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‘The Walking Dead’ – Season 7, Part 2 – Sundays on AMC

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
So about 2 million Glenn superfans gone.

Possibly. But there's also no evidence that those viewers have abandoned the show outright - all this data tells us is that around 2 million fewer people are watching live compared to last season (decreases are also present in the DVR ratings, but again, that doesn't necessarily mean that people have abandoned the show). Rather, it's probable that the show is merely no longer seen as "must see" viewing, and that more people are waiting for it to hit Netflix so they can binge it.

As to why they feel that the show no longer needs to be watched close to airing, well, that's another conversation entirely.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
You complain about Andrea dying for shock value (which I don't agree with, it was done poorly, but there was really nothing "shocking" about it)

"There was somebody in charge for Season 3, who thought that it was 'cool'... to kill Andrea, because he wanted the world to go "Whatttt!?" You know? So it was for shock. It wasn't a plan, it wasn't supposed to happen. I found out the day before, and it could've been anybody. He just wanted to kill somebody big--umm... you know, for shock. [...] The man lost his job because of that decision." - Laurie Holden

Merle's death episode and the lead up was one of the best things the show has done; he affected so many characters in a variety of ways and his death felt justified and interesting. Telegraphed deaths aren't inherently bad, so I'm not sure why you're using that as criticism. He also had depth and pushed Daryl into lots of interesting development arcs.. of all things to complain about in S3, you chose one of the things it got right?

Merle's death was effective, I agree. I wasn't complaining - I only mentioned that his death was telegraphed in response to you praising season 3 for having "huge characters dying randomly". His death wasn't random.

What..? Carol does go through develoment in S2. There are a variety of scenes where you can see how badly Sophia's absence and loss impacted and devastated her character. The church scene is still probably her best performance (take me instead of my daughter) in the show. Then there was the scene where she rips all of the flowers apart after Sophia's death. There are others as well. I think the impact Sophia had on her was very clear and set the stage for huge development later on.

So a couple of scenes scattered about here and there. Cool. How is that any different from, say, Rosita or Dwight's development in season 7?

Wow at that last line in your post. It's like you read nothing about what I said about S2 being totally separate from S6/7.

I read it. I just disagree with your premise is all.

You're really telling me you think the character development accomplished in S2 is the same or worse than that of S7?

Yes.
 

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
"There was somebody in charge for Season 3, who thought that it was 'cool'... to kill Andrea, because he wanted the world to go "Whatttt!?" You know? So it was for shock. It wasn't a plan, it wasn't supposed to happen. I found out the day before, and it could've been anybody. He just wanted to kill somebody big--umm... you know, for shock. [...] The man lost his job because of that decision." - Laurie Holden



Merle's death was effective, I agree. I wasn't complaining - I only mentioned that his death was telegraphed in response to you praising season 3 for having "huge characters dying randomly". His death wasn't random.



So a couple of scenes scattered about here and there. Cool. How is that any different from, say, Rosita or Dwight's development in season 7?



I read it. I just disagree with your premise is all.



Yes.

Someone got fired for a random death in a ZA show???
 
Possibly. But there's also no evidence that those viewers have abandoned the show outright - all this data tells us is that around 2 million fewer people are watching live compared to last season (decreases are also present in the DVR ratings, but again, that doesn't necessarily mean that people have abandoned the show). Rather, it's probable that the show is merely no longer seen as "must see" viewing, and that more people are waiting for it to hit Netflix so they can binge it.

As to why they feel that the show no longer needs to be watched close to airing, well, that's another conversation entirely.
I expect across the board for lots of popular cable shows that the live numbers will go down.
 

Surfinn

Member
"There was somebody in charge for Season 3, who thought that it was 'cool'... to kill Andrea, because he wanted the world to go "Whatttt!?" You know? So it was for shock. It wasn't a plan, it wasn't supposed to happen. I found out the day before, and it could've been anybody. He just wanted to kill somebody big--umm... you know, for shock. [...] The man lost his job because of that decision." - Laurie Holden



Merle's death was effective, I agree. I wasn't complaining - I only mentioned that his death was telegraphed in response to you praising season 3 for having "huge characters dying randomly". His death wasn't random.



So a couple of scenes scattered about here and there. Cool. How is that any different from, say, Rosita or Dwight's development in season 7?



I read it. I just disagree with your premise is all.



