TV: The Walking Dead - Season 6 Episode 4 - Here's Not Here

This week's episode sidesteps the fate of a main character to take us on another one off adventure.




"Don't you mess with my tree!"
After last week's blood curdling, stomach twisting episode in which we may have seen one of our favorite characters die an accidental and unneeded death, the writers take us on a solo episode centered on Morgan. 

Much like every other season of the show, these interludes take away from the story at hand and take focus off what's really going on with the story arc of the series. It's either highly intelligent of them to step away from the current status of our main characters or it's a really bad idea that shows they're having a hard time keeping focus on writing themselves out of the problems they're creating. Either way, this has been a bang up season so far that finally expedites some momentum for Rick and the others. 

Lennie James is a highly respected actor, lending his talents to movies like Snatch, 24 Hour Party People, and the defunct tv series Jericho. The man is a powerhouse performer that can act without saying a word. His eyes, facial expressions and physical appearance all speak for themselves. Bringing his presence to The Walking Dead takes the show to a new level. When paired with character actor John Carroll Lynch, an episode that could have been another boring background story is transformed into a personal, but unfocused study in the transformation of Morgan's role in The Walking Dead and gives a new perspective on the human elements the show so often glosses over. Again, it could be dismissed as the writers not knowing where to go at this point or they're carefully manipulating their die hard audience with an inside look at where Morgan is going and where he's been along the way. 

Despite straying away from this season's fever pitched story so far, the episode is well written but almost seems like it would have been a better fit for season five. The walkers are barely present this week as the focus shifts to Morgan's inner trauma and emotional development, giving us something different than what we're used to with almost every episode. Shying away from the zombies and the unraveling elements at Alexandria, it seems a wee bit tedious at this point. If not for the acting talents of James and Lynch, this will probably be looked upon as one of the low points of season six and I can't say I'd disagree. It was way too early in the game to be throwing filler episodes out there. Hopefully next week takes us back to the real show and an episode that doesn't waste precious time on a background we almost figured was there. 

Personally, I would rather see them shorten these seasons down to twelve episodes instead of wasting weeks on one off episodes. This was a great effort on the part of the actors but really offered nothing we needed to see at this point. 

Score


-CG





Like the taste of flesh? Share this review. 
StumbleUpon Reddit Pinterest Facebook Twitter Addthis