The Walking Dead- CONTAINS SPOILERS!

[Red Memories]

I mean, I was already hurt Carl was killed off. He was one of my favorites. Now they're pinning Maggie poorly and I'm internally screaming.

NOT MICHONNE. WHY BRING MY OTHER BBY INTO THIS. XD

 

[Stigmata]

'Walking Dead' Season 9 time jump confirmed

Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohen possibly exiting the series? And you're preparing to possibly continue on without them?

You've already strayed so far from the source material, at times to the detriment of the series, and yet you still want to ring every last drop of monetary moisture out the proverbial wet towel?

Just let the series end on the note of The Savior's defeat and have everyone ride off into the sunset.

Seriously what else is there left to do? Haven't you really said everything you've needed to say? How many more times can the plot of a new, rival community under the helm of some megalomaniac antagonist continue to be recycled until it becomes stale to the general audience.

 

[Totenkindly]

This is awesome.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insert...-terrible-walking-dead-rick-shane-fan-theory/

Like, why not? As noted the series overall currently sucks.

 

[Stigmata]

This is awesome.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insert...-terrible-walking-dead-rick-shane-fan-theory/

Like, why not? As noted the series overall currently sucks.

Ha!

It would actually be more entertaining to watch them attempt to retcon the entire series since Season 2, as opposed to what we have now. I'm all up for a clustered shitshow.

 

[Totenkindly]

The season premiere was last night.

My assessment: it's an improvement over prior seasons, if only that the whole Rick/Negan thing that dragged on for 2.5 seasons or longer is no longer the focus. The tone was better, it's focused more on the rebuilding of the various communities and the problems they are having. Thank god for that.

The major issues are still essentially the contrived situations that just make one roll their eyes:

There are two in this episode. One is "dumb greenie runs back to save a horse and somehow manages to get bitten and die." I mean, how many times have we seen this? And how many people would actually run back to do this WITHOUT watching the walkers and where they are? This kid gets bitten from behind. It's just ridiculous, it's like they're idiots despite having survived this long.

The other is "contrived situation where they decide to move a wooden wagon across a glass floor that despite probably being constructed to withstand a TON of weight and in fact being supported by an entire grid of thick metal bars somehow cracks anyway." We all knew it would crack even if it shouldn't have. We knew someone would fall through. We knew the person would probably survive falling through because he was roped, even though there was the false tension of yanking the rope back and forth over broken glass edges. Just... eyeroll.

On the other hand, I'm kind of impressed they didn't belabor one of the big plot points of the episode. That's kind of a first... although here they might have gotten more mileage out of it.

Gregory is such a tool... he's so awful he can't even mastermind a coup/murder effectively, although Maggie says as much.

Still it felt a little contrived / deck-stacking in terms of the impact. Oh well.

The best moments of this episode were the personal ones and I'm glad they are at least doing that now again, rather than cyclic pointless plots. I really liked the time that Carol and Daryl spent talking alone.

 

[The Cat]

Do the dead ever stop walking? and do they ever bring killed favorite characters back as the walking dead?

 

[Peter Deadpan]

The boyfriend and I cracked up in unison like psychos when what's-his-nuts was kicked by the horse he was trying to save.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I think they should introduce a new character called Barbara just so the other characters can constantly say "They're coming to get you Barbara."

 

[Totenkindly]

It's really too bad that the series has improved now, after they ran it into the ground for 4-5 seasons in a row. (The Saviors thing that dragged on for 2.5 seasons, man... that was a killer to the series.) Glad Gimple is gone from direct involvement.

The new season actually focuses more on the people and character development again, although it still has zombie killing and occasional dumb moments meant to cause tension but are just "lead character does something stupid that they would never do if they've survived this long" moments.