Yes.
That's cool, I didn't know whoever made that creative decision wanted it as a "shock"; I'm surprised to see that it was meant in that way because it was pretty likely she could die. She was essentially in a dungeon torture chamber being held prisoner by the governor.. I mean was the viewer honestly shocked by that development? I thought of it as.. That's it? I would describe her death as underwhelming if anything.

The biggest difference between the character development in S2 and S7 (aside from the obvious fact that there's simply more and with more characters, and especially characters that we actually care about) is that the season itself revolves around it. Carol's development drives the plot (her devastation). The group is looking for Sophia because a little girl is lost and her mother desperately wants her back. That's literally half of S2. Rick and Shane's development drives the second half. Following and watching their relationship change is what it's about and how it impacts everyone in the group.

Dwight is a side story. Rosita is a side story. If you remove those characters, not much changes for the plot. S7 is only about setting up Rick vs Negan, nothing else. If you remove Shane or Carol though, for example, you just lost the entire season in S2. You have no plot. That's because the story is directly driven by those characters and their interactions. If Carol doesn't exist you have no real motivation for the group to devote all of their time and resources to look for Sophia (days and days on end). As a result, we see how this impacts Carol and what it might mean for her in the future. If Shane doesn't exist there's no conflict (to set off a chain reaction for other characters) in regard to moving the narrative forward.

In S2, there's no gimmick to push the narrative. Its simply about intense social interactions and how people cope with them in such an extreme setting.

That's a hell of a lot more interesting than taking 15 episodes to set up for the inevitable showdown between Rick and Negan. The little character development there is in S7 doesn't really impact that too much.

There's no development that makes Rick vs Negan very compelling, in the show at least. It's just a tongue in cheek baddie vs Rick/co. And it's already overstayed its welcome.

I meant random as in potentially any episode.
 
Just finally watched the finale. I give it a full meh. So much just felt like it was happening just because. GPK turned on Rick? Of course! Why trust them in the first place? Reasons. Michonne wasn't wary of the person behind her? Reasons. Even Hilltop and the Kingdom coming just felt like, okay. They're here! It was missing some spark. Moments that could have been more tense just weren't. And all the falls/deaths looked very coordinated and graceful - I could see the strings on everything much more than usual, I guess, and I'm often one to give TWD a pass after the mess it was early on.

Anyway. Not stopping, probably, but a full meh.
 

Amikami

Banned
To be fair, Holden has seemed pretty bitter about her death for awhile lol. I mean, I don't blame her. She see's the success of the show now, and based off of the comics, she was going to have a more successful run. She felt cheated out of that success, having Gurira and other actors share her roles. Showbiz and all that.

“Well I had an 8-year deal, I was supposed to be there until the end. I was supposed to end up with Rick. I was supposed to save Woodbury on a horse, and I was buying a house in Atlanta. I got the call at 10 o'clock the night before, while I was shooting, from the show runner who is no longer a part of The Walking Dead, saying that they couldn’t write the episode and that he was killing my character. So [when] we all got the script, everybody on the set was sobbing. I felt like I got shot. None of it was supposed to happen the way it did.”

I always felt bad for her. Wasn't her fought her Andrea was written as shit. Not that I was a fan of her acting either.

This interview was just last year.
 

Chumley

Banned
Andrea was a god awful character and Holden's acting was incredibly lousy, so I was relieved when she died. The writing may not have been the best but a decent actor could have worked with it.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
Andrea was a god awful character and Holden's acting was incredibly lousy, so I was relieved when she died. The writing may not have been the best but a decent actor could have worked with it.

I'm gonna have to vehemently disagree on this one. It's the complete opposite. She did the best she possibly could with some of the worst writing for a single character I've seen on a show in ages.

The problem with Andrea was the writing. Absolutely and completely. They wrote her to be a complete fool who had a complete inability to learn from her mistakes.

Holden did the best she could with what was some of the worst writing in the series.
 

Surfinn

Member
I'm gonna have to vehemently disagree on this one. It's the complete opposite. She did the best she possibly could with some of the worst writing for a single character I've seen on a show in ages.

The problem with Andrea was the writing. Absolutely and completely. They wrote her to be a complete fool who had a complete inability to learn from her mistakes.

