The Walking Dead S03E04 – Review

The Review (Spoiler Alert):

1. Excitement at the jail – The show’s creators can’t keep going back to this well (zombie chases through a darkened prison), but this show has great talent for these scenes.  The people behind the camera know how to shoot/light/frame/edit these scenes and the on-screen talent is really good at physical challenges.  Granted, there were cracks in the formula showing this week, like when Carl couldn’t get the door closed to the room where he, Lori & Maggie hid, and the zombies shuffled aimlessly past like Scooby-Doo villains… And then with all the screaming, bleeding, slicing and shooting that followed, the zombies never returned?  So, why bother with the non-closing door in the first place?  Still, when the group was split up and racing for their lives, it was really tense and exciting.  There isn’t another show on TV that manages this combination of fear and excitement so well.

2. Quiet danger at the prison – Meanwhile, over at the Woodbury Driving Range, things are more sedate, ominous, and slow.  The show is smartly blending the slow-burn of Woodbury with the adrenaline of The Prison.  Last week, the Woodbury-centric episode was plodding, but this week it wasn’t so noticeable.  That’s really the way to do it.  The action at the prison can’t keep going at this breakneck pace, but it’s carried the torch long enough to allow the fuse to be lit in Woodbury.  And what the Woodbury intrigue lacks in quality, it makes up for it in volume.  In no particular order: Merle wanting to find his brother, Andrea feeling as if she got left behind, Andrea bonding with Merle and the Governor, Michonne knowing that something isn’t quite right and the question of what happens when we run out of golf balls!  There is a lot of simmering tension.

Still, it’s not that good.  The BIG dramatic conflict will occur whenever Woodbury and the Prison come into contact.  That will be explosive.  There will be fights, debates about whether Rick is really any nicer than the Governor… I can hardly wait for the Darryl-Merle reunion.  But, in the meantime, all this other Woodbury stuff is small potatoes and I just don’t see a lot of potential for surprises.  Michonne and Andrea will argue, but that doesn’t matter because they’ve only had ~15 minutes on screen together so far; they don’t feel like best friends.  Andrea will continue to be attracted to men with terrible, fake southern accents (Shane and the Governor) as opposed to men with real accents like Merle.  Michael Rooker will continue to blow every actor he’s paired with off the screen.

Let’s hope the rapid pacing of the Prison comes to Woodbury.  Make it move faster and the flaws aren’t so noticeable!

3. One death we’ve waited for – Hurrah!  She’s gone!  Lori’s death scene was amazing on multiple levels.  On one hand, it was incredibly gory and hard to watch.  Yeesh! Her own kid had to watch as his Mom got sliced up and killed!  Maggie was great! She both didn’t want to do it, but once she committed, she turned into a woman of action and competence.  I LOVE Maggie.  Horrible scene to watch.  It also pounds home how accelerated the storytelling is on the TV show, as they could have dragged out Lori’s pregnancy/death for another 6 episodes.

But, it was also a great example of why Lori had to go.  The scene of her saying goodbye to Carl should have been touching and poignant, but instead I felt like the part where she talked lasted ~30 seconds too long.  And, at one point, she told Carl about how he had to kill her afterward she turned–she said something like, “For the good of us all, you have to kill me.”  How fucking meta is that?  My frustration with this scene is embodied on my iPad notes from the episode: “Lori needs a C-section.  For all of us,please kill her.  Lori giving Carl a pep talk.  God.  Just cut her. Get on with it.  Do it Crl.  Be our hero!”

And, I don’t think people really die from Cesarians quite that quickly.

The Walking Dead, S03E03 – Review

The Story: The survivors go all Stepford Wives.

The Review:

1. The Governor (?), at last… – If you go back to when this show debuted 2 years ago, all of the comic fans were waiting in breathless anticipation of “The Prison” and “The Governor.”  Some fans hoped these stories would be developed in those first 6 episodes, but it took 2 years for them to arrive.  Now that we’ve finally seen the Governor, what do we think?  Well, he certainly isn’t the Governor from the comics.  He’s much more Plantation Owner than the character from the comics (who was Trailer Park, Meth-Addict Redneck).  He’s clean, pretty well groomed, and wears a shooting jacket at all times?  We’ll have to see how it plays out, but The Governor isn’t outwardly someone you should be afraid of as long as you like Plantation Owners with English-infused southern accents.

Now, comic book Governor was more like Merle, a guy who you don’t even want to be in the same room with.  Nasty, bigoted, hateful, strong, mean…  I’m glad to have Merle back, but I honestly think he would have been a much better Governor than this other dude.  I can’t imagine Merle will be very interesting in this role of chief thug.

2. Disadvantage to have read the comics. – This was an episode where I almost hated that I’ve previously read the comics.  I mean, not everything in the show is ripped from the comics, but it is a pretty safe bet that the Governor will be a nasty bastard and that Woodbury will be less nice than it seems.  I felt like I was back to comparing every scene to the comics in a way that I haven’t since the first episode of the show: THIS is the same, THAT is different.  As you can tell, I have a few concerns about the direction of the show, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to unplug and just let the show’s creators tell a story.

3. Clumsy and awkward. – I’m not sure this story is going to work very well.  It seems very obvious that they’re setting up the drama in Woodbury as follows: It seems really nice, but that’s only because the citizens have made a deal with the devil and traded their freedom and individuality for safety and security.  Andrea seems kinda seduced by both the surroundings and the sexy man in the shooting jacket.  This is kind of a throw-back to the quitter Andrea in Season 1, which is unfortunate.  But still, it’s just awkward and obvious and cliche.  You can have safety as long as you let The Governor do whatever he wants.  Even the small elements of the episode were cliche like the brief appearance of a naked woman in The Governor’s bed.  We all know that seeing a face-down naked woman with the sheet barely covering herself is visual shorthand for, “My God! He had such energetic sex with her that she is passed out!”  Now, he is such a vigorous man that he’s up and about, tending to Woodbury business, cooking eggs for people and wearing his shooting jacket.  But the girl… PASSED OUT FOR HOURS!