Also the faux pas of someone leaking Andrew Lincoln's departure is resulting in AMC just leaning into it to promote "the last episodes of Rick Grimes" -- but they are still actually better episodes than what we've seen in the past. Usually the character stuff was filler and not well thought out; last night's episode had some moments where characters are "telling each other like it is" and they actually have different views with nuance that are fair from both sides, but it's bringing them into conflict over how to handle affairs. It's pretty good where you can have two characters even come to blows / outright antagonism when you can tell both of them still care about each other and otherwise would have each other's backs.

It's just sad that most of the viewership has bailed now because of the mess of prior seasons.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

All I want is for Rick to lure all the zombies into the rushing waters beneath the failing bridge in a grand sacrificial suicide.

 

[Totenkindly]

All I want is for Rick to lure all the zombies into the rushing waters beneath the failing bridge in a grand sacrificial suicide.

Woot! But no! Can't sacrifice da bridge!

It's his bridge over troubled waters [full of zombies]. Everything sounds better when you attach [full of zombies] to it.

 

[Stigmata]

Wow.

Just finished the latest episode...

Without giving anything away, the previews for the 2nd half of the this season and all the latest developments have actually reenergized my interest in the show.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

I was halfway right, and that's good enough.

I did appreciate how it was different than I predicted. They've done an impressive job this season with creativity and symbolism, feels more real and thought out.
Fuck Gimple.

 

[Stigmata]

I was halfway right, and that's good enough.

I did appreciate how it was different than I predicted. They've done an impressive job this season with creativity and symbolism, feels more real and thought out.
Fuck Gimple.

I won't tell you what it is but there's a particular event that happens toward the end that actually made me yell "Go fuck yourself, AMC!" very loudly.

When you see it, you'll know.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

I won't tell you what it is but there's a particular event that happens toward the end that actually made me yell "Go fuck yourself, AMC!" very loudly.

When you see it, you'll know.

I can only speculate. Rep me yo.

 

[Totenkindly]

It was actually a pretty decent episode in many ways. They have upped the bar greatly this season and I'm interested (for the first time in four seasons or more) to see what happens next. There's also a few guest appearances, the first two of which were pretty damned good.

Jon Bernthal is always so damned good. Anyone else feel like Shane never left? This sequence was so on the mark -- I miss the guy so much. And of course seeing Scott Walker, now with him actually dying recently, well it was a send-off from multiple angles.

Anyway, such nice closure and everything was handled perfect. They even found a way for Maggie to approach killing Negan that made sense and didn't feel like a copout. I think there is more SUBTLETY this season -- they are relying more on the actors rather than on lame plot devices or trite dialogue to tie things together. What Michonne and Maggie negotiated there in real-time was actually a pretty complex nuanced exchange, balancing various moral goods against each other as well as group vs individual responsibility and respect.

But yeah, that moment will likely be controversial. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I will blame Gimple, because frankly the new showrunner is doing an excellent job improving the quality of TWD this season (the show is markedly better), and the whole bit smacks of Gimple's typical excesses + the fact that he is the new executive umbrella guy who could force certain things.

 

[Stigmata]

It was actually a pretty decent episode in many ways. They have upped the bar greatly this season and I'm interested (for the first time in four seasons or more) to see what happens next. There's also a few guest appearances, the first two of which were pretty damned good.

Jon Bernthal is always so damned good. Anyone else feel like Shane never left? This sequence was so on the mark -- I miss the guy so much. And of course seeing Scott Walker, now with him actually dying recently, well it was a send-off from multiple angles.

Anyway, such nice closure and everything was handled perfect. They even found a way for Maggie to approach killing Negan that made sense and didn't feel like a copout. I think there is more SUBTLETY this season -- they are relying more on the actors rather than on lame plot devices or trite dialogue to tie things together. What Michonne and Maggie negotiated there in real-time was actually a pretty complex nuanced exchange, balancing various moral goods against each other as well as group vs individual responsibility and respect.

