelia can shut up about that.

I didn't think too much of it, I guess I assumed it was a mother's guilt kind of thing. She's sorry that happened to him? She's sorry she failed him, and he ended up on drugs in the first place? It could be interpreted in a few different ways.

[Emily Thrace]

This reminds me, why did Madison apologize to Nick for letting them take him away? She had no power in the situation so why pretend otherwise now? Griselda needed medical attention pronto, so Ofelia can shut up about that.

I think she was apologizing for hitting him more than anything

[40Love]

Yeah, never got Ofelia's little hissy fit with the neighbors and soldiers at the gate. It sucked that the army wouldn't let her dad go.. but her mom really needed medical treatment. It wasn't like the army picked her mom randomly.. and it's not like others in the neighborhood (besides) Nick weren't also taken away that night. She really needed to chill out on the whole they didn't help us when my mom was taken away.

Despite my gripe with her, I really like the show. It was a slow build. But that's okay with me.

I like that this group already knows what it took 2 seasons for Rick'S group to learn, that everyone comes back.. no matter how they die.

I like Nick's explanation about the chaos of the ZA being his reality all along... and now everyone else is catching up. That made me say "wow". What a great way to explain addiction.

The show doesn't seem popular here.. but I for one am looking forward to season 2!

[Yolapukka]

I was open to viewing season 2, but now considerably less so.

 

-They killed off the only character, Liza, whom I felt invested in.

-We're going on a boat! ....... so instead of Maddie clutching a coffee-cup in a house, she'll be griping about Gravol at sea. Woot.

-Everything these people did to rescue their own was so callous towards the living and made things so much worse.

 

I suppose there is an argument to be made that none of those people at the base other than the medical and military personnel were actually going to be evacuated but would be purged instead, so at least some were given a chance thanks to Travis and Liza. Furthermore, most of the walkers from the Staples centre(?) had died after they were locked in by men stationed at the very same compound that was overrun thanks to Daniel. Still, it didn't sit well with me. There are a lot more walkers wandering the streets now and they are in a herd which can overwhelm structures that would keep people safe from smaller numbers.

 

I hated the sloppiness with the gate to the safe zone being left open.  All we needed was a clear suggestion that someone closed it.

 

I think the dynamics of the cast would be lot more interesting if Travis or Madison had been bit, leaving Liza to try to hold things together in an alliance with someone for whom she feels both ties and antipathy.

 

I was dreading the possibility that the soldiers would kidnap Alicia and she'd be a season two Maguffin. 

Edited October 5, 2015 by yuggapukka

[econ07]

 

Despite my gripe with her, I really like the show. It was a slow build. But that's okay with me.

 

Paradoxically, I think that an even slower build would have meant more chaos, and is something I would have liked to see.  Remember, they skipped 9 days between the community first being sectioned off and the world outside going to hell.  That would have been ripe for zombie events in a way that TWD never covered.  Right now, they've caught up to where TWD started and they'll have to differentiate themselves from that show based on unique writing and characters, not based on a different set of events.  I'm not sure if they're up to it?

 

Regardless, I enjoyed the show much more than others on here.

[bagatelle]

I hated all the characters.  I didn't even like Liza that much. Figures al the characters I hate are still alive… and all from the same family, what are the chances.

 

Strand is interesting, but nothing about his character makes sense. I'm not watching next season, unless it's on in the summer, when nothing else is on.

[kdm07]

I liked the show. I'll be back next season. I like most of the characters too. I'm still a little annoyed that the adults seem intent on shielding Chris and Alicia from everything but at least now with Liza dead (RIP Liza) maybe Chris will be clued up?

 

Travis though, Travis can go for all I care. He's so caught up on being the good guy that he makes really dumb decisions. Decisions that will get people killed in a ZA.

[Cthulhudrew]

Strand (or at least the actor playing him) seems like he could be a pretty good character, if only they didn't saddle him with the mysterious man who talks very little and then only in zen koans, or whatever. Because having characters who never actually communicate with one another isn't just the laziest bit of writing ever. :(

 

None of the emotional moments in this episode really took, for me, and I think it has to do with several reasons:

 

1) A lot of them were poorly edited or cut off. Ofelia is shot, and rather than actually have any of the other characters respond to the moment, all we get is Travis and his sudden cracking up into brutality. Which is fine- they've sort of been building to him having a moment like that- but absolutely no one else has any kind of moment there. Not her father - who should be most affected (and has thus far been the best performer in the group) - not anyone else. Hell, it isn't even entirely clear that she survived until several minutes later, when they've already started into the final act. 

 

There were other moments like this, some bigger, some smaller (the pilot in the crashed helicopter; that shot of his face got suddenly cut off before it could resonate, IMO). The "death scene" was the same, and it, too, was yet another "Oh, woah is Travis" moment.

