S02.E08: Grotesque

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

Nick's steadfast search for answers leads him into a deadly dog-eat-dog landscape; and a dark piece of his past is uncovered.

 

[HalcyonDays]

Here is your discussion thread for S02.E08: Grotesque. This thread will open at Sunday Aug 21th at 10:00 pm.

Prior to that, speculate and live-chat here --> S02.E08: Grotesque - Pre-Air Speculation and Live Chat.

DO NOT post spoilers and DO NOT discuss the Walking Dead. To discuss the more popular Dead, go HERE.

As always, be civil and be respectful, but always have fun!! Enjoy the second half of the insane season!!!

[MostlyContent]

Well, that was fascinating.  Said nobody ever.  

[Straycat80]

I don't know how much longer I'm going to watch this. Boring.  All I think about is how I wish someone could give Nick a bath, haircut and clean clothes. 

Edited August 22, 2016 by Straycat80

[JackONeill]

And Trump wants to build a wall??????  

[Christi]

Enough with the dogs already WTF???!!  I really need that hour back..wow

Why did I think they would listen to all the bad reviews and make something decent??

Jesus H Christ this is so bad 

[CouchTater]

I had thought the show was improving before the midseason break.  I was wrong.

[Primetimer]

You never know what you'll drink when urine dire straits.

View the full article

[kj4ever]

What a streaming pile of shit. 

[nodorothyparker]

The most entertaining thing about all of this is Hardwick and the crew on the couch trying their damndest to convince us this was good television.

[Christi]

Look a churro truck!! Glow stick cart will come out when its dark?

Edited August 22, 2016 by Christi

[TVFan17]

It seems like they think that all they need to do is ramp up the gore and violence, and linger on a canine carcass, to make the show better. 

[xaxat]

All it took was the previously to remind me how much I dislike this group. 

That was an awful concept to come back from the break with. 

A thriving happy community. I'm sure Nick and company will figure out a way to get them all killed.

[NorthstarATL]

Even more than the Mothership, this seemed to work best as an ensemble show (I still think TWD does as well), and focusing exclusively on Nick was a really terrible choice IMO. I don't think we learned anything about him that we did not already know by now. Yes, he's resilient, and his life as an addict has made him more able to roll with the new normal; but we knew all that. I still don't quite get why he had to go his own way, though I think he mumbled it a couple of times.

 By the end of last season I didn't particularly become attached to anyone, but a couple of characters intrigued me, like Chris and Strand, so I guess I will tune in next week to see if we catch a glimpse of what they are up to. I am guessing Nick's new "home" will be more Woodbury than Alexandria. It would serve him  right if it were Terminus.

[MostlyContent]

"One man's existential journey"   

Oh, PLEASE!!  

This aftershow is pure comedy right now.  

[Christi]

They tried to give Nick a back story and show his acting chops...EPIC FAIL

Also, he needs get all the teen heart throbbing in quickly..his hairline is leaving him as fast as Im leaving this show. ..wow 

[NorthstarATL]

6 minutes ago, nodorothyparker said:

The most entertaining thing about all of this is Hardwick and the crew on the couch trying their damndest to convince us this was good television.

And he even managed to make his marriage a cliffhanger.

[Christi]

Eat Pray Love: zombie Style 

Go find yourself Nicky

[Dodginblue]

I guess they had to go with dogs because a horse wouldn't have attacked Nick and the show couldn't have treated us to that lovely scene of animals being taken down by walkers.    Because they've never done that kind of thing before. (sarcasm alert) 

He didn't seem to be anywhere near a town so I wondered about that herd of walkers who seemed to have come out of nowhere.   I guess the highway?  They didn't seem as lethal as I've come to expect, more shambling, less reactive.

I admit I don't know that much about this show, I've only seen a few episodes but I really have no idea what anything was supposed to mean.  Nick didn't exhibit any redeeming qualities IMO, he doesn't seem especially resourceful  or worth saving for some other reason and I felt zero empathy for him.  If the show intends to make Nick a central focus going forward, I can't imagine it will be worth my while to go back and watch all the past episodes to see if I can better understand what's happening.    

[wrongheaven]

I feel like I am one of the biggest supporters of this show: Fear the Walking Dead filled in the gaps of the Walking Dead - I was always more interested in the fall of society than what society looks like after. And, for a while, that was what we got. But somewhere along the way it felt sped up and this feels more like a parallel series than a prequel, and that's a bit unfortunate. 

