Review

Rick and his fellow department store survivors return to the camp outside Atlantic where Rick is reunited with his wife Lori and son Carl. Lori is more than pleased to have her husband back, but is more than a bit pissed with Shane who had told her Rick had died, she warns Shane off having anything to do with her or Carl. Less happy is Daryl Dixon, whose brother Merle was left handcuffed on the roof of the department store. Oh and Glenn is disappointed that his new found sports car is being cannibalised for parts.

Rick is feeling guilty over Merle and decides along with Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl to launch a rescue mission into Atlanta. Shane vehemently disagrees with the idea as he believes it will leave the camp short handed. Rick points out he can also get the bag of guns he dropped after being swamped by “walkers”. Shane takes out his frustrations on Ed, another redneck who has been beating on his wife Carol and their daughter. Ominously the first zombie appears near the camp.

Adding to our list of zombie facts, you definitely have to kill the brain to kill the zombie. Not entirely sure there wasn't a huge reference here to Romero's Day of the Dead (1985), but anyway Dale Horvath beheads a zombie with a shovel and then Daryl has to put an arrow through the decapitated head to finish off the zombie. We get some head action prior to Daryl applying the coup de grâce, which brought to mind a scene from Romero's movie.

As the above paragraph might indicated episode three of The Walking Dead continues the relatively high level of gore thus far on display, which could explain why no commercial network has picked the show up for broadcast in Australia. Besides a headless zombie, surprisingly no fountains of blood, we get a severed hand, and the usual decomposing flesh to be going on with. I'm actually surprised this show hasn't run afoul of the moral majority in the U.S, but guess they have a few other witches to burn at the stake currently.

The developing dramas withing the survivor group are adding depth to the season

The other thing of note in Tell It to the Frogs is the group dramas starting to unfold. Rick and Shane are clearly headed for a showdown sometime in the future. Besides Lori getting it on with Shane, the two men are clearly disagreeing on most decisions with Rick wanting to do the right thing, and Shane being more interested in protecting the group of survivors as a whole. There's a bit of discontent from the female side about the distribution of labour, as Stephen King would say there was a real ring of crystal there, with one character questioning the reverting to traditional role models while another points out that is just how it's going to be. Clearly the sexism isn't going to extend to a bit of wife beating though as Shane informs Ed in no uncertain terms. Once again I was high fiving my fellow viewers over Carol immediately rushing to Ed's aid after Shane had given him a bit of a spanking, how true to life is that, think they call it “battered woman syndrome”. I'm just pleased my wife doesn't like horror else I would be inline for a lecture about women's rights and the division of labour in the home. Damn feminists, we should have known it would spell trouble when we gave them the vote! Anyway, and dear god I'm getting off the point, nice to see Writers Charles H. Eglee, Jack LoGiudice, and Frank Darabont, not being afraid to explore other issues, and taking time out of their busy “walker” schedule to develop the group dynamics.

As opposed to many I consider Tell It to the Frogs to be a solid episode that is starting to take the first season beyond just another group in peril of the walking dead scenario. While the zombies are a clear and present danger there are other issues in the post apocalyptic landscape beyond mere survival. The Writers show a strong grasp of tensions that can develop within a disparate group that houses people with different morals and belief systems. There's some real depth being added with this episode and I for one have a belief that the season can only get better from here. With the proviso of course that Rick finding both his family and Shane alive in the same group was a bit trite.

One ominous development, that is no doubt going to come to fruition in devastating fashion by season's end, was the appearance of the first zombie close to the survivor's camp. The Writers made sure we were aware that this is the first ever sighting near the camp and also alluded to the fact that the zombies are now drifting out of Atlanta due to the shortage of food in the City. I would imagine Rick and Shane should be considering moving to a more remote location in the near future.

Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh) is giving a credible performance as the home town deputy, adding a lot of Southern spice to his performance. Clearly the character is being setup as a major obstacle to Rick Grime's way of proceeding and I get the distinct impression that a clash between the two characters is not that far off in the future. Bernthal is kicking arse in the role.

Tell It to the Frogs saw a rise in viewing audience to 5.07 million in North America. Clearly people are liking what they have seen previously with the season holding it's market strongly through the midway point.

So I was pretty happy with the episode, though I must admit the human interaction and drama for mine is what makes a zombie outing. Lets face facts folks there's only so much you can do with the walking dead till it gets a bit stale, Darabont is taking the sub genre in a new direction that Romero laid the framework for. Am biting at the bit to find out how a couple of the conflicts resolve in the next episode, and importantly did Merle Dixon get away, and if so is he gunning for Rick and his crew?

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...