The Strange World of Thomas P. Coombe

The Walking Dead: Dig Your Own Hole

People in The Walking Dead (the comic book series) die. A lot. In fact, my major criticism of the book's
early days is that a combination of an overpopulated cast and trigger-happy writer Robert Kirkman made a lot of these deaths hard to keep track of, let alone care about.

 But I think Kirkman's gotten A LOT better as the series has gone on, so much so that he was able to take one of those early, almost throw-away deaths from early in the comic's run and turn it into something more affecting with his teleplay for "Vatos."

 

Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?

I was supposed to be working earlier, until a friend asked this question on Facebook: Do you guys think Batman is a vigilante or a superhero.

 I will turn 34 in a few days, and yet I spent a good portion of this evening arguing my case (he's a superhero). What follows is a transcript of the discussion that followed, involving me and my friends Jerry, Phil and Frank:

 

 Phil: Shannon and I are having a debate: She says Batman is a superhero; and I say, since he doesn't have super powers, he's a vigilante. 

Jerry: But he has access to "super" equipment. As he's stronger, faster, more agile, smarter, and with more stamina than the average person, the equipment makes up for any shortcomings and pushes him over the edge. He couldn't take on a tank like Superman, but he could probably take out a company of soldiers without anyone knowing he was there.

Fringe: The Men in the Iron Mask

I went into "The Abducted" expecting it to move the Olivia/Fauxlivia storyline along quite a bit.

 And although that didn't happen, it's hard to complain about an episode this well done. A very tense, creepy hour. Take it out of the parallel universe context, and it would have been a strong season one episode, back when this show's monster-of-the-week installments were a lot more frequent (and usually hit and miss).

 The monster -- or monsters -- in this case were members of a church abducting children for a series of bizarre experiments that cured diseases and reversed aging, but turned their test subjects into withered, sickly shells.

 Because I expected the last half of the episode to mostly be about Olivia trying to cross back over, I was surprised when the There's Actually TWO Bad Guys twist popped up. And I was willing to forgive Fringe resorting to the Sympathetic Witness Is In Danger trope, because of the way it complicated Olivia's relationship with Alt-Broyles.

 All the same, I'm looking forward to where this all leads in two weeks, where we spend time in both worlds, with both versions of Olivia in way over their heads.

 Other thoughts:

•  I sort of wish we'd seen a little more of Andre Royo's Henry. Maybe next week.
• Notice that Over There spells "Manhatan" differently. Or the Fringe graphics department screwed up.
• Is there a President of the alternate United States, or is Walter running everything?

 Tom Coombe

 

The Walking Dead: Up on the Roof

"There's us and the dead." -- Rick Grimes

 If only it were that simple. Rick's commitment to maintaining order and togetherness is noble, but even three episodes in, we can tell that it's a little naive. If I were him, I'd be a lot more worried about the wife-beating Ed, Merle and Daryl (and their other brother Daryl?), or even the increasingly isolated Shane.

 Eventually, the zombies on this show are going to have fade into the background, the way they have in the comic. I'm not saying that with any inside knowledge, or arguing that this series needs to be a direct adaptation. (In fact, I think it's worked as well as it has so far by branching out.)

 But zombies will get kind of exhausting after, say, 2 hours or so. (In other words, the pilot and the second episode.) Give us some human antagonists though, and things get a little more interesting. That's why I think the third episode was the best one so far: it eased back a bit and gave us a chance to get to know a lot more of the cast, yet it never felt all that slow.

 Then again, a show that begins with a desperate, crazed man handcuffed to a roof and ends with said man's severed hand is never going to be accused of being slow. Also, nice job by Frank Darabont and Michael Rooker in making us -- or me anyway -- care about Merle in that opening scene.

 I'm told there was a line in the previous hour explaining that the hacksaw wouldn't cut through the handcuffs, but I don't remember hearing it. At any rate, assuming Merle survived his self-amputation, I doubt he'll be all that happy to see his rescuers.

 Other thoughts:

•  Is it too soon to dub Glenn the Hurley of The Walking Dead?
• "Go back to On Golden Pond." Not bad, Daryl.
• Another good moment: Rick's breakdown when he sees Carl. 
• Interesting that Shane told Lori that Rick had died. The show is doing a better job in establishing the tension between these characters than the comic did, but then again, it has more time to work with. 
• Another comic/TV show difference: this version of Andrea is quite a bit older than the comic's version, not that it's a big deal. Plus Laurie Holden shared the screen with Michael Chiklis in one of the The Shield's best scenes ever, so I'll overlook a lot when it comes to her.

  Tom Coombe

 

Fringe: What's the Frequency, Kevin?

 

 When all is said and done, I'm not totally sure "6955 kHz" made sense. This week's evil scheme involved an agent from the other side (played by Kevin Weisman, who portrayed a much more benevolent tech geek on Alias) broadcasting a strange frequency that wiped out people's memories. 

 Eerie, yes, and dangerous (losing your memory while you're flying a plane doesn't bode well for the rest of the trip). But the end result was apparently to get Peter, Walter, etc. to dig up the pieces of Walternate's machine. Wasn't there an easier way?

 Still, I enjoyed it a lot more than last week's episode. Goofy or not, the case was pretty creepy (I'm a sucker for unexplained transmission stories), and even a little poignant, as Walter found himself sympathizing with the woman who lost her memory. Plus there were a lot of neat little touches: Astrid basically solving the case, Nina and Walter smoking a joint together and reminiscing about their wild college days, the tension between Peter and Walter, and Peter's resolve to find a third way beyond the "one universe must die for the other to live" theory.

