Season 1:
Having watched episode 7, I'm raising my rating from 5 to 6.
Having watched episode 6, I raised my rating from a 4 to 5.
What happened?
A better director and better writers.
And, of course Ted Sutherland as Percy and Scott Adsit as Tony continued their roles.
Michael Cudlitz brings a significant upgrade in directing and overall experience in film.
Maya Goldsmith and EddieSeason 1:
Having watched episode 7, I'm raising my rating from 5 to 6.
Having watched episode 6, I raised my rating from a 4 to 5.
What happened?
A better director and better writers.
And, of course Ted Sutherland as Percy and Scott Adsit as Tony continued their roles.
Michael Cudlitz brings a significant upgrade in directing and overall experience in film.
Maya Goldsmith and Eddie Guzelian provided better writing.
It's very interesting to see a series improve like this.
Episode 7 was a lot about Annet Mahendru as Jennifer "Huck" Mallick. Some of her scenes I would rate as high as 8 - but, some as low as 4. She is struggling with her interpretation of a female US Marine. When she isn't portraying the tough side of her Marine character, she turns out some very good acting. The showrunner (Matthew Negrete) needs to find some budget to bring in an acting coach to teach Mahendru how to portray a tough Marine vet character.
As I've said frequently, I've learned not to judge a series too quickly in its first season.
By the way, Hal Cumpston (playing Silas Plaskett) shows potential as an actor. I'm thinking he might have a good career as an actor. It looks like he will have a bigger role in episode 8 (based on the previews) and it will be interesting to see how that works out.
************************************************
I've watched episode 6 and I'm updating my review.
In episode 6, two new characters are introduced:
Ted Sutherland as Percy
Scott Adsit as Tony
These are significant improvements over existing actors and could possibly be strong enough to save the series from termination.
I'll give credit to the writing and the directing for these two new characters also.
I don't like beating up on aspiring actors - but, Aliyah Royale as Iris Bennett is horribly miscast, badly directed, poorly written and damages the series. Aliyah may be a perfectly fine actor - but, this role in this series is not good for her career.
Episode 6 demonstrate that this series could be much, much better. I have found often that it takes a new series a while to find its edge.
I'm going to raise my rating to a 5 in hopes that improvement continues.
***************************************************
A G-rated version of The Walking Dead is boring.
"The Walking Dead: World Beyond" is a version of the zombie genre Walking Dead franchise oriented to a young teen demographic.
I'm an adult - so, it's difficult for me to put myself in the place of a 13 year old watching this series - but, I really did not find it very compelling.
First the acting...
The four teen character leads are played by accomplished actors to varying degree of success.
Nicolas Cantu (playing Elton Ortiz) is by far the more interesting of the four lead actors playing one of the 4 teen character roles.
The next 2, Alexa Mansour (playing Hope Bennet) and Hal Cumpston (playing Silas Plaskett) are just OK.
Aliyah Royale (playing Iris Bennett) was painfully boring - which was not entirely her fault... a lot of the problem is the writing and directing.
Part of the problem is that the thinking of a a normal teenager is not particularly compelling. And the idea of putting 4 normal, typical, young, bland teenagers in a zombie environment is kind-of a boring thing to watch. Obviously it can be made interesting - but, these characters are written as a G-rated to PG-rated types - and, that doesn't leave a lot of room for compelling character development. The blood-and-gore of zombie genre in and of itself is not particularly interesting. It is all the other aspects of life that drive a good zombie story. If the producers of this series thing the blood-and-gore of zombies will make this series successful - they are mistaken.
It's difficult for young adults to play the role of young teenagers. In fact, I sometimes think older, more accomplished actors pull off some of the aspects of young teen roles better.
It isn't really fair to watch just one episode and make a judgement about a series. It is not uncommon for a new series to take an entire first season to develop into a quality product.
I think I may try a few more episode and perhaps I'll come back and give a higher rating.
Who knows... maybe young teenagers may like this series. I may be the wrong demographic.… Expand
The Walking Dead: World BeyondYour Score0 out of 10User Score
