The Walking Dead: A New Beginning Books Included
October 21, 2018 3:08 PM - Season 9, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Rick and his group make a risky run into Washington, D.C. to search for artifacts they will need to build the civilization he and Carl envisioned.
It's probably not a good sign for the reemergence of democracy when the loser ends up getting executed after his own attempt to assassinate the election winner fails. But good riddance to Gregory, who managed to be consistently terrible until the end.
Getting seeds from the museum is smart. Getting farm implements and wagons seems like a bit of a stretch.
Hilltop, thanks to Maggie, has their act together. Alexandria seems to be at least self-sustaining, and the Kingdom is reportedly rebuilding. The Sanctuary is a mess because farming in a factory doesn't make a lick of sense, so there's tension as the other communities find themselves still having to share their hard work with them. But hey, Rick's a celebrity there now.
Rick's not dead yet. (Maggie isn't, either, but I don't think people are itching for that as much.)
It's probably not a good sign for the reemergence of democracy when the loser ends up getting executed after his own attempt to assassinate the election winner fails. But good riddance to Gregory, who managed to be consistently terrible until the end.
Getting seeds from the museum is smart. Getting farm implements and wagons seems like a bit of a stretch.
Hilltop, thanks to Maggie, has their act together. Alexandria seems to be at least self-sustaining, and the Kingdom is reportedly rebuilding. The Sanctuary is a mess because farming in a factory doesn't make a lick of sense, so there's tension as the other communities find themselves still having to share their hard work with them. But hey, Rick's a celebrity there now.
Rick's not dead yet. (Maggie isn't, either, but I don't think people are itching for that as much.)
I tagged this "Books Included" but am not wedded to that. I haven't read the comics myself, so I don't know how much they relate to each other these days. (I know the rumors are that the next big villain is something from the comics, but I don't think we caught a whisper of that in this episode. (Sorry.))
posted by jimw at 4:34 PM on October 21, 2018
posted by jimw at 4:34 PM on October 21, 2018
This episode was more enjoyable than the last season put together and I'm glad I checked the season's reception before bowing out, which is what I had planned to do.
Daryl put an arrow through the zombie that some folks had installed as a scarecrow—I took this as the show saying "people are going to be less stupid now" (because keeping an alive-zombie on the premises is just a priori not a great idea?), but maybe I'm over-reading.
That being said, I haven't caught up on ep 2 (and 3) yet.
posted by sylvanshine at 8:26 PM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Daryl put an arrow through the zombie that some folks had installed as a scarecrow—I took this as the show saying "people are going to be less stupid now" (because keeping an alive-zombie on the premises is just a priori not a great idea?), but maybe I'm over-reading.
That being said, I haven't caught up on ep 2 (and 3) yet.
posted by sylvanshine at 8:26 PM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I gave up on the show about when Negan arrived, not because of Glen but more because of the idiotball and Gabriel getting tagged with it so much. Thanks sylvanshine for convincing me to give it another go!
I gave up on the books about a year ago, it felt to me like it wasn't going anywhere and still relied too much on the idiotball.
The sets for Alexandria are perfect. All of the design was fantastic and evokes the book's look and feel; what survived of the tech and what needs to be replaced at a lower tech level by necessity. Really reminded me of the 'Nantucket' series by SM Stirling. The visual contrast between Alexandria, Hilltop, and the (Factory?) might become interesting.
The only thing is, Rick's rigging of his handaxe? I could easily believe the actor hating that even if its a rubber hatchet. irl, he'd be slicing his arm open every other hour.
The evolution of man gag - if the show went on long enough, that was an inevitable gag.
Did something happen to Maggie's accent, she sounds much more folksy than I remember. lol, I've been rewatching Nikita and the actor who plays Gregory played Percy, another smarmy villain, in that.
I really like Carol hooking up with Ezekiel better than the original Ezekiel matchup. Huh, I guess a lot of other relationship stuff has happened too.
I have to admit this was a good episode, idiotball notwithstanding. Loved Darrel being a realist and bringing up fuel and travel times and Rick instinctively going full authoritarian. Rick has become a lot less sympathetic lately?
but I don't think we caught a whisper of that in this episode. (Sorry.))
Still feels a little early, but the murder of crows in the open might be forshadowing, but it could just be an excuse for the scarezombie.
posted by porpoise at 7:15 PM on October 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
I gave up on the books about a year ago, it felt to me like it wasn't going anywhere and still relied too much on the idiotball.
