Great news: Most annoying character on “The Walking Dead” now dead

Hot Air ^ | March 5, 2012 | Allahpundit

[DogByte6RER]

Great news: Most annoying character on “The Walking Dead” now dead

I made the title of the post ambiguous in case any readers Tivo’d it and haven’t watched yet, but c’mon. We all know who I’m talking about. Realistically, it could only be one of two people: Either Sophia’s mopey mom, whose name I still don’t know, or that endlessly whining bleeding heart Dale. (Alas, the screencap AMC chose for the clip embedded below gives it away.) Now that some of the dead weight is being shed, I take it poor underused T-Dog is next. Or maybe Herschel’s other daughter, who tried to kill herself a few episodes ago? As with Sophia, until that plotline unspooled, I had no idea that character even existed. I wonder which barely-there member of the ensemble will be next to be suddenly thrust to center stage in the expectation that anyone watching cares a whit about them.

Incidentally, the kill scene here is dumb on several levels. How did Dale not hear it coming in the still of the night? These things growl constantly every time they’re onscreen, which isn’t often. How did the zombie disembowel him with his bare hands? (Admittedly, that’s happened in Romero movies too.) Tacking it on at the end right after the big dramatic climax with the prisoner made it feel random and haphazard, a zombie ex machina to get rid of the character before people start tuning out in sheer irritation at his do-good-ism. Then again, all’s well that ends well — and this certainly ended well. And in fairness, they did a brilliant job with the scene of Rick’s son tossing rocks at the zombie stuck in the mud. For all the grating soap-opera melodrama, there are sporadic flashes of genius in how the show captures the pathos of the zombies’ predicament. The scene of that zombie snarling from the end of a noose was the best thing about the first half of this season. Having little Carl amuse himself by humiliating a zombie who’s helpless in front of him was a more affecting moment of dehumanization than the entire Shane storyline. More of that and fewer weepy “here’s mah pappy’s timepiece” exchanges between Glenn and Herschel, please.

[DogByte6RER]

I cannot disagree with Allahpundit ... the Dale character was a nosey gun grabber. He did make for some good zombie food though.

[DogByte6RER]

Watch the scene at

http://www.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/videos/talked-about-scene-episode-211-the-walking-dead-dale

[SnakeDoctor]

Dale served a purpose. With the exception of that stupid gun-theft stunt, he pretty much served as Rick’s conscience ... and the conscience of several others (Glenn, Andrea, T-Dog, Lori).

Just there to give another opinion that contrasts to Daryl, Rick and Shane, I guess.

It’ll be interesting to see if some of the group follows Shane into insanity with Dale gone. Or if Rick loses his mind without that little voice on his shoulder nagging him at every turn. Shane is the devil on one of Rick’s shoulders, Dale was the angel on the other.

Daryl seems to be the only one that knows what he’s doing, and can still keep his sanity.

SnakeDoc

[DogByte6RER]

ping

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Oh wow I forgot this show was back on. I watched last season where the farmers relatives all became Democrats all he kept them locked in the barn, and the asian guy wins the lottery and gets to nail the farmers daughter.

[unkus]

I predicted that Dale would get it. I thought Shane would take him out but it wasn’t to be. Dale should have known that a high powered rifle with a scope was the wrong weapon to have for protection on a dark night.

[ZOOKER]

Sci-Fi movies typically include the older father figure/professor/wise sage in the cast, but not two.

With the addition of Herschel they had one too many. I expected one or the other to be written out, but didn't know which.

[tumblindice]

http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead/cast/dale

Dale got zombie-gutted? I have an `Inspector Gadget’ hat just like his ... that’s too bad. About Dale, that is, not his hat. He’s a stock Stephen King movie character.
I lost interest/stopped watching when Shane was teasing the zombies outside the bus by smearing his blood on the door. And too much yakking, not enough hacking.

[faucetman]

Rick should have left Shane on that school bus. Shane, by far the most irritating person on that show. I can only watch the show recorded. That way I can FF past all the “feelings” parts and just watch the zombie parts.

[Vince Ferrer]

Has any of these characters discussed just locking themselves up in a grocery store for a month or two, safely passing the time with plenty to eat, while the zombies decompose away outside?

I like a good zombie movie as much as anyone, but no one in a zombie movie seems to realize that time is totally on their side.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Most annoying character on “The Walking Dead” now dead

They're all annoying. The first season was OK, but this season has done the impossible - it's turned the Zombie Apocalypse into a hideously boring soap opera where all the characters do nothing but talk each other to death. I stopped watching when I started rooting for the zombies.