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 12 – Review

Original Air Date: March 11, 2012

Five Things: [with SPOILERS]

1. Finally! – I wonder if TWD can almost “start over” after this episode’s big event (the killing of Shane).  When this series first began in 2010, “we” all focused on how loyal it was to the comic book.  I have almost stopped looking at the series that way because it is now SO different than the comics, but when you look at the weak parts of the series, they have all come from deviations from the comic story: the weird CDC episode last season with Dale and Andrea debating the morality of suicide, the Sophia Saga, the overwrought question of what to do with Randall and the fracture between Shane and Rick.  In all of these cases, you can kinda see what the producers and writers of the show were up to, but all of those stories fell flat.

I understand how we got here. It’s almost as if the show’s creators said, “Hey!  This Jon Bernthal guy is a compelling actor.  Let’s NOT kill Shane at the end of Season 1 and then make Season 2 about the struggle between Shane and Rick.  That’ll be sweet!”  I’m sure the writers of the show liked that idea a lot better than just adapting Kirkman’s word balloons into lines of dialog too.  But, the problem is that while the Rick/Shane rift was interesting, it just wasn’t interesting enough to be the primary focus of Season 2.  So, I’m glad that Rick killed him.  It’s over with.  We knew it had to happen and that until it happened, the show was going to be spinning its wheels like a Hyundai stuck in the mud.  Thank goodness they killed him rather than having Shane “leave the group” as he threatened to (What a waste of dialog THAT was in hindsight!) where we’d have to worry about him showing back up.  And it finished up the Randall situation too…. Which was another mishandled and overly long plot thread.  Hopefully, this ending to Season 2 (along with next week’s episode) is the show’s new creative team kinda ripping the band-aid off the Frank Darabont era.

2. Still weakest during the conversations – Even though I liked this episode for the end result, it still showed all the places where this series has traditionally sucked.  I really didn’t want to see another take of Rick and Shane growling at each other about who is best for Lori and whether Rick’s leadership style is any good. Been there, done that.  I know that the writers needed to make it clear (again) that Shane may have a few positive attributes as a leader in the apocalypse, but he’s just too damn nutty and violent to follow…  But, they could’ve just shown the guys split up (Scooby-Doo style) and let Rick see via flashback/cut-scenes all the misery that Shane has caused and just shoot him in the back or something.  The “final argument” was boring and the scene where Carl finished off Zombie Shane was tedious.  I know it was supposed to show that Carl was conflicted about killing his Big Pal Shane, but the writers hadn’t shown us that Carl felt any great affection for Big Pal Shane.  Thank goodness it’s over.

3. Well-produced episode – Even with all the negative things I’ve voiced, I still appreciated some of the craft in this episode.  There were more than a few scenes where I had to comment in my notes about the pretty way the creators were framing a scene (Shane and Rick on that moonlit hilltop) and all the scenes where they made it clear that Shane was LOSING IT with all those quick-cuts and tight shots of his face.  I also really liked the music used in this episode for the most part.  Have we always had music?  I never really noticed it before.  The only time the music bugged me was during the sappy scene between Andrea and Glen as they tried to fix Dale’s RV.

The Walking Dead Season 2, Episode 11 – Review

Original Air Date: March 4, 2012

A few things…. [with SPOILERS]

1. This is what this show can do… – Critics (myself included) have focused a lot of energy on what this show doesn’t do well… But this episode showed what TWD can do as well as any show on television.  Not many other shows right now are going to give you horribly bloody deaths of main characters.  It’s not unique, as you’ll also find this sort of thing in Spartacus or Game of Thrones.  And, it isn’t particularly high-level story telling either: having a character die horribly is pretty easy to pull off.  But, it was a moment where you said, “Oh shit!  They’re killing Dale!”  It was like wish fulfillment as my notes say, “If this is all they’re going to do with Dale, they should just kill him for shock value!”

2. Not sure it had the impact they were looking for though… – But as I said, I’m not sure the killing of Dale is working at the deep level some of the creators wanted.  If the idea was to put some deeper significance on the death of a character who was prattling on about “losing our humanity” and “the end of society if we behave like barbarians” (Ironic how the NEW world killed him when he was trying to hold onto the OLD world), it fails because no one really liked Dale anymore.  Now, if a) we had seen Dale DOING something to hold onto the group’s humanity instead of just TALKING about it or b) if the group had been doing disgusting things already and Dale was the one keeping the candle lit for decent human society or c) if vicious Shane had beaten Dale for having a big mouth…. Perhaps Dale’s death would have had more significance. But we didn’t get that, so we didn’t like Dale that much and we didn’t care when he died.  Except that it shows that the TV show is very different than the comic book.

3. Man, this Randall plotline is tedious. – The whole thing makes no sense.  If you’re probably going to kill the dude, why torture him first?  How could you believe anything the guy has to say?  The dude is scared and just wants to live and stop getting beaten, so he might say that his group consisted of an army of 30 sentient ostriches if he thought that was the answer Darryl was looking for.  And Randall… Why, if you’re trying to get Darryl to stop hitting you, WHY would you tell the super cool story of the time you and your buddies raped two girls in front of their father?  WTF?  That’s the time to make up some story about how your group delivers Meals-on-Wheels to the elderly.  I can see where this story is going and surely Randall’s group will be the plot device that moves the group on down the road, but it could develop faster.

The Walking Dead Season 2, Episode #10 – Review

Original air date: February 26, 2012

Five Things: 

1. Those zombies were great! – I’m not one who gets upset that every episode isn’t a full-on zombie attack.  I like (or want to like) the human moments too.  But, this show does have a knack for these big zombie scenes.  The beginning of the episode was cool and intense, and right away it begged questions: Where did the zombies come from?  Why didn’t Shane and Rick have their guns?  Later, as we watched them fight, I kept waiting for the moment when the zombies would show up.  The fact that I knew it was coming actually increased the tension.   The episode was also a great illustration on the danger level of zombies.  ONE zombie is almost an annoyance: not even worth a bullet.  MANY zombies are scary and dangerous.  I also loved the scene of Rick shooting those zombies as they piled on top of him, and Shane desperately killing zombies through the door of the bus.  The whole scene was well done and tense.

2. Rick & Shane are better when they’re quiet. – This episode had a great contrast of two ways to depict Shane and Rick.  The first scene of them talking calmly but intensely, on a lonely stretch of highway was great.  The actors just nailed this scene.  You really buy that Rick is in command and Shane is a bit of a sniveling but dangerous guy who will happily follow a strong leader, but becomes weird when he isn’t given direction.  Then, we have the old standby: Rick and Shane yelling at each other.  And that pretty much sucked, and we’ve seen it a bajillion times.