 Most importantly: we're ready for the Olivia/Fauxlivia showdown next week. Liv just realized her time "Over There" is almost up, just as her doppleganger is coming closer and closer to cracking. Next week could be a high point for what's already been a fine, fine season for Fringe.

 Other thoughts:

• Did you notice that when we saw that woman punch in the numbers to her computer, they were ones from Lost's famous sequence (8, 15 and 42)? A lot of this episode felt kind of like the writers throwing a bone to Lost fans. Peter even talks about finding out "what the numbers mean" at one point.
• Also, numbers station are a real phenomenon. Click here if you feel like being freaked out for a while.
• Cool shot: after the shapeshifter falls out the window, we see the sky/building reflected in the pool of mercury that spills out of him.
• Walter was a bit too freaked out this week to be really funny. Still: "If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake." Astrid: "He really would have. Literally."

 Tom Coombe

The Walking Dead: Dig In

Part of me likes the way The Walking Dead (the TV series) isn't sticking plot point-by-plot point to The Walking Dead (the comic book). It's nice not being able to predict everything that's going to happen, and it allows writer Frank Darabont to give us scenes like the one in last night's episode where Rick gives a little eulogy for the corpse he's about to use to throw the walkers off. (Andrew Lincoln is really good in this role, by the way.)

 At the same time, I think "Guts" might have worked a little bit better had it not introduced a bunch of characters that don't appear in the comic and probably won't be around very long. (This isn't based on any foresight into what's coming; it's just that the cast only has so many names in it, and other than Glen and Andrea, none of the other folks Rick meets in Atlanta are on it.)

 So rather than spending time with all these bland, disposal characters, I would have rather spent the whole episode with just Rick and Glen, or -- better still -- learn a bit more about the folks Shane, Lori and Carl are traveling with. This show can't just be Man Vs. Zombie every week. The drama will eventually have to come mostly from the characters, so it would be nice to start getting to know some of them.

 Other thoughts:

 

•  I guess the acid bath from season one of Breaking Bad no longer holds the title of "grossest scene on an AMC drama."
• Hey, it's Michael Rooker playing a hateful southerner. Maybe Zeljko Ivanek can show up next week to play a creepy white collar guy.
• I really, really want to stop making comic-to-show comparisons, but like I said last week, this is the first non-superhero comic series that I like to be successfully adapted for TV. As such, it has me thinking a lot about how -- again, this assumes they don't deviate from the comic at all -- Darabont and co. will handle the book's overwhelming bleakness. Let's hope they're watching Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead as much as they are Romero movies.

 

 Tom Coombe

Fringe: He Ain't Frozen, He's My Brother

   
I've been enjoying Fringe's universe jumping all season, but this week's episode featured the first case-of-the-week that just didn't work for me. Nor was I all that interested in the attempt to tie the twin brothers' story into the larger two Olivias plotline.

 

 Compared to shapeshifters, the guy who could predict the outcome of any given situation the week before that, and that box that melted people's brains the week before that, Olivia foiling a bankrobber isn't all that compelling. I was far more interested in the notion that the people encased in the amber -- one of the more horrific notions this show has given us -- are basically alive and aware the whole time. 

Still, in terms of moving the overall story of the season along, this episode worked. Any doubts Olivia has about where she really comes from are erased by the time the hour is up; next week, we'll see how her doppleganger is handling her own cover, hopefully in the midst of a more interesting case.

 

 Other thoughts:

•  It's good to see the rules of movie/TV CPR apply in the alternate universe: if you pound on someone's chest with enough desperation, they'll come back to life.
• An interesting call-back to season one tonight, as Olivia goes into an isolation tank to try to cross over. Of course, the folks "Over There" have much better technology -- Walter's season one tank looked like it was made of sheet metal -- so Olivia takes a much longer journey.
• Ghost Peter is a pretty nifty way to keep the entire cast working in each episode.
• I wonder if we'll get an episode where Walternate gets as much screen time as regular Over Here Walter. It's neat seeing John Noble play a version of the character that commands this much respect (notice how Olivia sits up straight when he walks into the room.)
• So, which New York City thoroughfare is "Nixon Drive" supposed to be?

 Tom Coombe

The Walking Dead Premiere: Page-to-Screen

When the world of comic books mostly meant superheroes with a long history – the the X-Men and Batmen of the world – it was OK to turn their stories into feature length movies. 

 You could introduce the characters, tell a fairly complete story, and if all went well, return with a sequel. There would be no definitive way to handle, say, Spiderman. 

 But in the last few decades, comics began to change, with more and more creators introducing characters with finite stories, the type of stories that – when adapted – need to be told in a longer form.

 These are comics – titles like Brian K. Vaughn’s epic, brilliant Y: The Last Man, or the Luna Brothers excellent miniseries Girls and The Sword – that make you think “This would make a great TV show.”

 Which brings us to The Walking Dead. It's too early to tell whether it will make a great TV show, although Sunday night's premiere was certainly a great pilot. It was tense, moving and scary, and I'd argue that it did a much better job in fleshing out protagonist Rick Grimes than the comic had at this point. Andrew Lincoln -- a British actor effectively hiding his accent -- seems like a good choice to play Rick, a character for whom (assuming we stick to the comic) things are going to get much, much worse from here on out.

 At the same time, I'm itching to get past this initial man vs. zombie stuff and move into what makes the comic so compelling: how the human characters relate to each other, and the idea that other people are a far greater threat than the undead.

 Tom Coombe