The Walking Dead returns for its third season, and our survivors have grown lean and experienced. We immediately see the necessity.
Title: “Seed”
Cast and Crew
Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Written by Glen Mazzara, from the graphic series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Robert Adlard.
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes
Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes
Scott Wilson as Herschel Greene
Laurie Holden as Andrea
Jeffrey DeMunn as Dale
Steven Yeun as Glenn
Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene
Norman Reedus as Darryl
Melissa Suzanne McBride as Carol Peletier
Danai Gurira as Michonne
IronE Singleton as T-Dog
Emily Kinney as Beth Green
Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes
Additional cast and crew information may be found here.
Premise
Months have passed, and the survivors give us a good example of how they’ve stayed alive. Then they find a zombie-infested prison, and see the potential to build a secure home. It will come at a cost, however.
High Point
1. No sane woman has ever had Lori’s particular prenatal fears. These accomplish what fantasy and horror so often do—-introduce something that couldn’t exist in the real world, yet which reflects the real world.
2. I applaud the opening. The group members now function like experienced survivors of the apocalypse.
Low Points
1. Why do so many of the characters use handguns, when rifles would be plentiful? Oh, wait—it’s because in this show, a kid with a handgun can fire off headshots with a pistol from 100 yards. I’ll accept zombies as the basis of the series, but not this, and it could be easily corrected.
2. Why did they take their aging medic into that danger? Did Rick take Landing Party lessons from Captain Kirk?
The Scores:
Originality: 3/6 The cliffhanger felt original, but we’re seeing a lot of what they show has done before.
Effects: 6/6
Story: 4/6 They kicked off this season with a suspenseful story, and hordes of zombies. Still, the episode felt too much like a videogame /haunted house sort of affair. They gave us a strong payoff.
Acting: 6/6 The acting remains strong; some of the lesser characters still require further depth and dilineation. Still, we had some moments of this: Carl’s adolescent flirtation with an older woman, T-Dog speaking lines that suggest he has thoughts and feelings.
Emotional Response: 5/6
Production: 6/6 The show has apparently returned to first-season budget and production levels.
Overall: 5/6
In total, “Seed” receives 35/42
Final Comment
Between this show and the general cultural fascination, I’m beginning to experience zombie fatique. They need to get to the governor quickly, and give us a menace that isn’t familiar. Fortunately, the show’s runners appear to recognize this fact.
Does this mean I don’t have to see/listen to “…but you won’t see it on Dish!” commercials anymore? Then again, in their void, there will just be more political ads.
Damned if I do…
Carl has certainly come up in the world, although he has turned into a pretty ruthless killer of walkers. The funky silencers most of them seem to have acquired are interesting.
Most unbelievable is the fact that they seem to have been able to scrounge enough gasoline to keep their three vehicles running for months, and that they haven’t been able to acquire more weapons, especially military/police weapons, which one would think would be in plentiful supply, along with appropriate ammo. Especially in the South, there’s got to be more than a few gun stores that had way more ammo on hand than they could use or take with them wherever they have gone.
Despite having limited ammo, they went through the prison yard pretty quick, with only one or two misses.
You’d think that they would have come up with a flame thrower by now, too.
As for ‘Red Shirt’ Herschel, really, is it plausible that he would have survived so long? He’s going to bleed out and become Walker food.
The side story with Michonne is a bit perplexing, mostly because I am not familiar with the graphic novels most likely. Why does she have two walkers in tow? I can understand why they seem to be missing their lower jaws and arms, but why keep them around? Are they significant to her in some way? I want to know what’s wrong with Andrea.
And Larry, Darryl, Darryl and Darryl in the prison. It would seem any hope of finding food, weapons and medicine may be for naught, if they’ve all been used up.
Ah well, there’s always next Sunday…
The show established early on that walkers won’t attack other walkers, or even people who smear themselves with bits of corpse, so they work as a kind of limited repellent. She was also using them as pack animals, to carry things on their backs.
There’s a little more in the comics, but they haven’t gone there yet, and I have no idea if they will. So, next Sunday…….
Yeah, what’s up with the lack of a flamethrower?
Don’t let the absence of a flamethrower stick in your mind too much. The plain truth is that building a tactically useful flamethrower is WAY harder than you might imagine. sure, you can come up with something that will work in your back yard, or workbench… but something you would be willing to carry around the countryside with your son standing next to you, or into Combat… that’s another animal entirely.
– think about it; why do you suppose that army’s don’t use them by the thousands in real life? They would be useful clearing tunnels in the mountains, don’t you think? But the Marines in Afghanistan still choose M4’s.
And… don’t read too much into the fact that I know this… My employer makes things for the Military. – It’s actually my legitimate job. :)
But with all that said: I’m, right there with you… head-shots at 100yards from a pistol would be a trick for Jerry Miculek; even if your life is on the line, that’s not something you can learn in just a few months.
BUT… with my engineering background showing through again… I’d say “Remember the silencers”. Even if you put one on a rifle, the bullet still comes out over the speed of sound, and so the sonic-boom of the slug makes a lot of noise, resembling a thunder crack. (there is a specifically engineered “300 Whisper” cartridge meant to address that, but they certainly are not common”. –So if silence is golden, then you won’t be using rifles. —
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gosh… I AM a geek, eh?