Oy vey. This was just an hour of torture porn. I'm going to go ahead and put the entire review under a cut, just in case you don't know yet.
Cons:
The plot is just... ugh. Negan takes Rick in an RV and monologues to him in an evil sort of way, and then makes him fight a bunch of Walkers. And then this is cut with clips of the line-up that we ended on last season. After an excruciatingly stupid buildup, we finally see the victim about 25 minutes in. It's Abraham. Nobody cares. But then Daryl gets up and tries to attack Negan, so as punishment, Negan kills Glenn too.
I literally guessed this. I knew this was going to happen. I knew it was going to be a cop-out kill (Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, Sasha, or Aaron) and then a major character kill (Glenn or maybe Daryl, but I was pretty sure it would be Glenn). Just like I said at the end of last season, all of the suspense was sucked away by making us wait for six months. I had literally resigned myself to the worst, and so nothing phased me.
Or, I should say that something did phase me, and that was how gratuitously violent the whole thing was. I hate it when shows use that kind of imagery just to be shocking. There was no other purpose than to impress us all with how far they were willing to go. Abraham was my least favorite character on this damn show, and I honestly felt relieved when it was him that died. The twisted thing is that I think I was supposed to feel relieved. It was another fake-out, another stalling tactic until we could get to the death that we're all meant to care about. Glenn. And, I mean, Glenn? Pulease. Any impact his death might have had on me was ruined by the fake-out death they did last season. That was their diversionary tactic, and it did not work at all.
Oh, and another thing. Before we know the identity of the dead people, Rick is fighting off a bunch of Walkers for Negan's entertainment, and he keeps seeing flashes of everybody's faces and brief moments of their lives. It's almost... condescending. One more moment where we're supposed to be freaked out about the fate of our fave. TV shows shouldn't try and bait their audiences like this. It's annoying. There's even a little fantasy scene at the end where everybody is alive and well and sitting around a giant dinner table. Pulease. Stop.
After Negan and Rick get back to the clearing, Negan tells Rick to cut Carl's arm off, or else he'll kill everybody else. Rick begs and sobs, and Negan stops him just as he's holding the axe over Carl's arm. Negan now owns Rick, and Rick knows it. The Saviors take Daryl as a hostage, and then they drive away, leaving everybody else in the clearing. They will be back to collect payment soon.
See, this scene would have been effective as hell, were it not for the fact that I was already maxed out on hearing Negan say creepy things, and seeing everybody look on in horror, and all that. If Rick actually had chopped Carl's arm off, I would have just shrugged it off, honestly. You can't shove that much gore into one episode and expect it to still phase me.
And Negan talks too much. Jeffrey Dean Morgan does a great job, but he talks too much. It's campy. They needed to tone way back with this stuff, and not give us so many evil monologues and close-ups on the devastated faces of our heroes. We get it. The dude is bad.
Pros:
Everybody's acting was amazing, though. I mean, they really didn't pull any punches with how devastated and scared and panick-y everybody was. Serious props to Rick, in particular. I mean, he was broken. Completely.
And in terms of being emotionally affected by the deaths, I will say I loved the moment when Sasha and Rosita had a connection over their shared loss of Abraham (even if both of these women could do SO much better). Eugene comes over, and the three of them all help to lift him up.
Maggie is understandably traumatized, and she starts talking about fighting the Saviors, and going off on her own. The group comes together, coming out of their shock to rally around her. Now this was a nice moment, as was the shot of the empty clearing, the two bodies cleared away, and Maggie standing in between the two red spots where Glenn and Abraham's heads had been. But to go back to my complaints, all of this would have worked better in moderation. In these kinds of situations, less is more.
Daryl is Negan's hostage, and honestly I care much more about that than I do about Abraham dying. I can't wait to find out what happens to him. Even a bad couple of episodes isn't going to stop me caring about Daryl.
RIP, Glenn. Your death wasn't a surprise, but I'll miss you even so.
5/10
Or, I should say that something did phase me, and that was how gratuitously violent the whole thing was. I hate it when shows use that kind of imagery just to be shocking. There was no other purpose than to impress us all with how far they were willing to go. Abraham was my least favorite character on this damn show, and I honestly felt relieved when it was him that died. The twisted thing is that I think I was supposed to feel relieved. It was another fake-out, another stalling tactic until we could get to the death that we're all meant to care about. Glenn. And, I mean, Glenn? Pulease. Any impact his death might have had on me was ruined by the fake-out death they did last season. That was their diversionary tactic, and it did not work at all.
Oh, and another thing. Before we know the identity of the dead people, Rick is fighting off a bunch of Walkers for Negan's entertainment, and he keeps seeing flashes of everybody's faces and brief moments of their lives. It's almost... condescending. One more moment where we're supposed to be freaked out about the fate of our fave. TV shows shouldn't try and bait their audiences like this. It's annoying. There's even a little fantasy scene at the end where everybody is alive and well and sitting around a giant dinner table. Pulease. Stop.
After Negan and Rick get back to the clearing, Negan tells Rick to cut Carl's arm off, or else he'll kill everybody else. Rick begs and sobs, and Negan stops him just as he's holding the axe over Carl's arm. Negan now owns Rick, and Rick knows it. The Saviors take Daryl as a hostage, and then they drive away, leaving everybody else in the clearing. They will be back to collect payment soon.
See, this scene would have been effective as hell, were it not for the fact that I was already maxed out on hearing Negan say creepy things, and seeing everybody look on in horror, and all that. If Rick actually had chopped Carl's arm off, I would have just shrugged it off, honestly. You can't shove that much gore into one episode and expect it to still phase me.
And Negan talks too much. Jeffrey Dean Morgan does a great job, but he talks too much. It's campy. They needed to tone way back with this stuff, and not give us so many evil monologues and close-ups on the devastated faces of our heroes. We get it. The dude is bad.
Pros:
Everybody's acting was amazing, though. I mean, they really didn't pull any punches with how devastated and scared and panick-y everybody was. Serious props to Rick, in particular. I mean, he was broken. Completely.
And in terms of being emotionally affected by the deaths, I will say I loved the moment when Sasha and Rosita had a connection over their shared loss of Abraham (even if both of these women could do SO much better). Eugene comes over, and the three of them all help to lift him up.
Maggie is understandably traumatized, and she starts talking about fighting the Saviors, and going off on her own. The group comes together, coming out of their shock to rally around her. Now this was a nice moment, as was the shot of the empty clearing, the two bodies cleared away, and Maggie standing in between the two red spots where Glenn and Abraham's heads had been. But to go back to my complaints, all of this would have worked better in moderation. In these kinds of situations, less is more.
Daryl is Negan's hostage, and honestly I care much more about that than I do about Abraham dying. I can't wait to find out what happens to him. Even a bad couple of episodes isn't going to stop me caring about Daryl.
RIP, Glenn. Your death wasn't a surprise, but I'll miss you even so.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!