I just read an article on the AMC website in which Greg Nicotero describes the numerous ways this season's premier was shot to mirror the series Pilot. The "Raising Arizona" flashforward with Rick waking up in bed mirrors him initially waking up in the hospital post-coma. Carl's visit to a gas station mirrors Rick's first visit to the gas station where he meets his first Walker in the form of the young girl. The overhead shot of Gabriel and Negan in the trailer surrounded by thousands of zombie hearkens back to Rick being stuck in the tank in Atlanta.
The problem so many commenters on this thread have correctly pointed out... The writing just doesn't compare at all favorably to the initial season or two. The mirroring of the pieces concentrate too much on rendering each tree as competently as the trees from the Pilot, while completely losing sight of the whole forest.
It almost seems like there are more commercial breaks than content or advancement of the plot. Ad sales trump internal logic of the zombie apocalypse world. You can't kill off the villain in ep. 1. Hopefully, the impending battles will make it worthwhile.
1
They had how many months to prepare and we got this muddled narrative mess? Shooting at windows, unclear shootouts, inexplicable decisions. I’ll stop there.
1
The guards and outposts were taken out with fierce precision... but, when Negan and Lucille walk out into the open, what? Nothing.
I've been with this show since the first season, but this Negan plotline is getting very tiresome. I'll still watch, but I hope they find a way to move things along in a more satisfying way.
6
This thing is still on?
Yet here you are........
4
I agree. The whole crew should have fired on Negan the minute he stepped out the door. I want him dead, not because he's evil, but because I wish he would SHUT UP. I think Gabriel will sacrifice himself and let the zombies in to kill Negan.
But my main complaint is with the zombies. Are they cutting the budget on makeup and zombie school? Those zombies were walking very quickly and adeptly. The makeup on some of the closeups looked cheap. And since when do zombies blink their eyes?
There have been other inconsistencies through the past few seasons, such as when the zombies looked down to walk down a step. Wouldn't they have just stumbled over it?
There was a comment Rick made (I think in Season 5) that the zombies were learning and I wonder if that's possible. They're an organism, driven to survive. If they don't adapt, they won't, so they have to move faster, or develop skills that require reasoning to go up or down steps. I can't believe the show runners are that careless that all these anomalies are accidental.
I'd be completely interested in what anyone else thinks. I'm sure I'll get better ideas here than anywhere else.
5
Eh -- I think they're just careless. In the first season, the "walkers" could turn doorknobs and climb fences; skills they seem to have mysteriously lost over time.
Personally, I think the show should start moving away from the "man is the deadliest predator" theme it has been recycling for the past five seasons and move towards some kind of evolution of the zombie virus. If the walkers started to exhibit new traits and giving some indication that the profile of the virus (or whatever it is) is changing, that would force the survivors to change their strategies dramatically. Unfortunately, I think Robert Kirkman is dead-set against any storyline that discusses the zombie-ism in depth.
1
Boring, not the exciting episode that was promised. Except of course for lurching zombie mobs, lots of automatic weapons fire and gun play, where Negan somehow escapes from all those bullets heading his way. The whole cast shooting off about a year's worth of ammo inventory for your average gun retailer. Explosions, melodrama, well, I don't know.. I am just tired of it all. I only see about a third of the episodes now when broadcast, not "must see" television for me at all. And to think I missed Showtime's Ray Donovan to watch this comic book stuff. eh.. Trying to think why I should watch any further...
2
Great recap Mr. Egner, but sorry, there are two flaws I can see. First is that the flash-forwards with phony beard are decidedly not decades later. Rick's daughter, the invulnerable Judith, has gone from about 2 years to about 6 or 7 years old, when she takes his hand to show him the fair, that's her. So it's 4 or 5 years in the future, no more. From the comics, really not spoiling things here, this scene will come about, so we've been told that Rick, Carl, Michonne, and of course Judith, will all live through what's to come.
Also, minor point, Carol & Tara were not on a roof, they were on a highway overpass, clocking the rate at which the horde was going by on the underpass.
As for the show, I found Tara's insouciant twizzler bit obnoxiously prolonged. The Daryl chopper chase made no sense, because the zombies seemed to be shuffling up to at least 30 mph to keep in sight of him. When they strung the tripwire trap, there was no clear explanation of who was in the cars (Sanctuary types, naturally, but why?). And the action jumped around way too much to be coherent.