And this episode had me bored like no other episode of the series thus far. I paused it countless times to check my email, or read Facebook. And I love Nick - I think he's the most fascinating character but I don't think they did much new or interesting in this episode. Yes, it was cool to see someone blend in with the dead and have an interest in them, but I feel like we already hit that note with him and it's to a degree that it feels forced - not sure I buy that he would be so far down this path that he would abandon his family, but oh well. 

I'm hoping this was just a rocky start and we can get back to (what I consider) some good TV. 

[JackONeill]

I think setting this in this part of Mexico is a mistake. Smaller population means smaller walker herds. The dual lingo will get old quick. Our people stand out ( nothing but the obvious meant). There's so much empty space it'd be easy to go without seeing a single walker if you wanted. (Yes, the environment is tough!) I feel zero tension with this show in this setting. If I see 10 walkers heading my way, okay, that's scary. But the I look the other way and I see miles of rolling (cactus filled) space.  Hell, I'd just out walk the suckers.

[SimoneS]

I decided to give this show a third or fourth chance, can't remember which one I am on at this point. Talk about a mistake. I kept changing the channel to relieve the boredom. Thank goodness for Skyfall. WTF were they thinking churning out that rubbish? Was it a homage to The Revenant or what? What makes it worse is that is clear that they must really think that Frank Dillane can act. No show, he cannot. It is his father who is talented, not him. Hollywood nepotism at work. RME. 

Edited August 22, 2016 by SimoneS

[oakville]

This episode was very frustrating to watch. It makes no sense that Nick would wander off away from his family. Why would he try to walk 100KM to Tijuana? Who was that lady & kid who gave him a bag of food? What's with the flashbacks with Gloria? Why couldn't he have scavenged for food in one of the abandoned cars? Why didn't he try to drive one of the cars ? Why was he walking with the dead? He didn't have enough Zombie guts on himself. Why was he smiling when the walkers ate the dogs? Who is Luciana & why would she take him to a Doctor? There are hardly any walkers during this episode & then a herd shows up in the middle of the desert to attack Nick. It's bizarre.

The timeline with Nick's dad's death seems to be out of whack. I thought the father died in a car accident years ago. It looks like it happened while Nick was in rehab with Gloria which was shortly before the ZA. If so, was Madison having an affair with Travis Manawa? That's so weird. I thought it was clearly stated in Season 1 that Madison was widowed. They found out about the car accident  when they were playing Madison was playing a board game with Alicia & Nick. Didn't they mention that during the "Dog" episode in Season 1?

I have too many questions about this episode. The season trailer looks interesting but I suspect those shows will be even more frustrating to watch.

[thuganomics85]

Christ, forgot the cliffhanger from the mothership.  I don't anything Negan does will be as painful as this was.  I swear, I really am starting to think that they've decided to see how boring they can make this show, before the ratings fall significantly.  But I'm sure they'll remain big, because the name Walking Dead is that powerful.

Basically, an hour or so of Nick wandering around, being stupid, and continuing to basically be Team Walkers, over humans.  Granted, since most of the humans were stereotypical gangsters, randomly killing people for no reason, I guess it kind of made sense.  But did it have to be so dull?  It was like The Revenant, only in the desert, and Frank Dilliane trying to out DiCaprio Leo DiCaprio, and failing.

Someone behind the scenes must be a huge cat lover or had a bad incident with a dog, because the dog bodycount has been impressive!

Oh, look!  A flashback to when Nick finds out his dad died (and in one scene, Kim Dickens managed to somehow still underwhelm), and we meet that girl from way back in the pilot.  Yay?

I did kind of peak at the new characters.  Mainly because the woman is gorgeous and the actor playing the doctor was pretty awesome on Boardwalk Empire.

If nothing else, no Strand or Alycia Debnam-Carey (not a massive fan of Alicia the character, but I love me some Alycia), automatically makes me not care of the episode.  But this easily might be the worst one yet.  How can a show like this be so dull?

Edited August 22, 2016 by thuganomics85

[oakville]

Why did  two of the three gang members decide to get out of the jeep & shoot at random walkers in the heard. Nick looked like a fool just shambling around with his friends. It looked like one ganster took off his sunglasses & was scared of Nick. There was no reason for him to just stand there & wait to be bitten. The other guy with the machine gun stood around as well. Why are these gansters so dumb? Surely by now, they would avoid herds of walkers or drive through them at a high rate of speed. There are too many plot holes in this episode.

