It really didn't work at all. Burning the house already seemed like the big gesture that in practice gets an eyeroll unless handled very, very well. Giving the finger had me changing the channel.

Actually, yeah, it was pretty clever. Those kinds of headfakes, that sow confusion in a confusing situation, work well for me. In a show about murk and loss not telling me where I am all the time is okay. It worked a lot better than having walkers lurch from off camera in a big clearing, at least. This show handles…

Not in the sense of rehashing, but it was a nice touch, that brief interaction with the two guys Rick killed in the barfight, where one of them remarks his group calls them lamebrains. I think it can be meaningful, and telling, what a group calls the dead. It doesn't have to be more than one of a hundred brushstrokes…

If it happened it was so unmemorable I don't remember it… Oh yeah, at the train. Yes, there definitely should have been a nod to that. Maybe she says she'll go as far as the gates because they obviously don't do well without her…?

I think you're right. This gang of writers had to fall back on silly cliches after Maggie was assaulted by the Gov. I'd hate to see them try to write an actual fictional rape and its aftermath.

That's a good point, but I'd love to see an ep once in a while that's written the way the original The Thing was (1957?). I read once that it had about twice as many script pages as the average film of that length, because people spoke fast, with an urgency that fit the situation. When people argue, too, there's often…

Heh. Forgot about Merle's meth. Was it really blue? (And you're thinking Aaron Paul had an uncredited appearance in Daryl's recollection? That's a great idea.)

I also have no complaints at all about these kinds of episodes per se; only that 4.9-4.12 were weakly written. I thought Clear and 18 Miles Out, both of which focused almost exclusively on three or four characters, were the show at its best.

You're right. There was no reason for that. It's the director's job to think this through and have the set people reinforce the door in such a way that it's not an issue.

It could have, though.

Why are you reading 'direct experience' to mean only of my own, and not also the direct experience of others? I assume you have direct experience of the behavior of your spouse, kids, friends.

Sorry, but that was only a small part of Season 2.

It's one of those touches a group struggling to put a show on miss. Good writers see the aha moment there, have Bob say something like 'you mean [his name for them]?', and we get that much more detail about the people in this world. Or maybe Bob gives 30 seconds on what his two groups called them. A great show has him…

I've been binge watching Veronica Mars lately and while it's not Breaking Bad it makes me wish rather desperately that Rob Thomas who produced and wrote a lot of the episodes would end up as TWD showrunner.

Do tell?

So you two aren't actually reading most of the comments here, or come here primarily in order to hate-read…?

Great catchphrases.

Brilliant post.

Oops! Now that you mention it it's a grotesque oversight in the writing. How is it possible that she'd forget that, or not weigh it in the accounting. What about something as basic as, 'I thought I saw her taking off with Daryl, so if anyone's okay it's probably her. Have to focus. I'll find Glen first, as being…

Jack Strawb: Apocalypse Undertaker!