The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 16 "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" Discussion Thread

[Kane52630]

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Sithborg]

Premiere, midseason finale, midseason premiere, Morgan gets his murder groove back and the finale were solid to me, but the whole approach to this season has been bizarre. I honestly think they could've taken us further along into the narrative than they did. We didn't need this many 2-3 character episodes, isolated to a single location. We didn't need this much navel gazing. After the big deaths, I would've expected them to hit the ground running, but...

I'm just praying they don't drop the ball after last night's finale. No more of this slow-paced "Things are crazy right now, but lets go on a run that takes the whole ep so we can talk about where our heads are at" s***. Focus on character is great, but we get it.

You mean you aren't excited for the 90 minute episode about what happened to Heath?

 

[Matt]

You mean you aren't excited for the 90 minute episode about what happened to Heath?

The crazy thing about that episode is that we got 90 minutes devoted to finding out what happened to Heath and by the end we still don't know what happened to Heath.

That is pretty much this season in a nut shell. Nothing all that significant happened. This season could have been four episodes that tell the exact same story. This season was 90 % filler.

 

[NotNickFury]

http://deadline.com/2017/04/the-walking-dead-ratings-finale-down-sonequa-martin-green-amc-1202060376/

Eek. Could've been competition or dwindling interest, but this finale was the third worst rated for the show, just ahead of Seasons 1 and 2.

The nearly 90-minute “The First Day Of The Rest of Your Life” episode of The Walking Dead on April 2 snagged 11.3 million total viewers and 7.1 million among adults 18-49 for a 5.9 rating. While up 7% in total audience over its March 26 show and rising 10% in the key demo, the finale directed by executive Greg Nicotero dropped 20% in viewers and 14% in 18-49s from the Season 6 finale of April 3, 2016 – which saw double-digit declines from TWD’s all-time finale high of Season 5.

With all that competition Sunday night, the Live+3 results for AMC’s zombie apocalypse blockbuster might tell us the real reach of the April 2 season ender for the show based on Robert Kirkman’s comics. AMC should hope so: The Season 7 viewership and demo results are the third lowest in the show’s history behind the 5.97 million of the short Season 1 in 2010 and the 8.99 million of Season 2’s March 18, 2012 finale. Demo-wise, Sunday’s TWD is the third worst rating the show has seen, with the 3.0 and the 4.7 for the Seasons 1 & 2 enders delivering lower ratings.

 

[Matt]

http://deadline.com/2017/04/the-walking-dead-ratings-finale-down-sonequa-martin-green-amc-1202060376/

Eek. Could've been competition or dwindling interest, but this finale was the third worst rated for the show, just ahead of Seasons 1 and 2.

AMC needs to find a new show runner. Dimple has been running things since season 4 and, aside from the Governor (which was midstory when Gimple took over) nothing really happened between the flight from the prison in season four and the appearance of Negan. We spent an entire half of a season of the gang separated and wandering around. Then we got the terrible Terminus arc, followed by more separated wandering, followed by the nonsense with the hospital, more separated wandering, Alexandria, in which we got half a season of the separated wandering fallout of failed zombie herding then half a season telling us Negan was coming. Then he did and it resulted in more separated wandering.

Gimple just lacks the story telling ability required to run a serialized show. He doesn't understand pacing at all, which leads to long and drawn out periods where nothing happens. He can barely multitask with stories. I have no problem breaking up the group, but there shouldn't be multiple weeks where we don't see one of the main characters or entire episodes devoted to minor side characters. Take a lesson from Game of Thrones. It is much more satisfying to get little segments of each character in ten or fifteen minute chunks. Plus that reduces filler. When you have ten minutes to get necessary information to the viewer, there is less opportunity to waste time. These are concepts Gimple either doesn't get or won't acknowledge.

The show has stalled under his watch and it now seems that the viewers are losing interest as a result.

 

[scarlet-witch]

Honestly with how bad this season was overall, they deserved a lower ratings. They need better writing.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Better writing, yes, but I've seen it suggested that AMC is reducing the show's budget, meaning they have to cut the screen time for some of the actors. That would explain why Carol was barely in this season. When a show starts to do that, that's when things go down hill.

Regarding Heath, we know the actor got a role on 24, so why not just kill him off? It's not like he had any real impact on the show. Plus, how will they explain Heath's absence should he return?

 

[Matt]

If they are reducing the budget and are limited in money for actors, the answer is simple: stop introducing new, often redundant, characters.

