I’ve known a few racists, including some pretty vile ones, and here’s the thing: none of the ones I’ve known here in Georgia (where the show is set) would call a black man a “nigger” to his face. Believe it or not, even racists would regard that as rude. (And that’s on top of the “taco bender” remark directed at the other guy. Because I guess the writers thought they weren’t making it clear enough that Merle is a bigot.)
If they wanted to show racism more realistically, Merle might have muttered something racist under his breath to Rick, and then proceeded to pick a fight with the black guy.
Or not. I really think it’s pretty cliched that you have a show set in the South and therefore there must be a racist character. The character apparently wasn’t in the comics. Merle is an add-on, and I wonder about the thought process that went into the insertion of that character into the plot.
I like the show overall, but Merle and the wife-beater character don’t speak well of the writers, and it makes me worry about what will happen if the show lasts long enough to move beyond the storyline of the comics (which apparently have very good plotting and character development).
I’ve known a few racists, including some pretty vile ones, and here’s the thing: none of the ones I’ve known here in Georgia (where the show is set) would call a black man a “nigger” to his face. Believe it or not, even racists would regard that as rude. (And that’s on top of the “taco bender” remark directed at the other guy. Because I guess the writers thought they weren’t making it clear enough that Merle is a bigot.)
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I know this is a repeat, but the guy was sky high on cocaine. It lowers your inhibitions, so if you might mutter something unpleasant when sober, when high, you would be shouting it.
And from the ramblings on the rooftop, it seems he has had a history with anger management issues in the army/service/whatever.
I pretty much agree with this. They are taking dramatic shortcuts when they don’t need to.
That being said, my wife and I nearly cried during the scene when the truck came back and Rick saw his family for the first time.
They can really nail it when they want to.
My guess is Merle has some serious child abuse issues. Combine learning the lesson that the weak have to knuckle under to the strong, and the narcississtic view that you’re never in the wrong, it’s everyone else persecuting you- and you pretty much end up with someone like Merle. His ranting about “I won’t beg” seems revealing.
The two-dimensional racist/wifebeater issue aside, one thing that stands out for me is that there are so few African-American characters, either living or zombiefied. As of 2009, Atlanta was 51.4% African American - there should be MORE visible African-Americans either in the zombie hordes staggering about, or in the camp of survivals.
We may see more of them in the “gang” encounter in next week’s episode, but in the trailer, the gang leader looks Hispanic, although I only saw him very briefly
These issues speak to the Hollywood meme where stressfull situations always bring out the worst in people, at least at first. In real life that is not usually the case at all.
I hope we aren’t going to end up with a cast of 2 dimensional cliche characters. I am encouraged by the development of Shane, who may be an asshole in the end, but is clearly torn about the return of his assumed to be dead best friend. He was building a relationship with the son, Carl, and now he can’t even have that.
And then there is the whole ‘boning his buddy’s wife’ thing that has to be addressed.
But 2 dimensional rednecks are not going to cut it with me as far as story development goes. Merle knows it was the ‘black dude’ who came back with the handcuff key, nobody else. He screwed it up, but he was the one that came back. The only one who even tried.
I think that there is great possibility for this show, but only if they throw the original comic book out the window.
Everything about Merle and Daryl was pure Southern redneck stereotype, from the clothing to the speech to the names.
It would be fine if the racist had some stereotypical characteristics. But to make him have all of them is just lame.
Off the top of my head–They could have put him in preppy clothes. Or they could have made him from the north. Or they could have made him an educated professional type. Or they could have made the character female. Or they could have had him be one of those jerks that try to justify their racism with pseudoscience instead of having him holler “nigger” all over the place.
Instead they went the cheap and lazy route and really undercut themselves.
I find the line readings by Jeffrey DeMunn as Dale, the old guy with the tools, to be very stilted. It seems like he’s in a different production than the rest of the cast.
I want to like this show…I really do. But there’s just too much suspension of disbelief required.
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[li]So it never occurred to the other cop to go raid the armory at the police station?[/li][li]They have limited guns and ammo? You’re kidding me, right? Hell I don’t live that far south and there are probably 2 dozen places to get guns and ammo within a 10 minute drive of me. [/li][li]While I understand that the first thing you’d do after being re-united with your family is to just hold then. Then absolute second thing I’d be doing is asking what the fuck happened? Is it just around us? In the US only? Western Hemisphere? Global? Someone should know something more than just “The zombies are comin!”[/li][li]While I can understand that a rampaging zombie horde is disconcerting, has anyone that’s written any of these stories actually seen what modern automatic weapons can do to a human body? While a tank may not be a lot of help, an AC-130 gun ship would tear that mob to little zombie bits in about 30 seconds. [/li][li]Ok, so it looks like the only reason nobody has killed the wife beater and racist brothers is because the rest of the group is basically a bunch of helpless wimps? With the exception of Shane (I think that’s the name of the cop buddy), none of the other male charaters are what you would consider survivor material.[/li][li]So it seems like they don’t have a huge amount of ammo, or don’t want to use it because the noise attracts the zombies, but it hasn’t occurred to anyone to get more crossbows, or regular bows? True we have no idea how long has passed, but I sure as shit would have been looking at options before now. What’s they’re plan? Sit in the quarry until someone else does something else to save them?[/li][li]Somehow the wife didn’t look all that reluctant in her banging of the other guy, that doesn’t strike me as a lot of realism there. [/li][/ul]
I could go on and on. Sure I know it’s a zombie movie and requires some suspension of disbelief, but man, does nobody that survives in any of these shows have a fucking clue?
-I thought that the armory was mostly empty, but that Rick scavenged what was left. Also, there might have been a panicked “bug out” where they didn’t have the time to leisurely plan what to take.
-How much guns and ammo are in places not swarming with zombies?
-The writers have deliberately steered away (so far) from detailing the apocalypse. Right now it’s about the aftermath. I do hope some backstory gets filled in eventually.
-At some point the organization breaks down, where even military units can’t maintain cohesiveness anymore. If the system was overwhelmed before it could mount an effective defense, superior point firepower wouldn’t matter.
-Civilized habits die hard, like not killing people just because they’re assholes. That will probably change.
-If this is 5-6 weeks after the world’s gone down the toilet, probably they still haven’t adjusted to thinking in long-term survival mode.
-To get her to leave the town where Rick was in the hospital in a coma, Shane told her Rick was dead. So she thought she was a widow, and was pissed when she found out it wasn’t true.