I'm conflicted. While I love the Walking Dead, and I certainly wanted to love this episode, I ultimate felt it lacking.
The premise is interesting enough and is strengthened by amazing performances by James and Lynch, but the writing just didn't do it for me; it felt lazy and ineffective. I have been looking forward to an episode exploring Morgan's backstory for some time; there were a number of different possibilities that would have sufficed in creating an exciting atmosphere, but the route they took felt forced -- I just didn't buy it.
The episode starts slow and introduces us to the Morgan from season 3 -- mentally shattered and broken down. We get to see his mentality, his way of life -- which involves killing (the presumably) innocent, for no reason other than to "clear". We are than introduced to a fascinating, yet underdeveloped, character, Eastman. He imprisons Morgan in a cell in his living, and gives him the book "The Art of Peace". Here's where it starts to go down hill for me -- it's all just so unrealistic (yes, even for a zombie apocalypse). Eastman is a forensic psychologist who has dealt with pain of his own -- the murder of his wife and child by a serial killer, before the apocalypse. I mean, it's interesting -- very interesting -- but this isn't Dexter (and thank God for that, that show went down hill after season 1). That coupled with the martial arts training sessions and the overwhelmingly message that "all life is precious" ruined the episode for me. Not only this, but Morgan's decision at the end left me incredibly frustrated. I know, I just know they're going to drag that story line on for a good 5-6 episodes.
I hope I'm wrong and the show steadily improves, but based on the promo for next week, we're getting a Jesse episode, so I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.
The premise is interesting enough and is strengthened by amazing performances by James and Lynch, but the writing just didn't do it for me; it felt lazy and ineffective. I have been looking forward to an episode exploring Morgan's backstory for some time; there were a number of different possibilities that would have sufficed in creating an exciting atmosphere, but the route they took felt forced -- I just didn't buy it.
The episode starts slow and introduces us to the Morgan from season 3 -- mentally shattered and broken down. We get to see his mentality, his way of life -- which involves killing (the presumably) innocent, for no reason other than to "clear". We are than introduced to a fascinating, yet underdeveloped, character, Eastman. He imprisons Morgan in a cell in his living, and gives him the book "The Art of Peace". Here's where it starts to go down hill for me -- it's all just so unrealistic (yes, even for a zombie apocalypse). Eastman is a forensic psychologist who has dealt with pain of his own -- the murder of his wife and child by a serial killer, before the apocalypse. I mean, it's interesting -- very interesting -- but this isn't Dexter (and thank God for that, that show went down hill after season 1). That coupled with the martial arts training sessions and the overwhelmingly message that "all life is precious" ruined the episode for me. Not only this, but Morgan's decision at the end left me incredibly frustrated. I know, I just know they're going to drag that story line on for a good 5-6 episodes.
I hope I'm wrong and the show steadily improves, but based on the promo for next week, we're getting a Jesse episode, so I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.