Post by Admin on Sept 5, 2016 5:19:54 GMT -6
this isn't so much a standard review as a quick batch of message board thoughts.
After a nicely cinematic wedding scene that sets up Elena and Hector's backstory, we finally get to Chris and Travis. Which I've kind of been both dreading and looking forward to.
I still find Travis' outlook super refreshing in the otherwise dog-eat-dog TWD universe.
I have to say, when they switched back to the hotel, I was kind of not into it. I don't think 209 did a particularly good job of stoking me up for that storyline. But the introduction of Elena, and a series of daring escapades for Alicia got me back on board.
The introduction of a new group seems to have Travis and Chris switching places. Travis, the more civil-society driven character, seems to shy away, while anti-social Chris seems drawn to them. While a switch, it really doesn't feel out of character for Travis.
Chris is another story. His character's "journey" from season 1 has been baffling at best. I can sort of see throughlines, but it feels like things established about his character were tossed out the window and other things added as needed for the story. And while those throughlines seem to exist, they don't seem to have been particularly emphasized or well utilized.
Chris is kind of the link for me to TWD. That series also feels sometimes like characters behave inorganically, turning on a dime to suit a particular thing that a particular writer wants to happen.
Many of the other characters feel a bit more solid than that to me.
Overall a pretty good episode. A step up from last week. Great opening sequence, nice closing sequences (Alicia, Elena and Hector's escape and the barn standoff with Chris and Travis). Again though, it's kind of oversell to intercut these sequences. I feel like whenever FTWD has something good in its grasp, it seems to always attempt to overproduce or overedit it in some way such that it is devalued.
It doesn't seem to know when to let something breathe and when to strap it down to the editing table.
In spite of those criticisms, good episode.