Holden did the best she could with what was some of the worst writing in the series.
I'd personally like to see what she'd do with good writing.
 

border

Member
Did a Google search for Laurie Holden and I came across this image:

david-morrissey-lauren-cohan-the-walking-dead-when-the-dead-come-knocking-02-1280x720.png


Man, I forgot this dumb horseshit happened. Just another reason to chuckle when anyone tries to claim that the Governor/Prison years were better than Negan.

At least when the show is overboard now, it's hilariously overboard. The Scavengers showing up in garbage trucks on Sunday had me howling.
 
<3 cohan

I feel like I'm the only person left here that enjoys this show.
I still like it! Season definitely had some pacing issues but overall I still enjoyed how it started and how it ended and a bunch of the moments in between. But now that they spent a season setting up the pieces, I have a much higher bar for next season.
 

Surfinn

Member
Did a Google search for Laurie Holden and I came across this image:

david-morrissey-lauren-cohan-the-walking-dead-when-the-dead-come-knocking-02-1280x720.png


Man, I forgot this dumb horseshit happened. Just another reason to chuckle when anyone tries to claim that the Governor/Prison years were better than Negan.

At least when the show is overboard now, it's hilariously overboard. The Scavengers showing up in garbage trucks on Sunday had me howling.
I'd say S3 isn't a big improvement over S6/7, but the highs were of MUCH better quality. Compare the prison showdown to the S7 finale.
 

Chumley

Banned
I'd say S3 isn't a big improvement over S6/7, but the highs were of MUCH better quality. Compare the prison showdown to the S7 finale.

The prison showdown in S3 was dumb as fuck, the one in S4 is the good one. S4 in general was a dramatic improvement over S3.
 

J2 Cool

Member
It's an unpopular sentiment but I agree. I don't know if it's strictly linear in a season by season case, but by and large the show has gotten worse each season. People shit on the farm and the prison but I'll take that stuff any day over the Terminus, Alexandria, Hilltop, Kingdom, Savior stuff the show has presented the past few years.

Yeah. Kind of agree. I just recently binged the entire show. I never watched it before, and went through it all about September before S7 started. I have some fresh thoughts.

The show early on had some sense of dread, and a ticking clock to it. The farm was unprotected, and always felt temporary. The zombie apocalypse was centric to the show, and affected characters (like Dale), who were still adjusting to it. The season built to a huge conflict with Rick/Shane. The characters made survival choices throughout. Shane leaving someone behind, saving Carl, Daryl looking for Carol's daughter. Herschel learning to trust or not trust Rick. With good subplots like Glenn/Maggie. It was generally focused, you didn't drop plotlines.

Season 3 suffered from its relatively comic nature compared to S1 and 2, as well as not wrapping up the Governor plot, and a character like Andrea getting too much screen time. Essentially the first time we leave our main cast for lengthy periods, through the eyes of our Andrea. That was the first dip. I liked Merle and the crew though. You still didn't feel like characters were safe. The beginning of the season and Rick's crew searching for a new home was probably the most engaging part of the season. It got less interesting as the season went.

Season 4 was this big sag, a long recovery from the dip Season 3 started. Weak season, but it kind of set things up by its end. Season 5 and 6 I felt was a mild return to form though. Certainly not super tight, but it was about how Rick's crew handled the apocalypse. Once again homeless, they truly have to survive. Alexandria (like the farm) seems like a false safe haven. The characters aren't safe, and there's a genuine consequence.

I thought Season 7 was probably the worst of the show, or possibly equal to S3's backhalf - S4's midseason. When we were spending episodes on sympathizing with the Governor living with some random family. I don't think the ratings dip is a coincidence. I also don't think Negan's the problem. I think fantastical things people can't relate to, like The Kingdom and its tiger, or the casualness/surreal-ness of drinking whisky at Hilltop while Simon visits. It's spending episodes about Morgan/Ezekiel meeting some 3rd or 4th-rate (after Dwight) Savior cronies picking up watermelons.

Negan himself is great. JDM is great as that character. Rick, Daryl, and Carol are still really good characters. Michonne's fine, but she's certainly not Shane, Glenn or Merle level interesting. I'd love to see one of them, or even Abe, do a run with Rick at the fairgrounds. Glenn/Rick in the bar (with Herschel) season 2, was some of the best stuff.

