Fear the Walking Dead: Episode 3
SHUT THE DOOR!
I’m sure that if you’ve seen the episode, then you know exactly what I mean (quite possibly, you were screaming those exact words at the TV). Having Nick leave the door open is one of the tactics employed by many horror movies. I’m okay with it in cheesy-horror flicks, which I love, but I expect more from the Walking Dead series (I’m not sure why since they so often fall into what I call lazy writing and/or directing).
Let me explain why it bothered me so much when Nick left the door open. First, they live in LA. They have to have air conditioning. If you have air conditioning, you automatically shut the doors, even if you are a druggie (Nick was definitely functional). Second, Nick knows that these people are dead. He has an understanding of how dangerous this new world is. He would not have left the door open.
Now, let me vent about the dog. Let’s be honest, the only reason the dog was in the show was so that Travis would see the dead-guy, Peter, eating something and not know if it was Maddie or one of the kids. That’s it. There was no other point for the dog even being there. We never saw the dog before it showed up, clawing to get inside (if we did see it earlier, then I apologize because I missed it). They let it in and then immediately leave the house, leaving the door open. This to me is lazy. They could have shown us the dog earlier, just to set the stage. It could have belonged to Susan and her husband, Patrick. Then, when the dog arrived, Maddie could have been concerned and they could have gone to Susan’s house. Once there, Nick could have said something about finding the gun that he’d tried to steal before. Maybe, they’d tried to get the dog to come with them, or better yet, it could have followed them back to its house and then refused to go inside. That would have been a little foreshadowing that something was very wrong at Susan’s house. I could continue with plotting this out, but I think you understand where I am going. If you are going to introduce a character, let him do more than die. Let there be a real, plausible reason for that character’s existence.
I also had a problem with Susan suddenly showing up dead when Alicia was there alone. When Maddie, Nick and Alicia were in the house, they were not being quiet. Why didn’t Susan come out then? We can only assume that she was dead but not reanimated. Still, wouldn’t Maddie have looked for her neighbor, especially since they were such good friends? I know that if I were to break into a friend’s house, I’d check to see if said friend was home. Maddie could have found Susan dead from the flu or a heart-attack. At that point, with the cops busy and society collasping, there would be nothing that Maddie could do. This would have added to the tension when Alicia went back for the bullets. We would have known that there was a dead person just waiting to come back to life. Again, in my mind, a simple fix.
Since I am a dog lover, let me also say that having a dog around is a good thing in a situation like this. They can hear and smell waaaay better than we can. I can understand why a TV show doesn’t want to deal with dogs (it isn’t always easy to get them to act on command). However, the shows always seem to underestimate dogs. Most are smart. They would learn quickly that the dead are dangerous and the dogs would know to be quiet. I’m okay with this one barking because it is a very protective type, but why didn’t it flee through the open door? It had already run once. It would run again.
Since, I didn’t hate the show, I’ll point out the parts that I did appreciate.
There were some good lines or turns of phrases such as when Nick called his drugs…my medicine. That seems appropriate for a junky - manipulative. I also like that Maddie is more willing than Travis to accept the fact that the people are dead and not sick. Maddie had already accepted that Nick was going to die from drugs. She is a realist, had to be in order to survive after her husband either died or left. I know he died, but it sounded like he wasn’t a good husband/father by the comments when Maddie and her kids were playing Monopoly.
I liked the fact that Travis took the trash down to the curb (one of my friends hated it). Travis still believes that everything is going to go back to normal. This brings me to the next point. Travis should have refused to move the body, let alone bury it. If he believes that everything will be okay, he would have left the body where it was. The police don’t like it when you move or bury someone who you killed. They call that tampering with evidence or something like that.
I like the tension between Daniel and Travis. Not sure why it is there (who started it between the two characters). And, my favorite line was when Daniel said, “Good people are the first ones to die.” With his background, he’d know.
All-in-all it wasn’t a bad episode, just disappointing. This show could be so much better.
