The Walking Dead - Season 7 - (Spoiler alert)

All I have to say is wow. The show really took a turn to a much darker side, but I guess ultimately it follows the comic book. Is the comic book still running? (please don't put spoilers from the comic book here - only discuss the current season).

Stepping up the gore factor on the death of the main characters was an interesting choice, but also where it felt like it crossed a line a bit.

This was a very difficult episode to watch. To see Rick so broken down too, wow....... They have definately had their low moments thru the series, but nothing like this.

Think I'm going to skip this and watch Downton Abbey again.

It was really hard to watch for sure. I was really emotionally drained for a day or two. In hindsight, now that I am over it a bit, it was a pretty brilliant episode. It made you actually try to feel what Rick felt. Filming the sequence of the episode like that as Rick's looking back at it/ from his point of view was really a great idea. The Carl scene was absolutely riveting with some amazing acting from the underrated Andrew Lincoln. The table scene at the end was heartbreakingly sad.

We are at Walker Stalker Con in Atlanta. Spent the day driving around seeing all the filming locations. Interestingly, the town of Senoia (Woodbury) is just a fey hundred yards (over the Terminus tracks) from Alexandria filming location. That was cool to see as it is an active film location. We have tickets to meet Andrew Lincoln on Sunday- looking forward to that. They have a line up of some really cool panel discussions I'm excited about as well. Here with 17 yr old nephew who is on cloud 9- he's so excited.

I think it verged into misery porn. I had been looking forward to this episode (like everyone else) but I just felt sick. There's an understanding that you need to be ok with a lot of violence and gore to be a fan but in return you get amazing storylines and characters. I thought this episode was just too bleak and made me sort of dread the next one instead of being excited for it. They'll need to find some middle ground.

Negan ruined the comic for me and after seeing this episode I think he's probably going to ruin the show for me, too.

I just simply don't buy him as a Big Bad. Whereas The Governor was manipulative and conniving and had everybody snowed about what kind of man he was, Negan is just a d--khead with a baseball bat. No way a guy like him builds the following he has under the apocalyptic conditions they live in, IMO. He might pull together a ragtag few people, but I don't think it would take very long until he ran across somebody just a little smarter, or a little faster, or a little stronger, or a little of all three, and he'd find himself staring at the wrong end of his beloved bat.

I'm probably in for one more episode because I like Jeffery Dean Morgan enough to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it's not looking good.

BrickPig said:

Negan ruined the comic for me and after seeing this episode I think he's probably going to ruin the show for me, too.

I just simply don't buy him as a Big Bad. Whereas The Governor was manipulative and conniving and had everybody snowed about what kind of man he was, Negan is just a d--khead with a baseball bat. No way a guy like him builds the following he has under the apocalyptic conditions they live in, IMO. He might pull together a ragtag few people, but I don't think it would take very long until he ran across somebody just a little smarter, or a little faster, or a little stronger, or a little of all three, and he'd find himself staring at the wrong end of his beloved bat.

I'm probably in for one more episode because I like Jeffery Dean Morgan enough to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it's not looking good.

I have to agree, someone who rules through brute force and intimidation is usually at risk of being overthrown the first time anyone sees any weakness or opportunity. The Governor was manipulative, which is why he was able to get so many followers, they bought into his story rather than following out of fear of reprisal.

I don't want to google the comic for fear of seeing plot spoilers - but is the comic still ongoing? Is the conclusion already out there? Or is it a little ahead - like Game of Thrones?

The comic is definitely still ongoing. And at the time I quit reading it, which was almost 2 years ago, the Negan storyline was already well past what we've seen in the show and still had not concluded. (It may still be going on, for all I know.) This is why I stopped reading it; the storyline for Negan just went on and on and on, and as I said, I simply couldn't buy into the character. If I thought there was any chance at all they'd wrap this up in a few episodes of the show, I'd stick it out. But Negan is an exceedingly beloved(?) villain in the comic, and JDM is an extremely popular actor, so I feel sure this is going to drag on for a good long while in the show, as well.

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

I haven't read the comics, but looking at the wikipedia page it seems that it goes on with Negan for awhile, and then when things finally resolve the story suddenly jumps two years ahead.

dave said:

Think I'm going to skip this and watch Downton Abbey again.

I think that's gonna be my plan, too. The gratuitousness of the episode was not enjoyable. Every scene went on way too long. Adios.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

I think that's gonna be my plan, too. The gratuitousness of the episode was not enjoyable. Every scene went on way too long. Adios.

I considered stopping also, but this week's episode was quite the antidote to last week's - there may be hope for the show.

Sorry, late to the thread. I have to agree up to a point. When I initially saw the trailer, and there was a king with a tiger at his side, I said "uh-oh"... and I do think the whole story of that community buying in to the whole knights of the round table thing is really silly and disappointing. That's a real potential shark jump there.

The Negan story line bothers me less. Seems to me that he represents the emergence of the mafia into the new world order, which is not an illogical development. As the mob uses extreme, public violence to bring communities in line to do their bidding, so do Negan and his thugs. The tactic of terrifying people into the fold and then providing protection to the loyal is not completely unrealistic, although it is a bit of a stretch that nobody's done him in yet. I think the extreme violence was needed to make Rick's character devolve into the subservient wreck the plot called for. After the scene with Carl and the axe, I can believe he is a broken man. Same for Darryl and his trials.

I'm gonna stick with it for a while... if for no other reason than to see if Alexandria, the Hilltop and the Kingdom can somehow pull together and take care of Negan in some spectacular fashion and get back to dealing with the zombies, er, I mean walkers. I do hope it doesn't take the entire rest of the season to get to there. Agree that each episode this season has been a bit slow-moving. Last night's was like molasses, with almost no plot movement beyond Alexandria losing its armory.

well, despite the rough start, I must say it was a decent season overall.

yes and I thought the finale was excellent. Lots of twists I didn't expect. Sasha's death was a great one and the flashbacks of Abraham tied it all together really well. Maggie's speech at the end was beautiful. I really, really liked this episode.

And as painful as it was, the first episode of the season was a really masterful piece of television. I don't think I could ever watch it again though.

Yup, good closer, and I thought the last few episodes were pretty strong. Great twist last night when, right after Sasha's courageous transformation, the garbage people turned on Victoria. The last second arrival of the Hilltop and Kingdom were pretty predictable, but still satisfying.

So who do you think will eventually kill Negan? Rick, Maggie, maybe Eugene????? Season 8 seems a long time away...

[if you've read the comic, PLEASE don't tell   ]

yes, the kingdom arrival was predictable but the tiger was awesome. Negan's reaction was priceless.

ice said:
So who do you think will eventually kill Negan? Rick, Maggie, maybe Eugene????? Season 8 seems a long time away...

I'm guessing Rick - he certainly states enough times that he will, the question will be where, when and how.