But regardless, the best thing the show can do is stop doing standalone eps at the Hilltop or god knows where. Get tighter, focus on the main characters. If you show somewhere else, show Rick and company the same episode. Maybe have someone get bit by a zombie for once. (I was excited at the idea of Gregory succumbing to a senseless bite)

I don't really expect any of that though. I think the show's unfortunately not coming back, despite having some interesting elements to play with. It probably serves better to give up, and flip through its best moments seasons from now. At least you can self edit it, into something substantial.

Also, they should never have cut away from Rick and company after the season premiere. Suffering that sort of devastation, follow that shit up. Some people were like "no it's good relief to visit a tiger", but that's not fucking drama. You're really going to devastate a fanbase, and then next week say "tune in for some tigers"? Jesus christ.
 
Can't believe I'm going to say this, but I kind of miss the early seasons when the show felt really cheap, like it was just a small group of people filming on the side of the road or in a pasture and they only had two guns. It was like the show's style matched its content.

Now everyone has an assault rifle and the show has four different large sets. Kind of spoils the mood a little.

And yes, I remember the opener had that tank scene in Atlanta. I'm just saying.
 

Amikami

Banned
I feel like I'm the only person left here that enjoys this show.

Naw. Part of the problem is being in this thread. I still like it plenty. A lot actually. This thread will make you seem like the only one when even those who "hate" it obviously don't hate it that much. I mean, they at least love to hate watch it. There's a lot of valid criticism in this thread, and then there's that nitpicky stuff or the comments saying something ike "Ugh I can't wait for this season to be over, because I'm done" Those really crack me up. Or "I don't want to stop now because I'm too far in." We got some real masochist in here. I almost wish we could just make a hate-watch thread separate from this one...Almost. The hate-watchers is part of the charm at this point. I really do love you guys and all the debates :)...except that one about Negan and his wives. Awful lol.

I'm gonna have to vehemently disagree on this one. It's the complete opposite. She did the best she possibly could with some of the worst writing for a single character I've seen on a show in ages.

The problem with Andrea was the writing. Absolutely and completely. They wrote her to be a complete fool who had a complete inability to learn from her mistakes.

Holden did the best she could with what was some of the worst writing in the series.

This IDK. A good actor can do a lot to make it work. The writing of her character was bad alright, so I don't blame her for not being able to make it work, but a better actor could have had an influence. I'll be fair and say I really need to see her in some other material. I've only seen her in TWD, whereas I've seen just about all the other major actors excepts steven yeun in other shows before TWD.
 
To be fair, Holden has seemed pretty bitter about her death for awhile lol. I mean, I don't blame her. She see's the success of the show now, and based off of the comics, she was going to have a more successful run. She felt cheated out of that success, having Gurira and other actors share her roles. Showbiz and all that.



I always felt bad for her. Wasn't her fought her Andrea was written as shit. Not that I was a fan of her acting either.

This interview was just last year.

Well Glen Mazzara is a fucking idiot so I would pretty pissed too if that pile of shit ended my time on the show because he couldn't write a finale.

I'd say S3 isn't a big improvement over S6/7, but the highs were of MUCH better quality. Compare the prison showdown to the S7 finale.

S3 Prison showdown?

The one where literally nobody died and Ricks group intentionally shot at the ground around them screaming "get out of here!"

The one where the lady from said raiding group started screaming "It was a slaughter!", after literally nobody died?

I think it's fair to say both shootouts were equally horrendous and an embarrassment to the show. Although the S3 was shot better, but they had more natural angles to work with than just open fields and housing.
 

Surfinn

Member
Well Glen Mazzara is a fucking idiot so I would pretty pissed too if that pile of shit ended my time on the show because he couldn't write a finale.



S3 Prison showdown?

The one where literally nobody died and Ricks group intentionally shot at the ground around them screaming "get out of here!"

The one where the lady from said raiding group started screaming "It was a slaughter!", after literally nobody died?

I think it's fair to say both shootouts were equally horrendous and an embarrassment to the show. Although the S3 was shot better, but they had more natural angles to work with than just open fields and housing.
If you read my follow up I corrected myself. Still think the highs from S3 are far better than those in S7.
 
So my girlfriend and I were one of the people who stopped viewing. This season was insanely slow and boring. Skipped probably 9 episodes and decided to watch the finale last night.

Both wondered if we will ever watch the show again by the time the credits rolled. I'm sure we missed a bunch of character development but watching that finale after watching just the beginning of the season makes you realize literally nothing happened this season, except Glenn.