Overall, as a huge fan, I'd have to say the premiere tried to do too many things and thus failed to be captivating. But the acting was as consistently good as always, the predicaments generally made sense, and it was watchable. I do find myself not particularly caring what happens to Gabriel, and cursing him for the idiocy of trying to save the traitorous Gregory. Outa room, but that's my first take.
3
Hehe thanks Jeremy, I realized that right after I hit "submit", and appended a correction. Wouldn't you know it, the correction posted immediately and this longer diatribe posted the next day.
Hope all's well with you and have a happy Halloween, zombies or not.
2
Here is the showrunner Scott Gimple's explanation as to why Rick didn't just take out Negan: "What shouldn’t be glossed over is Rick is offering surrender to everyone else. He wants them to, more or less, be on his side after that. If he just shot Negan there, that would have been a shortcut to the war. He was making a play to not be in full violence with these people because you see what happens after that. The next step for everybody is pretty heavy and intense. If in fact Negan’s other lieutenants had given up, it would have been over."
His explanation is as ridiculous as the scene itself. Gimple and his team seem so focussed on the inner logic of the characters that they've jettisoned the logic of the world that these characters inhabit. Why bother with questions such as: Would any sane people, villains or not, casually walk out into your enemy's line of fire and snicker? How can Rick miss EVERY ONE of the bad guys when he suddenly decides to unload on them? The producers don't seem to realize that when you start breaking the basic rules, no one will care that Rick Grimes didn't shoot Negan right away because he wanted to save lives.
Beyond such terrible tunnel vision, couldn't the producers have done some basic storyboarding to build some visual coherence and tension to these "battle" scenes? While I get that they have to shoot x number of pages a day, the staging and the direction are so amateurish that it's almost like watching a student film. This viewer is out.
4
You would think y'all expect othello or something. Its a TV show...! If you don't like it, don't watch it. But stop complaining about it. Go read a book. Or create something better.
4
EXACTLY!!!!!! Well put!
1
I'm wondering if the reason for the show's decline has anything to do with the globalization of the entertainment industry. Just like how feature films are nowadays watered down, broad, and lacking interesting writing due to a need to be accessible to a global audience. Maybe WD, since it's now eligible for syndication, has gone this route.
My wife and I will continue to watch the show, but in the last couple of seasons we get more kicks out of pointing out all the inconsistencies in the so-called plot and scenarios.
4
After reading other comments it’s clear I'm not alone in thinking season 7 was a disaster. They might have gotten away with a cartoon Negan if the rest of the season hadn't gone nowhere. Even the big battle at the end of the season finale was a huge confusing mess. Lately, they haven't been able to marry action with storytelling.
Isn’t the producing team aware that all viewers want is to see Negan killed so the group can move on to that “bigger world” Jesus told them about?
3
I've watched from the beginning, in real time. I'm only watching now for Carol and Daryl. This my be MY last Season, unfortunately. I'm bored.
6
Yet here you are .......
1
Also, my bad, didn't notice that Jeremy Egner had handed over the recaps to Charles Bramesco. I wish Mr. Egner well and hope he's enjoying his other duties, and good luck to Mr. Bramsesco, with the warning that we are on the downslope for this show.
1
90% of the comments disagree with the review. That's highly unusual and perhaps the writer needs to get out of his bubble. This episode SUCKED!
7
"The protagonist band takes the fight to Negan and offers him one last chance of surrender. He, rather impolitely, rebuffs them."
Just one minor point of correction. I do not believe Negan was ever offered a chance to surrender. Quite the contrary, Rick openly declared that the death warrant on his head still stands. I only bring this up because one of my favorite themes of the show is that certain lines, once crossed, cannot be wiped away and to paraphrase Rick's speech a bit, the protagonists neither celebrate nor shy away from that concept. With everything that Negan has unapologetically done and ordered done, Rick (with the support of the other communities) has reiterated many times that he does not intend to let him live. Others caught up in the desperation of surviving in such a harsh world are given the opportunity to reconsider, but no one is accepting any excuses or rationalizations from Negan or those (such as Eugene) who stand with him.
The "protagonists" know a mad dog when they see one.
2
The writer must have been watching a different episode. What I watched was awful: Ezequiel's ridiculous speeches, why didn't they just kill Negan when they opened that door instead of spending time in useless blustery talk, those zombies were as fast as Usain Bolt the way they kept up with the motorcycle. Yes, this show requires almost complete surrender of disbelief, but last night it just was stretched to it's limit. TWD is becoming its title.
19
I don't know the comics, so maybe it's obvious to other people, but it feels like the show is setting up Ezekiel to prove himself to be the fraud he really is.