 

2) The bigger reason is that we were never really given much reason to care about these characters. Travis is devastated by his ex-wife's suicide by ex moment. Waah. But the most emotion or affection we ever saw between the two was in a few minutes in the first episode, and that was it.

 

3) The show didn't follow through at all on its premise. Liza got bitten, so she wants to kill herself. Okay, this is something that we have seen on the mother show (TWD), and it makes sense... there. There, where we've seen what happens when people get bitten and turn. Where we've seen the suffering. Where we've been shown and told that becoming zombified is inevitable for everyone. We were never really shown that in FTWD. Any information about the plague seems to have largely come to the characters off-screen if at all. The show seems to be relying on the audience's knowledge of zombie lore and in particular the lore of the Walking Dead-verse from the original show. But the characters in the FTWD universe don't have the benefit of that knowledge; they have even less of an understanding of what is going on than Rick and Co. and yet they were in a position to have had firsthand knowledge of it. We should have seen and more importantly seen the characters learning this information and attempting to reconcile that with what is going on.

 

Instead, we got a decided lack of any real breakdown of society except for a few Youtube videos, some sick days, a small riot, and then a 9 day gap in which time everything went to hell, virtually the entirety of Los Angeles- about 10 time as large as Atlanta- was vacated, with (as was noted above) very little in the way of traffic jammed highways or mass migratory movements. Worse yet, our plucky bland of adventurers remained pretty ignorant of what was going on around them and why it happened. Glenn and the gang had more knowledge about what was going on when Rick showed up than this group did. Even with a three hour time difference between the east and west coasts, that's pretty unforgivable. :p

 

So what are we left with? The series that was supposed to provide us something different from the other show ends up not really demonstrating a difference (well, I guess it was less interesting), and the second season will end up just being the same thing as TWD- survivors of the plague trying to survive.

 

Except they may be on a boat. For a little while at least (I'll give it two episodes).

 

Production costs would certainly be cheaper if they keep it that way, and that seems to be the priority of AMC.

[catrox14]

So well that was ....boring AF. 

 

I literally did not care what happened to any of them whatsoever. I sort of wish they had all thrown themselves into the ocean and let the sharks eat them.

 

Although the sharks wouldn't deserve that.

Edited October 5, 2015 by catrox14

[Watcher0363]

This would have been spectacular.

 

Instead of all the balderdash speculation--hyped on TTD--about "Which character is the new Rick Grimes!?"  And the votes are all over the map because not one of these losers even amounts to Carl.

 

(Although it was pretty funny with Cliff Curtis calling him "Rick James.")

You mean they discussed The Walking Dead on The Talking Dead while they were discussing Fear the Walking Dead. They even ask for character comparisons. Those are some piss poor producers they have on The Talking Dead.

 

Okay, did I just finish watching an hour long Old Spice commercial?

 

My take away from these episodes. I will never go into work totally exhausted because I binged watched the episodes for the fifth time.

 

[NorthstarATL]

Liza had medical knowledge AND would have made the dynamic between the two families more tense, so losing her was a big deal. Now it's going to be smooth sailing for Maddie. Speaking of sailing, I am so glad to have Strand around! He livens up the show, and he and Nick have a weird chemistry that amuses me. Just watching the two of them walk down a hallway, Strand confident and smooth, and Nick just shy of zombie shuffle, keeps me amused. I noted that Maddie actually had the foresight to grab drugs at the compound. Probably she's used to getting to them before Nick has a chance. Alicia and Chris were pretty useless, but I cannot see splitting up at all as a decent plan. Next season on a boat! I hope the bar is stocked!

[GaT]

I watched the first season & I'm done. I don't give a damn about any of these people, & I spent the entire finale watching the clock to see when it would be over. What a waste of time.

[bentley]

I didn't see my cute guardsman among the dying or the corpses, so I still have hopes he'll show up in the future. That's really the only thing that I'll be coming back for in season 2. I never connected to anyone in this group. And boy does it bug that Salazar is being hailed as a hero for unleashing a zombie horde upon the unsuspecting masses. I was so hoping the Shawn Hatosy character would kill him.

 

I'm curious why Strand doesn't like his house setup for the long term. If this were medieval times, that's where the army would build their fortress. Maybe he doesn't have easy access to supplies? Otherwise, I can see settling in and staying there. You can always run for the ship if the zombies come knocking, but no zombie is going to get to that place easily.

 

Speaking of Strand, he had more spark with Madison in 2 minutes than Travis had with her all season.

Edited October 5, 2015 by bentley

[GreyBunny]

So they give us aerial shots of LA as a burned out husk of its former self.  Would have been nice if the show had bothered to show us how it got that way.