3. Lori sucks. – God she is awful.  Feed her to a zombie ASAP.  I don’t like her as homemaker-in-chief.  I don’t like how she hen-pecks Maggie and Andrea.  I don’t like how she looks.  And, I don’t believe that she is a woman who Rick and Shane would fight over.  I mean, Shane has Andrea who is hotter and less annoying.  Let’s hurry up and kill Lori.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 9 – Review

Original Air Date: February 19, 2012

Five Things: [with SPOILERS]

1. Inconsistent behavior from Rick. – Okay, stay with me here.  In Episode 8, we saw Rick make a snap judgement to kill those two men in the bar.  He didn’t have a lot of information to go on, but he basically knew what was up, so BANG BANG they’re dead.  Now, in this episode, when another “bad guy” (more below) is injured, he risks his own group to save the guy.  Huh?  Wha?  Okay… So you could convince me that when Rick killed the two men in the bar that it was heat of the moment, but when faced with the less nerve wracking situation of a shootout and zombies horde his humanity resurfaces.  I guess that makes sense?  But then, the final scene where Rick realizes that, “I must kill Shane!” makes no sense.  So, in ~6 hours he has gone from “icy/gunman/assassin” to “saving the bad guy” to “calculating murderer of his best friend?”

2. So sad that Lori didn’t die. – What a missed opportunity.  If I had written/ directed the episode, the gunfight would have been WAY more exciting, but Rick/Glen/Herschel would have made a harrowing escape and come upon Lori’s car on the highway.  They’d stop to check it out and find Lori dead and zombified– still buckled up into the car and reaching for them.  As they react in shock, they’d see headlights approaching. “C’mon Rick!  We gotta go!  Those guys are following us!”  Blam! Rick shoots her in the head and they flee.  Then he has to tell boring Carl that his Mom is dead and Rick is now the cold-blooded, but effective leader, and hot-headed Shane is marginalized and desperate.   I should totally be plotting this show because it would be better.  Okay, screen-writing fantasy ends here.  But even though the scene with Lori and the zombies was cool (and taught us why zombies are always missing their cheek meat), what was the point of that whole scene?  Also, they need to find a way to kill Lori because of issue #48 of the comics.  You do know they can’t film THAT scene right?

3. Develop the Shane situation faster. – It’s slow and boring to watch Shane storming around muttering about Rick behind his back.  We get it– Shane kept this group safe, dammit!  He’s been masturbating to Lori for YEARS, dammit!  Rick doesn’t have what it takes, dammit!  Each scene like this is just a showcase for bad Southern accents now.  I just don’t understand why you would milk a situation in this world.  I mean, the possibilities for post-apocalypse storytelling are endless so let’s not dwell on anything.

The Walking Dead Season 2, Episode 8 – Review

Original Air Date: February 12, 2012

Five things [SPOILERS]: 

1. A pretty drab first 45 minutes… – Man, that was some seriously slow television.  There were some high points, like when Andrea had to fetch the arm that mysteriously fell off the dead zombie, but there really wasn’t a lot going on.  [Note to creators: No more close-ups of Andrea’s arms.  They look bad in HD.]  With these ~12 episode seasons, I expect more from each precious hour.  The show did remedy this problem at the end of the episode (as we’ll see below), but TWD has fallen into a bit of a pattern: dull for 40 minutes then exciting finale.  The challenge for the creators is to make the whole show as taut as the ending.  Watching Rick and Shane yell at each other and seeing everyone decompressing over Sophia’s death was dull because we’ve seen it before and it makes the characters seem one-note.  We get it!  And Sophia may have been a major loss to the characters, but the audience barely knew her because she was only on screen for about 5 minutes.

2. Shifty eyed new people. – But, hey!  What a way to wrap the hour, huh?  This is where TWD needs to hunker down and find it’s sweet spot.  Apocalypse stories are never really about the zombies or the superflu or the nuclear mutants. They’re about humans trying to survive and reform some semblance of what they had before.  And part of that is dealing with other groups of survivors.  So, seeing these two dudes come swinging into the strangely unlooted bar was a BIG advancement for the story and makes me feel that the creators “get it.”  Put yourself in Rick’s shoes.  Clearly the group could be stronger with more people, yes?  But how do you know who to trust?  Especially, do you trust newcomers around your children or your wife?  That’s the analysis that Rick has to make on the spot because those guys would clearly have followed them back to The Farm.  I LOVED that Rick and Herschel (and Glenn) immediately closed ranks about NOT bringing those dudes back to the farm. They’d been kinda arguing two seconds earlier but they both saw something in those new dudes that they didn’t like.  No need to huddle up privately and discuss.  And, these new guys probably illustrated to Hershel that Rick isn’t that bad.  Hell, Shane seems a saint compared to those dudes.  On the other hand, Rick killed them both because he basically didn’t like the look of them.  I think that shows a LOT of movement towards the comic book version of Rick who has his people and he’ll kill anyone who threatens his people.  The only bummer is that Michael Raymond-James (the chatty one who also played the villainous Rene in Season 1 of True Blood) would have made a great Governor.   Wonder what happened to the rest of their group?  Are they really bad?  Will Hershel now think that it’d be nice to have some members in his camp that can shoot?

3. Nicely filmed episode. – As I was taking my notes, I had to step back from the events and note just how nice TWD looks.  The look and feel of this show is quite well-done.  Scenes are always well-captured and they aren’t afraid to put the cameraman in unusual places to get the look they’re going for.  It’s easy to take this stuff for granted and IF you do, go watch some 1980’s hour-long dramas on Netflix.  We’ve come a LONG way.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 7 – Review

Original Air Date: November 27, 2011

Five Things: [SPOILER WARNING]

1. Whoa! Sophia! – I made a note right before the final commercial break that this episode had a LOT of ground to cover to be a decent mid-season finale.  And then, as we descended into the scene of Shane going nutso and busting open the barn, my thought was, “Really?  We’re going to end on this?”.  But those final moments with little Sophia shambling out of the barn were so well done.  For one thing, without seeing Sophia like that, you couldn’t really understand where Herschel was coming from.  He just seemed like a nutty old man for keeping zombies in his barn, but when you saw Sophia and the decision that the group had to make about her, you really understood why Herschel did what he did.  The final scene also scored BIG TIME for not beating us over the head.  Early this season, the writers were always talking down to the viewer and if they’d handled this scene that way, we would’ve ended with Rick telling Herschel, “Now I understand what you’re going through.  I didn’t understand before…” and that would’ve been ham-handed and it would’ve spoiled the moment.  THIS is how I want the show to handle these kinds of moments.  Bravo.  [Although I did wonder how Sophia ended up in the barn from a timing standpoint….]

