The Walking Dead Thread * US-Pace Spoilers*

[Murtz]

I just can't think of a more intense episode in any series ever. Absolutely brilliantly done.

[TildeGuy~!]

I'm man enough to admit I balled my eyes out during that episode, Abrahams peace sign to Sasha, Glenn's last words to Maggie, Rick breaking down over being forced to nearly chop his sons arm off and then to top it off with Glenn holding the baby at the end.

 

Fuck you Daryl you cunt.

[Onyx2]

Outside the bubble of its own back-patting fandom, it gets picked apart pretty deservedly for its tediousness and consistently botched storylines. Last year's finale, and the episode where Glenn definitely died went down a treat, didn't they?

 

The Boyzone comparison is brutally unfair. Walking Dead *does* have a level of craft and skill that is above churning stuff out.

 

Boyzone is more like an Eastenders, grinding out endless content with no discernible quality or end goal beyond clogging up their respective charts.

 

The Glenn episode: I can imagine the high levels of snark you would've read. But it gave tension across the series with an internally-logical get-out.

 

The finale: this was pure butt-hurt and exactly the way TV has been made for decades. To go to a tame example, I shat myself when Picard faced the viewscreen converted into a Borg, and had to wait a whole year to see what would happen. Or in our universe, it's a marquee match that ends in a controversial decision. All it does is drive momentum to the next episode.

 

Like I said, it's an inexplicable Boyzone thing that utterly baffles me, popular in that mass appeal way that your CSI types are, but I guess because it's got zombies in it, it appeals to the NERD CULTURE thing too, with that tiny, weeny little subculture of nerdy nerds who like things like Star Wars, which is some space thing only nerds have heard of. "I'm such a nerd! I like the biggest franchise of all time!" That's not me being a hipster, because GoT falls in the same genre area, and that's fucking great.

 

The zombies are not key to the mass appeal. They don't equal success. The spine to Walking Dead is the cast, an ensemble in the same way Lost was. Yes, I brought up Lost to defend this. The Walking Dead stories are derivative and recycled but you want to see how these people survive, but with the modern twist that they often don't, and raises the tension significantly.

 

I'm sure there are worse in terms of the buckets of shit you get on TV, but among things that are competently made, with big budgets and good actors, and the resources they have, it's just atrocious. I feel like shaking anyone who can't see this. SHAKING THEM. I know everything's subjective, but come on.

It's just not as bad as you say, objectively. There are characters people care about and stories that intrigue. My criticism is I would like a little levity from time to time as it can be a soul-crushing watch, and I wish they didn't keep ending up at the next identical utopian settlement with a dark secret.

 

I'm not the show's biggest fan. I wouldn't care if it got cancelled. But it's objectively not atrocious.

[Monkee]

 

Like I said, it's an inexplicable Boyzone thing that utterly baffles me, popular in that mass appeal way that your CSI types are, but I guess because it's got zombies in it, it appeals to the NERD CULTURE thing too, with that tiny, weeny little subculture of nerdy nerds who like things like Star Wars, which is some space thing only nerds have heard of. "I'm such a nerd! I like the biggest franchise of all time!" That's not me being a hipster, because GoT falls in the same genre area, and that's fucking great.

 

The zombies are not key to the mass appeal. They don't equal success. The spine to Walking Dead is the cast, an ensemble in the same way Lost was. Yes, I brought up Lost to defend this. The Walking Dead stories are derivative and recycled but you want to see how these people survive, but with the modern twist that they often don't, and raises the tension significantly.

 

 

I'll agree with here about the zombies not being the mass appeal. I'm shit scared of zombies and I could never watch a Night of the Living Dead type film. The zombies in The Walking Dead are secondary to the story because, as you said, it's about the cast and their survival. I started watching because of Michael Cudlitz (I'm obsessed with Band of Brothers, he was in BoB, I found out he was going to be at Walker Stalker Con and that was my opportunity to meet him) so I went back to the beginning and, with a cushion in front of my face for a series and a half, I eased myself into it. I still don't particularly like the scenes with zombies but I can handle it for the rest of the story.

[Sergio Mendacious]

I don't always agree with Astro, but I admire the strength of his opinions. He hates the Walking Dead, but then I'm not mad on cavemen, everyone has their thing.

[DavidB6937]

I find TWD to be an emotional rollercoaster of awe and disappointment. The season openers, the mid seasons and the finales are all spot on but god there's some awful dragging shit in the middle.

 

I've always felt it could afford to drop a couple of episodes during the season and tighten it up a little.

 

Anyway this opener was probably the best episode they've ever done for me. Sheer brutality but nowhere near the 'torture porn' that some reviewers have called it.

 

Within the context of the show, considering the build up and emotional connection to the characters, the violence from Negan and the treatment of those we have been following was spot on. It was an insanely tense and violent episode but never ever felt like crossing an unnecessary line for me.

[Astro Hollywood]

 

The Boyzone comparison is brutally unfair. Walking Dead *does* have a level of craft and skill that is above churning stuff out.

It clearly has a budget, and that shows in the effects, but I'd argue that it's craft that's wasted on dull schlock. Good actors? Cool. Give them good material.