 

[Leenie]

pretty much the season in a nutshell. Most of the other episodes between the milestone episodes were filler. 16 episodes? This season could have been condensed into 8 and been much stronger

I actually quite liked the first half of this season (for the most part); thought it was much stronger than the latter half.

This season could have totally been condensed though. 8-10 episodes would have helped a lot with the drawn out pacing.

 

[Art Vandelay]

If they are reducing the budget and are limited in money for actors, the answer is simple: stop introducing new, often redundant, characters.

But that's precisely why they introduce new characters. So they don't have to pay the established actors for their screen time. Jadis, or the women from Oceanside aren't making the money that Andrew Lincoln or Melissa McBride are making. So, they create scenes and episodes involving cheaper actors.

 

[Elevator Man]

AMC is the show's real problem. When it comes to TWD AMC has always been cheapskates. TWD is still the highest rated show on cable. AMC gets money from the ratings, show's merchandise, and advertisements (which is the main reason why we get a lot of commercials during each episode). So I don't see what the problem is with significantly raising the budget. It's a shame they still haven't realize they have to spend money to make money. And this is why get a subpar CGI deer (from ep. 7.12 "Say Yes"). If they're going to continue cutting the shows budget they need to cut the amount of episodes each season. It doesn't make sense to cut the budget but continue to order 16 episodes per season, which is the main reason why each season is stretched out more than it needs to be.

 

[Batman138]

I must be in the minority here because I really enjoyed the finale and the second half of the season. I do agree that it could have been shortened to 10 or 12 episodes (all of the seasons could), but I have to say that I enjoyed the majority of this season. I didn't feel that there were long stretches of nothing happening like in past seasons.

I loved the interaction between Rick and Negan before the big fight broke out. Rick's intensity and Negan's reaction was awesome. I found the entire stand off before the fighting started to be pretty intense.

I do agree that

Spoiler

there should have been more injuries/casualties from the fight, especially with Negan. He should have at least been shot or clawed by Shiva or something. I find it hard that he'd walk away completely unscathed.

But that's really my only complaint for this episode.

I also don't understand the extreme amount of nitpicking that occurs with this show. Yes, there are things that could be improved, but I feel like so many people talk about how much they hate it yet continue to watch it every week. I didn't like FTWD so I stopped watching it. It's really simple.

 

[Rowsdower!]

This episode was a mixed bag. I got tired of the "Sasha in a coffin" scenes and I really didn't need to see Abraham's gross mustache again, but they did set up her fate fairly well. Jadis and the Garbage Pail Sh**s of course turned on Rick in the most predictable moment this show may have ever had, but what really annoyed me about all that is how Carl, Daryl, Michonne and the rest of the group start kicking ass and Rick just stands there trying to reason with the b**** who just doublecrossed him. Yeah, I know she had a gun on him but hell, the Trash Tribe had guns on Carl too and he took out two or three of them like they were nothing.

And then of course you had the Knights of the Vale Kingdom and Hilltop groups swoop in and save the day. But it's never remotely clear on what happened there. Did Rick let them know they were taking on Negan? Were they hanging back, waiting to strike until the right moment? Or was this some sort of deus ex machina moment where they just showed up at the right time? To this show's credit, they at least showed the Kingdom crew armed and heading somewhere at the beginning of the episode, but whether they knew anything about what Rick was up to is still up in the air.

And goddamnit, Eugene didn't die. There were SO many opportunities for that cowardly imbecile to bite the dust in this episode, so of course it didn't happen. I guess he's becoming this show's version of Captain Boomerang in that plenty of people around him who are actually capable and useful get murdered but somehow he keeps scraping by.

I really hope things pick up in this "all out war" that's coming or else I might have to move on from this show.

 

[NotNickFury]

Strange thing about Carl is he went full beast mode on the junkyard gang, but somehow wound up captured by the Saviors mere seconds later.

And as for the Kingdom...yeah, I doubt they knew Negan was at Alexandria at that moment. That or they assumed. If I had to guess, maybe Ezekiel wanted to tell Rick in person that he finally agreed that it was time to fight the Saviors and they just happened to get lucky and see that the Saviors were at Alexandria at that time.

But given how Shiva just jumped into the frey like that and how the Kingdom fighters entered Alexandria without anyone noticing- even WITH a tiger and horses- it was probably just convenient timing.

 

[Lead Cenobite]

I thought Maggie was talking about going to help them if something went wrong. That would at least explain why the Hilltop people showed up.