Gabriel, automatic weapon in hand standing in the trailer. Negan, in the shadows utters, "I hope y.." A sustained round of gunfire lights up the room with light and sound.
I know just by it's nature, we suspend belief with this show, but as Danny Boyle stated, you need to define the rules, no matter how absurd, then stay within them.
Coming from a firefight where it's stated the entire goal is to kill one person, now this person is in front of you, do you allow him to begin a threatening diatribe?
17
Sniper would have finished it. True, I didn't find this believable. It sort of felt like I was watching some archaic greek drama acted out on a stage, rather than something where modern warfare figures in. I'd expect all these guys to act a bit more like modern guerillas. That being said, Zombies aren't real either....
1
Right. I can't believe that Negan so far has survived the fusillade of bullets aimed at him. So unrealistic, I know, its based on a comic book....
1
yes to all of these replies. What was Rick, 30, 40 yards away? The show would have you believe Rick would make that shot with his revolver. And he had ample time to aim and fire a single shot to kill Negan. Yet he opens up automatic and hits his leg? Aside from the fact that no one ever wears glasses, or it's never explained how no one ever wears glasses, that someone everyone has perfect vision or an infinite supply of contacts, that was perhaps the least believable piece of writing ever.
Bramesco liked this episode a lot more than I did. He saw rousing I saw pretentious and grandiose.
Negan and his lieutenants stand on a balcony giving anyone a clear shot and no one takes it? Of course that would end things.
11
I was dying for Carol to ask Tara "where'd you get the Twizzler?". Mostly liked the episode, because I'm so glad TWD is back on, but having them shoot up the building was stupid, having them shoot up a car with one guy hiding behind it was stupid. Gabriel's more to save Gregory was stupid, too. Stupid people don't survive.
13
I thought the episode was a total mess. It was jumping back and forth to -- what? the future? premonitions? hopes & dreams? Where did they get all that ammunition? Rick had a chance to take out Negan with a clear shot, but didn't. Bad writing again. Disappointing.
8
I don't know what is in the original comic book series, but do the writers for the TV show feel bound to follow that? In other words,, if Negan isn't killed off in the comics, does that mean they can't kill him on TV?
I appreciated the convoy of fortified sedans.
4
It's a miracle the Saviors only shot the front of the RV.
Why didn't they just shoot Negan? Duh.
26
As proof Rick hasn't abandoned hope for a better future, I give you his statement to Maggie that he looks forward to following her soon.
She is holding the symbols now of the renewed commitment to life.
2
Except for the ludicrous failure of the writers in driving us all crazy with obvious easy opportunities to just shoot Negan in the head, I liked this kickoff, too. The larger alliance promises to break the show out of its increasingly redundant, soppy relationship issues, and a gigantic complicated battle should cut against too much redundant and tiresome moral agonia about how to be nonviolent enough in the midst of a bloody dystopia. What's left of that is sort of desperate and I hope they cut it out.
I'm not a diehard fan, and TWD is fun, good vs evil entertainment TV. I'd hate it if I tried to pretend it was anything else, but as such it looks like it's picking up. Daryl (my favorite) is back in gear, nobody has much time to sit around being depressed, and I'm happy as a clam.
4
Here are two thoughts about "The Walking Dead".
What if the show is a metaphor for the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction in the South? The walkers are a metaphor for many of the freed slaves, in that they have been "freed" from life and now are "enslaved" in death - just as many freed slaves were freed from slavery but found themselves trapped in poverty and wage-slavery and Jim Crow oppression. The various human communities represent different approaches in how to establish a new civilization from the ruins of the old.
What if the show is a metaphor for the coming global economic crisis? The walkers are a metaphor for many consumers in consumption-driven societies that are also experiencing greater income and wealth inequality. These dead consumers are no longer consuming material goods, but they have been transformed into consumers of the remaining humans. The various human communities represent different approaches to re-building society. Nagan and the Saviors represent an attempt at restoring the old structure of dominance and coercion. The Kingdom, Hilltop and Alexandria are alternative new cultures.
I understand why Rick made one last attempt at getting Negan to surrender: it was the right thing to do. Mr. Kirkman has said that whenever someone develops a moral compass in the show, they die. So maybe Rick's time is coming to a close?