[Texasmom1970]

Not a good sign when I am interested in Luciana and her crew more than most of the rest of the cast. Especially since they were only on screen a few minutes compared to how many episodes we have seen the others in. 

[Shriekingeel]

Really, take away the Idiot Plots (from Alicia, Chris, and Nick) and this show would have no plot at all. This episode, however dull, was still a relief from the painful Connor and Griselda story arcs. 

I don't understand the showrunners. Who would have thought you could make the zombie apocalypse boring?

[JackONeill]

Maybe I'm dense, and I know some Mexicans view death differently, but I have no idea where all this bullshit about keeping your undead loved ones close you, "undead" meaning liable to bite your face off at the drop of a hat.

[Dodginblue]

22 minutes ago, Shriekingeel said:

Really, take away the Idiot Plots (from Alicia, Chris, and Nick) and this show would have no plot at all. This episode, however dull, was still a relief from the painful Connor and Griselda story arcs. 

I don't understand the showrunners. Who would have thought you could make the zombie apocalypse boring?

I think the part of this episode that sums it all up for me is when Nick has run from the trio on the highway and he stops, bends over to catch his breath and then looks up and the camera's on his face as he perceives what is in front of him with some kind of expression, wonder maybe?  he's so bland as an actor that whatever it was it seemed like something interesting was in front of him, or we were supposed to get that from his reaction, and I felt a twinge of interest, like oh okay now something worthwhile is about to be shown to us through this character's eyes and the camera turns around to show us what he's looking at and it's an empty expanse of desert.   Some cactus and scrub brush.   It's like watching some low budget european art film from the 1980s or something.  Meant to be deep but just dull and pointless.

[katenm]

Only my love for Paul Calderone kept me awake during this episode.

[TDT]

At least the guy in the jeep did the smart thing LOL..

Hmm a new village..what are the odds that it will be overrun with walkers(courtesy of not only Nick,but also the rest of the group once they arrive) by season's end?

Guess we wont know for sure if Daniel is alive or not..

OT: that movie "DON'T BREATHE" looks as if it will be more suspensful than this show

[MVFrostsMyPie]

This was more boring than the Morgan episode in TWD. At least there was a cute goat in that episode. And clean hair.

[Iguessnot]

Was anyone else completely confused when the girl hugged Nick after the "tired dad" speech? Previously she said they needed to practice and then Nick launches this weepy story about his sleepy dad so I knew he was creating his story for the authorities. So I expected her to tell him whether the story was good or not. I couldn't believe they played that "for reals". Since I tuned out as soon as he started weeping about his sleepy dad, dd the story involve anything more that would cause this heroin addict to react as such?

Three dudes with guns couldn't shoot Nick when he was so wide open? I guess that's why he chilled out and stolled once he got to the open clearing. They shot much closer when he was running through the thick trees.

If someone is shooting into a crowd of walkers, and you're in that crowd, shouldn't you drop at some point? If you keep shambling along, you are a target. 

[Iguana]

That was boring as all get out. Bad call to start the second half of the season with a low energy "character study" that didn't really tell us anything new or interesting about the character. Also, I could live with fewer dead dogs, pee drinking and vomit. And while this show has always had characters do stupid things just because the plot said al or so, the two guys from the jeep just standing there while the herd shambled towards them may just be the best/worst one yet. 

And until Nick finds and uses soap, shampoo, clean clothes and a comb, I cannot take him seriously. He's not a real person, but how anyone can stand to be within sight or smell of him without their eyes watering and their gorges rising is beyond me. And I don't think that's the audience reaction the show runners are going for here. 

[AnnaMayWong]

Hmmm. Okaaey. What. Was. That? 

[morgankobi]

I'm worried about my three young kids. I'm perpetually tired. I hope they don't all turn to drugs.

[ZoloftBlob]

I hate the concept of focusing on one character per episode and spending episode after episode following a different character through the same day/event. Its irritating. Also the cable literally went to colored bars during the big reveal of what happened to Nick's dad so no idea what the reveal was and it clearly wasn't that important

[ghoulina]

10 hours ago, SimoneS said:

WTF were they thinking churning out that rubbish? Was it a homage to The Revenant or what?

They even compared it to that movie on TTD. No. Just no. 

