Margaux and I celebrate the return of The Walking Dead.
Trevor: If I were ranking the season premieres of The Walking Dead, the pilot episode “Days Gone By” would obviously be first, most likely followed by last season’s “No Sanctuary.” Season six’s “First Time Again” would likely take the #3 spot. It’s not as showy as “No Sanctuary,” but it succeeds on a number of levels, and deserves praise for trying things we haven’t seen before. The black and white was a well-executed way to show us everything that happened while we were gone, and it goes a long way towards making this world, and Alexandria in particular, feel very lived-in. We get the sense that things happen when the cameras stop rolling. The episode wasn’t perfect – the introduction of The Weeknd I mean the teacher from The Killing I mean Heath was pretty clumsily handled – but overall it hit way more than it missed. Sorry that was so long-winded – thoughts?
Margaux: Unlike our disagreements with Fear The Walking Dead, I’d say agree with mostly all your points on Walking Dead’s season six opener. I loved the sense of confusion in the first 20 or so minutes because in show like this, you get very comfortable and think you can outsmart it a lot of the time. But I enjoyed being in the dark for once with a quarry of walkers threatening imminent death to Alexandrians. Can’t say I loved the black-and-white flashback sequences as much as you, it felt like a very tired and heavy-handed cliche, like they were trying to highlight and underline with red pen that black-and-white signified the past. Like, we get it. I preferred the small detail of Rick’s face slowly becoming less covered in circa 2002 Nelly bandaids as “First Time Again” progressed through its 90 minutes.
Trevor: Don’t get me wrong, the b&w was very Breaking Bad season two, so it was hard to completely embrace it, as BB used it so perfectly. But I like it when this show indulges its more artsy tendencies, which I’m sure must upset the bros who tune in to see zombies get killed by the truck load.
But using that as a segue – there were a TON of walkers in that quarry. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen so many in one place on TWD except for maybe the end of “Days Gone By,” when they all swarmed around the tank where Rick was hiding. It’s nice that this show isn’t resting on its laurels, and is still looking to expand its scope. There was still a bit of fan service, though: Daryl’s motorcyle is held together by zip ties and prayer, and he chose that as his ride to lead the zombie parade? The badass chopper is starting to beggar belief. Doesn’t Tumblr have enough gifsets of Norman Reedus yet? At this point Daryl’s chopper is hurting more than its helping.
Also, not enough Carol. Zero stars.
Margaux: I’m definitely pretty sure that’s the largest number of walkers The Walking Dead’s put on screen, it was damn near impressive, and in a strange way made the show feel new again for that fact. No matter the angle you got on the herd, it scared the crap outta you because you know there were likely dozens more you’re not seeing. But what sort of baffled me was, what the hell is the end game here? Does Rick just want to generally steer the pack away from Alexandria and towards something not-Alexandria. Or (and this is my secret hope) that some wacky series of traps lay ahead to systematically take the walkers out. Think Mousetrap, cause that’s where my head’s at.
Trevor: Hahahaha, this show is sorely lacking in Rube Goldberg machinations, I agree.
This was a pretty character-heavy episode, which worked well, for the most part. I like that Nicholas sees the light now (even though I do want him to die), and Carter was more or less intimidated into being pro-Rick, even if it couldn’t save his life. That walker Can’t Hardly Wait to eat Carter’s face. Fuckin nailed it.
Margaux: In my notes I wrote: “Can’t Hardly Wait…to diieeee.” We’re the best.
Trevor: One concern, though, and this is about Morgan. He does a nice job of grounding Rick, but how much can he really “know” Rick? They haven’t been in the same room for a long-ass time (I’m assuming the show has a compressed timeline, which is why Judith is still in diapers).
Also, your Ethan Embry joke was better than mine, congrats.
Margaux: If there’s anything Morgan can understand about Rick, it’s suffering a mental break. Last time we heard more than three from Morgan’s mouth (no, I am not counting his wordless and haphazard stalking last season), he nearly killed Rick and kept yelling “CLEAR!” like he just escaped from Scientology. It would also seem like Morgan holds a light grudge against Michonne for eating one his peanut butter protein bars, and if that’s Morgan’s sense of “humor” then neither Michonne nor I falling for it. We all remember how crazy he was last time we saw him, yes? For all we know, a figment of his imagination taught him how to wield his Gandalf stick he likes so much.
Trevor: That’d be a good direction for the character, to make him low-key crazy. Otherwise we’re just looking at another Hershel/Dale/Michonne character. The angels on Rick’s shoulders always end up boring (Michonne being the obvious exception because she’s still incredibly badass). It looks like The Walking Dead might be willing to experiment with their characters more this time around: Daryl, in a nice bit of development, actually wants more people in Alexandria, and Abe and Sasha make for a good pairing we haven’t seen before.
Margaux: Abe and Sasha in the suicide car, leading the pack to who knows where, I’d never noticed what a deafening hum zombies made until Abe jumped out of the car to lure wandering walkers back on track. It sounded like a thousand chainsaws, and when it eventually merged with the distracting air horn, I couldn’t mute it fast enough. If sounds could make you feel gross, that would be it.
Trevor: You’re absolutely right. I didn’t pick up on that as well as you did, but The Walking Dead doesn’t get enough credit for cultivating a visceral, disgusting atmosphere. I think director Greg Nicotero deserves a lot of kudos for that, with his extensive background in makeup.
Margaux: Other than the Groot zombies I saw in an extended season six trailer, the walkers in this episode were really astounding. Some of the better decaying and disgusting ones we’ve seen in awhile, or maybe I’m still trying to shake off Fear the Walking Dead, but if this is the level of walker make-up we’re getting in the first episode, I’m excited to see what will come next. Other than the fall of Alexandria. Who do you think is sounding the horn and blowing up Rick’s plan? Which, was a flawed at best plan. I feel like there was another way of at least trimming down the amount of walkers before turning them loose because for someone who “no longer” takes chances, this seems like HUGE chance.
Trevor: I’m guessing the Wolves are responsible. They were notably absent in this episode, and I trust The Walking Dead too much to think that the show set up the Wolves as a huge threat and then forgot about them.
Margaux: I wouldn’t say they’ve necessarily forgotten about the Wolves, but to add them to the list of shit this show has to solve would be a little much. I’d say it’s Ron, he’s still pretty sore about the whole, Rick murdering his Dad in front of the entire community thing. A lot of people seemed scared of Rick in light of murder-stabby events, before Carter shook Rick’s hand and exchanged platitudes about respect, Carter was organizing Alexandrians to kill Rick before Rick killed them.
Trevor: Good point about Ron. It will be interesting to see how this season plays out, now that the threats are equally external and internal. You wanna talk stars?
Margaux: Ron is creepy and lurky as shit, i’ll bet it’s his mark-ass that’s fucking with Rick, in sort of some “YOU’RE NOT MY DAD” type of way.
Anyway, stars. There were plenty of tense, nail-biting scenes throughout the episode, there were also some moments of true comedic relief, like during the town meeting, for instance had two. The first was when Father Gabriel volunteering to help outside of the walls and Rick immediately shut him down by saying, “No. Next.” Glenn staring down Nicolas the shitbag and shaking his “no” the whole time at Rick, making Glenn in charge of him. It’s small moments like that that made me happy to see the gang again, and even though there was not enough Carol, I think we’re gonna see the side of her that Morgan saw right through when she was serving cookies and acting as if Rick’s plan was actually “really terrifying.” 4 stars.
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