2. Will they stay or will they go? – Now this issue was left unresolved and I think the episode suffered for it.  If the comic book has taught us anything, it’s that you cannot keep the survivors in one place for too long or a kind of inertia sets in.  Even if events don’t happen the same way as the comics, let’s get the gang back out onto the road.  The fun of this show lies in (a) the zombie scenes, (b) the eternal struggle for safety and (c) watching the group continually finding a new equilibrium based on their new surroundings, not watching them chop carrots around a campsite.

3. What an ass! – Could Shane become any more unlikeable?  We had his talk with Lori where he tries to undermine Rick.  His little scene where he screws around with Carl, his scene with Dale in the forest, his scene with Glen right before that…  I almost expected that Shane was going to get killed in this episode somewhere.  But just as they were making him so nasty, didn’t he look like 100X the leader once the group saw Rick wrestling that zombie along with the “rapid dog pole”?  Rick just looked like a weak-ass guy who would compromise anything to stay on the farm, even if that meant being friendly with the local zombies.  Suddenly Shane looked sane by comparison.  And then, when the whole group pitched in for zombie-killing except for Rick… Well, Shane looked much better than Rick (even that overhead visual that showed him apart from the group).  And the only thing that really saved Rick was that final scene with Sophia.  It’ll be an interesting dynamic with Rick and Shane in the second half of the season.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 6 – Review

Original Air Date: November 20, 2011

The Story: Everyone has secrets and it turns out that “can’t-live-with-’em-can’t-live-without-’em” saying about women is true.

Five Things:

1. Man, Lori. – What an unlikable character she’s becoming!  This really does mirror the comic where every time Rick had something important to do, there was Lori harping at him.  Yelling at Glen about her secret.  Yelling at Glen about her supplies.  Yelling at Rick about how he’s handling things with Herschel.  Yelling at Rick about Carl getting to have a gun.  Can’t decide whether to have her baby or not.  I’d be really curious to hear the opinion of women towards Lori’s character.  Maybe they identify with her, but every time she opens her mouth I enjoy the show 10X less.  I feel like we have plenty of TV options of angry women and I’d rather this TV show was about people getting their shit together.

2. Andrea is turned on by guns.  – I was really happy to see “sharpshooter Andrea” emerge from that whiny mess she’s been all season.  Not sure about the way she made the transition though.  It seemed like the incident last week where she almost killed Darryl was the writers tearing her all the way down before they could build her back up.  And that’s a good plan, but they needed to let her wallow at the bottom for another episode because her rebirth felt WAY too quick.  The whole gun-training thing was so poorly done…  You don’t train people in groups because you want to watch newbies like a hawk lest they hurt themselves in the first 15 minutes.  You don’t train newbies by getting them to unlock their inner rage like Shane was doing by yelling at Andrea.  And newbies don’t develop prowess that quickly even if “the girl has a talent” and certainly not with a pistol.  Hit me up on Twitter and we’ll complain about this together.  Anyhow, I like the new Andrea, but her transition should have happened off screen if it were to be so poorly done.  And I like the Shane-Andrea relationship.  Basically, this TV show is like an elseworld’s or What If? version of the comic book: What would have happened if Shane had lived?

3. Maggie… Kinda hysterical. – Not even Maggie was immune from the insanity affecting the XX chromosome set in this episode.  Yelling, screaming, can’t make up her mind, can’t choose between Daddy and being a big girl with her new boyfriend…  All pretty cliché stuff and not very well done.  Of course, the worst was the moment in the drug store when Maggie gets attacked by the zombie.  Where was that zombie last time?  Is it a pervert zombie that just likes to listen to people having sex?  And, the way it went down had such a clear message of, “And that’s why we don’t keep zombies as pets in the barn.  Zombies are dangerous!”  It’s just the writers retreating back into beating us over the head with stuff.  I do like the actress playing Maggie though.  Spunky!

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 5 – Review

Original Air Date: November 13, 2011

Five things: (Full SPOILERS)

1. Darryl’s incredibly crappy day.  Man….that’s a bad day at the office, huh?  About halfway through the show, I tweeted that they should have called the episode “Darryl’s really shitty day”.  Fall off a horse (bad stunt work. No one falls off a horse that way, but whatever), fall down the hill, stabbed by bolt, climb up the hill, fall BACK down, attacked by zombies, hallucinate your mean-ass big brother, stagger back to camp and THEN get kinda shot in the head.  But, I enjoyed this because Darryl is one of the more enjoyable actors on the show.  He’s probably among the more expensive too, so they better use him.  We even got to see Merle!  I was really excited to see Michael Rooker’s name in the opening credits and even if that wasn’t really Merle, we at least know that the show’s producers haven’t lost Rooker’s phone number.

2. Sticking to the comic for a couple of key points.  A fun thing about the TV series is that we’re hitting most of the same story beats as the comic, but we’re getting there in slightly different ways.  Of course, I’m talking about THE BARN and the impending clash between Rick and Herschel over how long they can loiter on the farm.  The scene with the barn was really hot with the way they revealed it.  I don’t know about you, but as soon as Maggie started to pull out that scrap of paper, I knew it was going to say, “Meet me in the barn” even before they showed the word “Hayloft” on the screen.  I’ve given the producers of this show a lot of crap for screwing up scenes, but this was well done.

3. The Rick-Shane scene.  This scene was interesting in a couple of ways.  For one thing, I get nervous every time Rick and Shane head off into the woods with guns.  The producers have been too loyal to the overall source material for me to believe that they’re just going to waste that element of the comic books.  But the scene also showed something else.  In comics, an artist can make a really wordy scene more visually appealing just by making the characters “talk while walking” versus sitting in chairs or standing around.  This scene was the same way, while Shane and Rick talk-and-walk, it’s compelling and interesting because more is going on.  But, once they stop to get “serious” about the conversation, the energy completely leaves the scene because I’m no longer worried that Shane might try to shoot Rick in the back or that they might find Sophia or they might find a zombie.  As for the central argument itself, it’s nice to have a dissenting voice in the group who thinks that maybe they need to cut their losses on Sophia AND this also ties nicely to the conversation between Shane and Lori later where she tells him that he’s just using Lori/Carl as an excuse to cut-and-run.

