Too Far Gone is the name of the mid-season finale, but it describes the direction of the show moving forward till this half’s big WOW finale. NOTHING HAPPENS. It’s borderline painful to watch this season.
And way I say painful, I don’t mean it facetiously. I mean I thought my head was going to explode at the slowness. I felt dizzy trying to focus on something that has no reason to be focused on. Kind of like looking too deeply into a pattern and having a seizure… that’s this half of Season Four.
I mentioned how you’d think Hershel’s death would impact the characters more, I mean we did see Maggie and Beth break down crying. But with this half, they seem to have forgotten they had a father, as only days later, they’re up and about without giving it a second thought. Maybe Beth does, I don’t remember, but Maggie seems to have forgotten and doesn’t even care about finding Beth, her sister!
She just wants her Hot Rod Glenn. Even when Beth dies in Season Five, Maggie cries, and then she like “Eh, at least I’ve got my Hot Rod Glenn.” Daryl’s the only one who seems bothered by Beth dying. It’s a little weird since everyone has become a “family.” Beth was only a half-sibling to Maggie though, so she was like the step kid no one wanted I guess.
I also mentioned in the previous half of this article, the show really formulates itself on the premise of having big, grandiose mid-season and season finales and that is ever-present here. Timeline-wise, I think this half is roughly two weeks. Which that in itself is an issue. Everyone fled the prison going their separate ways, and then within two weeks, they all get to the same place?
The big sense of “what’s going to happen to everyone” after seeing the destroyed prison is diminished when you realize how easily they all get back into cahoots with each other. Everyone may as well have played Marco Polo and within an episode, they all would have been united.
Sure, there are some decent-to-okay episodes this half. I like the Rick episodes because I think it gives Carl some development and we get that sweet Carl Papa song from Bad Lip reading (I’ll link it at the bottom). But I think at this point of the show, Rick is still enjoyable to watch to an extent and the scenes where Michonne starts to become a mother to Carl is really nice. He’s still a little kid at this point and seeing him get a mother is a good story.
The Daryl and Beth episode is just dog shit and one of the hardest things to watch. But after she gets kidnapped, Daryl tags along with the “claimed” people. I remember enjoying this storyline, but looking back I don’t remember if I liked it because I thought it was good or because the leader of this group is from Son’s Of Anarchy and I think he’s a good actor. Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene are introduced and that this season. There. Summed up three paragraphs.
It is good how the “Claimed” people get to the house Rick was at, he kills one of their guys and then Daryl unknowingly is helping them find Rick to kill him. It’s interesting to see these two storylines converge in this manner. But even still, not a lot in the overall story is occurring, and then we get to “A” the finale, which has Rick, biting the guy from Son’s Of Anarchy’s throat out, and flashbacks with Hershel “teaching” Rick about the balance of being violent and peaceful.
We also get introduced to Terminus (another problem for our characters that seems like it’ll be awesome and then dies out relatively quickly in Season Five… Go figure). Scott M. Gimple actually wrote this episode, and I argue it’s a good episode, one of the best of the season. Now I know what you’re thinking; “Robbie, haven’t you been shitting all over the Gimple Dynasty? And now you’re saying what!?”
But it’s true. Gimple has written several episodes throughout the show and they tend to be fairly strong episodes (at least they have, Season Six on I haven’t been paying attention to who’s written what so I can’t confirm if that statement still stands). But having it all under his control is something I don’t think he is capable of doing. He did write Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. I didn’t see that, but it looked awful.
This episode is also written by Angela Kang, who is the showrunner moving forward with Season Nine. I looked at her IMDB and she’s written some good episodes! But the season with the most episodes written by her is Season Seven, and I think Six and up is a waste.
So who knows how the show is going to move forward. But one thing is for sure, if “A” is a great episode based on her influence and not Gimple’s, then things should be looking up. I’m assuming The Whisperers will be introduced under her dynasty, and that’s my favorite part of the comics so far. Enemy-wise, I think they are the most distinct and unique group with what has been seen. It should be interesting. But nine years in, things have gotten very stale; she has a beaten road ahead of her.
The take away: this season isn’t awful. As stated people think Season Three’s lack of including the prison battle was a mistake and left the show in a mess. So this debut season of Gimple is the “clean up” season. That doesn’t explain how the show has gotten “Too Far Gone” from being remotely decent (see what I did there?) but this first run isn’t terrible.
It’s weaker and very, very boring in most places, and the pacing is off (sound familiar?) but I it gets worse. Not immediately at least, things still have some redeeming moments before they trip and fall head first into terrible. Does it happen in Season Five? Find out next week in my articles Season Five Of The Walking Dead Part I: No Sanctuary and Season Five Of The Walking Dead Part II: Conquer!
