This episode was a tale of two kisses, and those two kisses explain everything that was wrong and everything that was missing from this story.
The first was between Dr. Denise and a semi-flabbergasted Tara. That kiss was great, because it was preceded by what felt like real human interactions between the two characters. The actress who plays Denise did a great job selling the feeling that her character was underwater and doubting herself, but eventually braving her fear and getting a good outcome. That led great subtext to her eventually kissing Tara. The actress who plays Tara didn't have as much to do, but still felt like a real person, albeit one in an unreal situation.
By contrast, the one between Rick and Jessie was eyeroll-worthy. It's not just because the show seemed to have been trying to move them together since the moment they met, but because all of their interactions feel almost alien, with overwrought, soap opera level acting and dialogue, and forced, cliche story beats. This relationship was built over the course of several episodes, and Tara and Denise's was essentially built in just one. It's an indictment of the show that the latter works much better than the former.
And it's endemic of the flaws of this episode, and to some degree, the show as a whole. Almost nobody in this episode had an actual conversation with any of the characters. Even when a scene only included two people, was still an episode of SPEECHES. Everybody was giving SPEECHES! It was a collection of dull, on-the-nose monologues about the same old crud the show has been slogging through for seasons now, with zero subtlety or anything approaching how actual human beings behave.
That was true of Maggie and Aaron's little excursion. (Maggie's acting was particularly bad in their stilted exchanges.) That was true of Spencer's temper tantrum with Deanna. (A storyline that actually had some interesting thematic heft behind it, even if it was executed poorly.) It was true of Carl and Ron's Dawson's Creek redux routine. Blame the acting (most of it pretty poor outside of Deanna who did a good job selling her character's shellshocked position but eventual resolve), blame the writing, blame the people putting it all together, but this was a pretty rough slog for most of the run time.
But hey, while The Walking Dead has proven itself incredibly unreliable in terms of acting, writing, and plot from episode-to-episode, one thing we can always count on it for is cool zombie setpieces. The sewer zombies were very well done, and their attack on Aaron and Maggie was one of the few moments in the episode that really grabbed my attention. Kudos to the production/zombie effects team. Maybe this show should just stick to spectacle.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-11-10T20:30:47Z
This episode was a tale of two kisses, and those two kisses explain everything that was wrong and everything that was missing from this story.
The first was between Dr. Denise and a semi-flabbergasted Tara. That kiss was great, because it was preceded by what felt like real human interactions between the two characters. The actress who plays Denise did a great job selling the feeling that her character was underwater and doubting herself, but eventually braving her fear and getting a good outcome. That led great subtext to her eventually kissing Tara. The actress who plays Tara didn't have as much to do, but still felt like a real person, albeit one in an unreal situation.
By contrast, the one between Rick and Jessie was eyeroll-worthy. It's not just because the show seemed to have been trying to move them together since the moment they met, but because all of their interactions feel almost alien, with overwrought, soap opera level acting and dialogue, and forced, cliche story beats. This relationship was built over the course of several episodes, and Tara and Denise's was essentially built in just one. It's an indictment of the show that the latter works much better than the former.
And it's endemic of the flaws of this episode, and to some degree, the show as a whole. Almost nobody in this episode had an actual conversation with any of the characters. Even when a scene only included two people, was still an episode of SPEECHES. Everybody was giving SPEECHES! It was a collection of dull, on-the-nose monologues about the same old crud the show has been slogging through for seasons now, with zero subtlety or anything approaching how actual human beings behave.
That was true of Maggie and Aaron's little excursion. (Maggie's acting was particularly bad in their stilted exchanges.) That was true of Spencer's temper tantrum with Deanna. (A storyline that actually had some interesting thematic heft behind it, even if it was executed poorly.) It was true of Carl and Ron's Dawson's Creek redux routine. Blame the acting (most of it pretty poor outside of Deanna who did a good job selling her character's shellshocked position but eventual resolve), blame the writing, blame the people putting it all together, but this was a pretty rough slog for most of the run time.
But hey, while The Walking Dead has proven itself incredibly unreliable in terms of acting, writing, and plot from episode-to-episode, one thing we can always count on it for is cool zombie setpieces. The sewer zombies were very well done, and their attack on Aaron and Maggie was one of the few moments in the episode that really grabbed my attention. Kudos to the production/zombie effects team. Maybe this show should just stick to spectacle.