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| How I felt watching The Good Man |
I’m not even going to sugar coat it: I despised this first
season finale. Daniel Salazar is a terrible character. What he does with an
arena full of the undead (yes, they would have eventually broken out, but for
fucksake, man, why help them?!) to undermine a military protection at a
compound holding his (unknown to him
dead) wife left me astonished. He actually made the decision to release that many undead
on the compound knowing that his wife (with a bum leg) would have trouble
escaping with him, even if she had been alive!!! And Madison, ugh, just
continues to condone his actions through her participating behavior. Nick, her
son, and Liza, Travis’ wife, are in that compound and yet the idea of releasing
all of those infected arena zombies was seemingly okay. I couldn’t wrap my head
around that. And don’t even get me fucking started on the trip from the
compound to Strand’s beach front mansion/estate where Madison, in a truck (with
passengers in the open bed), seems to travel endlessly deserted highways with a
zombie here and a zombie there just shambling about, with them not encountering
any hordes or walking dead resistance. The cityscape has the face of collapse
with smoke reaching out from buildings in LA but the massive undead are held/kept
to the compound. The first season, perhaps handcuffed by a restraining
budget/production, never quite walloped us with a real sense of an
overpopulated LA spilling out with the undead. Compared to The Walking Dead
when Rick travels to Atlanta, LA just seemed to have a lot more potential
squandered. Or maybe this kind of undertaking and epic scope was just not
reasonable for a series in its first year. Whatever the case, as they seem to
be planning to leave LA in Strand’s yacht, it does feel like LA falling to the
mysterious Romero zombie infection didn’t quite deliver what I’m figuring fans
might have been holding out hope for. And another nagging irritation is the
resurfacing of Hatosy’s Andrew, released by Travis before Daniel could possibly
execute him. The military abandoned the suburban street being protected by
them, and Andrew informed Travis where the compound was located.
He convinced a soft-hearted Travis to let him go, appealing to his better
nature, only to inexplicably return to shoot Ofelia, the girl he was supposed
to love instead of her father, Daniel responsible for torturing him and holding
him captive. Andrew seems to emerge just as an antagonist to shoot Ofelia and
threaten Daniel…and be a punching bag for a raging Travis who beats him
unmercifully, I guess, because his act of kindness wasn’t returned similarly.
To make matters worse, Daniel’s “let’s release the arena full of zombies” stunt
eventually ruins Dr. Exner’s plans to evacuate her patients and staff, leaving
her no choice but to shoot all of them (the staff are sent downstairs, to
trucks while the paltry military guards are unable to prevent the en masse from
bursting into the compound, engulfing them), as Madison, Travis, Daniel,
Ofelia, and Liza eventually find her accepting no hope of resolution in
whatever it is that has turned the city upside down. In a twist of fate (or
plot convenience), the gang eventually locate Nick and Strand (who actually
left others in the fenced cells, not bothering to free them, leaving this up to
Madison and Travis), and they follow Exner’s alternate exit strategy, leading
to the truck and eventual escape. To Domingo’s credit, his Victor Strand is a
wild card, a mysterious figure whose motivations aren’t quite yet known. Nick
has taken to him, it does seem. When Alicia and Chris are left (!!!) with the
SUV as the others look for Liza, Nick, and Salazar’s dead wife, bullying, crude
soldiers arrive to take their ride (with a little threat of rape towards Alicia
to reinforce they mean business). So yeah, whoever’s bright idea it was to
leave the kids with the ride, it didn’t quite work out!!! Liza, the character I
actually truly liked out of this entire ensemble, gets bit while, (Surprise!
Surprise!) trying to flee with the gang through a building overrun by zombies.
So cue the final scene where Travis falls to his knees in the rushing ocean
while Madison affectionately offers condolences due to him having to shoot Liza
in the head, sparing her the zombie turn and having to commit suicide. Chris
was already not fond of Travis’ “new family” so losing his mom will most
certainly push him over the edge. Some of the zombie violence is expectedly visceral
and exciting but can’t compensate for how the characters are presented. Daniel,
trying to navigate those in his company away from truly resenting him and being
wary of him, still reels from his daughter’s discovery of his past and doesn’t
seem able to repress his true nature. [1.5/5]
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| Surveying the wreckage, the infection never solved |
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| Levey is bout to break |
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