But yeah, that moment will likely be controversial. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I will blame Gimple, because frankly the new showrunner is doing an excellent job improving the quality of TWD this season (the show is markedly better), and the whole bit smacks of Gimple's typical excesses + the fact that he is the new executive umbrella guy who could force certain things.

I'd really grown to hate the style of staggered story telling they'd used for the last few seasons where each episode seemingly follows one person's individual plot, and everything gets tied together in the finale -- It's OK in small doses but several seasons of that led to some episodes feeling like wasted space and meandering plots.

God. Shane's segment proved just how great the adversarial undercurrent aspect of their friendship really was.Despite not being in the show for like 6 seasons, the underlying tension between them picks up EXACTLY where they left it off. That said, even though he's painted as a maniac throughout the beginning of the series for the extreme measures he's willing to take to ensure the safety of his group, in hindsight, we can see just how right he was on a lot of the things he was saying to Rick about how to survive in this new world were spot on.

I'm still incredibly butthurt over that deus ex machina bullshit they pulled with Jadis and the helicopter. Why not just let Rick go out in the most badass act of selflnessness ever. I felt like Rick was Lieutenant Dan scolding Gimpie Gump for rescuing him out of the jungles of Atlanta instead of allowing him to die honorably in the field with his men.

I'm really stoked (yes I just used the term "stoked" unironically) about the new direction the show is going in.

 

[Totenkindly]

Mid-Season finale


Aaaaannndddd.... yet another character wasted on this show. When are they going to actually utilize characters in a useful way, aside from time filler? So many things that could have been done over multiple seasons, yet... nada.

My other gripe is I want to know what happened to Michonne (except for the loss of Rick and the mantle of leadership) that has driven her to become a bitch. She's just lost her empathy but this isn't how she was written for a long time; there should be more development about what is driven this attitude, she's been written more the opposite in the past. Even Rick was more empathetic than she is now and Michonne used to be HIS human compass.





All that being said, otherwise it's a hell of a season closer. The first half of the season is actually the best thing that's been happening storywise for a number of seasons on this show. And the Whisperers are pretty chilling.

 

[Stigmata]

I've accepted that I'm probably the only person on the forum that still follows this show but I'm going to share my thoughts anyway. On one hand, I'm a lot less invested in the lives of the individual characters of this show than I was, say, a few years ago, and due to the reoccurring theme of death in this series I've ultimately become desensitized to character deaths, yet apart of me still cares.

That said:

This season and The Whispers arc is starting off way more interesting than anything that'staken place in the last few years. I think AMC has finally understood that the best way to maintain viewer interest is not to drag on an arc for two seasons -- we don't need every minute detail, and sometimes its best just to give us the baby instead of several episodes of labor pains. Thus far, I haven't seen tonight's episod, yet I can't help but noticing the glaring contrast between Carol and Alpha, almost as if Alpha is the antithesis Carol, showing what she could've become and what lengths she wouldve gone to in an effort to protect her family had she not of had Rick to act as her moral anchor (let's think back to her lighting the sick inhabitants of the prison on fire). Even the contrast between Lydia and Carol's son is interesting to note, showing the affect each one had on their respective offspring.

 

[Totenkindly]

I still follow it (pretty much I'll watch each episode once -- in the early years, some of the episodes were rewatch-worthy), but I won't read your spoiler yet since I didn't see tonight's episode (I already blew off Oscars to watch True Detective's season finale).

I think this season is a marked improvement from prior seasons, the Whisperers plot is more harrowing and disturbing because it's changing all the rules. And it was good to shake up the cast by getting of a few folks and seeing how that impacted the pecking order of the characters on the show. Overall, it's just a better show.

But they still have a big problem with not knowing what to do with characters except for killing them. They need to give individual characters actual arcs to follow, versus just responding to "zombie problem of the week" and then finally expiring when they have a bad spot of luck. It got so predictable -- it's like, "oh wait, they're doing something with the character this episode, they will be killed off by the end of it."