I thought episodes 6.1-6.4 were promising and had this season headed in the right direction. “Here’s Not Here” was the most character driven and compelling of the season so far, imo. 6.5-6.8 were a mixed bag with either good, decent, or average episodes.
“Always Accountable” was probably my least favorite episode this season so far b/c it was mostly set up for the next threat Rick and co. will confront. And the characters didn’t have much to do to move the story/plot along. I was expecting a more tense episode with Sasha and Abe searching for Daryl, who I thought would be fighting for his life from his abductors. The Sasha and Abe moments felt like it was poorly mimicking the Daryl/Carol centered ep from Season 5 “Consumed”. It also had some lame moments [BLACKOUT]like the way the writers had the diabetic girl killed.[/BLACKOUT]
I think the biggest problem (for me) this season is the non linear 1-2 days this season mostly took place. It limited the story, imo. 6.1 - 6.8 basically takes 24 hours after the walkers in the quarry escaped and the Wolves attacked ASZ. That really doesn’t leave enough room for character development. Most of the cast got little to do of value b/c of the short time frame this half of the season is center around.
I’m also not a fan of the Glenn death hoax b/c it took away from this half of the season as a cheap gimmick to unnecessarily boost the shows popularity, which already didn't need any boosting, imo. I believe the writers only did that to temporarily write Glenn out of the story so AMC wouldn't have to pay him. Plus I don’t like being deceived and having my emotions manipulated like that. For me it cheapened that moment and took away any impact if the writers ever decide to kill him again or any major character b/c I’ll probably be questioning it or not. Honestly that situation was impossible for Glenn to get out of alive imo. For that reason alone they shouldn’t have put him in that predicament to begin with. Really expected more of Gimple.
As they did last season Gimple and his writing staff are still having difficulty balancing screen time and story between the large cast. I’m not someone who normally complains about the pacing of the show, but this season was uneven with the nonlinear various characters perspectives approach. Some storylines seem like it’s being dragged out and others seem underdeveloped and rushed. I know AMC is cheap and don’t want the entire cast to appear in every episode to save money. If that’s the case stop adding more minor characters and hold off on bringing in new major characters from the comics. Use a reasonable amount of characters that the writers can handle writing and developing. A good example is Heath (one of the more interesting Alexandrians) was introduced in episode 6.1 and was featured in episode 6.3 but disappeared for the rest of 6A without any mention. What’s the point in introducing Heath if you haven’t any intentions to develop him?
So far I don’t think this season is measuring up to my expectations. Guess I expected too much, but I found it lacking in areas that previous seasons weren’t.