Fear the Walking Dead - Another Day at the Diamond
Definitely, the Western motif and specific shots of zombies (whether in the oil drum, spilling out when not knifed in the skull, or rambling about in the scorching sun on crackling, crumbling concrete and asphalt) do have stylistic touches that are impressive. The story arc and character situations, though, ring as a bit too familiar. My criticisms aren't necessarily as pointed or corrosive as much as just observational in nature. The stories told are still under Gimple and his team so there are always touches and patterns of behavior quite regularly reshuffled and reused. And character decisions made that leave much to be desired. Just the same, while treading similar ground, well worn ground, with the factions coming out of the woodwork to cause harm, violence, and death, there are some aesthetic work on the show that satisfy, even if the subject matter doesn't.
The outrage by "Fear the..." fans regarding the 4th season mid-finale regarding Madison's fate is all the more understandable when you watch the second episode, considering her humanity and desire to offer kindness, family, and a home to derelicts seemingly abandoned by the horrors of the apocalypse in Texas. The caliber of talent involved in this season is rather impressive. Jenna Elfman, as Naomi, for instance is proof-positive that the zombie genre has definitely developed a prestige that was once not the case. Whether or not that the creative side of either "Walking Dead" show really has the sustainability to do the talents that get involved in them justice is another case entirely. I often shake my head and react with puzzlement at certain creative decisions both shows commit to-like Madison's departure later in the season or the original show's killing off Karl-but "Another Day in the Diamond" gives us Madison committing to finding any family that might be available in the surrounding area of the baseball stadium community they currently inhabit, locating a town just outside their "safe zone". The little girl, Charlie, later determined to be a "plant" or "spy", unbeknownst to Madison for Mel and his van convoy of "Vultures" who "pick clean" target locations of their supplies and survival items, just points forward when asked where her family is. Madison, Alicia, and Victor leave the Diamond to search for Charlie's family, locating in Naomi, encountering zombies in a giant oil drum, noticing that the Texas town they investigate has been, for the most part, raided and cleaned out of not only the goods so many of these abandoned locations often offer but startlingly the walkers (well until they are found left in an oil drum Naomi staggered into through a hole on the roof). Naomi pulls a gun on Madison, clearly holding onto whatever little bit of sanity and resolve that remains, hysterics on the verge and ready to surface.
The oil drum sequence where Madison dives into the black to help rescue Naomi, quite adept at defending herself with just a knife, and the Western motif quite distinctive at the beginning of the episode, with how the dusty backdrop of the scattered walkers baking under the hot Texas sun, are nicely stylistic and leave an impression. Nick's request to be let out by Charlie, nearly overrun by zombies when he gets into a car that barely makes it that far from the gate, is perhaps the most bone-headed moment in the episode, questioning his common sense, particularly since he does so at night...he's presented as restless, after some of the crops yield prove worthless, to be burned. The Diamond reminds me too much of the prison from "The Walking Dead" and this ring of familiarity sounds quite loudly. Mel presented as yet another sociopathic leader of a group traveling from one place to another to interrupt and devastate the series' heroes' supposed idyll admittedly leaves me rather disillusioned...perhaps once again going to this particular development serves to remind us that it seems to be too easy an option. When the regulars begin to build a community in order to bring stability and domesticity to a group of people looking to climb out of the doldrums for something remotely normal and less hostile, there is always some introduced heavy and his cohorts to ruin any sense of prolonged relief. When it isn't a group of hostiles, it is famine, or disease, or the go-to standby of the undead when needed to overrun and devour when need-be.
Mel has a seat and confidently informs Madison that either they can give over what they have to his company or they will wait for her community to perish and eventually take it all. Madison's face says it all when Charlie is revealed to be a spy. That betrayal and Mel's rubbing it in her face, as she tells him that doing the sojourn lifestyle is in their past while he encourages her to just not fight the inevitable. The Diamond story is set in the past according to the episode while Morgan, Althea, and John Dorie remain tied up while Nick, Alicia, Victor, and Luciana hold guns on them, wondering why they have the Vultures' "flag" (a marker that defines their presence from place to place, with a number on it). With the crops dying (of course) and the Vultures camped outside the Diamond during the "flashback", what happened the led to several of Madison's people showing up at Althea's SWAT SUV will obviously soon be made know to us.
