BYOAC Talking Dead - Walking Dead Season 5

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dkersten:
Considering the entire future of the series was pretty much dependent on the idea that they had a mission that could end the zombie apocalypse, I would say that makes last night's episode about a little more than "two minor plot points". Don't get me wrong, I want to see more of the story of Rick and his people, but that story had stalled out and merged with this one, so this was important.

Now, I see Beth's abduction as a "minor plot line" that adds some content to the story but doesn't really affect the main plot line (or maybe it will, in which case it won't be a waste of time). My problem isn't with having several plot lines, it is with dragging "minor plots" out and getting into a rut of focusing each week on only one story line (with several tangents along the way), then leaving you hanging for 2-4 weeks before any kind of resolution is reached. I am all for new minor plotlines, but not when it is a complete tangent that isn't going to lead anywhere and entire episodes are dedicated to it. They might as well be spin-off shows, and I am sitting down to see the story of Rick and his crew.

The mid season break is coming, and we don't know who Daryl showed up with, we don't know what is up with Carol, or even what the hospital is really all about, we finally have a reason for Abraham's crew to get back together with Rick and decide on a new overall goal, but they are stalled out on the highway with a horde of millions of zombies in front of them, and Morgan is following the group for some reason and we don't know anything about that. Before the season break I want to resolve most of what is going on and get a direction for the second half of the season. I REALLY don't want to be left hanging on half these plotlines for 3 months. There is certainly something to be said about whetting your appetite so you will return after the break, but something else entirely to just hang all the pieces of the story and expect you to be happy to wait 3 months to continue where you left off.

Did anyone watch the series "Boardwalk Empire" ? Great series, but there was SO much to finish in the last episode and it felt rushed and incomplete. I actually had to go back and watch it again to catch what the significance of things were because they dumped what should have been spread out through 2 or 3 episodes (or at least a 2 hour finale) into just one final episode. I didn't like that. And I don't want to see that for the mid season break either. If they don't start tying up some loose ends quickly they are going to either have to rush the mid season finale or leave too many story lines open. Just too damn annoying.

horizon:
I guess I disagree from the onset of your post, but agree with the majority of it. I don't see Eugene, Abraham or their mission as the main plot to the story. IMO, Rick and his group is always the main story line. The show and story has always centered around Rick and his crew, and there have been many, many, side plots that entwine and create a great overall story. Aside from that difference in viewpoint, I agree with you about everything else. I don't want to have entire shows about 1 or 2 characters. I lose interest in that, and in previous episodes where they have done that. Felt the same way about the Beth episode. Rather than have been split across 2 or 3 episodes to compel you to see what happens.

Re: Boardwalk Empire - I thought so too. I really wish they had made it a 10 episode final season, or as you said, made it a 2 hour. I put together who the kid was when I heard me-ma. Everything else felt too rushed.

Oh no, distress! I give up.

Oh no, more distress! I give up!

Was sad to see it wrap up that way, it was a really fascinating story.

zebidia:

--- Quote from: HaRuMaN on October 23, 2014, 10:09:41 am ---
--- Quote from: thomas_surles on October 23, 2014, 10:03:27 am ---
--- Quote from: DaOld Man on October 23, 2014, 09:16:14 am ---About cannibalism: just for a side field trip, watch the movie "The Road". Last time I checked it was available on Netflix. Not a movie about zombies, but will make you think about what could happen if the world breaks down.

--- End quote ---
I liked that movie.

--- End quote ---

I liked it, but it was fairly depressing...

