That TV Show People Watch

Hey, pal, that belly you're licking belongs to another man's wife. Oh, the scandal. And only two episodes in on Walking Dead which peer pressure and family expectations finally drove me to start watching last week. Everyone tells me the show gets better later but the first couple episodes aren't bad.

It begins oddly like 28 Days Later with the protagonist, Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) waking up in a hospital that's deserted and thrashed. And I had the same question--if somehow the zombies didn't notice him, shouldn't he check for other patients in his same situation? Maybe not when he's trying to leave for the first time but certainly later when he's got guns and a car and everything?

Well, anyway, that's a nitpick. Rick is a plain good guy, a bit dull, actually. In the second episode he beats up a racist played by guest star Michael Rooker and says something I think is supposed to be badass about how there's no longer black people and white people but only "dark meat and white meat." Which, even putting aside the unintentional racial sound to the metaphor, is really awkward. Are you going to eat the zombies? I don't think that's a good idea. But Michael Rooker is good as the racist guy. He's really despicable, I hope he comes back in subsequent episodes.

I like the use of slow moving zombies instead of the more modern "Running Dead". It makes for a nicely slow story that is more about getting by than getting away. I also enjoyed the odd Butt and Bucket tracking shot from the beginning of the second episode.

Twitter Sonnet #864

The steps of cherry moons proceed through night.
Like pearls in drifts, untimely frost in blue.
An ocean bloomed in violet garden light.
A darling mist through darkness diamonds grew.
In cases bleached in dusted shade they shone.
A bracelet turned, a ring to chairs was lost.
A silver trick, the ice of eyes of bone.
A guitar pick divided points of cost.
Restraints emerge from cracks of magma dreams.
Through Heaven's clear facsimile they fly.
Remains of broken feathers caught in seams.
A rapid pull arranged the evening sky.
The power lines languish in bacon rows.
Omnivorous anchovies bite your nose.