Negan arriving really ruined the show for me. :(
I sorta wish the show ended when they got to Alexandria.
I spent six seasons eagerly anticipating the introduction of Neagan and two seasons, (so far), wishing they hadn’t bothered.
Oh, fuck this show…
I watched the first episode of this season and then promptly canceled the DVR recording schedule. I’m now living vicariously through those of you here that are still. sticking with it.
It’s unwatchable. The only hope for this show is if they soft reboot it after the war and somehow make it amazing.
This episode was the best of the season, which was a low bar, primarily for Darryl-terminator and the Morales call-back, the Morgan/Jesus fight which finally better demonstrates how good a fighter Jesus is, the Aaron moments, and the build up to the end scene.
One thing I found notable was that when Rick was detailing to Morales all the people from Atlanta who had died, he mentioned everyone except Dale, and that made me curious about whether that was because that actor left under bad circumstances after slamming the show because of the Darabont firing. Probably just me interpolating drama into what was probably just a sloppy miss.
Kirkman is the bane of this show. His increased power to force closer adherence to the comic is compromising the show, because he writes like a 12 year old boy and is terrible with characters. One of the things I always liked about the show was how it actually humanized that characters - in the comic, especially if you binge read it, it was often difficult to remember who many of the characters even were - even characters as major as Maggie, Glenn and Carol. Characters like Carol and Morgan are so much more interesting in the show. The show, like the comic, has always had problems with consistent characterization, even for major characters like Rick, but has overall done a much better job developing characters, at least until recently. But now , because Kirkman turned to “war” storylines instead of survival-horror, the characters are so cartoonish and ill-developed it’s hard to invest even in moments that should be more moving such as the death of Aaron’s partner, because we’ve seen so little of him and them together. That said, I did like the images of him wandering away.
But the gunfight scenes in the attack led by Rick were just silly - no-name guys firing against no-name guys (and Tobin!) which was even worse in this episode as any sense of geography was abandoned so it was impossible to even tell who was on which side. Go team.
To answer the question posed above about when the show fell off the rails, I’d say it was after the first Scott Gimble season (which was very good), which started with the return of the Governor and the fall of the prison and loss of Herschel, and then had half a season of the group split up into unexpected pairing as they gradually made their way to Terminus (“look at the flowers” etc.) It was when they got locked into a box car in the goofy Terminus plot that the show significantly declined, although there were some good Alexandria moments. There are still good moments, and despite its flaws I’m enjoying this season more than the last one.
The comic gets even more wretched after the war, so that’s unlikely as long as Kirkman is involved.
Really? That was one of the scenes I hated most, since Terminator Daryl made the call-back a meaningless novelty. And the walker attack had to be the worst-directed scene of the season, if not the series.
Don’t really like your editing of my quote, which distorts what I said by removing the other items in the list.
In any event, the Morales appearance was obviously always going to be a cameo. They didn’t care about that character, ever, and they certainly weren’t going to bring back a non-comic character in a meaningful role now that Kirkman is strongly holding the reins. Yet they managed to still make his death sudden and brutal, and in a way that should some character development for Darryl, who was really been left fallow in recently. I appreciated the continuity call-back and didn’t find it meaningless at all.
Unsure what walker scene you’re referencing - the falling down the hill one? The zombies have been badly marginalized for seasons now, which is one of the main problems with the comic. They are just magical props rather than meaningful threats. That scene was incoherent and badly directed though - it didn’t seem to make any sense why the party would even be frazzled by 15 zombies.
The zombies rolling down the hill was risible. I don’t see how anyone could stage that, see how it looks, and go, “Yeah, let’s shoot that!” It should have been accompanied by cartoon sound effects.
-Tom
I was hearing Yakety Sax in my head and imagining the scene sped up to 2X speed. RIP Benny Hill.
It seems Morales, and later the young guy we saw briefly at the start of the attack, were only there to show us just how merciless Daryl has become. Once again Daryl is all of us. We, the audience, know that leaving ANY Saviors alive is a stupid thing to do, that until Negan is dead and the Saviors routed, the only good Savior is a dead Savior. The entire storyline of Jesus Saves is ridiculous. Morgan knows it, Tara knows it, Daryl knows it, for fucks sake even Gregory knows it. Maggie knows it too, but is letting herself be convinced because she feels like she owes Jesus and the Hilltop…or maybe she doesn’t want to become the kind of person that would kill a captive the way Negan killed Glenn. Whatever the case, it will not end well.
I struggle to grasp the logic behind the third attack, the one the Kingdom people are carrying out. It seems as if they’re striking multiple locations? And the Saviors there are splitting their own forces in an attempt to what exactly? The first group somehow thought they were pulling Ezekiel into a trap, only to discover they were surrounded themselves…how did they not know the other Kingdom group was there? Then, in the field, the Saviors just are running in a group through an open field, in plain sight of their compound, and nobody saw all the Kingdom people getting into place for the deadly crossfire? Even though the plan seemed to be to draw the Kingdom into the field all along so they could bring the Brownings out? Were those Saviors just selected to make the ultimate sacrifice? None of it makes any sense, and the way it was filmed makes it seem even more idiotic.
I’m incredibly forgiving of this show but really it’s getting difficult.
The rolling zombies were just…yeah. But the way the scene was filmed with Ezekiel’s bunch ambushing the Saviors…I assume it was supposed to be multiple simultaneous camera shots but it made it appear as though it was a continuous shot and they were just continuing to run along while they were being massacred. They didn’t even turn their heads to the left AFTER the shooting started to see what was happening.
I don’t need to revisit the plot idiocy that you’ve pointed out.
Not a high bar to clear, but tonight’s episode was the best of the season by far. There was a plot, character business, and coherent action. Bravo?
I would agree up until the Deus Ex Daryl moment. That said, the opening scene was the best of the season, and one of the best of the series.
Last night was it for me. Buh bye TWD.
And yet I smile.
He’s not smiling now. Neither am I.
Again, in light of last week’s plot, the whole scene in the open field makes no sense. The Saviors somehow planned all along to lure the Kingdom there so they could bring the Brownings to bear, and yet despite having sightline and overwatch advantage, they also allowed a sizeable group of their own people to be “ambushed” in that same field. Why? How? This makes no sense.
The Rick and Daryl car chase scene was ludicrous. Multiple hits to the front of Rick’s Jeep from that gun would have shredded the engine block and probably continued on and through Rick’s legs and lower body…yet somehow they show ricochets off the Jeep’s grill and Rick is able to not only pull up alongside the truck, but jump into it without the Jeep losing speed.
Then there’s the big scene of the night, the emotional death of a beloved minor “character”. What the fuck was that? Did they have a leftover set from a Troma film they needed to use? I mean seriously, toxic waste in a stream in the middle of nowhere? Radioactive mutated zombies? What the actual fuck does any of that have to do with anything and why is it even there?! That scene, sacrifice and death could have had just as much if not more emotional impact without the Toxic Avenger nonsense.
On the positive side, I did like the opening scene, and Carol was as badass as always. Plus, Jerry. Jerry rocks.
I totally wanna see a Jerry and the King spinoff . Also I want the current series to end as quickly as possible.
I would be totally okay with this
King Ezekiel, Daryl, Carol, Jerry and Jesus form a group of post-apocalyptic wanderers who travel the wasteland righting wrongs and bringing justice to what’s left of humanity while dishing out the ass kicking every week. There is a show I would watch the hell out of.