Sucks as I used to be a huge fan, comics and all that. Just, not interested anymore.
 

Jonogunn

Member
I'm not gonna stop watching this show md will continue until it eventually ends but yah, quality and pacing has gone to hell. This should have been like an episode 10 moment or something.
 
I like Tara. I'm probably the only one on that. I'll own it, but she's awkward and goofy and feels like a real person, not someone who's irrevocably hardened or broken. Also - maybe already mentioned here, maybe not - guessing that they are setting up Tara + Rosita?

I didn't hate most of season 7. I really didn't like the finale, but I'm not bothered at all by what a lot of people call filler. Seasons 2-3 almost killed it for me. 4 was good. 5-6 uneven but had some great moments, really great. But when the show gets dumb, it gets really dumb - characters just doing stuff for no real reason, not earning things, not enough buildup, not capitalizing on the character relationships... eh. I wonder if there isn't a lot of arguing in the writers' room, or if they're trying to please too many factions at once.
 

Jonogunn

Member
Much like the governor seasons they just need to get the pacing up. In terms of pacing they should have reached this point in the finale in either episode 8-10.

The governor seasons should have been done in one season.


in comparison tomarvel Netflix shows. 13 episodes is way too much. Too much filler.

Do I need to mention the cw's rediculous 23 episodes?

This is why I liked season 5-6. They got more shorter story arcs which resolves sooner which doesn't let our interest to drop way too low before hitting a high moment.

The church moment where they kill the hunters was bad ass but wouldn't be as much if it were say saved for a season finale.
 
I like Tara. I'm probably the only one on that. I'll own it, but she's awkward and goofy and feels like a real person, not someone who's irrevocably hardened or broken. Also - maybe already mentioned here, maybe not - guessing that they are setting up Tara + Rosita?

I didn't hate most of season 7. I really didn't like the finale, but I'm not bothered at all by what a lot of people call filler. Seasons 2-3 almost killed it for me. 4 was good. 5-6 uneven but had some great moments, really great. But when the show gets dumb, it gets really dumb - characters just doing stuff for no real reason, not earning things, not enough buildup, not capitalizing on the character relationships... eh. I wonder if there isn't a lot of arguing in the writers' room, or if they're trying to please too many factions at once.

Tara's ok. She just isn't that developed and underutilized, which then makes her sudden remember me moments a bit jarring. Which is I suppose better than the butchery that took place with Rosita (and many/most characters before her).

I don't mind the "filler" stuff in of themselves. Many of the best episodes of the series could be classified as such, and shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul that could be said to contain about the same amount have little issue with it.

The difference here in The Walking Dead is that its filler just isn't that compelling and often lacks the consistency and focus to work as they standalone or in the greater framework.

How is a tiger picking and choosing its attacks so precisely "a silly nitpick?" lol

In that the tiger even being present is the larger issue. There's no other way for the tiger to be a participant, so it's either a take it or leave it situation. There's no other way to really portray it.

Show has actual issues worth looking at over adopted "lighter" content from the comics.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
I expect across the board for lots of popular cable shows that the live numbers will go down.

Everything is down - Big Bang Theory and Empire are hitting series lows.

That's cool, I didn't know whoever made that creative decision wanted it as a "shock"; I'm surprised to see that it was meant in that way because it was pretty likely she could die. She was essentially in a dungeon torture chamber being held prisoner by the governor.. I mean was the viewer honestly shocked by that development? I thought of it as.. That's it? I would describe her death as underwhelming if anything.

I knew that it would be close, but I honestly thought she was going to make it when I watched that episode. I was shocked that she actually got bitten. I genuinely thought they were setting Andrea up for a "redemption" in season 4, after the whole "Governor is bad?" angle they played with her all throughout season 3.

The biggest difference between the character development in S2 and S7 (aside from the obvious fact that there's simply more and with more characters, and especially characters that we actually care about) is that the season itself revolves around it. Carol's development drives the plot (her devastation). The group is looking for Sophia because a little girl is lost and her mother desperately wants her back. That's literally half of S2. Rick and Shane's development drives the second half. Following and watching their relationship change is what it's about and how it impacts everyone in the group.

Dwight is a side story. Rosita is a side story. If you remove those characters, not much changes for the plot.

