Someone was posting on Ambien last night...

I cringe everytime Maggie speaks. At least Andrew Lincoln does a fairly credible fake American accent. I don’t even know what she is going for other then some cheesey 1940’s Gone with the Wind thing...

Wait, Jesus is gay? How do we know this?

Anonymous wrote:I noticed the mixed-race relationships, but didn't think it was heavy-handed. What I thought it illustrated (without being heavy-handed) was the extent to which bigotry is a luxury. You can indulge your racism when you're confident you'll be okay for it, but not when it might cost you your life. Surviving the zombie apocalypse requires strength in numbers, and when there aren't that many around you have to take who you can get, regardless of how you might have felt about them before. I mean, Rick was a Georgia cop before all this started, we have to consider his views on race were likely not the most enlightened before this started. But on the rooftop, when Merle calls T-Dog the n-word and then beats him senseless, Rick is the one who breaks it up by handcuffing Merle to a pipe, because he knows that T-Dog is an asset to the group and they can't afford to lose him because of someone like Merle. When Siddiq arrived at Alexandria with Carl, there probably were some people who had some less-than-enlightened thoughts cross their minds, and who might have acted on those thoughts pre-apolcalypse, but they needed a doctor and he could fill that role, so they didn't have the luxury of alienating him. Same goes for gay characters like Jesus, Tara Aaron and Denise. As for the mixed-race relationships, if you're seeking out intimate physical and emotional connections with another person and there aren't that many people around, you're going to have hard time if you rule people out based on biases so it forces you to get to know people beyond their race. This goes for close friendships as well. Pre-apocalypse, the white farmer's daughter from Georgia not only probably wouldn't have started a romantic relationship with an Asian man, but also probably wouldn't have found her closest confidant after his death in a gay man.

None of this is to suggest that nothing about TWD's treatment of race has been problematic, just that I think it represents a reasonable approximation of what might happen to race relations when faced with that kind of threat. The reality would probably be messier and longer to develop, but it is a television show and character development does tend to get accelerated for the sake of storyline.

I just want to draw your attention to the bolded. It sounds as if *you* don't have the most enlightened views on race. Because Rick is a cop from Georgia, you're implying he was probably also a racist? Wow.

Anonymous wrote:Go back to the first (or second) episode of this season. Rick is walking through the bridge repair encampment and, as he goes along, he sees various couples. Without exception, every single one is interracial and there's even an interracial lesbian couple. Jerry even has a girlfriend (how does he maintain his weight?). This is a one minute scene. Heavy handed af.

THIS. I was so turned off by that episode precisely because it was so heavy handed. I don't care if couples are mixed race or same sex. But to make a whole montage wherein every single couple is one of those things, was downright absurd.

Back when they were settled in Alexandria, I liked the Denise/Tara couple because they made sense. So did Glenn and Maggie. A couple has to make sense to work. You can't just take two characters and throw them together without any chemistry whatsoever.

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Anonymous wrote:someone told me they have this thing (all 3 FWD, TWD, and the Rick Grimes' movies plus some more) planned out for like the next decade.


This has gone on way too long. I agree with everyone that it reached its peak a few seasons ago. there are only so many ways to pit humans against zombies.

I think part of the problem is that you’re still viewing it as a show about humans vs. zombies, which it really isn’t. The zombies are the background for a show about people.

This is true also. As my husband said, it's not a show about zombies. It's about what humans do to each other. But still, the exciting story arc ended long ago. Now it's just about who's going to supply food for what community, as well as ridiculous couplings. It's sad that it's gotten so dumb because it used to be fabulous.

The show barely covers the "couplings," and I don't really see what you'd find them so ridiculous about them, unless it really bothers you that they're mixed-race.

Dp. It's not that they're mixed raced. It's the overstating of colorblindness in the form of every couple is mixed. It is heavy handed and pointless.