The sets for Alexandria are perfect. All of the design was fantastic and evokes the book's look and feel; what survived of the tech and what needs to be replaced at a lower tech level by necessity. Really reminded me of the 'Nantucket' series by SM Stirling. The visual contrast between Alexandria, Hilltop, and the (Factory?) might become interesting.
The only thing is, Rick's rigging of his handaxe? I could easily believe the actor hating that even if its a rubber hatchet. irl, he'd be slicing his arm open every other hour.
The evolution of man gag - if the show went on long enough, that was an inevitable gag.
Did something happen to Maggie's accent, she sounds much more folksy than I remember. lol, I've been rewatching Nikita and the actor who plays Gregory played Percy, another smarmy villain, in that.
I really like Carol hooking up with Ezekiel better than the original Ezekiel matchup. Huh, I guess a lot of other relationship stuff has happened too.
I have to admit this was a good episode, idiotball notwithstanding. Loved Darrel being a realist and bringing up fuel and travel times and Rick instinctively going full authoritarian. Rick has become a lot less sympathetic lately?
but I don't think we caught a whisper of that in this episode. (Sorry.))
Still feels a little early, but the murder of crows in the open might be forshadowing, but it could just be an excuse for the scarezombie.
posted by porpoise at 7:15 PM on October 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
The evolution of man gag - if the show went on long enough, that was an inevitable gag.
What do you mean by this?
Did something happen to Maggie's accent, she sounds much more folksy than I remember.
Nah, she's always been barely understandable.
posted by agregoli at 7:20 AM on October 23, 2018
What do you mean by this?
Did something happen to Maggie's accent, she sounds much more folksy than I remember.
Nah, she's always been barely understandable.
posted by agregoli at 7:20 AM on October 23, 2018
What do you mean by this?
The bog standard "human evolution" chart... has been well spoofed.
... and it was Gabriel who stuck that zombie at the end of the chart, right? He picked up some confidence somewhere, hasn't he? Doesn't wear it well. At all.
posted by porpoise at 11:05 AM on October 23, 2018
The bog standard "human evolution" chart... has been well spoofed.
... and it was Gabriel who stuck that zombie at the end of the chart, right? He picked up some confidence somewhere, hasn't he? Doesn't wear it well. At all.
posted by porpoise at 11:05 AM on October 23, 2018
I'm about a hundred years late to this season because last season left me kinda feeling like the show had drifted away from being something I actually wanted to watch.
But I thought this episode was great, will almost certainly watch one or two more tonight, and think the new opening titles are beautiful.
I was rolling my eyes like crazy when they brought Gregory on screen and he was quickly up to his old shit, because I was like: "Really? This is the character you think we need more of?" But by the end of the episode it all made sense.
Dollar Store Casey Affleck is growing on me, and it was lovely to see Carol, Jerry, Rick, and Michonne again.
The set piece with Ezekiel falling through the glass floor was super annoying though. Like they spent ten minutes showing the exact thing they were going to do because we couldn't have the museum heist go off with only a ten second spider scare. And then they did the exact thing. And there was nothing about it that went above and beyond what we would have expected. It really felt like a wasted two minutes or so of the script.
But that was my only real complaint. Which is a MUCH lower complaint count than I had for most episodes last season.
posted by 256 at 4:30 PM on December 11, 2018
But I thought this episode was great, will almost certainly watch one or two more tonight, and think the new opening titles are beautiful.
I was rolling my eyes like crazy when they brought Gregory on screen and he was quickly up to his old shit, because I was like: "Really? This is the character you think we need more of?" But by the end of the episode it all made sense.
Dollar Store Casey Affleck is growing on me, and it was lovely to see Carol, Jerry, Rick, and Michonne again.
The set piece with Ezekiel falling through the glass floor was super annoying though. Like they spent ten minutes showing the exact thing they were going to do because we couldn't have the museum heist go off with only a ten second spider scare. And then they did the exact thing. And there was nothing about it that went above and beyond what we would have expected. It really felt like a wasted two minutes or so of the script.
But that was my only real complaint. Which is a MUCH lower complaint count than I had for most episodes last season.
posted by 256 at 4:30 PM on December 11, 2018
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I'm kinda liking the "rebuilding civilization is hard" arc this is taking. And yeah, Gregory: consistently terrible, consistently terrible at being terrible.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 3:49 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]