 

If Madison needed to apologize to anyone it was Liza.  Madison spent the season badmouthing her and being miffed that Liza had the audacity to help other people rather than be Madison's personal maid and then got a death sentence trying to save her son's sorry junkie ass.  Fuck you, Madison.

 

Poor Liza and Dr. Exner, they were two of only four characters I actually like (Strand and Tobias being the other two).

 

I hope Strand dumps these fools, makes it out to the boat where Tobias has been hired to be his personal chef, and they sail off to live on some island paradise somewhere.

 

Right? It seems like he's pretty unpopular here (and I'm not going to argue with that, he did some bad thigs before the ZA and now) but I'm having a hard time not liking a man who nonchalantly led a horde of like 2000 fresh walkers exactly where he wanted them, two weeks into the ZA like it was nothing. Most people are still scared shitless of them, but Daniel was just like, come this way, bitches, I have some tasty soldiers for you.

Yeah, that was pretty awesome.  I'll give Daniel credit for that one.

[MrHufflepuff]

Or maybe he just wants to look fabulous. I've often said I would hit up the Clinique counter as soon as looting was permissible. I might go quickly, but I will be the walker with the best damn smokey eye you've ever seen.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm curious why Strand doesn't like his house setup for the long term. If this were medieval times, that's where the army would build their fortress. Maybe he doesn't have easy access to supplies? Otherwise, I can see settling in and staying there. You can always run for the ship if the zombies come knocking, but no zombie is going to get to that place easily.

 

I got the impression from his deliberately opaque dialogue with Nick that he thinks that hiding away from the apocalypse in his souped up mansion will only inure him to the reality of the new world they're living in, and make it all the harder for them to adapt when the inevitable time comes that the generators fail, they run out of food, and/or the zombie hordes batter down the doors. 

 

Not sure that packing away a bunch of nice suits exactly equate to giving up comfort in order to adapt, but maybe he doesn't own any practical or casual wear.

[MrHufflepuff]

It was just barbed wire on top of the holding cells inside the complex, wasn't it?  I don't really know much about barbed wire, but couldn't you put a pair of jeans or some other heavy material on top and crawl over it?  Why were those captives sitting in their holding cells without trying to get over them?

[phoenix780]

It's a shame that Kirkman didn't jump on the Ryan Murphy style anthology bandwagon and wipe out the whole cast. 6 episodes leading into each season of the real Walking Dead following a different group in a different city would have been a great way to bring any short story arcs that couldn't fit in the original show to our screens.

 

Unless they've filmed season 2 they can still do that, which could salvage this.  They've set up zombies on the water, but there's no real reason to follow up on that, imho.  

 

No, I didn't see Strand's mansion on the cliffs. The entire time the camera was panning away, I was like "Where the fuck is the house??" and then as it got further away, I was like "how the fuck did Travis & Madison get down to the beach??

 

I think I saw a path on the far right of the screen.  Steep, but I guess it could be covered in a few seconds.  How sad, though, that this is their climax with a big emotional moment and...I was looking for the path to the beach.

First off, the breakdown of society is always the best part of every zombie flick so I really enjoyed the slow burn of this season.

 

I was cool with it. I don't mind a slow burn when I watch a new tv show. I'm also okay when I don't get exactly what I want. I would have liked a higher body count, Liza to be alive and perhaps end in peril but I'm satisfied.

 

I don't understand how this was a slow burn.  There was a riot, then a time jump to life in a military camp, then this episode which still had weird holes (where did all the zombies go? are they vampire zombies who can't be out when the sun comes up?).  I don't felt like I watched as society fell apart.  I saw the beginnings of that then a whole lot of nothing until the military was forced to withdraw...which they were doing anyway, because, um, they're not as efficient as civilians.

 

Although maybe the point is that society didn't dissolve because of a virus and/or zombies.  It collapsed because the military is full of cowards, inefficient killers, and would-be rapists.  An old man can calmly lead a swarm of walkers exactly where he needs them to go after walking back and forth to a compound that was unreachable last week.  In a skirmish, the heavily-armored military may be overrun as they were last week, but a rag-tag group of teachers, an elderly person, a nurse, a drug addict and, um, Ofelia escapes with only one casualty (which is a casualty because they shot her- her bite wasn't so bad...I actually thought it was a scratch).

 

Though I suppose I'll give points to Andy, who negotiated his freedom and then walked behind the group (and their walker-pets) to safely enter the parking garage at the right moment and get his revenge.  If more military personnel were like him, maybe they'd have been alright.  

 

If they're going to do stunned silence as much next year as this, they need to ask the actress playing the doctor to show them how to do it while still showing some kind of emotion.  I still don't get Madison, because the only emotion I can read from her is mild disgust.