The Walking Dead Season 2, Episode 3 – Review

Original Air Date: October 30, 2011

Five Things: 

Full SPOILERS below…

1. I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.  Have you ever heard that punchline?  I guess we got a small taste of humans being the true danger last season (Merle, that street gang), but the ending of this episode was the first time we’ve seen a human kill someone to save their own skin.  And, that’s the beauty of apocalypse fiction: The characters realize there are no rules anymore and while some will try to restore “decent” society, others will take advantage.  I mean, no homicide detective is going to roll up and collect the bullet from Otis’ body and match it to Shane’s gun; Shane can make up his own story.  That makes it an interesting morality play.  It’s the ultimate “how do you behave when no one is watching?” moment.  At the same time, it keeps Shane morally ambiguous.  Sure, he was saving his own skin, but Carl and Hershel needed those supplies and he had just offered to Otis to be left behind himself.  Given Shane’s role in the comics, they can’t have him being too heroic (“Yea!  He brought back the supplies!”).  Also, for this scene, the writers didn’t treat us like idiots by making Shane mutter to himself something about how he “would have been happy to be left behind, but Carl needed those supplies, dammit!”  Subtle is better.  Overall, this was a really well done scene.  The only thing bugging me is why did Shane need to cut his hair afterwards?  The man was attacked by zombies, couldn’t he have explained away a clump of missing hair or was he removing the “stain” of his misdeed?

2. Still a little heavy handed.  Andrew Lincoln is really floundering and that bodes ill for the long-term prospects of the series if the main character is being out-acted by all the other cast members (except for T-Dog).  But, he isn’t being given very good material to work with either.  All that moralizing between Rick and Lori about whether Carl would be better off dead was WAY overdone.  Seriously, that was half of the episode.  Each of the scenes where they discuss the topic should have been about 30 seconds shorter and then they use poor little Carl as a plot device when he wakes up for 5 seconds to tell his Mom about the TOTALLY AWESOME DEER they saw in the woods.  You can almost hear Rick’s thought balloon screaming, “See, Mom!  That’s why we don’t just let him die you stupid idiot!”  But, just in case you didn’t catch the heavy-handed irony of Carl’s story, Rick makes sure to remind you of why it was a poignant statement.  Until the writers stop treating the audience like morons, this show will never be the “best show on TV” (or even top 5).  I like the show, but it is the worst written original show that AMC has ever produced and is also worse than anything on HBO or Showtime.  It’s very TNT-esque.

3.  Hershel hasn’t fortified his farm much, huh?  I mean I get that they’re out in the country, but Night of the Walking Dead took place in the country and surely they’ve seen that movie.  If there really were a zombie apocalypse, everyone would be nailing boards over the windows and doors like Morgan did in Season 1 whether it was necessary or not.  How would a trusty old southern gentleman farmer like Hershel with women to protect fail to take any precautions?  And why hasn’t Rick or Lori or Glen or even T-Dog pointed out that the house seems… umm… unsecure?  Anyhow does he have electricity?  Is he on a generator?  And even if he was on a generator, he wouldn’t be wasting power on hot water for showers.  And….where is he getting gas or LP for the thing one month into the apocalypse?

4.  Lots of good bits of acting.  As mentioned above, the guy playing Rick is struggling, but lots of other actors are flexing their muscles a little bit.  Darryl is awesome.  Andrea is a million times more enjoyable now that she isn’t as whiny.  Dale is great.  Shane is great.  And Carl… Wow… Right now, the triumvirate of Rick/Lori/T-Dog is getting left in the dust.

5.  Slow paced.  If you follow online message boards, you know that the comic fans are foaming at the mouth for the series to get to the prison and bring in the Governor.  First everyone hoped that this would happen at the end of Season 1, but it’s now looking like that won’t happen until the end of this Season 2.  If you’ve read the comics, there are a lot of major dramatic bits with Hershel’s family (which was teased in this episode with the pictures on the fridge) and how our main group ends up back on the road.  This season just seems paced to perfectly have the prison show up in the finale.  So, it’s a bit slow.

Conclusion: An okay episode.  Seriously…the subject matter is cool, but it’s like the creators haven’t really made TV shows before or something with some of the heavy-handed dialog, flights of logic and the choppy scene transitions.  However, if you’re going to flail around with the show, there’s no better path to redemption than the “Holy Shit!” ending and they nail that here to leave us with a good taste in our mouths.

Grade: B

– Dean Stell

 

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 2 – Review

Original air date: October 23, 2011

Five Things: 

1).  Much better pacing than last week’s episode.  Even though this is Season 2, TWD is still a pretty young show.  This is only the 8th episode total, so when the creators serve us an awkwardly paced episode like S2E1, it isn’t inappropriate for fans to get concerned (especially with all the backstage drama on the show).  So, it was a big relief to see this episode flow much better.  Moving from last week’s 90 minute episode, the urgency of chopping this episode down to ~45 minutes kept out (almost) all of the monologuing that dragged down S2E1.  It just kept bouncing along from scene to scene and that’s what this story-driven show needs to do.

2).  Enjoy the zombie scenes, but…  There were two big zombie set pieces and both were well done.  The Shane and Otis scene was tense and pretty well done even if watching Otis running from the zombies reminded me of the first rule of Zombieland (Cardio!).  And, the Andrea v. Zombie scene was also pretty intense.  Great makeup all around.  The only quibble is that they’re going to shoot their wad with these scenes because this isn’t the audience’s first experience with zombies.  We’ve all seen shuffling masses before, so we need to be continually reminded that these zombies are dangerous, otherwise they’ll become a bit of a joke.  Either that, or the show needs to ramp up the other danger in the show: your fellow humans.

3).  Badass Maggie.  It was generally pretty cool to see Hershel’s farm and meet a few more of the characters that should be pivotal as the show moves along.  They did a very nice job with all of Hershel’s gang even if it did seem like they’re missing a few of his kids and I kept looking around for a barn in the background but didn’t see it.  Hershel is just as he should be: a quietly confident man with a lot of practical skills for the group (just like in the comic).