 

[Golgo-13]

I can't tell; was Dwight setting them up, or did he just side with Negan to save his own skin once **** hit the fan again..?

 

[NotNickFury]

I think the idea is he's still allying with Rick and the others. That 'Didn't Know' that he wrote on the figurine might've meant he didn't know about what the scavengers would do. Chances are he just appeared with Negan to keep up appearances. Had he done something to jeopardize Negan's plan or tried to attack him, the Saviors would've just killed him on sight.

 

[Golgo-13]

I think the idea is he's still allying with Rick and the others. That 'Didn't Know' that he wrote on the figurine might've meant he didn't know about what the scavengers would do. Chances are he just appeared with Negan to keep up appearances. Had he done something to jeopardize Negan's plan or tried to attack him, the Saviors would've just killed him on sight.

Ah yes, forgot about the figurine.

 

[Sawyer]

http://deadline.com/2017/04/the-walking-dead-ratings-finale-down-sonequa-martin-green-amc-1202060376/

Eek. Could've been competition or dwindling interest, but this finale was the third worst rated for the show, just ahead of Seasons 1 and 2.

Are we "EEK"ing 11 million viewers and a 7.1 demo now?

Because I'm not wild about this past season, but the next most successful show on AMC would be lucky to clear even, like, 25% of that.

 

[NJCaliboy]

I must be in the minority here because I really enjoyed the finale and the second half of the season. I do agree that it could have been shortened to 10 or 12 episodes (all of the seasons could), but I have to say that I enjoyed the majority of this season. I didn't feel that there were long stretches of nothing happening like in past seasons.

I loved the interaction between Rick and Negan before the big fight broke out. Rick's intensity and Negan's reaction was awesome. I found the entire stand off before the fighting started to be pretty intense.

I do agree that

Spoiler

there should have been more injuries/casualties from the fight, especially with Negan. He should have at least been shot or clawed by Shiva or something. I find it hard that he'd walk away completely unscathed.

But that's really my only complaint for this episode.

I also don't understand the extreme amount of nitpicking that occurs with this show. Yes, there are things that could be improved, but I feel like so many people talk about how much they hate it yet continue to watch it every week. I didn't like FTWD so I stopped watching it. It's really simple.

U are definitely NOT alone in that, it's just that there's a hard core VOCAL group of peeps who weren't pleased, but don't think for one second that group represents everybody. I too enjoyed this season (from the second half on). It wasn't perfect and had flaws, but there were some gems and some great character development too. Terminus was do-do on a stick that's the season I struggled with, but like you, I rather enjoyed the finale and this season. There weren't as many twists and shocking deaths but in a way that was refreshing because too much of that and it get way too cliche.

 

[Evelisse]

they must really want to keep their homes clean why don't the people of Alexandria take up defensive positions on the second floor of their homes, everyones home should be their personal fort. Instead when ever under attack they all out in the streets fighting in the open.

 

[X-Ray]

Sasha almost pulled it off before that fodder came and saved Negan. That split second moment was probably the only time Negan came close to really ****ting in his pants. He pretty much laughed everything else off while talking ****. Love that crazy bastard. He probably got a hard on seeing Maggie, guns a blazin'. Surprised he escaped unscathed especially towards the end while being shot at by all those people he waved goodbye to.

Didn't see Eugene take a life from Alexandria, or any of the other friendly communities. So he can still be brought back. If he has, kill that traitor.

I did enjoy this finale, but I did have one question for my wife when Shiva started attacking people: "How does she know who the bad guys are?"

I mean, I can understand Shiva not attacking anyone from The Kingdom team, but she doesn't know most of the Alexandria and Hilltop crews.

Right? lol Not only was she able to tell them apart. She was able to go unnoticed while charging towards the gathering in an opened field. Ezekiel trained her well. You'd think she'd attack the only person (Negan) moving at the time at least.

 

[NotNickFury]

Are we "EEK"ing 11 million viewers and a 7.1 demo now?

Because I'm not wild about this past season, but the next most successful show on AMC would be lucky to clear even, like, 25% of that.

No, more like it being this low since the first two seasons. I figured that at least with some momentum from the previous season and the buildup towards All Out War, that the ratings would come in similar or close to last year's at least, but not the first two seasons.

 

[Rowsdower!]

One positive thing I will say for this episode is that I really liked the score. It's typically not something I even really notice on this show but that sh** was tight in this episode.