It was hard for me to sit down and realise this, but Telltale's second season of "The Walking Dead" really isn't doing it for me.
The fact a little girl is doing everything, while these grown men and women whine and sit on their asses, is such a strange scene to witness. I remember that the first game made it clear that "it doesn't matter if you're a boy, girl, big, or small, shit's going down and you need to be prepared", and I understand that, but I very much doubt it that the apocalypse makes adults more eager/desperate to put full trust into a child to do their chores or to watch their backs.
What adult would say to a 12-year-old girl "Yeah, go ahead and deactivate that windmill, I trust you even know how"?
I've followed 4 episodes so far, which means there is only one more to go, and I can easily say I still don't give a hoot about any of the characters introduced in this instalment.
Carver was pretty much the only interesting character, but he was never going to be the new Lee Everett, neither was he designed to be respected in any way. So that leaves us a bunch of bland goody-two-shoed-characters, who sometimes mess up, but always fight with each other and go to a little girl for counseling.
There was another girl in this series, I wonder if she had to cope with the same thing. Because I highly doubt it. Only Clementine has to do everything and comfort everyone, and just because the writers bothered to add a conversation option for Clementine to complain about this fact, doesn't change anything.
I thought the young Luke was going to be the new Lee at one point, then the reintroduced Kenny, then I grasped for straws and hoped for the Lee-look-a-like, Mike, who is one of the few people who thinks a child shouldn't do all the work; but the character development lacks, as we don't really know these people, so who is there to cheer for? What is their story? 4 episodes in, and only 2 characters shared bits of their past with you, and I don't even care for them. Blue-eyed-fake-Kenny and wannabe-Molly talk to you like you've known them for years, but you simply don't. Are you supposed to feel sad about their death or goodbye?
While the occurrences in general are good and interesting, everything that happens inbetween is hard to take serious. A father who sends a child he doesn't really know to go look for food for his pregnant wife, while he sits on his ass, is hard to respect. When he dies, you're all like "good, that's one leeching idiot less", and that's wrong, as it feels like the character is supposed to be liked.
I can easily say, for a game that's all about being involved socially and emotionally, it's very disappointing. The drama is awesome enough, but I thought The Walking Dead series itself was more than that.
The characters are supposed to be interesting, even if nothing's going on.
And it doesn't help that Kenny is now an even bigger douche you find hard to show empathy for. I was truly happy to see him back again, but that happiness was very short-lived. Maybe that was supposed to happen?
The only way this season can make me care and value its existence, after all these deaths and introductions of people I don't care about at all, is if Clementine dies in the last episode.
I just don't know what to do with this season the way it's presented to me now, and Telltale's plans to make a third season makes me wonder how that's going to work out for them.
If Clementine dies, with the same kind of tear-jerking ending as Lee, and the next season is going to star the emotionally destroyed Kenny, in which he can redeem himself towards the audience, I can consider this season to at least have a purpose in the overall story.