--- End quote ---

I read the book before seeing the movie, and I gotta say that that book was the most unrelentingly depressing thing I've ever read. I just barely made it through with my own sanity intact.

dkersten:

--- Quote from: horizon on November 10, 2014, 06:28:39 pm ---I don't see Eugene, Abraham or their mission as the main plot to the story. IMO, Rick and his group is always the main story line. The show and story has always centered around Rick and his crew, and there have been many, many, side plots that entwine and create a great overall story.
--- End quote ---
So where was Rick and his crew headed after Terminus? What was their overall goal? What was the direction the show was headed after they escaped?
The answer is they had decided to go to DC, and the idea of a cure and an end to the apocalypse seemed like the best direction to go. They finally had a reason to get up each day and push forward, other than just to live to see the next day. Granted, it didn't get very far before it was derailed, but now aside from the side plots, there is no longer a main plot, a main goal for Rick and his crew. They are back to where they were right after the prison was compromised - nowhere to go, no hope of ever being safe, and no long term plans whatsoever, other than to just survive.

At some point, you need a main overall mission or story to keep a series like this going. Surviving for the sake of not being dead is not much of a story. Even the characters in "The Road" had a goal, a reason to get up each day and move forward. There has to be a "light at the end of the tunnel".

Personally, it is that light that makes the Post Apocalyptic genre so appealing to me. The survival, gathering of people, formation of a society of some sort, the goal of finding a place to call home and defend, and the rebuilding of humanity. If the intention is to just roam and survive with no end goal in mind, there just isn't much point to it all. There has to be a higher reason for me, a reason to tune in and watch the drama of trying to get from point A to point B, and being on the edge of my seat waiting to find out if they are going to make it to point B and get one step closer to their goal. Plus, if they don't have a goal at the end, what makes them different from the group Daryl was with last season?

I look at shows like "Falling Skies" and "Revolution". The first seasons of each were awesome because there was a story and an end goal. Falling skies made it two seasons before the main story line hit a brick wall, Revolution lost it's main story line after season one and died a slow death. I tried to watch season 4 of Falling skies but it was so convoluted and unfocused that I just had no desire. I couldn't make it 5 minutes before I was asleep from boredom. Half the reason I am excited for the next 3 episodes of Walking Dead is to find out "what is the new plan".

The irony is, the closer they get to accomplishing their "end goal", the closer the series is to ending. If the prison had worked out and they had finished clearing it, built better walls, and lived happily ever after, it would have been a lame show, and it was headed that way until they brought the governor back. Even the sickness in the prison was just a weak mini-plot.

Imagine the despair you would feel in a situation like that. Unless your idea of a good life is being a marauder who just runs around preying on the weak and taking what you want by force, you would need a reason to get out of bed each morning, to keep fighting for survival. But they touched on it last episode: at this point the only ones left are the strong people. The rest are gone. And Abraham was ready to check out until he had a reason to keep going. Matter of fact, suicide was very prominent in the first 3 seasons. A lot of people just figured "what is the point". And that is the big question now.. what IS the point?

horizon:
I don't disagree with most of your wall post there. I agree with it. I have felt from the introduction, that it was a side plot that intertwined with the main story line, which is, Rick and his crew. The crew changes, evolves, dies, ebbs and flows. Your point that the trip to DC was a part of the main line, but once Rick and company stayed back, it stopped, imo. It was, again, a side story. At this point we have no idea if Rick intends to go to DC to meet up with them, or where they will go/do. Maybe they invade the hospital and take it over. Secure everything and live there. Who knows - the only constant in this show is change, and I think that is the beauty of the show.

To some of your other points:

Had they stayed in the prison, there would have been plenty of other enemies/issues/problems that would have arrived. We will never know.

Rick and company ran into a giant OH ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- moment with Terminus, and, like Hershel's farm, the prison, and DC all of those locations were supposed to be "home" and a safe spot to be. But things changed, the situation evolved.

They are back on the same mental game they were in the above situations. Where do we go? Where can we be safe? Where can we live to live? That giant horde of zombies that the DC group ran into proves that there is no fool-proof fortress to answer the previous questions. People died by the 10s, 100s of thousands. Hell, a mob of 500 wrecked one of their strongholds.

To me the questions asked, where, when, how, are what make the series and genre intriguing. The amount of IDK and I wonder if...are what keep me coming back to the show. Im excited for the next 2 episodes.

:cheers:

BTW, I really enjoy the conversation you've given this thread. You explain yourself well.

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