It far too often reads like the rough draft of a much, much better series.

I'd like to see a combination series where the first half of the season is an anthology and the second half brings the various groups or people from the anthology together. Or perhaps another arrangement so that the writers don't feel obliged to shoehorn everything into the continuing series framework.

Shane wasn't evil. Far, far from it.

A miss by the writers, though, in not having Tyrese find this out at the beginning of the ep rather than the end.

Still think it was a mistake to kill two of the most interesting characters on the show, especially if we're headed behind walls, as seems to be the case.

"AGAIN!!!! I say that they're positioning a story to be part of the
anthology series they're building. A strange fire and then burnt
people? This is part of the anthology series for sure."

They had more development since we met them than, say, Glenn.

"I just have no patience at ALL for "kids do dumb/illogical/dangerous things to move the plot along because hey, they're kids!"

Double damn right.

What did you think of the ep overall? I put it in the top tier of this season, up there with 4.1 and the episode focusing on Hershel. 4.5, I think.

How is that not self-evident?

Franco Nero would make an awesome (and short and bulky) Lennie.

More backstory eff up. It would have been discussed or at least known before this. That the girls didn't know Carol had a daughter is silly.

She also seemed put off by whatshisname's crassness on the other end of the couch on TD, like a duchess with something odd on the bottom of her shoe.

Adult sociopaths do indeed come from somewhere.

Nice, rare (for the US) courtyard style house, especially visible as such in the exterior shot just prior to Carol's confession (and Tyrese's scarcely credible forgiveness).

And failing to realize that said two kids were raising much more interesting issues than the rest of the cast put together this half season.

Doubt it's the budget. Not with 12m viewers, a spinoff coming, game sales, merchandising sales, and the need to keep viewers as BB and soon MM depart the veil of cable.

Really surprised me. Still worth sparring over: was the misdirection intentional, or did the writers luck into some juicy controversy?

Definitely a remark suggesting he'll grade on content rather than on how the show deals with and expresses said content.