Preface

Before I get into the review for Season Two, it has been announced that Scott M. Gimple is no longer the showrunner for The Walking Dead, with Angela Kang replacing him. She has written several strong episodes of the show, including the finale to Season Four. This may have been announced prior to my first review of the show, however, I had only heard about it after my article went up, and therefore I can only conclude that my “Pimple” comment was the final straw for AMC. I guess what Edward Bulwer-Lytton said was true,

“The pen is mightier than the sword,”

or in this case keyboard.

Fire: Season Two Of The Walking Dead

Beside the Dying Fire almost sounds like a commentary on the shows current dwindle among the embers. But the title really describes the atmosphere as Season Two comes to a close; the barn is in flames, hordes of walkers are overrunning Hershel’s land, several members of the ragtag pack of survivors have literally and figuratively bit the bullet, and the future is bleak and gloomy.

Under Season Two, the new leadership of Glen Mazzara came on board as showrunner, taking over after AMC fired Frank Darabont. As mentioned, this season is not reviewed with high regard. What lasts only a couple of issues in the comic book, serves as the main proponent for the entirety of the 13-episode run of Season Two.

In the comics, after Shane is killed, the group travels and they meet Tyreese, his daughter, and her boyfriend. Tyreese doesn’t come on the show until the group is already at the prison in season Three, and he is accompanied by his sister, Sasha, along with Allan, Donna, and their son. His daughter never makes it to the show, and in the comic, Donna and Allan have been a part of the group since Atlanta, and have young twin boys, rather than a mid-teen son.

After Tyreese joins the survivors in their travels, they settle at Wiltshire Estates where Tyreese and Carol hook up while Andrea and Dale hook up. They leave after boogie-woogie time and while searching for food, Carl is shot by Otis, mistaking him for a Walker. In the show, Carl is shot in a hunting accident, where the bullet fired by Otis pierces clean through the deer he’s hunting and it hits Carl. The setup, minus that one difference, is the same device used to get the group in meeting with Hershel.

The characters are very different, however. Hershel has six children and a seventh in the barn as a walking corpse, whereas in the show, he has Maggie and Beth, with a third son who died. Beth is also original to the show, perhaps being a combination of his other daughters from the source. Hershel is less distrusting in the comic and reveals to Rick of the dead in his barn upon Rick asking if the group can stay there. In the show, no one finds out about the barn until the mid-finale of Season Two.

Glenn found out and spilled the beans to the group, Dale knew from a conversation with Hershel just before everyone else found out, and Rick tried to help Hershel and respect his wishes, despite disagreeing with them. In the comic, he takes on Shane’s stance wanting the zombies dead from the onset.

In both the source and the show, the barn is opened and there is a mass killing of zombies, after which in the comic, Hershel puts a gun to Rick’s head demanding his people leave, at which they find the prison.

The same notes are hit in the show, however, most of the details are completely unique to the show. The search for Sophia, entirely new to the show. And while it drags on for way too long, and we are forced to deal with episodes like Chupacabra, the important thing that the show does over the comic, is it really focuses on the change in Rick. Rick is a by-the-rules, standup guy and Season Two throws a million things at him to slowly harden and change him; his son is shot, it’s his fault Sophia is missing, Hershel wants his people gone, he knows about Lori and Shane, Shane’s trying to kill him, everyone is questioning his leadership, and there are zombies everywhere.

The first half of this season is slow, but it deals with the human end of the struggle this show was always meant to explore and examine. It’s not perfect, but it isn’t a far cry away from the shows initial intention; to explore how the apocalypse damages people. The lack of zombies can also be attributed to the reduced budget AMC was providing for the show.

The search for Sophia is kick-started when the group is overrun by a horde on the highway, and Rick runs off with her trying to save her. Throughout the majority of the search, Shane insists that it’s a lost cause, while Rick begs to keep searching. And then when push comes to shove and Shane rips the barn doors open and Sophia comes out at the end of the zombie massacre, he can’t do anything. Rick instead has to stand up and shoot Sophia.

While the first half of this season is arguably boring, I reckon it’s needed because it provides internal turmoil for the characters, especially Rick and establishes more weight than simply having the zombies be the only problem. Does the search for Sophia go on for way too long? Absolutely. But the mid-season finale is a solid pay off and shows a real shift in Rick’s character.

While the first half was mostly made up, the second half detours even more. After the barn massacre, Hershel takes off to a bar in the nearby ghost town, an old hot spot of his. Rick finds him, with Glen tagging along and the trio ends up in a confrontation with a duo of travelers.

