The Walking Dead Thread * US-Pace Spoilers*

[lambyUK]

 

TV doesnt really work like that anymore. Good TV at least. The days of cliffhangers at the end of a season is thing of the past or they are used as a shortcut by writers. Cliffhangers for the final episode of a TV is the wrestling equivalent of of cheap heat/pop. Sure, they work, but they're easy peasy to do and are usually used to cover for something lacking in any real substance to begin with.

 

Without going into spoilers for other shows, shows like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, two of the biggest most critically acclaimed shows in recent memory havnt needed to do these kinds of cliffhangers to get people to come back. Those shows use different kind of cliffhangers. They will show you a big event, a dramatic moment and the hook then is "I wonder how x will react to y", you're invested in the story/characters enough to want to see the fallout of the big events. 

 

The Walking Dead gave us the wrong kind of cliffhanger, and thats why people were so pissed at the time. The conversation should have been "x got the bat, I wonder how thats going to effect y", or how is Rick and co going to bounce back from this. Not Adam West Batman style "what happened next" after the screen has faded to black in the middle of a big event. Also, it was criminal from their own perspective, because while TWD is usually a poor show, the final episode of last season really knocked it out of the park in the way they built the tension and unease throughout the episode, that should have climaxed with the deaths, but instead they let everyone cool down for 6 months and the tension was all gone. So they had to spend half the episode trying to build it back up again. 

 

 

I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous. There is no set way how TV works, irrespective of whether you believe show x or show y is critically acclaimed. 

 

How TV is written simply isn't lets all play by the same rule book because this show or that show receives plaudits from critics. 

 

Surely them going against this apparent grain you seem to be suggesting is a surprise in its own right? Let's say they did go by what you've suggested above, I don't really see what difference there is because we are seeing those outcomes anyway. 

 

The comparison to a wrestling cheap pop maybe valid, but that doesn't mean there's no room for it in modern TV and that it can't be an effective hook given the correct circumstances. In 7 seasons they've never done it before, and with the way it was executed I thought it was done very well. 

[Arn Anderson's Darb]

So... This weeks was a bit shite ey? I know it had to introduce a significant new character and community which would always lead to duller episodes but that was a real comedown. I find the Morgan character incredibly dull. I'm sure he's supposed to be some kind of moral compass and layered and conflicted but he's bloody boring. Not sure what to take from the end of it really either.

[TildeGuy~!]

Carol and Ezekiel will become an item it seems, I thought Ezekiels debut was a good one, Shiva looks great. Back to the nitty gritty next episode.

[lambyUK]

Carol and Ezekiel will become an item it seems, I thought Ezekiels debut was a good one, Shiva looks great. Back to the nitty gritty next episode.

 

What makes you think that?

[WyattSheepMask]

So... This weeks was a bit shite ey? I know it had to introduce a significant new character and community which would always lead to duller episodes but that was a real comedown. I find the Morgan character incredibly dull. I'm sure he's supposed to be some kind of moral compass and layered and conflicted but he's bloody boring. Not sure what to take from the end of it really either.

Second this completely. After the first few minutes it dawned "ugh, this is going to be a Morgan episode isn't it", although in fairness it was probably split about 50/50 with him and Carole interacting with Ezekeial. Morgan could have been killed off last night and I wouldn't have cared less, he's that fucking boring.

[chokeout]

That's the structure of Walking Dead now though, Big episode with main characters, slower episode with rubbish characters and not many effects (which they shoe-horn a reason to add some zombies into so it has at least a few kills to break it up). They film them all at the same time so they have these random, almost self contained episodes, without the main cast that were probably done while a better episode was being filmed. It's been like that for at least the last few series. 

[TildeGuy~!]

 

 

Carol and Ezekiel will become an item it seems, I thought Ezekiels debut was a good one, Shiva looks great. Back to the nitty gritty next episode.

What makes you think that?

Their interaction this whole episode, she's just swapped roles with someone from the comics.

[SuperBacon]

Is it bad that I'm rooting for Negan???

The guy is a fucking riot and JDM should be up for an Emmy.

Also Andrew Lincolns hairline!!!

[CavemanLynn]

Forget JDM for an Emmy. Lincoln deserves a knighthood for the shifts he's putting in. I swear 90% of his scripts must read either "Rick pauses" and "Rick emotes silently". They're giving him nothing and he's compelling.

 

I'm a TWD apologist, but even perennial fanboys Empire are losing their rag this season. Incidentally though, a lot of the complaints aimed at TWD I see tenfold in Westworld, which I gave 5 episodes and gave up on, so what do I know.

[Mr_Danger]

Negans a riot and all but it's getting to the point where we'll need a little hope spot already at the rate they're ramming his bastardness down our throats. It's refreshing to have a bad guy who's just bad though, hopefully we don't get an episode where Negan was a good guy before bad things happened and made him bad.

 

I'm guessing the mid season finale will be the job squad trying to assasanate Negan and him forcing Rick to execute them in front of everyone.

[TildeGuy~!]

Absolutely cracking episode, JDM is pure gold in his role and Lincoln is always amazing.

[Monkee]

I'm actually tiring of JDM's delivery a bit in the role. It's all very 2D with lots of leaning back from the hips. I thought it was just to add to the tension in ep1 but that seems to be how he is. I'm finding him a bit - not really sure how to explain it - Shatner-esque in. The way. He's talking. I hope he grows out of the over the top delivery.

[Arn Anderson's Darb]

I know what you mean there. It's not wearing thin on me just yet by any means mind. I'm hoping it's gearing up to the first move someone makes against him and he just absolutely loses his shit and shows a monstrous side.

 

I'm finding Dwight to be the biggest villain in the show right now. I cannot wait to see him get it.

[CavemanLynn]

I don't know if I'm giving the show too much credit in thinking they might be trying to go the "XPac heat" (which actually doesn't exist, but aaanyway) route by shoving the glorious Jeffrey Dean Manmeat down our throats at every opportunity and at fucking length so we get sick of him. About halfway through the episode, I was dreading him opening his mouth because it would be the same old shit, with the knee bounce and the singsong intonation and the teeth-licking and nobody would do anything about it. Maybe that's the point. He knows Rick can't lash out because if he does, then one or more of the Alexandrians will get killed, and he's on a strict no-deaths policy since seeing Abe and Glenn carked and having his "do what we have to do to survive" mentality spun round at him when he thought he had to mutilate his own son to survive and nearly did it. Negan's loving it, and is constantly riding him over it. If anything, all the other Saviours are worse than Negan because they use the power he gives them to be greedy creepy bastards. Dwight wouldn't be so bad if he actually acknowledged his entire character arc from The Cell, but the way he was in this episode, that might as well have been in a parallel universe.

 

I think the show runners fancy this season as their GoT, setting up Alexandria, Kingdom, Hilltop and Saviours as tribes for when it all kicks off in the second half (fingers crossed). They're cocking it up so far though by dedicating entire episodes to single arcs in single locations. A bit of crossover would make the hour go a lot faster.

[WyattSheepMask]

The amount of leaning in close and pausing he does to Rick is uncomfortable. I kept thinking Rick was just to look at him and say "maybe we should kiss to break the tension"