 

 

The zombies are not key to the mass appeal. They don't equal success. The spine to Walking Dead is the cast, an ensemble in the same way Lost was. Yes, I brought up Lost to defend this. The Walking Dead stories are derivative and recycled but you want to see how these people survive, but with the modern twist that they often don't, and raises the tension significantly.

 

The zombies are 100% why the show is a success, and why it's permeated pop culture so much. Can anyone honestly say this would work as a non-genre character drama? Take out the biting and the gore and there's enough depth and substance in there to make anyone care? No way.

 

 

The finale: this was pure butt-hurt and exactly the way TV has been made for decades. To go to a tame example, I shat myself when Picard faced the viewscreen converted into a Borg, and had to wait a whole year to see what would happen. Or in our universe, it's a marquee match that ends in a controversial decision. All it does is drive momentum to the next episode.

 

Perhaps if it hadn't been sold for weeks as SOMEONE'S GOING TO DIE IN THE SHOCKING SEASON FINALE OF THE WALKING DEAD! And then... nobody died. That's not a cliffhanger, it's outright selling a lie, which deflates the narrative tension. Carny shit. If we're comparing Lost, think of how frustrating it was when we didn't find out what was in the hatch at the close of S1, but if they'd also been telling the audience for ages that we were definitely going to see what was down there.

 

I tried to get into this show at the beginning, I did, and there were the occasional glimmers of not-awfulness, but it's just people traipsing around until they find a 'safe community' which has a dark secret (that it's not safe), broken up by scenes of gore, where they offload extraneous characters.

 

Also there was that weird thing that went on for years, of only having one (paper-thin) black character at a time. New black man, better kill T-Dawg!

 

After decades of happy Hollywood endings, people craved unhappy ones, but also started to confuse things being dark or bleak as being good. There's no substance. Cool, someone died in a graphic way. Were we made to care about the character first, or is it just "Oh look, an arrow through the eye. Noice." The problem with that structure is, where do they even go from here in eliciting a reaction? Once you hit a main character so hard in the head that their eye pops out, that's hard to top. And by 'care about', I don't mean give them a nobel speech to flesh them out 30 seconds before they die, like that women who did get the arrow through her eye.

 

But it's pointless for me to argue about this forever, as clearly some people just like it, and I don't, and much as I've looked for the option on here, there's no formatting that allows me to reach through all your screens and shake you by the lapels.

[Chest Rockwell]

I, for one, enjoy the good work you do and appreciate your sacrifice. I think the show is garbage and enjoy reading you shitting on it even though I don't watch it.

[dopper]

I can no longer use the quote function properly for some reason, but wanted to reply to this line Astro:

 

 

 

Also there was that weird thing that went on for years, of only having one (paper-thin) black character at a time. New black man, better kill T-Dawg!

 

That's nowhere near as cut & dry as you are making out there.

T-Dog was the only black guy in their group for a couple of seasons, but there were only about a dozen people in the group back then.

 

As they moved to new areas and interacted with new sets of people, more black characters became fixed parts of the group.

Michonne is arguably in the top 3 most beloved characters out of the whole thing, and - while I do concede that Bob, Gabriel, the guy in the wooly hat were useless - Sasha is one of the more valued members of the group now.

[WyattSheepMask]

His name was Tyreese, or discount Idris Elba as he's known in our house (The Governor was discount Liam Neeson)

[Dead Mike]

I don't understand why someone would continue to watch something they think is terrible. I've got series yet to watch that are meant to be great that I've not had time to watch yet, I'm not wasting my spare time enduring something I dislike for the sole purpose of bitching about it? What's the point?

[Arn Anderson's Darb]

I don't understand why someone would continue to watch something they think is terrible. I've got series yet to watch that are meant to be great that I've not had time to watch yet, I'm not wasting my spare time enduring something I dislike for the sole purpose of bitching about it? What's the point?

 

Fully agree with this. Really don't get it. I could argue the same about WWE programming that loads of people can't stand but can't quit.

 

I really enjoy TWD for a bit of mindless hopelessness. Calling the zombie (WALKERS!) the selling point I can't say I agree. The whole zombie thing is just this show's particular means to get a group of people stuck in a nightmare world with a small population and small "tribes" of survivors. That, for me is the selling point of it. Yes there are a few (a lot) of mid-season sleepers but there's plenty to keep you ticking over for 45 minutes a week if you don't over analyse it. As said, if you watch it to pick holes, just don't watch it.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I'm having a hard time thinking of a recent horror film that was as brutal as this. Fuck me.

 

Also I like how this series proves the age old theory that leather jackets and beards make the best heels.

[Sergio Mendacious]

Should have used the bat to trace nWo in the aftermath.

[Astro Hollywood]

I don't understand why someone would continue to watch something they think is terrible. I've got series yet to watch that are meant to be great that I've not had time to watch yet, I'm not wasting my spare time enduring something I dislike for the sole purpose of bitching about it? What's the point?

 

Hatewatching is for background noise shows. It's for shows you put on when you're fucking around on Twitter or working out, when you don't have the attention span to properly soak in something you want to see anyway. It's not time lost.

 

Besides that, it's my DO IT FOR HER for Chest.