As things go south, the stranger’s group come looking and a semi-shootout in the middle of the town breaks out with Rick, Hershel, and Glenn trying to get to safety. In the process, they find Randall and decide to take him with them. Back at camp, Lori reveals that she has a bun in the oven and Shane swears it’s his baby. This sends Shane on a spiral of mental insanity, after finally starting to move on from Lori.

He grows jealous and envious again of Rick, tenfold this time. Lori “Lady Macbeth’s” herself and plants in Rick’s head how Shane is no good, and then the whole group debates on Randall’s fate. All of this is new to the show, with no event even remotely corresponding to something in the comics.

I think this form of adaptation is what should be done. It becomes something new for those who have never read the comics and comic fans alike. It brings a fresh view to the table and keeps things as original as they can be. And in doing so, the show explored something the comic glossed over; the deterioration of Rick and Shane’s relationship, further exploring Shane’s madness (his killing of Otis and sweet crew cut, two things new to the show).

In the comic, the Rick and Shane fight at the end of Volume One, with Carl killing Shane to protect his dad, and Rick killing Shane’s reanimated corpse. In the show, Rick kills Shane after Shane runs off with Randall (killing him), and leads Rick on a faux-manhunt in order to kill Rick as well. Rick instead stabs Shane and Carl shoots Zombie Shane. For Rick, this confirms what Jenner whispered to him in the Season One’s finale; that everyone has this disease. Rick reveals this after the barn burns down and the group is separated (also Hershel and what’s left of his people, come with Rick while they stay in the comic and the two groups don’t meet up again until the prison is established) and everyone is reunited.

And here is a weakness with this season. That should’ve been something that had some crazy payoff. It’s a cool twist, but it ultimately means nothing as it is never explored again nor does it prove to change anything in the show's narrative. It’s only slightly explored more with Milton in Season Three. Other than that, the twist is meaningless.

Season Two comes to a close after Rick becomes dictator of the group and the camera pans away and lingers over the prison in the distance, hinting at what’s to come, and Andrea meets Michonne.

I think this season has many strengths in how it takes the source material and basically scrapes it, taking the important moments and playing around with its own ideas and establishing itself as its own entity. Some people dislike when a movie changes things from a book. But I think The Walking Dead has become boring enough as it is, wouldn’t it be much worse of a viewing if they followed the comics verbatim? Then there would be no surprises.

Granted the surprises have sucked recently; the garbage people, the lack of Negan, the underwhelming presence of Hilltop and the Kingdom, the tribe of women that Tara met and just disappeared; there’s no pay off for anything anymore. But at least it’s something new to see. That doesn’t say much, but seeing the comic played exactly the same, would be a waste. Change and something new is needed for an adaption. I stand by that wholeheartedly.

As strengths, I like the changes this season made versus what took place in the comics. As for weaknesses, the season is slow, and the first half just dangles there in suspension. The Sophia search could have been three to four episodes max, not seven. Instead of jumping form six episodes in the previous season to 13 in this season, maybe only jump to 10. Then the first half of the season wouldn’t have dragged on, and the faster pace of the second half would have been more consistent.

The major weakness is pacing, and I think the show was still too young where they really didn’t know what they were doing with it. There’s a deleted scene that Frank Darabont filmed before he was fired where we were introduced to Randall’s group in the premiere of Season Two, and we would have had a lingering hint at the potential threat with Randall from the onset. This would have been more interesting and would have made the season feel more congealed. Because while I like the season, there is a disconnect between the two halves not only in pacing but in content.

Aside from internal turmoil, nothing really happens that’s noteworthy in the first seven episodes, except Shane killing Otis, while the next six episodes are jammed with interesting directions the show might go in (even with the Randall debate dragging on like the first half of the season does). However, despite the slow pace and the group remaining on the farm for so long, I think them being stationed is good. In the comic, they go from one problem and place to the next way too quickly. In the show, moving after with Gimple, would spend eight episodes where only two days of the shows timeline is explored.

While that drags on and brings the show to a halt, it means in terms of story, it’s taking the characters two days to handle big problems, which is not believable and then they move on to the next, doing the same slow setup. While the show remained in one place during Season Two, it beats moving constantly like in the source material, in my opinion. It makes time feel more legitimate for the show, without having to spend a half season on one event. Multiple things happen while on the farm, they may not always be exciting, but it isn’t one weekend as the first half of Season Six is.

Next week, The Suicide King: Season Three of The Walking Dead. Stay tuned to see how the season compares to the comics, and look at a brief overview of strengths and weaknesses.