AMC's The Walking Dead

Disagree. Negan takes a special delight in his malevolence. Rick is brutal, cold. But he's not sadistic like Negan.

 

Dammit. Should have said Carl.

 

So I finally caught up on this show, watched about four episodes last night including the season finale. I'm glad the pace picked up, but it really couldn't have been going much slower. I honestly think they could have fit in all that story into half the episodes. But we just had to focus on Eugene for an hour.

But my main question is this: How far are we from where this half season actually started?

Rick and Co. were already at war with the Saviors at the start of the half season, Negan just didn't know it. Now Negan knows it. So at the start of next season, Rick and Co. will be gearing up and preparing for war, which is exactly what they just did in the past 6-7 episodes. The only difference is Negan will be gearing up, too. I honestly feel like we have just been spinning our tires for an entire half season.

Oh, and when the garbage people turned on them, I literally yelled "I FUCKING TOLD YOU, RICK!" at my TV.

 

I think part of the problem is there is very little character development any more. So they spent a half season stringing viewers along with the promise of action or boring them with episodes devoted to little-loved characters.

 

I also sometimes think the creators of the show are up their own asses about making it deep and artsy instead of focusing on the story.

For example, I randomly started watching Sons of Anarchy on Netflix a couple of weeks ago, and I've already made it through like four seasons. In appearance and tone, this is a very different show than the Walking Dead. You would never have the kind of flashbacks and story structure in SOA like they had in the Walking Dead season finale. And ZERO episiodes of SOA ever focus on just one character, at least so far. Yet I don't feel like character development is lacking. Each episode pushes the story forward, actually leaving me wanting to go to the next episode.

I can't say the same about the Walking Dead. I finished the season almost out of curiousity, like I wanted to see how they would pull it out of the gutter. It definitely improved, but I still feel like so much time was wasted on just fucking around.

 

I kind of feel like they're in a Catch-22 on some level. If they spend an episode or two focused on an ancillary character trying to develop them, people complain because they left the main group and didn't develop the story enough. If they focus on the main group and story and some of the ancillary characters are hurt or killed, people exclaim, "Why should we care!? There were no stakes raised! They killed off the red shirts!"
I guess that's the difference between a well-written show and a poorly-written show, is being able to straddle that line, but aren't the single-character episodes at least an effort to make you care about said character?

 

The episode with the Amazon women was so silly it didn't make me care about What's Her Name.

The episode with Eugene makes me hope Eugene hurries up and catches a bullet.

 

I agree with your point about their differences, but in practical terms I don't see that as a big difference.

It might influence audience allegiance, but in their world there is little practical difference.

 

I definitely see what you mean, but like you said it doesn't have to be an either/or situation. And I think it definitely comes down to the writing and acting. I don't recall any episodes dedicated just to Abraham (I could be totally wrong on this one), but I still cared about and liked his character. So his death was a blow, quickly followed by a harsher blow with Glenn. And to be honest, Sasha's death, while well done, kinda got a "meh" out of me. She was just never that interesting of a character, despite having much of the past couple of seasons spent on her. I think that falls back on how she was written.

It may just be a personal thing for each viewer. I'm more interested in the story of the Walking Dead. It is what drew me in in the first place, how the world looks after all hell breaks loose. I think if people are looking for character-driven shows, they should look elsewhere.

 

We've already gotten one with Dwight, but I'd imagine that we're going to get a bunch of these development episodes with the Saviors during the 2017-18 season. WHO IS NEGAN.

 

I think that is part of makes the show clunky and poorly written. If well done, you shouldn't have to split episodes off to explore or open up one or two characters while the story stalls.
Story should inform characters and character should inform story.

 

I agree a lot of this is the clunkyness of the writing, but I have to wonder where the show could be if they had a Game of Thrones schedule. I feel like the network is banking on the ratings draw from TWD and wanted more episodes than the writers had story. If they were limited to 10 episodes for a season instead of 16 some of these side stories and filler would be reduced or eliminated and we'd get a more interesting product. Instead good ideas have to be stretched or broken up and they fall more flat.