The Walking Dead Episode 6 Season Finale – Review

What’s Good: How about that grenade?!?!  Didn’t we just know that would show up again?

I’ll go ahead and give the obligatory SPOILER warning because it is hard to discuss what I liked about this episode without getting into the main “shocking” event of the episode.

One of the things that made issues 7-12 of TWD (the comic series) so gripping was the feeling that these folks were never going to be safe.  After they left Atlanta, they found a couple of sanctuaries where it looked like they could start a new life, but they didn’t really work out.  Heck, it still hasn’t worked out by issue #79.  So, I was a little concerned to see the gang find their way into the fortified CDC compound at the end of the last episode mostly because of my continuing fear that the creators of this show won’t “get it” and that they’ll somehow screw up the excellent source material.

Well, have no fear, they “get it.”  And the reason I know that is that the CDC setting lasted for only one episode.  This captured a key feeling from the comic series that you have to think way, way, way back to the beginning to remember.  It was the feeling that perhaps these folks are safe.  Maybe they’re done running for their lives, only to have that safety brutally ripped away and seeing the agony on the survivors faces when they realize they have to go back…out there.  That’s what the plot device of having the CDC go into self-destruct mode was.  It was the show’s creator’s way of tossing these folks right back into the frying pan after giving them a nasty tease of being safe.  Ouch!

The Walking Dead Episode 5 – Review

The Story: The survivors leave tent-ville, and head out onto the road.

[NOTE: SPOILER WARNING!]

What’s Good: This is the kind of show that TWD really should be.  Lots of good relationship stuff in this episode that was best summarized by Rick and Lori’s discussion about “next steps.”  Neither of them knows what they should do next.  Staying in the camp could be a bad idea, but heading out onto the road could be a disaster.  It’s kinda like trying to pick a lane in stop-and-go traffic… Only if you guess wrong, zombies devour you and your family alive.

Speaking of families, we get very emotional scenes with other survivors.  The Andrea/Amy scene was incredibly uncomfortable (in a good way).  I was literally squirming in my seat as we see Amy rise again, while trying to calm myself with the rationalization that “Andrea is one of the major ongoing character in the comic.”  The scene of Carol bludgeoning her dead husband was really grim.  It even made Darryl wince!  And how about Jim… In a scene pried straight from the comics, Jim decides he wants to go be with his family, but in a very different way.

The Shane/Rick conflict got turned back towards high too.  The creators of this show have made Shane a much more interesting character than the one-note ass he was in the comic.  And, in the first of two big departures from the comic, we see the set up of Rick & Shane going into the forest with guns, but the resolution is very different because they both come out alive. I kinda expected this when they got an actor I recognized for the role of Shane, but it still surprised me.  I also loved Dale’s reaction to Shane and Dale’s overall role as the conscence of the group.

But how about the big reveal in the end ?!  The survivors get to the CDC and there is a singular insane scientist there who lets them all into the facility.  I actually fast-forwarded through the first part of this scene and then assumed that the part showing the guy doing science in the lab must be some sort of specially created commercial for the show.  I was literally waiting for the cells in the microscope to for the Coca-Cola logo or something.  That’s because THIS is nowhere in the comics.  In this one scene we’ve learned more about he duration and nature of the plague than in 79 issues of the comic series.  We’ll have to see how this plays out, but the comics have shown us that bands of survivors can live in RV’s and abandoned houses.  Doesn’t it make sense that the government could hold out in fortified bunkers?

The Walking Dead Episode 4 – Review

The Story: Did you really think that the only people to survive the Atlanta area were the 20 or so people we see in TWD?  Also someone finally gets eaten by a zombie!

What’s Good: This was pitch perfect for what we comic-fans want The Walking Dead to be, as it is adapted to the small screen.  Stay true to the tone of the comics and add stuff.  And, it makes sense that this episode felt like the comics, because this episode was written by Robert Kirkman, the creator and writer of the comic series.  This episode felt very much like a parent (Kirkman) teaching some children (the other writers) how to do something after watching them flop around with a new task for a few attempts.

Who would take care of the old folks’ home when the zombies come?  This simple question really captured what made this episode good.  As we follow Rick and his gang trying to find Merle Dixon, they run into what appears to be a street gang.  These guys were thugs straight out of Mad Max or Escape from New York (without the spiky shoulder pads) and while conflict with less charitable groups of survivors is a theme of TWD, I was a little afraid that the show was going to go right ahead and make the gang cannibals or something like that.  But, Mr. Kirkman is way more nuanced than that, so when we get to the reveal that the toughs are just a front for a group of people who are taking care of the elderly left behind in the old folks home, it was a touching relief for a fan of TWD comics.  They didn’t go for the cheap thrill and showed that some people are still going to try to do the decent thing, even if the world doesn’t make it easy.

This scene with the elderly leads to another great thing about this episode: the zombies themselves.  None of these human scenes would have worked if there were zombies smashing the windows with rocks or generally laying siege to the old-folks home.  I’m so glad that Kirkman wrote this episode because it shows that the human interest stuff only works when the zombies are slow and dumb and there are places of relative safety.  The danger from the zombies isn’t that they’ll kick in your door, but that you will have to go outside at some point to find food and they’ll still be there.

And, just when you start to think that the zombies will just be a background roar, THEY STRIKE!  One of the odd things about TWD as a “zombie series” is that before this episode, the zombies hadn’t eaten a single character.  But in this episode… Well, let’s just say they make up for lost time, here.  Those of you complaining about the rednecks in this series will be happy to know who the first zombie-lunch turns out to be.  And those who figured that the survivors sleeping in tents was just a way to set up a scene with zombie shadows illuminated against the tent wall… You were right.  The whole zombies-attack scene was really well done!

Let’s touch base with a few characters.  Glen: Love him even MORE than in the comic.  Dale: Turning out to be a real linchpin of the show.  And guess what,  I actually kinda like Darryl.  Who knew that a crossbow is a vital part of any post-apocalyptic tool kit?  I know what I’m asking for for Christmas!

What’s Not So Good: Didn’t love the opening fishing scene with Andrea and Amy.  It was almost like Kirkman said, “Well, we’re killing Amy at the end of the episode and we haven’t used her to develop Andrea’s character yet.”  I know that these sorts of scenes featuring people talking about the good old days are realistic, but they aren’t very interesting.  Amy should have been developed more over the last 2 episodes rather than having her shoved down our throat here.