 

9 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

 

Not a good sign when I am interested in Luciana and her crew more than most of the rest of the cast. Especially since they were only on screen a few minutes compared to how many episodes we have seen the others in.

 

This show is so fucking awful that ANY time a new character comes along, I get hopeful. Maybe THEY will actually be interesting and entertaining! One can hope....

 

10 hours ago, oakville said:

 

This episode was very frustrating to watch. It makes no sense that Nick would wander off away from his family. Why would he try to walk 100KM to Tijuana? Who was that lady & kid who gave him a bag of food?

 

I could not understand anything that woman was saying! But I think she was either part of Tomas's household or the village right outside. Not sure who the kid was, or why Nick looked so close to him when I don't think we've ever seen him before. But I guess Nick really liked how that crazy lady that Madison killed (see how little I care about this show? I know hardly any names.)  didn't see the dead as monsters. So he wanted to find another place like that, and the lady in the beginning told him where to go. 

[qtpye]

9 minutes ago, morgankobi said:

I'm worried about my three young kids. I'm perpetually tired. I hope they don't all turn to drugs.

I was tired a couple of times last week...I bet my three year old is shooting up this minute.

[gaPeach]

I fell asleep while watching but have it on the DVD to finish watching it.  But after reading these posts I probably won't as it appears nothing has changed or improved from last season.  This show has been bad since day one.  How can the writers and producers think this show is good?  Do they just dismiss our criticism of the show?  Do they think their average viewer is too dumb to get it? 

I will probably keep watching each week because I must have a deep desire to punish myself for something.

[SimoneS]

2 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Even the dogs know this show sucks, they wanted to get off it as soon as possible.

For the win. Ha. I did wonder where those clean healthy Belgian Malinois came from. Dogs are scavengers. They would stick close to a town or village not go wandering around in the desert.

 

22 minutes ago, ghoulina said:

They even compared it to that movie on TTD. No. Just no. 

So they were going for a Revenant-type story. Epic fail.

[walnutqueen]

11 hours ago, oakville said:

Why would he try to walk 100KM to Tijuana?

Even worse - it's 100 MILES here in the USofA.

And not even a Zombie Apocalypse could empty a freeway in SoCal.  Ever.

Je suis unimpressed (and totally over Nick's six-head).

[nodorothyparker]

55 minutes ago, ghoulina said:

I could not understand anything that woman was saying! But I think she was either part of Tomas's household or the village right outside. Not sure who the kid was, or why Nick looked so close to him when I don't think we've ever seen him before. But I guess Nick really liked how that crazy lady that Madison killed (see how little I care about this show? I know hardly any names.)  didn't see the dead as monsters. So he wanted to find another place like that, and the lady in the beginning told him where to go. 

I couldn't make heads or tails out of most what that woman was saying either.  Something something something Celia something something the little kid's dad something something where to go.  Here's some water.  Something.  I'm generally anti turning on the captions when characters are speaking even accented English because 1. I'm lazy and 2. If I'm going to have to do much reading, I might as well just get a book.

The thing is I don't know that I think Frank Dillane is a terrible actor or that Nick didn't have the potential to be a compelling character.  But the writing has given him so very little to work with.  As is so often the case with this franchise, there was a kernel of an idea in the scene of the random baddies pulling up to Nick's wandering walker party on the highway.  Butterfingers Baddie briefly made eye contact with Nick, realized he was seeing something that really didn't make sense, and then immediately went to pieces.  But instead of following the idea through, they had him fumble around until he got eaten and for good measure let his buddy also dither around and get eaten too despite having a gun and a running vehicle right there.  It's like the mother show in all the missed opportunities but without the sometimes good stuff in between that keeps you coming back even after you once again swear that you're done with the stupid.

It's my own fault really.  I know this show is terrible and apparently fully content to pretend that it's not.  One dark rainy Sunday on the couch and it suddenly didn't seem like a bad idea to check it out again.  Lesson learned.

[ghoulina]

16 minutes ago, nodorothyparker said:

It's my own fault really.  I know this show is terrible and apparently fully content to pretend that it's not.  One dark rainy Sunday on the couch and it suddenly didn't seem like a bad idea to check it out again.  Lesson learned.

For some reason, my husband actually LIKES this show (I'm beginning to question our entire marriage, ha!) - so I decided last season I'd just have to hate watch it. Which I'm not opposed to doing. But the majority of the episodes are so boring that I'm falling asleep instead of finding anything fun to snark on.

