I thought this was fairly relatable personally. Sitting on a couch watching TV is a big representation of normalcy. Obviously she misses a great deal about the world and has been through some traumatic experiences, but it's often the little things like this that really make it click. I think it's a bit too early to necessarily call it a nostalgic experience, but that's essentially what it was. Many of us sit down and watch TV and just tune out the real world and all of our problems in it. Alicia sitting down and watching some TV was a way for her to cling to the past and tune out all of the problems in the world for a little bit.

 

@Camilleyun I do see what you're saying - and very cool side by side example. The OP was about TV, which I DO see as an outlet and believable - especially after not having it for a chunk of time (not sure exactly - I'll leave that to others for timeline).

But to your point there does seem to be a detachment syndrome evident in many of the FTWD characters.

 

I actually did not find a problem with the TV thing either. There's really nothing much else to do there, except sit and look at the walls, or talk to each other, and you can only talk so much lol. In their situation, when I finally got some down time that [I thought] was safe, I'd be doing things like watching old movies to relax my mind for awhile too, if it was available.

I think in this situation many people would do things to try to grasp at normalcy. Even in Season 1 of TWD, when we were only 2 months into it, after everyone lost all their families members etc, they were sitting around campfires joking around, laughing and quoting Faulkner. Andrea was looking for birthday presents for Amy, and people were walking around hanging laundry while having small talk and smiling.

 

I find your statement regarding Alicia to be disingenuous. Alicia can do no wrong.

 

I didn't have a problem with that scene. I remember in TWD how Andrea said she missed her vibrator.

 

Oh yeah, that was one of the funniest moments of season 1!

The little things make the characters seem a lot more normal and I like that. Fair dues to Alicia for missing TV - I know I would.

 

Not to be too dark, but the reality in real life, especially for the people in TWD, is that pretty much everyone would have serious PTSD manifesting in a variety of ways.

Continuous exposure to violence, lack of safe surroundings, lack of personal safety, loss of friends and loved ones, seeing people eaten in front of you, killing live human beings, sleeping with one eye open for days, weeks, months and years would all wreak havoc on even normal grounded psyche's.

I'd miss, in no particular order: video games, a fully cooked and safe meal (like Thanksgiving), my kids, electricity, etc etc.

Especially at the beginning, who wouldn't look back and lament what they've lost.

I'm a hard critic on the writing in this show but in this case, I find the character acting normally.


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I guess I'll have to revisit that scene to see what all the stir is about.

It seems that all this has happened in a short period of time. And seeing how Alicia answered Jack's questions, one can see that she isn't such a jerk after-all. I expected one answer from her, and got another, much more manipulative one, time and again.

I can relate to her simple comment about- not realizing how much she missed TV-

I don't watch much TV, but it is on pretty much all day. Back-ground noise. Yet there was a period of time last year, about ten days, that I could get out of the house for maybe 30 minutes a day, typically spent food shopping, and I had no TV, no internet, and a dumb flip-phone.

I was stunned, when I realized, what I missed the most about no TV, was, I didn't get the morning news, especially the weather prediction! WHY did I care about the weather? IDK! I couldn't go out anyway!

It was my connection to the outside world.

When superstorm Sandy hit, we lost power for 3.5 days. No biggie, I had a generator. But without the internet, or cable TV (I only later installed a broadcast antennae) we were isolated from the devastation that stuck the eastern coast. Obtaining gasoline was the challenge. When cable was back up and running and we could see the news... holy snap!

So yeah, I can see how she could come to a sudden realization... wow... I didn't realize that I even missed TV, but I am sure enjoying it now. Boy has my life changed!

I agree that the writers aren't spending much time on character development. I am not a writer, so I can't offer suggestions on how they might do that.

I also think that they are moving the story along with gaps. IDK, maybe they only see this as a short piece. Yet I don't want it to move at the rate of 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

I just reviewed that scene. It seems that it is just a long drawn out way for the writers to set the stage for Alicia to tell Maddie that she is afraid of Chris.

What is more upsetting is the unrealistic dialog of Maddie and Travis in the following scene, when Maddie confronts Travis that Chris threatened Alicia. Travis believes her, then says why would he do that, then goes into how he was there for Maddie when she needed support in looking for Nick.

Never did he say... I'll go talk with Chris and get his side of the story.

Once again... the writers spend more time setting the stage for something, and then blow it off.

Like... we are going to Mexico... we are on our way... we are on our way... we are on our way... Off screen gun battle, and we walk onto the beach. tada! Here we are!

 

I was just going to post something similar to Goggles. It doesn't really bother me when people don't have a visceral reaction in a stressful or horrific situation. They could be in shock, suffering from PTSD or a host of other issues. Everyone deals with trauma differently. Like when I go to the fridge and realize I am out of beer. You can hear my scream for miles.

 

Your not really wrong in your observations. But given how much time teenagers spend interacting with electronic devices I found Alicia very believable in that moment.

 

lipsdick? what, I didn't see any lipsdick.

 

@Camilleyun

While I disagree with the TV-watching example, I do agree with your point regarding the characters' general lack of emotional response to the apocalypse, and it's really my only main complaint with the show. It seems as if the writers realize that WE as viewers have already experienced the apocalypse via the original series, and forget that these characters have not.