So it bothers you that there are more mixed-race couples now. You would have been more comfortable if Jessie hadn't died so she and Rick could stay a couple, and if Carol had stayed with Tobin. And wasn't the show a whole lot better in the beginning when there was only one token black character and you knew that if they introduced a second one, one of them would have to die?

You're missing the point. The producers of the show are overemphasing the colorblindness. It has nothing to do with my feelings on race. It has everything to do with feeling like the showrunners think we're so dense, we can't tell that race has no signifcance in the zombie apocalypse.

I actually never noticed or stopped to think about racial makeup of couples in this show. So I don’t think it’s heavy handed. I do remember years ago when it seemed like there could only be one back man in the show. Now that was terrible.

Oh, pleeeeeease. You took note with dismay that there was only one black man in the show years ago, but didn't notice the many races represented in current shows? So virtuous.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Andrea and the Governor totally made more sense as a couple than Abraham and Sasha, right?

Couples make no sense at all! In the Hierarchy of Needs, food and shelter come first. Intimate relationships are lower on the list. No one really has consistant food and shelter, yet everyone's paired up. Um, ok.

But poor Darryl really needs to get a piece.

+1
I'd happily volunteer!

Anonymous wrote:Andrea and the Governor totally made more sense as a couple than Abraham and Sasha, right?

Not sure who you're talking to, but I thought both Andrea and the Governor and Abraham and Sasha were mismatched. Abraham's walrus mustache and orange hair was such a turnoff to me, and Sasha is so beautiful. Are we all allowed our own opinions, or do you have to approve first?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:someone told me they have this thing (all 3 FWD, TWD, and the Rick Grimes' movies plus some more) planned out for like the next decade.


This has gone on way too long. I agree with everyone that it reached its peak a few seasons ago. there are only so many ways to pit humans against zombies.

I think part of the problem is that you’re still viewing it as a show about humans vs. zombies, which it really isn’t. The zombies are the background for a show about people.

This is true also. As my husband said, it's not a show about zombies. It's about what humans do to each other. But still, the exciting story arc ended long ago. Now it's just about who's going to supply food for what community, as well as ridiculous couplings. It's sad that it's gotten so dumb because it used to be fabulous.

The show barely covers the "couplings," and I don't really see what you'd find them so ridiculous about them, unless it really bothers you that they're mixed-race.

Dp. It's not that they're mixed raced. It's the overstating of colorblindness in the form of every couple is mixed. It is heavy handed and pointless.

So it bothers you that there are more mixed-race couples now. You would have been more comfortable if Jessie hadn't died so she and Rick could stay a couple, and if Carol had stayed with Tobin. And wasn't the show a whole lot better in the beginning when there was only one token black character and you knew that if they introduced a second one, one of them would have to die?

DP. You're an idiot. That's not what the PP was saying at all, but it's clear you want to play it that way. As for Jessie and Rick - YES, they had the major hots for each other and it would have been great if she had lived and they became a couple. Clearly, they were attracted to each other! But I thought Carol and Tobin was another mismatched couple. Carol never seemed attracted to him (just as she's not to Ezekiel). NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT RACE. Stop trying to make it so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:someone told me they have this thing (all 3 FWD, TWD, and the Rick Grimes' movies plus some more) planned out for like the next decade.


This has gone on way too long. I agree with everyone that it reached its peak a few seasons ago. there are only so many ways to pit humans against zombies.

I think part of the problem is that you’re still viewing it as a show about humans vs. zombies, which it really isn’t. The zombies are the background for a show about people.

This is true also. As my husband said, it's not a show about zombies. It's about what humans do to each other. But still, the exciting story arc ended long ago. Now it's just about who's going to supply food for what community, as well as ridiculous couplings. It's sad that it's gotten so dumb because it used to be fabulous.

The show barely covers the "couplings," and I don't really see what you'd find them so ridiculous about them, unless it really bothers you that they're mixed-race.

Dp. It's not that they're mixed raced. It's the overstating of colorblindness in the form of every couple is mixed. It is heavy handed and pointless.