[Mr. Sparkle]

When it comes down to it, I. Just. Don't. Care. about any of the characters. If Nick died, I wouldn't have cared. So yeah, watching him walk around for an hour is just as boring as everyone else here is saying. 

[SoSueMe]

1 hour ago, ZoloftBlob said:

I hate the concept of focusing on one character per episode and spending episode after episode following a different character through the same day/event. Its irritating. Also the cable literally went to colored bars during the big reveal of what happened to Nick's dad so no idea what the reveal was and it clearly wasn't that important

Remember when "Lost" started doing that? It was engaging at first and then seemed to be lazy storytelling to me.

[nodorothyparker]

My husband had missed most of this season for various reasons so he got sucked into the marathon after it became apparent that it was in fact a couch day, which then of course meant that we might as well see the new episode too.  I think there's a lesson about passivity and wasting a day on the couch in there somewhere.

[nachomama]

The more Nick's hair looks like that, and apparently Frank keeps it that way during hiatus because he's over in jolly old england still the same, (even looks like he wears Nick's clothes!) the more I think he's auditioning to play RiffRaff in a new adaptation of Rocky Horror, he almost has the bald mullet down. I'm only watching cuz what the hell else is on Sunday? and I'm too poor to drink til I black out.

[ljenkins782]

12 hours ago, NorthstarATL said:

I am guessing Nick's new "home" will be more Woodbury than Alexandria. It would serve him  right if it were Terminus.

That was my thought too when they did the big "reveal" on the thriving community. 

Honestly, they should have just changed the language to Spanish and called it "Los muertos vivientes" because it's become TWD in Mexico at this point. The characters and writing aren't as strong so it's more boring, but so many elements are heading in the exact same direction as the original that this seems pointless.

Quote

I feel like I am one of the biggest supporters of this show: Fear the Walking Dead filled in the gaps of the Walking Dead - I was always more interested in the fall of society than what society looks like after. And, for a while, that was what we got. But somewhere along the way it felt sped up and this feels more like a parallel series than a prequel, and that's a bit unfortunate. 

Exactly. I was really excited about the premise of the show because the before and during of the original apocalypse was fascinating to me, but it veered off into the aftermath too fast. Especially with whole shows of them out on the ocean alone as a group...what does that show us about what's happening to the world. 

What I THOUGHT it was going to be (and wish it had been) was a true filling in of the gaps in which we saw what had happened in a lot of those Atlanta locales that were featured in TWD. Like those long highways full of walker-filled cars, let's see the humans getting into those cars and how things unfolded to cause a zombie traffic jam. Or the prison or the towns they'd been in, etc. They had some interestingly positioned walkers on TWD through the years, a backstory on those might have been worth telling. 

Starting over in a new place with new settings was a lot less interesting for me. 

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Also, he needs get all the teen heart throbbing in quickly..his hairline is leaving him as fast as Im leaving this show. ..wow 

Lol, that was the very first thing I noticed too. The dirtiness and tangled mess looks even worse with the rapidly thinning and receding hair. 

Quote

The most entertaining thing about all of this is Hardwick and the crew on the couch trying their damndest to convince us this was good television.

He is working so, so hard to drum up any personal enthusiasm he can find, but it's clear he's not into this show. And the couch folks have all been extremely dull as well, so it's not even a fun glimpse into the people behind the actors. 

[walnutqueen]

1 minute ago, nachomama said:

The more Nick's hair looks like that, and apparently Frank keeps it that way during hiatus because he's over in jolly old england still the same, (even looks like he wears Nick's clothes!) the more I think he's auditioning to play RiffRaff in a new adaptation of Rocky Horror, he almost has the bald mullet down. I'm only watching cuz what the hell else is on Sunday? and I'm too poor to drink til I black out.

2 words for you, nachomama : Cheap Booze.  (Ten bucks for 1.75 liters of Potters vodka at grocery Outlet).  Still only drunk enough not to change the channel.

As for what's on Sundays?  Olympics Closing Ceremony.  BrainDead. The Night Of.  Motive.  Murder in the First.  Last Week Tonight.  Ray Donovan.  Vice Principals.  Roadies.  The Last Ship.  Deadline: Crime.  New Jersey ho'wives.  

Need I go on?  ...   ;-)