Rosita is the primary driver of all of the major events in the back half of the season though. She's literally the only reason why Eugene is at the Sanctuary, the reason Dwight is now working with Rick and Co, the reason Sasha is dead. She's the reason Negan arrived at Alexandria and forced the gang to kick off the war prematurely (which is the whole catalyst for season 8). If you remove her from the story, it becomes something else entirely.

In S2, there's no gimmick to push the narrative. Its simply about intense social interactions and how people cope with them in such an extreme setting.

The gimmick is a little girl (that no one in the audience cares about) going missing for 7 episodes.

Its simply about intense social interactions and how people cope with them in such an extreme setting.

You could describe season 7 using the exact same words!

I meant random as in potentially any episode.

Lori's death was the only one that happened in a random episode (4).
 
Loved Negan's eyes the way he was scanning Ricks face as he talked to him.

Flicking from left to right.

Brilliant

And when Rick countered with I will kill you.

Negan's face was sheer anger.
He hated being spoken to that way. Top Top Actor!
 

Daffy Duck

Member
Loved Negan's eyes the way he was scanning Ricks face as he talked to him.

Flicking from left to right.

Brilliant

And when Rick countered with I will kill you.

Negan's face was sheer anger.
He hated being spoken to that way. Top Top Actor!

Yeah JDM v Rick was TV gold. Both really sold the moment.
 

Catdaddy

Member
Mid-season - I started to read the AV Club review/summary and decide from there whether to watch the show on DVR or not. I'm trying real hard to stay with it, but the padding and meandering of the show is getting painful. I did the same with Fear and even the show recap was boring. Unless it changes (and I doubt it will) &#8211; I may bail on it during S8. The one bright spot this season and albeit a small one is the performance of Steven Ogg aka Trevor, he's one-upping JDM as being a &#8216;bad guy'.
 

Solo

Member
I feel like I'm the only person left here that enjoys this show.

Admittedly, I'm only still watching because my GF loves the shit out of it, but it can be enjoyable from time to time. There's nothing wrong with still liking the show. Obviously millions of people do. And there are worse shows out there. I can fully understand people liking the show. What I can't understand though are people, and I assume they exist, that think it's an objectively good show from a writing perspective. Now that shit, I can't wrap my head around, as it's one of the worst shows on television in that regard. Good production values (aside from the atrocious CGI), great makeup, costume and set design, good actors, and good music all undone by terrible writing.
 

Social

Member
My wife and I still watch every episode the day after it has aired and as long as we both consider it a zombie soap opera, it's perfectly fine!
 

Carnby

Member
Awesome finale. The battle at the end could have used better direction, but that's minor. The finale scene had me on edge and cheering when the Kingdom showed up.

I fully expected Negan to survive. There's no way that character is going to die without a fullout war.

Anyways, as usual, A+. TWD proving once again why it's the best show.
 
Just because someone thinks an episode or a scene was bad doesn't mean they hate the show. I'm capable of enjoying it and bitching about the stupid shit. If I truly hated it I wouldn't have watched every single episode.
 

jm89

Member
Negans needs to only die at the hands of rick. No other death for him will be satisfying.

I seriously can't forgive eugene, please rosita put that shithead out of his miserable existence. No attempt to even get sasha free, too inconvenient for him. I know sasha had to go, but eugene could have at least tried.
 
Just because someone thinks an episode or a scene was bad doesn't mean they hate the show. I'm capable of enjoying it and bitching about the stupid shit. If I truly hated it I wouldn't have watched every single episode.

You are correct. That said there is something called hate watching too. I hate watch BBT. All the characters on that show are some of the worst human beings possible (Bernadette, what an awful character for example, just nothing but mean). It is nothing but bad TV, but yet I continue to watch so I can basicly make fun of it and how stupid mainstream America is for watching (of course I realize I am part of the problem by hate watching it).

Now with TWD I haven't reached that point. I actually liked TWD at one time, but I would of never claimed it was a great show. To me it is on the same level as something like SoA. That said I started to find myself on the verge of starting to hate watch TWD, and I am afraid if I continue to watch next season it will turn into that. So I am done, and I will not become part of the problem of this time. I think also I am stopping my hate watch of BBT. It is just not healthy.
 

Alpende

Member
Can't say I really liked the episode. Rick is usually kind of calculated but now he just went with a group he has never heard of, gave them a shitton of guns and thought it was a good plan. It was also fun how none of the minor group characters got shot. You could see a ton of Saviors go down and they showed like 2 red shirts from the Alexendria camp.

