Now You CDC Me, Now You Don’t

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Episode 73 of The HijiNKS ENSUE Podcast is up!

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MORE THE WALKING DEAD SPOILERS BELOW AND IN THE COMMENTS!!!

Wow. That episode, nay that short season of television was intense. This comic is actually quite a bit tamer that what I suggested to my wife the good doctor might do given his prolonged isolation and his knowledge of having mere seconds to live. NO! Not THAT. I just bet he would kindly excuse himself, walk over to the corner and whip it out. Being igniting the oxygen at 7000 degrees at the moment of climax is really the ultimate form of autoerotic asphyxiation. It’s also tons better than being found in the closet strung up by your belt, because even if you do it wrong there’s no evidence afterwards or mess to clean up. I’m just saying there are worse ways to go. Getting a chunk bitten out of your head comes to mind.

I actually assumed things were going to end much differently in the season 1 finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead. About 10 minutes in I got the feeling that Dr. Jenner, distraught over having lost all of his research, would infect one of the survivors, play it off as an accident, then suggest they study the body to find a cure. I was CERTAIN this was the case when the blond lady started throwing up. I couldn’t have been more wrong, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I wish more American TV would adopt this “get in, tell a story, get out” model. Six episodes is a possibly too brief (10 would have been nice), but this type of mentality would force the creators to focus on the meat (no pun) of the story, and prevent things like seasons 4-6 of LOST from happening in the future.

Your thoughts? Commentward HO!

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39 Comments

  1. "I wish more American TV would adopt this “get in, tell a story, get out” model"

    Amen to that. I've been watching me some BBC mystery/dramas lately and they do an extraordinarily good job of this. I think some of the U.S. cable shows are capable of this too (Dexter comes to mind – they have one major overarching plot line per season).

  2. I was right with you on the he is going to preform mad science on one or more of the survivors, and ultimately I am a bit underwhelmed with this episode. I will defiantly be back next season, the series as a whole has been really good. The finale just seemed a little flat to me.

  3. You might not be wrong about the blonde after all – they made a big show of her being sick, and her blood being drawn. My guess is the doc whispered “she’s infected, good luck with that,” to the sheriff as they were leaving. My other theories are that either her or the sheriff’s wife may be pregnant. Of course that whole whisper thing could just be a red herring.

      • Most likely, since that's what happened to Lori in the comic (Note: The show is quite different to the comic, so hardly a spoiler)

        • Season 1 of True Blood taught me that the way the book ends and the way the tv season ends can be different to suit the storyline. If nothing else, the writers have left themselves a number of ways to resolve that bit. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the whisper wasn’t even decided yet.

  4. That was a nice bit of misdirection they did with blondie. I was with you Joel, thought she was infected for sure.

    I'm hoping that, somewhere in the brainstorming for the series, that episode ended with everybody buying it in a bleak, horrible, sad way. I mean, if the show didn't do well, they could have had that ending ready to go.

    Picture it: no one gets out, our battered band of characters are pounding on the glass of the outer doors. Then, instead of a huge explosion, there's a release of Halon gas that kills everything. Then maybe a slow burn of anything organic inside the building. Soot stains the windows, and one or two tendrils of black smoke leak out of the roof vents.

    Final shot of the bodies of everyone we have come to care about, lying dead and desiccated on the floor of the CDC. Slow pull back of camera to outside of the building, which stands looking perfect, but deader inside than anything outside.

    …what? Too Whedonesque?

    • Nah, if it was Whedon they'd have the computer announce that a cure had been found only seconds after the mass deadening of the main cast. And then a tasteful fade to black accompanied by a hip indie track.

  5. …And Dr. Jenner whispers to Grimes as everyone but Jacqui flees their imminent doom, "I'm totally going to get this chick with a death wish to give me an old fashioned as soon as you guys leave…"

    Who's got (donation) money that the next consecutive comic will contain more boner-wanking?

  6. Actually I would have to disagree with you on the leanness of today's sci fi, I mean, take Babylon 5 for example, imagine if JMS only had 12 episodes per season to deal with all the plot lines that were introduced in that show.

    This to me is a perfect example of sci-fi and fantasy being given the short end of the stick while crap like desperate housewives get a full 22 episode season, and don't even try to argue about the cost of special effects. if anything Amanda Tappings "Sanctuary" has proven that a special effects heavy show can be done on a lean budget.

  7. Got to disagree…. not on telling the story but on lost ๐Ÿ˜› Seasons 2 and 3 where the seasons of Lost with the problem of network interference ๐Ÿ˜› 4-6 was when they were allowed to have an end date to work to ๐Ÿ™‚

    Hopefully they'll be even more successful with 13 eps nxt season; bit more time to develop characters

  8. As a fan of the original comic, I have to say I wish they would stick a bit more to the source work when it comes to the intelligence and memory of the Walkers (stone to break window and coming to the same house that you died in springs to mind), especially when they as good as say that they can't possibly be intelligent or have a memory in the most recent episode. Otherwise, I really do like what they are doing with the show. I will however, lose all respect for this show if I ever see a Walker using wire cutters to get through a fence rather that the shear unholy weight of massive undead numbers.

  9. Not to sound stalkerish, but you are the only person I follow on Twitter. Also, it seemed like the easiest way to log in here so my comment wouldn't get logged under "Generic Guest # 4". Lame reason I know, but I think sleep deprivation my have had a hand in it. After all I really do remember a demonic blue songbird attempting to take my soul citing some hidden clause in the fine print of the user agreement.

    • LOL Krandor, I live in the UK and I've already seen it! How have you not seen it yet?

      And also if you can't spot a spoiler warning when it's big, red and above the thing you're about to read then you really shouldn't use the internets.

      Was your comment needed?

      • LOL …really? So when you see something…what does that have to do with anyone else? Nothing. Maybe we work, have a family and cant see stuff immediately.
        You truly mean you read everything on a webpage? Indeed that is no mean feat of OCD behaviour. Congratulations to you.

        • You made a foolish mistake and got yourself worked up and now you want to take it out on others. I dont like your attitude. Your IP has been banned from commenting.

    • Wait, if you're writing this you CAN read, right? Am I just making assumptions here, or is there not a HUGE RED SPOILER BANNER above this comic?
      And Joel, HOW DARE YOU REVEAL THAT THERE IS A RED COUNTDOWN DISPLAY! Now poor Krandor knows everything that happens in the whole episode.

      • Ok, lets be clear o benign CAPS wanker. Next time there is a SPOILER warning lets put the SPOILER first in the text so it actually warns someone and not justs blends in to text blur that often is ignored since the title of the comic is not that funny generally.

  10. The bar I work at in Seattle was doing showings of the whole series on Sunday nights. My favorite part of the finale was probably everyone shouting at the TV to turn of the countdown clock and the mega computer while the characters were all worrying about wasting electricity. "There's not enough power, we're all going to die in 3 minutes! Computer, run a simulation of our deaths!"

  11. You were warned and you ignored the warning. your mistake, not mine. Treat me with that kind of disrespect in my comments again and Ill just ban you. I dont tolerate that kind of behavior on this site.

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