I also really cringed when we first saw the street gang kidnap Glen.  Sheesh! Those guys were straight out of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas .  Really?  They’re wearing purple colors?  And, they rolled away in some late 60’s beat up American muscle coupe?  I think that car was actually in GTA:SA.  But, as much as I cringed at their first appearance, that was nothing compared to our first glimpse of the thugs in their lair.  It was like a reunion show for Oz.  It made me worry about who ever had to take their turn in the barrel than night.  Very glad this story line took the turn it did.

The Walking Dead Episode 3 – Review

What’s Good: Well, all the fanboys howling about last week’s episode can shut up: “The Walking Dead isn’t supposed to be about zombies!  It’s about human relationships, damn it!  This show sucks ass!”  After last week’s intense escape from Atlanta (honestly, would the fanboys have been happier if the gang had thrown a rock down the street and when the zombies looked for the noise, the gang would then just creep out the back door?), this episode focuses squarely on life back in the survivors’ camp outside of town.

Also clear is that this show is not going to be a panel-by-panel retelling of the Kirkman/Moore/Adlard comic series.  In a lot of ways, this show reminds me creatively of True Blood on HBO.  TB is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels and while TB initially stayed pretty close to the first novel, it would be more accurate to say that it is “inspired by” them, now that we’ve finished a third season.  So, I would expect that TWD is going to have some quasi-major changes and even its own “Lafayette” (a character who was supposed to die, but lives because the actor/actress does a masterful job) OR one of the new characters will end up becoming central.

This episode had one BIG (and I really mean it….B-I-G) moment from the comics that it had to get right: the reunion of Rick with his family.  Nailed it!  Everyone is happy and suitably surprised to see everyone else.  Even Shane seems genuinely happy to see Rick.  Because Rick’s family is central to this entire story, it is nice to see the show nail this particular moment.

We also get to see more of the folks around camp.  Dale especially becomes a co-star in this episode and it is clear that the creators are going to use him as the show’s moral compass.  He’s going to be the older dude who everyone likes who just cuts to the chase on every topic. Pretty close to the comic book Dale.

There were also a few “new” elements that come into the show that I really liked.  One is that they really made an effort to make Shane more likable in this episode, and it worked.  I honestly started to feel kinda bad for the guy (until they revealed that he told Lori that Rick was dead, of course).  In re-reading the comics before the show, Shane was probably one of the worst characters because he was so one-note and hostile.  If events unfold as they do in the comic, it’ll have more impact due to all these scenes of him playing with Carl.

The other new element that I liked is all the redneck folk.  Guess what? When the zombie apocalypse does come, the survivors are going to be rednecks with guns, not a bunch of scrawny urban hipsters.  That’s realism right there!

Finally, it wouldn’t be fair to move on without discussing the central item of the show: What to do about Merle Dixon (the deplorable redneck handcuffed on the top of the building)?  Although the lead-up to “should we go back for him” was a little overdone, it did show Rick’s sense of duty; which is an important element of the story.  Not sure how else they would show that?  To see how the episode ended makes it pretty clear that we haven’t seen the last of Merle.  I even have a speculation about where he’ll show up (a little town called Woodbury, perhaps).

The Walking Dead Episode #2 – Review

The Story: Rick has to escape from a downtown Atlanta that is swarmed by zombies.

What’s Good: The pilot episode of TWD was interesting in how much it followed the comics.  It was nice that they started out with a pretty faithful adaptation of the comic (as a nod to us comic fans) before going off the reservation with the helicopter right at the end.  This second episode follows the original comic much less.  You can see where they got some of the ideas, but they are adding a LOT to the story.

This episode very quickly found Rick rescued from the tank by Glen.  But from there the story changes completely.  In the comic, the duo climb up to the top of one building, jump to the roof of another (b/c zombies are swarming the original)  and jog out of town.  Here they get boxed in a high rise department store with a lot more people.  We meet Andrea (Laurie Holden, who is recognizable from her time on the X-Files) but there are also ~5 other completely new characters.  From there the story is pretty basic zombie fare: escape from swarmed building.

This show is nailing Rick’s character.  This is clear when he busts the racist redneck on top of the building.  And it was reinforced in another way when Rick took a moment to say a few words about the zombie they were going to use for perfume.  It is so promising that they seem to have Rick’s voice because he is the central character to this show: he is the natural leader that the group needs.

Of course, the big thing that folks are going to be talking about is the GUTS scene.  Stealing a scene from a future comic issue, Rick and Glen smear themselves with zombie guts (so the zombies won’t smell them) in an attempt to steal a getaway vehicle.  The scene is seriously nasty.  Much more graphic than the comic depiction, especially that Rick is wearing a few loops of intestine like they’re Mardi gras beads.  Yuck!

As for the tempo of the episode, it was pretty fast paced.  I’m sure the creative team faces a problem.  Fans know that TWD isn’t really about zombies at all, but the human drama that happens when civilization falls apart.  But if folks are tuning in, expecting zombies and they immediately get talking heads, they may tune out.  So, this approach is acceptable while they’re making us care for the characters, but we hope they’ll ratchet the excitement down at some point because there is only so far you can take an “escape from zombies” show.

The Walking Dead Episode #1 – Review

Review: Every comic book fan knows the feeling. The initial excitement when we hear that a beloved comic is going to be adapted into film or TV show followed by the awful ‘what if they fuck it up??’ feeling.  We’ve had a lot of punches to the gut before where the product was just awful (Daredevil) or the movie was kinda good, but very different than the comic (Wanted).

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been disappointed enough that I almost don’t want to recommend these films/shows to non-comics friends for fear that they’ll suck ass and you’ll end up mumbling, “Yeah, it was bad, but they kinda screwed up what happened in the comic book and missed the whole point of… blah, blah, blah…”

So, I had a lot of fear going into the premiere of The Walking Dead.  Would “they” understand that the comic isn’t really about zombies, but an examination of the human condition?  Would they capture the feeling of loss and family and not-knowing that has made the comic great or would they just have Rick running from zombies?  Would they have enough of an effects budget to make the zombies look good?  Would it seem funny to see TWD in color (since the comic is B&W)?

