Before I begin, let me establish a few things:  The ‘Frank’ in question is Frank Darabont, someone who I not only have never met, but whom has no idea that I exist (nor should he, unless he has an unquenchable desire to learn about IT from the perspective of someone who works in a Washington, DC, private school).

Mr. Darabont, has directed many films, though I am most concerned with his role as a director and (formerly) an executive producer on “The Walking Dead” on AMC.

I should be happy. “The Walking Dead” is one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable. It also has Greg Nicotero doing the (mainly) practical effects, which means that there will be much gore, which is a really good thing.

The series is consistently well-written and acted, and at the moment the only television series that I watch religiously.

So, what’s the problem?  After all, it appears that I have nothing but praise for the series, its actors, and creative staff.

The problem is the irritating way that events on the show have a tendency to unfold in a manner that serves the script, but not the “reality” of the situation or the characters.

Case in point: The most recent episode, “Chupacabra,” begins strongly with Daryl Dixon’s (Norman Reedus) character being the primary focus, and chugs along till a remarkably obvious bit of what I call script gratification decides to makes itself known, virtually spoiling everything that came before with its odious stench.

SPOILER ALERT!  IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE OF “THE WALKING DEAD,” “CHUPACABRA,” DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER BECAUSE A MAJOR PLOT POINT IS REVEALED!

NO KIDDING!  IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE IN QUESTION, STOP HERE!

The moment comes when Glenn (Steven Yeun) stumbles upon a barn that holds copious amounts of the undead, which no one happened to notice AT ALL before that moment, despite it being relatively nearby to their encampment.

My beef–pardon the pun–with this is that decaying flesh–be it animal or human–stinks to high heaven. I don’t care that the barn door was shut–which was done to keep the dead in, as opposed restricting the rank smell of death and decay.

Now, I am willing to suspend disbelief somewhat that the discovery of this barn and its contents could have perhaps been delayed if Rick’s encampment were downwind or something, but someone should have eventually gotten a lungful of the stench that had to be virtually radiating from the place..

I mean, I have passed dead animals on the street,  and only knew it because of their reek.

I should also add that I don’t think that my sense of smell is by any means hyper-acute.

At various points in my life, I have lived in houses or apartments were a rodent has died.

I recall the stink, which was pretty strong.

And no one caught a whiff of a whole bar full of rotting, ambulatory corpses?  Really?

The there’s the fact that no one appeared to even consider exploring the barn. AT ALL.

Which makes no sense because if I were living in a world where the dead had nothing on their minds but eating me, I think that I would be a little more curious about scoping out my environs.

What I imagine happened is that some writer thought that it would make for a great reveal to see all those corpses in the barn, though I would have rather that the barn–if it were not empty–would at least had significantly fewer undead.