4
Rick is the person who, post-coma, cleaned up and back in uniform, not only returned to kill little girl walker, he would say, "I'm sorry this happened to you". He took Morgan and son to his station to enjoy a shower, stayed in touch with Morgan after parting, brought down self-promoting bully/leader Merle, and, when Lori died, spent most of that season crazy with grief. The character of Rick Grimes, and Andy Lincoln's performance, are the biggest reason I watch this show - a good man in impossible times, rising and falling. Not about him being a "moral compass", about his struggle to maintain his humanity against those who have lost theirs. If they ever had it. That is also the metaphor, more relevant today than when the show began. Keep fighting, Rick!
16
Wow. What a bunch of over-analytic nonsense. Maybe it's just a show about people surviving a zombie infestation? Ya think?
4
Too bad the Times stopped reviewing Fear the Walking Dead, the sister series set in California and Mexico. That's by far the better show now without the cartoonish villains and comic book plot line that Walking Dead seems to have shackled itself to. I'm still watching the original and have seen all 100 episodes but sometimes it seems the show should go ahead and incorporate a laugh track into each new episode.
11
I think part of the problem is that they chose to portray Negan literally as an over-the-top cartoon villain. If he had been portrayed with more subtlety, he could have been even more menacing and more frightening. That choice, coupled with the goofiness of some of the other colonies, has made the show very cartoonish. They had managed to avoid that in the earliest seasons.
14
I so agree. From the drawn-out buildup to his first appearance to now, Negan's portrayal has been so overdone. Life under him shouldn't have seemed so bad at first...could've led to interesting debates about benevolent despotism, etc. Instead, I was ready for him to go after his second episode. don't even find JDM all that menacing, though he does his best with all those overwritten speeches.
7
But it is a comic book. It was something the series was missing and when they encountered different tribes, such as Ezequiel's and the landfill people, it relieved the unrelenting tension a little and made it feel more like fantasy and less like a documentary.
I know it's zombies, which don't exist. Yet.
Why couldn't they, for the sake of plausibility, have Negan and his crew make their "appearance" with cover rather than out in the open where for some reason they are not immediately shot by Rick and crew. Doesn't anybody try to make the story line at least moderately credible? How about having Gabriel run into that room right away rather than somehow be able to run through a horde that ignores him. Or dropping the ridiculous "tough girl Tara" portrayal, with her chewing on a twizzler like a gunfighter chewing tobacco. Obviously Negan is here for this season (if not longer), but stop with the logic-lacking approach to the story! Maintaining credibility in the story line would really go far in increasing the enjoyability of the show.
16
And Tara's twizzler had to be pretty old and stale. No wonder she was chewing on it for so long.
Agree with commentors: waste ammo, miss Negan especially after the cold looded killing of the lookouts. Seemed like a mostly sleepwalk episode...
7
Sure enough, and I'm saying this as a big fan, this is turning into The Sleepwalking Dead.
1
How many more times will we as viewers scream at the TV, "just shoot him already!" For some reason, Neegan can stand in front of his fully loaded mortal enemies and spew venom at will without fear of being fired upon. Is he that captivating? Or do Rick and company know in their hearts that Lucille would catch any lead coming his way, anyway? I am numb at the thought of how long it is going to take to finally get him.
24
I watched because Sling TV offered a day of free viewing, and I was so underwhelmed by what I watched that I have no interest in seeing the rest of the season.
I believe the producers and writers know they messed up big time in the last couple of seasons and now are trying too hard to make up for it to earn back their much abused fans.
But you know what? It doesn't matter how many hackneyed speeches and explosions you include, when you have Rick and others literally standing several feet away from Negan and no one freaking pulls the trigger then you deserve to fail as a show.
It's sad because I believe many of the actors (most stupidly killed off by the writers) have poured their heart and soul into the show and they deserve better, as do the viewers.
To the reviewer, Rick's vision is not decades in the future, it's merely a few years and it's his vision of what he wants for the future.
13
The series should've ended when the group arrived in Alexandria. I know, I know... the graphic novels have a story arc. But that story arc does not need a TV show. The show was at its best when there was conflict between Rick and Shane, when there was a moral leader like Hershel. When Carol finally became the bold woman she was always meant to be (blowing up Terminus). Since Alexandria, it has become a generic show about war. Arriving in Alexandria (so close to DC) and seeing the false government set up by Deanna, would've made an epic ending... Government can't help/We're on our own.
11
The only good season of this show was season one.
1
I found this episode to be boring. Rick kept saying he wants to kill Negan and when Negan is standing on the platform Rick is heavily armed he tells Negan to give up. Walking Dead has lost steam and it probably would be a good idea that Season 8 be the last.
13
You would miss it if it was cancelled.
2
I wouldn't. We're in a golden age of TV entertainment. There are more quality shows on TV right now than most people have the time to watch. TWD has its trashy pleasures, but it's poorly written.
