That was my first reaction to Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead.
SPOILER ALERT -if you haven't seen Sunday 3/11's episode, read no further!
Okay, stay with me. In general, you don't want to kill off the most provocative character in a series unless you're close to ending the entire series, right? The guy you love to hate, the most conflicted character, the one that puts everyone else on edge...would you kill him off?
Regardless of whatever revelation will come of his death, I don't think killing him off as a way to reveal whatever it is -a way of spreading the zombie infection viewers and characters were yet unaware, will be worth the death of the most compelling actor on the show.
I hope it is...I really do...but I am of the opinion that characters trump plot 99.99% of the time in film and books alike.
Was it a good episode? Yes! Shocking? Of course. I, like the survivors, now fear for the future. I'm not worried about being eating by a walking corpse but of this marvelously written show beginning the slow circle around the drain because the producers, writers or director wanted to hit the audience with a double-shocker. Killing off Shane AND this new revelation.
I'm one of those people who likes the bad guy and Shane played a great bad guy. Edgy, intense, perhaps a bit crazy -but not totally nuts as they portrayed in the last episode. Yeah, I get it, they were trying to hint at the impending 'infection' that would turn him into a zombie...I just don't agree with it.
So, do I think they've 'jumped the shark' this early on in the show? Sadly, yes.
Prove me wrong, writers. I'd be happy to eat crow on this one.
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Well I think first off, you have to see why they killed him off. Jon Bernthal got cast in a new role playing some cop.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the plot, he had gotten unstable and while his death was shocking, it was necessary. I agree he probably could have stayed on but then the plot would be parked at Shane vs the Grimes. And as the comic book dictates, it's about to get a whole lot more interesting :)
Thanks for the input Marco! I haven't read the comic books so every episode is a surprise for me. You've got me psyched again! Can't wait for the finale. Oh, one question: you mean the guy who plays Shane is re-cast as someone else on The Walking Dead? That's nutty!
ReplyDeleteI think this season (particularly the last 4 episodes) has been very intense and been very gritty TV. I think right now it's the edgiest show around. If you read the books, and feel that the show should follow the books, then the killing of Shane was inevitable.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel that Shane is actually a compelling character; the most provocative perhaps, but not compelling. I actually think that Dwayne and Rick are more compelling, and Dale was even more so.
They have shown that they can make this show much more than a "going nowhere" soap opera with zombies in the last few weeks and I think this bodes well for next season. What worries me is when they finally run out of source material to work from, which at the rate that the book writing is going, seems to be 2 more TV seasons.
Well, if we're going to go by the comic books, Karl killed off Shane *really* early on in the series. I mean, per the comic books, Shane should have been killed off in Season 1. I truly hated his character, but he added conflict that made the show. It will be interesting to see where they go with this.
ReplyDeleteThe actor Shane, Jon Bernthal was cast in TNT's upcoming new period drama called LA Noir. The writers of LA were the old writers of Walking Dead that got hacked at the end of season 1, so I have high hopes for Jon's new series. Still though they chose to kill him off, and I think it was an epic mistake from a plot development standpoint.
ReplyDeleteEverybody's already raised the important points to you, especially about the actor being in Frank Darabont's new show.
ReplyDeleteThe even bigger "holy shit is that a shark jumper?" to me was this week's Michonne intro because her character is so comic book to me (even moreso than the Governor) that it just shouldn't be done on The Walking Dead as it's been established. You could even get away with her in a movie spinoff, but she's just too ridiculous for this show.
It seems like this show has signs of shark jumpery from long ago, and it thrives in that absurdery. If it runs beyond the comics, it's only a matter of time before we see zombies versus sharks in tribute to Fulci's Zombi 2 aka Zombie Flesh Eaters.