3/5
The outrage by "Fear the..." fans regarding the 4th season mid-finale regarding Madison's fate is all the more understandable when you watch the second episode, considering her humanity and desire to offer kindness, family, and a home to derelicts seemingly abandoned by the horrors of the apocalypse in Texas. The caliber of talent involved in this season is rather impressive. Jenna Elfman, as Naomi, for instance is proof-positive that the zombie genre has definitely developed a prestige that was once not the case. Whether or not that the creative side of either "Walking Dead" show really has the sustainability to do the talents that get involved in them justice is another case entirely. I often shake my head and react with puzzlement at certain creative decisions both shows commit to-like Madison's departure later in the season or the original show's killing off Karl-but "Another Day in the Diamond" gives us Madison committing to finding any family that might be available in the surrounding area of the baseball stadium community they currently inhabit, locating a town just outside their "safe zone". The little girl, Charlie, later determined to be a "plant" or "spy", unbeknownst to Madison for Mel and his van convoy of "Vultures" who "pick clean" target locations of their supplies and survival items, just points forward when asked where her family is. Madison, Alicia, and Victor leave the Diamond to search for Charlie's family, locating in Naomi, encountering zombies in a giant oil drum, noticing that the Texas town they investigate has been, for the most part, raided and cleaned out of not only the goods so many of these abandoned locations often offer but startlingly the walkers (well until they are found left in an oil drum Naomi staggered into through a hole on the roof). Naomi pulls a gun on Madison, clearly holding onto whatever little bit of sanity and resolve that remains, hysterics on the verge and ready to surface.
The oil drum sequence where Madison dives into the black to help rescue Naomi, quite adept at defending herself with just a knife, and the Western motif quite distinctive at the beginning of the episode, with how the dusty backdrop of the scattered walkers baking under the hot Texas sun, are nicely stylistic and leave an impression. Nick's request to be let out by Charlie, nearly overrun by zombies when he gets into a car that barely makes it that far from the gate, is perhaps the most bone-headed moment in the episode, questioning his common sense, particularly since he does so at night...he's presented as restless, after some of the crops yield prove worthless, to be burned. The Diamond reminds me too much of the prison from "The Walking Dead" and this ring of familiarity sounds quite loudly. Mel presented as yet another sociopathic leader of a group traveling from one place to another to interrupt and devastate the series' heroes' supposed idyll admittedly leaves me rather disillusioned...perhaps once again going to this particular development serves to remind us that it seems to be too easy an option. When the regulars begin to build a community in order to bring stability and domesticity to a group of people looking to climb out of the doldrums for something remotely normal and less hostile, there is always some introduced heavy and his cohorts to ruin any sense of prolonged relief. When it isn't a group of hostiles, it is famine, or disease, or the go-to standby of the undead when needed to overrun and devour when need-be.
Mel has a seat and confidently informs Madison that either they can give over what they have to his company or they will wait for her community to perish and eventually take it all. Madison's face says it all when Charlie is revealed to be a spy. That betrayal and Mel's rubbing it in her face, as she tells him that doing the sojourn lifestyle is in their past while he encourages her to just not fight the inevitable. The Diamond story is set in the past according to the episode while Morgan, Althea, and John Dorie remain tied up while Nick, Alicia, Victor, and Luciana hold guns on them, wondering why they have the Vultures' "flag" (a marker that defines their presence from place to place, with a number on it). With the crops dying (of course) and the Vultures camped outside the Diamond during the "flashback", what happened the led to several of Madison's people showing up at Althea's SWAT SUV will obviously soon be made know to us.
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