I needn’t have worried.  The first episode was just flat out awesome.  I LOVED it and it hit all the right notes for me.  But, if you’re making a TV show only for the ~50,000 people in the U.S. who have read every single issue of TWD, your ratings might suck.  The trick is to make something that non-comic fans enjoy and that’s what the TV series did. The real winning moment for me with this show was that my wife loved it too.

She has zero interest in comics, never reads comics I suggest to her, etc…  She knew that I really wanted to watch this show, but made no real effort to be in her seat when the show began.  I was so eager that I didn’t bother to wait, but after she tolerated my “that’s very different than the comic” nerd muttering from the other end of the couch, she loved it too.  AMC might have a real winner on its hands if they can satisfy the two of us!  On a side note, what a winning streak for AMC: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Rubicon and now TWD.  These sorts of shows are SOOOOO much better than anything you can get on network TV.

The plot for the pilot episode is ripped straight from the comics and is simple enough.  Rick Grimes is a small town sheriff’s deputy who is shot on duty, goes into a coma and awakens in a trashed hospital with nothing but zombies.  He briefly seeks shelter with a man and his son who are living in one of his neighbor’s homes before setting off for Atlanta in hopes of finding his wife and son.  Probably one of the things making this show “work” is that the plot is just that simple.

There are only a few actors who have much of a role in this pilot and Andrew Lincoln just nails it as Rick.  He looks the part and within several minutes my eyes (which have gazed upon every page of TWD) and ears had accepted him as Rick.  We’ll have to wait and see how Lincoln does with “angry Rick” and “crazy Rick” but he sells “distraught-and-confused Rick” very nicely.  The actors playing Morgan and Duane also did well, but it took me a bit longer to accept them.  The only outlier from a casting standpoint was Jon Bernthal as Shane.  I always thought of Shane as a big, kinda redneck boy and not someone who is ruggedly non-WASPy like Bernthal.  I’ve enjoyed Bernthal in other stuff he’s done and there is no rule that says everyone MUST look just like they do in the comic, so we’ll see…

NEWS: Wildstorm to publish “The X-Files #5″

People have gone missing in the Badlands for centuries. Now, a fresh spate of disappearances is linked to the possible serial killer “Dante,” who claims he is inspired by demons from hell. While Scully assumes the suspect is either lying or deranged, Mulder follows legends of the Hollow Earth to a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels – just as Dante escapes custody and heads for home.

Written by Doug Moench; Art & Cover by Brian Denham. 32pg. – Color – $3.50 US – On Sale March 18, 2009

NEWS: Wildstorm to publish “The X-Files #4″

Scully and Mulder are the targets of a killer from the Tong Underworld who is about to reignite a centuries-old gang war. If Mulder and Scully can’t figure out how this devious criminal can be in multiple places at the same time, San Francisco will erupt in a bloodbath!

Written by Marv Wolfman; Art by Brian Denham; Cover by Jim Daly and Tim Bradstreet. 32pg. – Color – $3.50 US – On Sale February 18, 2009

NEWS: Wildstorm to publish “The X-Files #3”

Mulder and Scully are sent to San Francisco to investigate a series of murders happening simultaneously throughout the city. But, according to fingerprints and DNA, all are being perpetrated by the same killer. As their investigation takes them into the unknown mysteries of the Chinese underworld, they learn that instead of being the hunters, they have become the hunted.

Written by Marv Wolfman; Art by Brian Denham; Cover by Jim Daly and Tim Bradstreet. 32pg. – Color – $3.50 US – On Sale January 21, 2009

NEWS: Wildstorm to publish “The X-Files #2”

Mulder and Scully race to uncover the truth about the apparent suicide of a government scientist. All evidence points to it being nothing more than a case of one man choosing to end his own life, but Mulder is convinced the evidence isn’t revealing everything. For Agent Fox Mulder, uncovering the truth is literally a case of life or death.

From show writer Frank Spotnitz, art by Brian Denham, cover by Tony Shasteen. 32pg. – Color – $3.50 US – On Sale December 17, 2008

Looks like we are not getting a variant cover for this one. And Why only Mulder on the cover? I need my Scully fix.

NEWS: Wildstorm to publish The X-Files #1 (of 7)

Search for the truth inside this new miniseries based on the hit FOX television show! A research scientist, recently agitated by paranoid fears, is found dead in his suburban D.C. apartment. His sister refuses to accept the coroner’s ruling that his death was suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Federal investigator Scully discovers forensic details that would seem to defy rational explanation and when her partner Agent Mulder learns the scientist was working on a top-secret project for a government contractor, Mulder becomes agitated by his own paranoid fears, which eerily parallels the behavior that led to the scientist’s death!

From show writer Frank Spotnitz, art by Brian Denham, cover by Tony Shasteen; variant cover by Russell Walks. 32pg. – Color – $3.50 US – On Sale November 19, 2008

FIRST LOOK: The X-Files Special #0

EW.com got an exclusive first look for the new comic book. Check it out at their website.

Also, don’t forget to check our giveaway for a chance to win a copy of this comic!

Written by Frank Spotnitz; Art by Brian Denham. It will have a Photo cover and a Variant Cover by Brian Denham. 40pg., Color, $2.99 US. On Sale July 23, 2008.

“The X-Files Special #0” – Comic GIVEAWAY!!!

We are giving away a copy of the “X-Files Special #0” comic to five lucky winners. If you’ll like to be included in the giveaway, just post a comment below telling us which of the stories from the original Topps comic did you like the most (or hated). If you haven’t read any, no problem, you can still post a comment. Email addresses are hidden, so no need to worry about privacy and we will never spam you or contact you for any other reason than to notify the winners. Giveaway is open to anyone in the world. The contest will be open until the end of July (the comic comes out on July 23rd) and winners will be chosen from a random integer generator. Winners will be emailed, and will have 72 hours to respond or be disqualified.

The hit motion picture and television franchise returns to comics! With July’s release of the brand-new X-Files blockbuster, WildStorm joins Mulder and Scully in a previously untold story from the film’s cowriter and producer Frank Spotnitz! Don’t miss this supernatural epic so large it will leave you screaming for more!

Written by Frank Spotnitz; Art by Brian Denham. It will have a Photo cover and a Variant Cover by Brian Denham. 40pg., Color, $2.99 US. On Sale July 23, 2008.

WINNERS
Annah FM – Ontario, Canada
Juanma – Murcia, Spain
Romelwen – Buenos Aires, Argentina
aaron – Tennessee, US
David Boyington – California, US