The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 1, episode 2 recap – “The Blaze of Gory”

After the disappointing premiere, I can’t say I expected The Walking Dead: World Beyond to get much better, but I certainly didn’t expect it to get this much worse. “The Blaze of Gory” is, to me, this franchise at its most difficult to tolerate, full of stupidity, lazy storytelling, played-out drama, and second-hand ideas.

At least in the campus setting the supposed teen focus was there; there was something different about a show being set so far into the apocalypse that some of the children had never killed a walker of their own before. I say “walker” since that’s the longstanding franchise nomenclature, but here they’re called “empties” for no reason at all.

That’s actually where The Walking Dead: World Beyond episode 2 begins, with Iris trying – and failing – to kill a single zombie while flashing back to lessons from the campus about how to do so; lessons she obviously never paid attention to. We are much, much too far into this franchise’s lifespan to be making a big deal of killing zombies. We spent years watching characters learn how to do this expertly. To return to the easy drama of kids being barely able to stave off a single shambling corpse feels like an absurdly lazy way to create “tension”.

Also lazy: Flashbacks. I watch an awful lot of television, far more than the average person, and yet I can’t remember the last show I watched that didn’t include flashbacks. Their usage can be justified, of course, but historically, The Walking Dead at its absolute worst would lean against flashbacks and other structural gimmicks to obscure the fact that it really had no story to tell. In “The Blaze of Gory”, the flashbacks pertain to Felix, who, along with Huck, is pursuing the kids. We see his father kick him out of the house for coming out as gay. We see the family fall apart. We see his recollections of the earliest days of the apocalypse. And so on, and so forth.

The titular Blaze of Gory is an endless tire fire that lures walkers with its noise and light, keeping most of them out of the way but standing as a monument to the ruination of the world. The kids are heading towards it and plan to pass right by it, but of course, they’re sidetracked by their complete inability to handle even the most minute of threats, although I’ll concede that insect-spewing hive-head zombie makes for a nice visual.

I’ll even concede that the treehouse the gang takes shelter and plays Monopoly in is very on-brand if we’re really pretending this is a teen-focused show. They have the high ground in there, luckily, so they’re safe from threats, but Hope predictably – and idiotically – tries to handle the walker problem herself and almost pays the price for it. This, I suppose, is the problem of doing a teen drama in the Walking Dead universe – teenagers are even dumber than adults.

Speaking of dumb, Iris talks the gang into going right through the walkers amassing by the Blaze of Gory. Elton is particularly irritating in this back half of The Walking Dead: World Beyond episode 2. His chirpy nihilism – not to mention that awful, awful suit – is just really ill-fitting on such a young character. There’s arguably a compelling idea in the discussion about the end of the world, but the stiffness of the writing undermines it; I never bought the idea that Elton is just resigned to the demise of humanity as a mathematical inevitability.

Of course, we build towards a rather unearned cliffhanger, with Hope making another stupid decision that it seems pointless going into. Stupidity seems to be this show’s whole thing, and not in a way that feels like an intentional critique of the youth or anything like that. It’s just a boring consequence of bad writing, the same patterns of idiocy that the shows under Gimple always seem to fall into. I haven’t yet reached the point where I hate this show and wish all the characters ill – besides Elton, obviously – though I feel like we’re going to get there sooner rather than later.

THE WALKING DEAD: WORLD BEYOND is the most recent side project from The Walking Dead. This is, obviously, the subsequent side project after Fear The Walking Dead which began alright and even turned out to be superior to the first series for some time.

For me, this most recent side project series which apparently includes the original naturally introduced to the world of zombies is only dumb from various perspectives!

Such a large amount of the world, we're given in The Walking Dead: World Beyond just appears to be a bypassed Disney-fied adaptation. Life appears to be ordinary from numerous points of view, where each young lady has impeccable eyebrows and you can print immense pennants like it was the 2020 Presidential mission and not a dystopian world.

Additionally, these children who ought to be raised with the information on the fact that it is so imperative to secure yourself and retaliate appear… well, as ruined children nearly. Furthermore, one of these children appears to nearly be accountable for the city, they live in. It's all extremely unusual and causes TWD: World Beyond to appear as though a series made for an exceptionally youthful crowd.

A first episode (or pilot, maybe) has one employment truly; To make you intrigued and inquisitive enough to return for the following episode the next week. At the end of the day, the pilot should make you need to continue viewing. This TWD: World Beyond pilot certainly didn't do this for me.

Try not to misunderstand me, I will watch another episode. However, I have positively no expectations of appreciating it.

One thing from episode 1 of The Walking Dead: World Beyond did truly stand apart for me; The melody played a few times which I am trusting will be the real signature tune for the series.

Indeed, in light of the main episode, the best aspect of this new series was the tune "Fiend" by PJ Harvey. The expansion of this melody alone lifted the pilot episode which in any case opposed a great deal of logic.

I am constantly amped up for anything partnered with The Walking Dead because of how great the show used to be. Nowadays, observing most things identified with the establishment will in general frustrate, yet I should concede this was an extraordinary failure. So little bodes well in TWD: World Beyond that it just opposes any logic.

Watch The Walking Dead: World Beyond on AMC or Amazon Prime Video

Scott M. Gimple and Matthew Negrete are the makers of TWD: World Beyond. Both have composed on episodes of the first series also. Likewise, they have both functioned as essayists on the enlivened series Fillmore! which was additionally made by Scott M. Gimple. It's likewise referred to just as Disney's Filmore!

From the earliest starting point, it was uncovered this new side project will have only two seasons. Season 1 has 11 episodes and I likely will wind up watching it, since we definitely realize it integrates with the first series (and in this way additionally Fear the Walking Dead). I just truly trust it will improve while moving beyond this fairly dull pilot episode.

I have no clue about who the objective segment for this series is, however I am truly trusting it should be somebody like me. Which means, a grown-up devotee of the first show. In the event that it was, at that point it certainly fizzled and that would simply be a damn disgrace.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond premiered on AMC October 4, 2020, and on Amazon Prime Video in Australia, the UK, and other European nations.

Plot

The series is set ten years after the zombie apocalypse, in Nebraska. Two sisters and two friends leave a place of protection and comfort on an essential journey to brave dangers, known and unknown, living and undead.

A tale of growing up and transformation unfurls through dangerous terrain, confronting everything they know about the world, themselves and each other, pursued by those who want to protect them and those who want to hurt them.

Some are going to become heroes. Some are going to become villains. Both of them will be changed forever in the end. Grown-up and cemented, both good and bad, in their identities.