I hope we get a ton of Negan in the new season, I love the character.
 

Surfinn

Member
I knew that it would be close, but I honestly thought she was going to make it when I watched that episode. I was shocked that she actually got bitten. I genuinely thought they were setting Andrea up for a "redemption" in season 4, after the whole "Governor is bad?" angle they played with her all throughout season 3.

I don't see any reasonable way to expect she was going to suddenly become something, especially after S3. Her character was essentially in the gutter since the show started, aside from a few good scenes here and there. I fully expected her out eventually. She's been the show's biggest mistake in terms of characterization. She had one foot out the door.

Rosita is the primary driver of all of the major events in the back half of the season though. She's literally the only reason why Eugene is at the Sanctuary, the reason Dwight is now working with Rick and Co, the reason Sasha is dead. She's the reason Negan arrived at Alexandria and forced the gang to kick off the war prematurely (which is the whole catalyst for season 8). If you remove her from the story, it becomes something else entirely.

I'm talking about group dynamics, not the basic on paper plot, I should have clarified that. How characters affect the GROUP and their interactions with each other, not basic "if you remove her character X and Y don't happen in the plot".

Look at how Merle affected the group and their decision making/interactions. Or Shane. Or Dale. They introduce dynamics that wouldn't be present had they not existed in S2. If you remove Rosita, how does it impact the GROUP and their interactions? Or Sasha? They don't add anything interesting. They're pretty one dimensional in that respect. I miss when characters had layers that drove the show into moral dilemmas, forced other characters to make tough decisions, raised philosophical debates.. that stuff doesn't exist in the show anymore.

It's just about getting from point A to point B, journey be damned.


The gimmick is a little girl (that no one in the audience cares about) going missing for 7 episodes.

It wasn't a gimmick. It was just overlong. Sophia's disappearance changed the group and pushed Carol into brand new territory in terms of character development. It planted the seed that would eventually envelop her psyche later in the show. The audience isn't directly invested in Sophia herself but rather the groups willingness to find her and how it impacts her mother, Carol, who's distraught over losing her.

You could describe season 7 using the exact same words!

You could, but you'd be missing the point and have to be willing to ignore all of the arguments I'm raising. The group dynamics are dead (aside from glimmers here and there). Interactions don't have the same level of depth they used to. It's really silly to argue that S2 and S7 are the same in that respect.

Lori's death was the only one that happened in a random episode (4).

Merle's was in episode 15, which is not a premiere or finale. I doubt anyone expected him to die before ep15. In that regard it was pretty random, even if you personally had an inkling that it might happen.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Predictable finale, but it was okay.

Still, this could have been a 10~12 episode season. Far too much filler and boring shit.
 

Mediking

Member
The magic from the 1st episode of this season need to come back. The best scene from this season was Rick was almost forced to cut off Carl's hand. It's just too good.
 

Alpende

Member
Predictable finale, but it was okay.

Still, this could have been a 10~12 episode season. Far too much filler and boring shit.

Every season since the first one should have been 10-12 episodes. Every season has 4-5 episodes that are useless filler episodes that can be condensed into fewer episodes.
 

Dantooine

Banned
GF and I just watched the final episode. Seriously, what a load of crap.

Did anyone actually enjoy those flashbacks to Abraham. Really poor writing and inept audience manipulation. The big gun fight was badly choreographed, Maggies closing VO embarrassing. That really is it, I'm done. The only enjoyable episode this season was Eugene's. They should just stop, wrap it up. Have them all die because, you know, it's a zombie show.
 

LifEndz

Member
Did a Google search for Laurie Holden and I came across this image:

david-morrissey-lauren-cohan-the-walking-dead-when-the-dead-come-knocking-02-1280x720.png


Man, I forgot this dumb horseshit happened. Just another reason to chuckle when anyone tries to claim that the Governor/Prison years were better than Negan.

At least when the show is overboard now, it's hilariously overboard. The Scavengers showing up in garbage trucks on Sunday had me howling.

I completely forgot about this. I think I was still recovering from when the writers decided Rick's crew, upon arriving at Hershel's farm, would try to get a zombie out of a well by using Glen as bait.

8e783dbec3b3871faded4ca7d54c219e.jpg
 
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