Triggerfinger

I haven't blogged about The Walking Dead since the final episode of the first season. At that time, I called it one of the best television series on the air.

How the mighty have fallen.

The writers have been forced by network budget cutbacks to confine the narrative of season two to one setting for an inordinate length of time, and thus have delivered to us the "farm season." Sure, plenty of good television series have revolved around a single location. (How many seasons of Cheers took place almost entirely in a bar?) But the problem with The Walking Dead this year is that it has become dramatically stagnant.

Every episode has followed an increasingly predictable formula: let's have a fight about staying on the farm when Hershel wants us to go; let's run around the woods looking for Sophia; let's watch the most infuriating character (Lori) deal ineffectively with the two men in her life.

I choose tonight to write again about the show because tonight it delivered the best episode it has since season one. A number of things about the show that haven't been right in a long time were finally right again.

There were good "that's messed up" no-win situations that really presented the horrors of the post-apocalypse. Ripping that poor guy off the fence was horrific, and the alternatives were little better. A mercy killing might have been the "best" thing to do, but I like that Rick, Hershel, and Glenn are not so far gone (see Shane) that they're able to kill a human when they don't have to.

Shane lying to Lori to get her back to the farm was a good "survival instinct" moment too. Very truthful for that character, and actually one of the most morally pure things he's done in quite some time.

But the writing still sucks when it comes to Lori. Her decision to drive off in search of Rick -- without telling anybody! -- was so idiotic that there's simply no way I could accept it. Is she really so thoughtless that she's willing to risk leaving her child with no surviving parents? Did she really believe that any danger that could have gotten the best of Rick would be something she could overcome? The only possible explanation I think you could give for such a total and profound lapse in judgment would be to chalk it all up to "pregnancy brain," and that's not just doing a disservice to this character, I think it's fairly offensive to women in general.

Sure, Lori may have got herself out of the jeopardy she put herself in, but by the end of the episode, she was running to her husband to protect her from Shane. The dialogue was walking a bit of a tightrope, but she was basically asking her husband to kill her former lover. This is a plot line and character treatment worthy of daytime soaps, maybe, but is pretty pitiful for The Walking Dead.

This week had moments that showed that in fact, the show has not completely lost its way. But man, it has strayed far from the path. Perhaps I'm being dramatic, but I blame it on the sky-high expectations that the first season set for me. This show was so good when Frank Darabont was running it, and is so obviously lessened after his unceremonious firing by AMC, that it's difficult to not judge it harshly.

At this point, I watch the show more because friends of mine watch it than I do for actually enjoying it. They're still delivering solid "Zombie Kill of the Week" moments, beyond that? I sure hope they can turn it around.