[unkus]

I stopped watching when I started rooting for the zombies.

---

LOL That’s when I should have stopped watching. Now I’ll stick it out.

[DogByte6RER]

I like that idea about the barricaded grocery store ...

I’ve also wondered, why the two cops (Rick and Shane) can’t figure out to acquire/manufacture some silencers and load some subsonic ammo. Then they could shoot away without drawing any attention.

This is probably more a reflection on the Hollywood writers who are clueless about firearms and ammo loads.

[tumblindice]

Gimme a `B’! Gimme an `R’! And an `A’! `I’! `N’! `S’!
What’s that spell?
WHAT’S that SPELL?!
BRAINS!
Gooooooo Zombies!

Yup, it’s something like the Einsteins in `The Mist’. All they had to do was sit tight—they were in a **grocery store** for cryin’ out loud.
(”Hey, let’s turn on some flood lights and get a good look at these Canadian geese-sized bugs!”
“But won’t they be attracted by the light?”
“That’s OK, we’re going to ... set them on fire!”)

[Secret Agent Man]

I knew he was dying this episode after his stupid “I don’t want to live in a world like this” speech.

[Secret Agent Man]

He wasn’t teasing them, he was using that to off them one by one to be able to escape from the bus, eventually.

[fr_freak]

The writers of "The Walking Dead" have managed to accomplish two things that I thought were impossible: 1) make a show about a zombie apocalypse boring as hell, and 2) make me root for the zombies. Virtually every character in the show is dumb as a post with the exception of maybe 2. They fight like kindergarteners over everything, even when it doesn't make sense to fight. The Dale character was like the Alan Alda of the zombie apocalypse; every single thing these people do to ensure their survival is unacceptable to Dale because it means "we become just like them!" I actually cheered when Dale was killed, then I slapped myself in the face for being dumb enough to still be watching this horrible show, but I suppose there is a deeply recessed part of my brain that clings to the belief that zombie shows simply can't be boring, even more tightly than I cling to my Bible and my guns, and thus, I tune in (well, I download, eheheheh) every week, fully awash in my delusion.

My only regret about the last episode is that Dale, after having subjected the innocent viewer to nearly 40 minutes of sniveling and every cliche except "no blood for oil", wasn't bludgeoned to death by his groupmates in a slow painful manner befitting such a whining, bedwetting, walking wall of fail. I think that a redemption, of sorts, for all of the other nearly intolerable mental midgets which comprise our hapless survivors, could have been achieved by a mass epiphany wherein they vote Dale off the island by means of a tsunami of Louisville Sluggers to his brain pan, thereby eliminating both the threat of gene pool contamination and reanimation in one fell swoop. However, such a scene would have required a screenwriter or two whose experience with the struggle to survive was more than just his weekly intravenous shot of AZT.

Also, it would be rather wonderful if the casting directors of this epic, set in Georgia, could find at least one or two individuals who can actually approximate a southern accent. Listening to the main characters puke out their Japanese-Saturday-morning-cartoon version of a Georgia drawl is like listening to two rabid cats fighting while scratching their claws on a chalkboard with Cher singing "Do You Believe in Love?" in the background.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

You Dale-haters are nuts. He was the only character with a level head on his shoulders and could talk some sense into these morons.

[21twelve]

I was hoping that Carl (the kid) would slip and fall. And the pistol he had stolen and shoved in his pants would go off and cripple him. And then the zombie would finish him off.

Oh well.

Dale served his purpose well.

Oh - and the guy they captured should have been hanged for attempted murder.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... but no one in a zombie movie seems to realize that time is totally on their side."

Quite right. And they've always got to 'get somewhere'. There are unassailable zombie-proof places in every town and big city. Hell, you could live inside a Costco indefinitely, and if it's near a Home Depot, you'd be invincible for the duration of the zombie pandemic.

What galls me about this series is that they're tooling around in crappy high mileaqe vehicles like that lousy motor home and old Chevy farm trucks from the '60s -- yet they've passed up perfectly good Stryker/LAV-25 AFVs and HMMWVs just sitting around. I could teach a teenager to drive either one in ten minutes, and the LAV-25 is going to have 1000-meter magnified thermal sights, an M240 Golf, and a 25mm Bushmaster cannon. It can even swim in water, for God's sake. That baby towing a tank trailer full of diesel fuel, and any zombie hordes coming up on you are gonna get told.