I’m sure that if you’ve seen the episode, then you know exactly what I mean (quite possibly, you were screaming those exact words at the TV). Having Nick leave the door open is one of the tactics employed by many horror movies. I’m okay with it in cheesy-horror flicks, which I love, but I expect more from the Walking Dead series (I’m not sure why since they so often fall into what I call lazy writing and/or directing).
Let me explain why it bothered me so much when Nick left the door open. First, they live in LA. They have to have air conditioning. If you have air conditioning, you automatically shut the doors, even if you are a druggie (Nick was definitely functional). Second, Nick knows that these people are dead. He has an understanding of how dangerous this new world is. He would not have left the door open.
Now, let me vent about the dog. Let’s be honest, the only reason the dog was in the show was so that Travis would see the dead-guy, Peter, eating something and not know if it was Maddie or one of the kids. That’s it. There was no other point for the dog even being there. We never saw the dog before it showed up, clawing to get inside (if we did see it earlier, then I apologize because I missed it). They let it in and then immediately leave the house, leaving the door open. This to me is lazy. They could have shown us the dog earlier, just to set the stage. It could have belonged to Susan and her husband, Patrick. Then, when the dog arrived, Maddie could have been concerned and they could have gone to Susan’s house. Once there, Nick could have said something about finding the gun that he’d tried to steal before. Maybe, they’d tried to get the dog to come with them, or better yet, it could have followed them back to its house and then refused to go inside. That would have been a little foreshadowing that something was very wrong at Susan’s house. I could continue with plotting this out, but I think you understand where I am going. If you are going to introduce a character, let him do more than die. Let there be a real, plausible reason for that character’s existence.
I also had a problem with Susan suddenly showing up dead when Alicia was there alone. When Maddie, Nick and Alicia were in the house, they were not being quiet. Why didn’t Susan come out then? We can only assume that she was dead but not reanimated. Still, wouldn’t Maddie have looked for her neighbor, especially since they were such good friends? I know that if I were to break into a friend’s house, I’d check to see if said friend was home. Maddie could have found Susan dead from the flu or a heart-attack. At that point, with the cops busy and society collasping, there would be nothing that Maddie could do. This would have added to the tension when Alicia went back for the bullets. We would have known that there was a dead person just waiting to come back to life. Again, in my mind, a simple fix.
Since I am a dog lover, let me also say that having a dog around is a good thing in a situation like this. They can hear and smell waaaay better than we can. I can understand why a TV show doesn’t want to deal with dogs (it isn’t always easy to get them to act on command). However, the shows always seem to underestimate dogs. Most are smart. They would learn quickly that the dead are dangerous and the dogs would know to be quiet. I’m okay with this one barking because it is a very protective type, but why didn’t it flee through the open door? It had already run once. It would run again.
Since, I didn’t hate the show, I’ll point out the parts that I did appreciate.
There were some good lines or turns of phrases such as when Nick called his drugs…my medicine. That seems appropriate for a junky - manipulative. I also like that Maddie is more willing than Travis to accept the fact that the people are dead and not sick. Maddie had already accepted that Nick was going to die from drugs. She is a realist, had to be in order to survive after her husband either died or left. I know he died, but it sounded like he wasn’t a good husband/father by the comments when Maddie and her kids were playing Monopoly.
I liked the fact that Travis took the trash down to the curb (one of my friends hated it). Travis still believes that everything is going to go back to normal. This brings me to the next point. Travis should have refused to move the body, let alone bury it. If he believes that everything will be okay, he would have left the body where it was. The police don’t like it when you move or bury someone who you killed. They call that tampering with evidence or something like that.
I like the tension between Daniel and Travis. Not sure why it is there (who started it between the two characters). And, my favorite line was when Daniel said, “Good people are the first ones to die.” With his background, he’d know.
All-in-all it wasn’t a bad episode, just disappointing. This show could be so much better.
No comments have been added yet.