 

In the parking garage, if Chris couldn't drive why was he in the driver's seat?

 

I will give the writers props for the tension with the keycard.  I don't think I've seen that before- with real keys, yes, not the cards- and it was kind of hilariously awesome to pull drama out of sliding a piece of plastic.  

Edited October 5, 2015 by phoenix780

[Soobs]

Speaking of Strand, he had more spark with Madison in 2 minutes than Travis had with her all season.

I will ship these two hard.

 

So they give us aerial shots of LA as a burned out husk of its former self.  Would have been nice if the show had bothered to show us how it got that way.

 

 

I will admit that disaster porn is what is keeping me watching. Loved those aerial shots of the LA River at the end. It's definitely known that the river (gutter) doubles as a disaster escape route.

 

My friends and I work and live near a lot of the filming locations and I have gotten a sick thrill out of seeing my neighborhood fall apart.

 

Had a good laugh at Strand saying that in another time and place he would have gentrified the shit out of El Sereno. It's a hot topic right now.

Edited October 5, 2015 by Soobs

[Bad Example]

--I did like that Chris wasn't useless and at least tried to protect Alicia. 

 

--I liked Nick's speech, except that I feel like it was written *first* and then everything was meant to lead to it

 

--Really, *really* pissed off they way they left the gate to the so-called safe zone open.  I mean, we know that in the long run that fence isn't going to hold, but really, don't just set your neighbors up to be the ZA early bird special.

 

I was really upset that the doctor killed herself. I would have liked to have her around next season.

 

I was mostly annoyed with the Idiot Cast who didn't at least try to drag her sorry ass out with them.  Yeah, for most people you can't waste that time, but she's a freakin' DOCTOR and might come in handy.  (Also, I liked her.  Killing all of her patients was a badass act of mercy and survival. It was too easy to have her

pull a Jackie and

be all "too hard to live out there".  I think she would have come around.)
 

3) The show didn't follow through at all on its premise. Liza got bitten, so she wants to kill herself. Okay, this is something that we have seen on the mother show (TWD), and it makes sense... there. There, where we've seen what happens when people get bitten and turn. Where we've seen the suffering. Where we've been shown and told that becoming zombified is inevitable for everyone. 

 

So what are we left with? The series that was supposed to provide us something different from the other show ends up not really demonstrating a difference (well, I guess it was less interesting), and the second season will end up just being the same thing as TWD- survivors of the plague trying to survive.

 

I did appreciate getting a flat-out explanation of how a bite kills.  I was under the impression that for the mothership we'd made strong assumptions, but didn't know for sure.  I didn't mind Liza explaining- it seemed like the doctor had figured out a lot of the process and passed on the info.

As for the "something different"-- that was exactly what I was thinking at the end of the show.  So now... they're trying to survive zombie hordes.  We've seen this already.  

[Bryce Lynch]

So, the plan to attack the hospital was supposed to be Daniel's and it was supposed to be a bad one that was biased because of his earlier experiences with military people.... right? Cause it was very excessive to basically go straight to destroying the whole place with the hundreds of zombies instead of trying something more low key. They got a whole bunch of people killed unnecessarily, those assholes.

His plan ended up saving nobody and killing Liza. Griselda was already dead, Nick was going to get out with Strand and Liza was bitten as a result of Daniel's brilliant plan.

[Bryce Lynch]

Why kill Liza before she's even sick? She could have imparted some medical knowledge before her send off. Did anyone actually see the house on the cliff tops in the final shots of the beach area? How did they get down those cliffs onto the water.

From her time serving in the hospital Liza probably knew she was doomed to horrible death and would then reanimate and try to eat Chris and the rest of the group.

[Zeditious]

This show is quite stupid. Almost every one of the "characters" are absolutely cretinous and vile, yes.

It's Little-Johnny-The-Republican-Intallectool dumb. Posing "deep questions" -- kiddy pool deep.

"Honey, would you rather I was the victim I posed as being so as to hide the fact that I was a brutal, torturing, victimizing fuck... or... a brutal, torturing, victimizing fuck I felt it necessary to lie about being?"

The scumbag's question hangs in the air. Things that make you go "hmmm--mm-mm-mm-mm". The scumbag's dullard daughter can't think to respond immediately and righteously, "I'd much rather you weren't a fucking murderous motherfucker, Papa."

This show is dumb. And it seeks to paint most of humanity as dumb, vile, dreadful, Randian degenerates. Trumping-up a spate of unsympathetic hustlers; knuckle-draggers; sloth-brained trogs; rotten wastes; sour-faced cynical scolds; liars and cowards...

Bent.