8
The episode could easily and accurately be summed up with one word: "Dumb."
Three city-states of terrified post-apocalyptic survivors finally gather the courage to take on a violent, oppressive maniac, and when he walks out onto a balcony, unarmed and unprotected, the first reaction of dozens of assault troops is...stop and let him monologue! "Wait...shhh, guys...Negan's talking!" Having suffered so much murder, torture, and abuse at Negan's hand, no one thought to take a bead on him and end it all with one shot? Wasn't that clearly the goal of the mission all along?
Just dumb. Like if the special forces troops land in Pakistan, rush the compound, find Osama bin Laden in an upstairs apartment, and stop to let him run his mouth for minutes while they all stand slack-jawed. And then miss the shot when the time comes.
In the early season, the show was a form of escapism, wonder what you would do in a world overrun by zombies. How do you scavenge for food, how do you obtain weapons, do you fortify or keep moving, and how quickly would the living become more dangerous than the dead?
Now it is just one inexplicable, illogical moment after another. The behavior of the characters just doesn't make any sense. Last season was bad, and it seems like the downward trend is going to continue.
48
I thought for sure, when Rick said something about counting down, and didn't get all the way to "one" that he'd nail Negan. Nope!
Negan was standing out in the open on a platform. Rick had a small army with guns. Was there not one sharpshooter in Rick's group who could have taken Negan out? I get that the showrunner wants to stretch out the Negan storyline. However, Rick's group has passed up numerous opportunities to kill Negan. It's just too implausible. And where did they get all the ammunition that they wasted shooting at the building?
23
So Rick's daughter is like 9 when we see "old man Rick." I guess Indiana Jones was right, "it's not the years, it's the mileage." (and with this episode, Negan's death-escapes are beginning to badly parallel Dr. Jones'.)
8
At first I too thought that that was Judith (I put her at more like five or six years old). Now I think it's Carl's daughter.
The little girl called Rick "daddy."
5
Yeah it's Judith, and note Carl doesn't look more than a couple years older in the flash-forwards. I'd put her at more like 7 years old though, so this isn't too far away, but Rick apparently decides never to trim his beard again after the Negan battles.
After 100 episodes, it's all just noise now. I'm bowing out. Good luck, Carol and Maggie.
21
I'll binge watch it when it comes out on Netflix. I did that with Season 7, and it was much easier to follow the messed up story lines.
1
I am disappointed that this review serves as little more than commercial cheerleading. While I give this episode credit for having a general direction, something that has been scarce in many episodes of the last couple of seasons, let's not hail it as a sign of the Walking Dead getting back to its heyday.
This episode continues on the jettisoning of all logic found in the previous season or two. Internal logic becomes crucial when we are asked to suspend disbelief and buy into a zombie apocalypse. So while much of last season's drama hinged on the need for weapons to fight The Saviors, tonight we saw the Rick led coalition shoot indiscriminately at the air, at factory windows, and at cars. Where did they get so much supply to carelessly waste? Also while Rick nobly banters about only one man needing to die to rouse the troops, never mind the handful of Savior lookouts that were killed prior to the attack, he has no actual plans to kill Neegan when the cartoon villain presents himself unarmed and begins his usual jabbering.
I could go on, but I'll stop cause this is long enough. The show's quality is far from what it used to be. More reviewers should do their job and point this out. And the last thing it's creators should do is highlight how badly the quality of the show has deteriorated by paying homage to the long ago premier episode.
28
The "job" of a viewer is to watch. Or not. One hundred episodes in, after a season of introducing new communities and characters, of course the series will not have the intimacy of the Grimes Gang days. That they even harkened back to their simpler times was admirable. This episode was about the final image of the invading horde, it is still too soon to judge this season. The Walking Dead began as the story of one survivor, it is now attempting an epic war story, why compare? If I had an issue suspending disbelief for a zombie apocalypse I wouldn't still be here. I did give up on Outlander's stoned time travel and contrived triangle in their Season One. Andrew Lincoln and his ever increasing (and diminishing!) Gang still have me. Apparently many others, going by ratings and last night's post-show live audience.
15
Very frustrating episode, again wasting perfect chances to relieve us of the tiresome Negan. It's hard to see how our heroes have lived so long considering they still seem like idiots. And how did rick's little judith get so big while maggie still isnt showing.
16
The waste of ammo was really bothersome. and since Rick didn't get past seven in his countdown, why not just out and out shoot Negan at the get go? He had a clear shot.