Doctor Gash’s Tip of the Scalpel to The Walking Dead
Steve Barton
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If a Tip of the Scalpel to “The Walking Dead” came out a couple months ago, just after the mid-season finale, you guys would have certainly been like, “Atta boy, Gash; you nailed again!” and “Another Scalpel right on the money, Gash.”
But right now, maybe you don’t necessarily agree so much. Read on, my friends.
Believe me, Dreadies, I was right there with you on Sunday night, watching Season 4, Episode 3 thinking, “What the fuck is going on tonight?!” We have Daryl and Beth lost in the woods, Tyreese with Carol and a gaggle of children blindly following a train track toward a potential sanctuary, Glenn and Maggie blindly searching for each other, and some intriguing new characters just introduced to the television audience a week earlier; and what are we watching? Rick trapped under a bed and Carl and a new smiley Michonne digging what seems to be needlessly deeper into her back story. And here we all sat thinking, “WTF! Please… advance the story!”
And, like you, I went to work the next day and gathered with my “TWD” watching brethren and bitched about the episode. Amongst the comments tossed into the conversation were, “I cannot fucking stand Carl!” and “Where’s Daryl?” and “What’s up with the guy with the mullet?” I feel your pain, guys, but that’s also the reason that the only possible subject of this Doctor Gash Tip of the Scalpel could be “The Walking Dead.”
Yes, right now, in this 11th episode of Season 4, things seem to have derailed a bit. But we’ve been here before. Haven’t we all heard, and maybe even said, all these complaints before? Do things like this sound familiar: “They’ve been at the farmhouse for too long”; “They’ve been at the prison for too long”; and “Where are all the zombies?” But regardless of the complaints throughout the entire series, “The Walking Dead” is still one of the few shows on television that can absolutely floor you with an episode at any time. It doesn’t have to be a finale; “TWD” is so good that it can, and does, consistently, floor viewers with an episode without a hint that a powerfully emotional one is coming.
As the highest drawing show on cable television, “The Walking Dead” was instrumental in helping the zombie to usurp the vampire as the monster du jour. From the moment Rick fired a single shot into the head of actress Addy Miller in the first scene of the first episode, viewers were enamored by “The Walking Dead.” And even when we have issues with the show, it’s not because we’re falling out love with it. It’s because we are so much in love with it. “The Walking Dead” has taken us from that walker-infested hospital in Atlanta to a welcoming campground to an initially standoffish farmhouse to a stronghold of a prison to now… To what? The only problem with “The Walking Dead” right now is we don’t see the endgame of the season. It looks scattered. It looks disjointed. But fear not, good citizens of Gotham; I’ve got a damn good feeling that the people that have brought us so many absolutely incredible episodes have everything under control and know exactly what they are doing.
Think back. We needed a quality ending between Rick and Shane, and we got it. We needed something intense to happen when a baby was born amongst all this insanity, and we got it. And we needed The Governor to die in just the right way, and we got it… eventually “The Walking Dead” has consistently withstood criticism during the middle of its seasons, almost without fail. And “The Walking Dead” has delivered absolute haymakers, episodes that simply blow viewers out of the water, over and over again. There is a certain pacing to the show that the creators accept that seems to jostle fans a bit, but when each season draws to a close, fans are normally so stoked with the action and the suspense for that which lies ahead that the conversations examining what has happened and what is coming in the future for our weary survivors rage on for long after the seasons’ final episodes have aired.
So where are we now? We’re in another small lull for “The Walking Dead”. The creators are building up to some new crazy, intense action. But first the bills have to be paid. Foundations must be laid, which means we aren’t going to get explosiveness every week. We’ve got to take the action with the foundation. We’ve got to take the episodes that blow your head off with the episodes that seem to go nowhere. All we can do is trust that the geniuses behind “The Walking Dead” who have given us so much insanely powerful entertainment over these past few years know exactly what they’re doing, even as so many of their fans are screeching and turning to social media to voice their displeasure as to where the show is headed. All we have to do is sit back. Sit back and let the season play itself out. There’s no reason to jump the gun and say the show is broken. Wait five weeks and see what you think after the Season 4 finale.
Let me finish with this. Please feel free to take to the comments section below and tell me I’m wrong. Tell me “The Walking Dead” has jumped the shark or lost direction or just doesn’t interest you anymore. I welcome anyone to do that. Is it a soap opera with zombies? Hell yes. Is pro wrestling a soap opera with scantily clad mega-men in short-shorts. Absolutely. Serial television is all soap operas. The viewership just depends on what flavor you like your soap. If you are disenchanted with “The Walking Dead” right now, do yourself a favor; keep tuning in on Sunday nights, and by the time Season 4 is said and done, you’ll be happy you did. There are old conflicts to be worked out and new ones to discover. Our weary travelers all seem to perhaps be funneling back toward one another. What could possibly lie ahead?
Please, go out and enjoy all the horror-themed television programming you can find. It’s great to see that there is so much out there right now. But please do not forget to be there on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. on AMC. An absolutely fantastic television show is there, and you don’t want to miss what’s coming next.
To stay up-to-the-minute on all things walker related, follow @WalkingDead_AMC on Twitter and visit “The Walking Dead” on Facebook. For more be sure to hit up the official “The Walking Dead” page on AMC.com.
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Categorized:Editorials
