The Walking Dead rewatch: should we skip ahead?

December 2, 2014 2:58 PM

When I started the TWD rewatch posts, I was torn between starting with Season 4, or starting from the very beginning. I ended up going with the latter. We're now four episodes into the first season, and I'm wondering whether that was the right choice. A number of commenters, myself included, have observed that the early episodes were often...not so great. So, I'm asking y'all the question: should we skip ahead a bit?

Starting at the beginning of Season 4 is one option, but here's another:

Too Far Gone is the mid-season finale of Season 4. The Governor dies, and the group gets split up while fleeing the ruined prison. For the remainder of the season, we follow these smaller groups, and get to see a variety of situations, settings, and new characters along the way. I thought this was one of the more interesting arcs of the show. So we could start there.

But I'm open to any thoughts you guys might have, including "nah man, let's just keep doing what we've been doing".

posted by escape from the potato planet (6 comments total)

TWD is uneven and the fanbase seems pretty divided on what they like. That may be the problem. No one season is completely stellar. I very much enjoyed season 1 and the farm plot, for instance. You may be better off just cherry-picking favorite episodes across the seasons.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 4:42 PM on December 2, 2014

I agree with Ik ben, folks like what they like.

Personally I have thought about a Walking Dead supercut, with only the parts I like :D.

I do like Season 1 up until the CDC, that part seems pretty pointless to me. I also like Season 2, although there are definitely some episodes/plot lines that bored me. Nebraska and 18 Miles Out especially were really intense episodes from that season. And Darryl's transformation throughout is also interesting.

Season 3, anything to do with Woodbury just annoyed the hell out of me but I liked the prison storyline.

So I'd be happy to start with Too Far Gone, or to keep going along as we are. I"m interested to see if a consensus develops. Maybe we need a poll of top 10/15 episodes to rewatch?
posted by natteringnabob at 9:38 AM on December 3, 2014

I hated and was totally disdainful of the first episode I saw, one in the middle of the prison sequence. Stupid zombie crap, why don't they just.. Then after noticing the general enthusiasm I gave a binge watch from the start. 2-4 episodes a night *without* commercials. Huge difference, stayed up way too late a couple times. So yeah, optimum would be a supercut post series finale, rather than that one big review per season. I watched the last few as they came out, I think I'll wait for netflix next chunk. Or supercut.
posted by sammyo at 4:36 PM on December 3, 2014

I do like Season 1 up until the CDC, that part seems pretty pointless to me

It's all personal, of course, but this did inform some of my thoughts about some of the events of this season. In addition, there is at least one thing about S1 that was revisited once in a pretty significant way and now again as something that's being brought back as a story line for the second half of this season.

I don't there's anything story-wise that you couldn't put together from recaps or wikis (or FF threads) but the character development is more subtle.

This is wishy-washy, but I think you'll probably be okay either way. (As a point of reference, I'd advise someone asking about BoJack Horseman to either watch it all or don't watch it at all.)
posted by Room 641-A at 11:45 AM on December 5, 2014

Thanks for the input, y'all. I decided to stick with the current plan. Here's the penultimate episode of Season 1.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 12:05 PM on December 6, 2014

I agree with Room 641-A. Don't watch Bojack Horseman.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 4:39 PM on December 6, 2014