'The Walking Dead: World Beyond', Episode 6 – 'Shadow Puppets'

A little late in the day but I was teaching my six year old daughter to ride her bike and that took up a large chunk of the day in the end. It was awesome seeing her ride for the first time and seeing her smile when she realised that she was doing it :o) And here I am then, with half an hour to get some words onto the blog before it turns Sunday... Lets do this.

Last week really felt like a big change for 'Wider World' and how it was telling it's story. Things were starting to actually happen and there was the promise of a potentially 'group fracturing' event on the horizon. After four episodes of cool moments followed by not a lot, this was what I needed to see and it gave me hope that things were starting to look up. At the same time though, 'Wider World' has form for taking a step forwards followed by two back, in terms of storytelling, so I was left feeling a little apprehensive at the same time. I was halfway through the season though so of course I was going to watch. And what 'Wider World' did I get? Not as bad as I'd feared but not great though...

At the end of the last episode, the group met a stranger in the woods; now he's promising them a faster journey but only if they help him first. Can he be trusted though...?

'Shadow Puppets' maintains a little bit of the momentum, built up in the previous episode, but sacrifices more momentum in the name of spending time, once again, looking at how our teenage travellers are still just teenagers trying to deal with that as well as survive in this new world. Because we clearly haven't been told this enough over the previous five episodes. I'm at the point now where I'm like, 'I get it! Now show us how they actually deal with the realities of this world instead of just mooning about'.

To be fair, there are some interesting things that come out of this approach, mostly that Iris' relentless optimism and trust takes a little bit of knock as she finally starts to understand that life outside the walls, of her home, will take a bite out of those who are too trusting. I feel bad for being glad that she has finally seen this but she really needed to, for the sake of the show and also so that she can stand a better chance in the wilderness. More of a slow burner, but just as interesting, is Silas having to deal with feeling jealous, I'm guessing for the first time. Dude is going to explode soon and the group had better make sure he is pointed at some zombies when it happens.

So once again, a slightly misplaced focus hold things back a little. I was left wishing that Huck hadn't left because she can always be counted on to focus the group as well as keep things interesting.

To be fair though, I did say that things continue to move forwards and they do. The episode does feel like it was there just to get the group into a truck and speed up the journey a little. Not that I'm not cool with that, I am, there aren't that many episodes left of this season and things need to start moving before the season finishes. It just feels a little contrived though and something like that will always take me out of the story when I need to be right in it.

I am pleased to report though that the zombie kills are growing a little more gory and in keeping with what you'd expect from people having to fight zombies with blunt objects. We're not quite up to 'proper Walking Dead levels of gore' but it's enough to keep me happy for now.

'Shadow Puppets' falls into some old traps but keeps moving forwards just enough for me to be forgiving of these. The after credit scene raises some more questions and it's these questions really that will see me back here next week for another episode. Not the worst episode then but not the best either.