Showtime.

To cleanse the palate, a little TWD fix in lieu of the traditional Monday night grumble thread. Watching it, I had three revelations about the show: 1. The zombies have showed more range than Michonne. Has she had a single scene as affecting as the one where the Governor brushes Penny’s hair? Good lord, writers. [...]

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There's a new sheriff in town.

So many things to be thankful for in last night’s episode. We were spared the cloying agony of a Glenn/Maggie wedding ceremony; the show’s most annoying character finally bought it, in unsuitably heroic fashion; and the lame contrivance of Rick having visions of Lori appears, mercifully, to be over. Little Carl’s getting more interesting by [...]

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Epidemic.

To cleanse the palate, what’s missing from this trailer? Hint: It has something to do with the “Z” in the title. Actually, it makes some sense for this flick to go lighter on close-ups of the undead than standard zombie fare would. The movie’s not really “about” zombies. I haven’t read the novel it’s based [...]

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Surprise.

Even a good “Walking Dead” has its bad moments. Michonne, for instance, remains a ridiculous character, the picture of defiant composure even while Merle was dragging her back towards Woodbury to be tortured and killed. Only in that nifty scene when she was tied to the wall with the car alarm ringing did she betray [...]

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Terrific.

Time for the weekly grumble thread. Just the other day I was thinking, “You know what would really perk this show up? An entire episode devoted to its most annoying, chronically boring character, who hasn’t done a single interesting thing since season one. The writers need to kill a few hours anyway while we’re waiting [...]

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Baby steps.

Look on the bright side. Even though nothing interesting happened last night, the ethical dilemma for Rick over whether to hand Michonne over to the Governor is potentially interesting. And now that we know the two sides are going to war, we’re all but guaranteed that one or more major characters will be liquidated in [...]

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Meh.

Readers have been e-mailing for a month wondering where the traditional Monday evening TWD disappointment thread is. Here you go. Verdict: I’m disappointed. Thinking back on the last few episodes, the show’s been so dull that I can’t re-create the narrative in my mind. My memories of it are impressionistic. I remember the squirrelly little [...]

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By popular demand.

Some Greenroom commenters were asking for it so here it is. Random thoughts: 1. We’re down to two compelling characters, the Governor and Merle, and Merle barely qualifies as a character. He seems to have no inner life except wanting to know where his brother is and I’m not sure if that’s because he misses [...]

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Spoilers.

People have been asking for a TWD thread and we need a palate cleanser before 49 percent of the population has a nervous breakdown tomorrow, so here you go. Major spoilers below. Turn back now if you don’t want to know what happened. Two things. First, why did Oscar, the big convict, shoot the little [...]

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Dark.

To cleanse the palate. This one feels broodier to me than the usual fare, a little more Dark Knight-ish, shall we say. Although admittedly, having seen neither of the first two “Iron Man” movies nor any of the Nolan Batman series, I’m flying blind here. Jonathan Last is a superhero connoisseur, though, and he’s picking [...]

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Obligatory.

Last chance until October for me to milk this show for easy content so I’m a-takin’ it. Nine million people watched last night, making it the most-watched episode of any show on basic cable among viewers under age 49 — ever. A few thoughts. One: When the zombie herd started its stampede through the farm, [...]

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Come back, Shane.

I didn’t think they’d have the guts to do it. Unloading Deadweight Dale is one thing but where does the show go now that its one and only interesting character is gone? We never even got to see a real Shane rampage. I thought the last five or six episodes were simply a prelude to [...]

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No, not this guy.

I made the title of the post ambiguous in case any readers Tivo’d it and haven’t watched yet, but c’mon. We all know who I’m talking about. Realistically, it could only be one of two people: Either Sophia’s mopey mom, whose name I still don’t know, or that endlessly whining bleeding heart Dale. (Alas, the [...]

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Murder.

I like to reward them when they do well and they did well with the ending to last night’s episode. Skip ahead to 50:33 below. No worries if you missed the rest. I’ll catch you up: Obligatory Rick/Shane tension, a few lines for each of the minor characters to get them some camera time, Glenn [...]

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