Agree completely. It's like the producers are saying, "Look! We're so colorblind, and we're going to make sure our audience knows it!" The couples just didn't make any sense. It's not like there was any real chemistry or attraction - they were just thrown together.

Anonymous wrote:The herd fell into the river on fire. How did that actually kill them? I though only brain injury stopped hem.

Darryl is an unbelieavably good shot. Unbelievable.

I wondered that too (about the herd actually dying). Maybe the explosion ripped their heads off, or maybe the fire just seriously weakened them. Maybe they didn't actually die, but at least got swept away in the river.

And Darryl... oh, Darryl. I love that man. When he cries!! My heart. I wonder if they'll ever find him a love interest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:someone told me they have this thing (all 3 FWD, TWD, and the Rick Grimes' movies plus some more) planned out for like the next decade.


This has gone on way too long. I agree with everyone that it reached its peak a few seasons ago. there are only so many ways to pit humans against zombies.

I think part of the problem is that you’re still viewing it as a show about humans vs. zombies, which it really isn’t. The zombies are the background for a show about people.

This is true also. As my husband said, it's not a show about zombies. It's about what humans do to each other. But still, the exciting story arc ended long ago. Now it's just about who's going to supply food for what community, as well as ridiculous couplings. It's sad that it's gotten so dumb because it used to be fabulous.

The show barely covers the "couplings," and I don't really see what you'd find them so ridiculous about them, unless it really bothers you that they're mixed-race.

Ah, the racism card! I was wondering how long it would be and you didn't disappoint. Nope, I'm not playing that stupid game. The couplings bother me because they don't work. Ezekiel and his "King" act were utterly ridiculous, and I can't take him seriously at all. Carol annoys me because she has only one expression and talks like a baby. The two of them together make no sense at all.

I love both Rich and Michonne, but not together. It seemed completely random to throw them together in the first place, since there had been zero romantic chemistry between them at all, and then boom, they were in bed together.

Please stop calling racism anytime someone criticizes a POC. Thank you.

I am going to watch the next few episodes to see what happens with Carole, Daryl and Michonne. Im not invested in any other characters anymore if Maggie is really gone. I also don't want to watch an 8-9yo girl running around with a gun. Its weird.

The show still sucks.

I noticed the mixed-race relationships, but didn't think it was heavy-handed. What I thought it illustrated (without being heavy-handed) was the extent to which bigotry is a luxury. You can indulge your racism when you're confident you'll be okay for it, but not when it might cost you your life. Surviving the zombie apocalypse requires strength in numbers, and when there aren't that many around you have to take who you can get, regardless of how you might have felt about them before. I mean, Rick was a Georgia cop before all this started, we have to consider his views on race were likely not the most enlightened before this started. But on the rooftop, when Merle calls T-Dog the n-word and then beats him senseless, Rick is the one who breaks it up by handcuffing Merle to a pipe, because he knows that T-Dog is an asset to the group and they can't afford to lose him because of someone like Merle. When Siddiq arrived at Alexandria with Carl, there probably were some people who had some less-than-enlightened thoughts cross their minds, and who might have acted on those thoughts pre-apolcalypse, but they needed a doctor and he could fill that role, so they didn't have the luxury of alienating him. Same goes for gay characters like Jesus, Tara Aaron and Denise. As for the mixed-race relationships, if you're seeking out intimate physical and emotional connections with another person and there aren't that many people around, you're going to have hard time if you rule people out based on biases so it forces you to get to know people beyond their race. This goes for close friendships as well. Pre-apocalypse, the white farmer's daughter from Georgia not only probably wouldn't have started a romantic relationship with an Asian man, but also probably wouldn't have found her closest confidant after his death in a gay man.

None of this is to suggest that nothing about TWD's treatment of race has been problematic, just that I think it represents a reasonable approximation of what might happen to race relations when faced with that kind of threat. The reality would probably be messier and longer to develop, but it is a television show and character development does tend to get accelerated for the sake of storyline.