The Walking Dead "The Walking Dead" General Stuff & Thaaaangs Thread - - - Part 12

[Reek]

 

[Drizzle]

They might as well say, "Ratings are slipping! Please tune in so you can see this kid's gross eye socket!"

 

[scarlet-witch]

It's actually amusing to watch how desperate they are about ratings. Gale Anne Hurd only tweets the live+7 ratings now that they're dipping.

 

[marcvader]

Aren't the ratings still exceptional by most standards?

 

[Xrated48]

They are but the ratings were much higher at the start of the season as well as previous seasons.

 

[marcvader]

I know they've dropped.

 

[Kane52630]

They have slightly dipped from last season.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Walking_Dead_episodes#Season_7_.282016.29

 

[Drizzle]

It was going to happen eventually. The reason why Game of Thrones is still a ratings juggernaut is because it's moving forward rapidly and starting to wrap things up. In other words, it's eventful. I don't mind a slow burn, but The Walking Dead has been dragging its feet for a while now, and I say that as someone who's mostly enjoyed this season. I understand that they want to keep the golden cash cow going for a while, but once you see that they devoted an entire episode to Tara, arguably the least popular of the main cast, you have to sit back and say "something's gotta give". They're going to lose more viewers if they keep stalling like that. It reminds me of the episode of Lost where the writers decided they needed to set an end date after writing an episode dedicated to how Jack got his tattoos. I'd rather see the show wrap up in nine or ten seasons on a high note with the characters starting to move on course to the finish line rather than stretching it out over fifteen seasons because AMC doesn't want to drop their baby.

 

[BestGirl]

GOT also benefits to there being only ten episodes a season, which forces the plot to move at a faster pace, but yeah, TWD really needs to figure out what its endgame is.

 

[Reek]

another extended episode tomorrow night... and GoT doesn't benefit from just 10 episodes a season.... it actually does the story jumping properly, unlike TWD... in GoT, if you are getting bored with Arya for 10 minutes, you can expect not to be bored the next scene (POV, whatever you want to call it)... with TWD it's entire episodes.

 

[scarlet-witch]

Aren't the ratings still exceptional by most standards?

Oh they definitely are, but for TWD and their normally high ratings, they're steadily dropping in their weekly and demo. They started the season with 17M viewers and this last episode dropped to a 10.4.

I want their ratings to keep dropping. They won't fix their writing if they don't get a little scared about their place.

 

[Xrated48]

another extended episode tomorrow night... and GoT doesn't benefit from just 10 episodes a season.... it actually does the story jumping properly, unlike TWD... in GoT, if you are getting bored with Arya for 10 minutes, you can expect not to be bored the next scene (POV, whatever you want to call it)... with TWD it's entire episodes.

Agreed were 6 episodes into the season and the storyline has not progressed at all since episode 1. Where almost at the mid-season finale I have no clue what they are building up to since there has been no storyline progression whatsoever. That's not a good thing most shows I watch have the story progress. Yeah they may have one filler episode but not five straight episodes of filler that does nothing but bore me.

 

[squeekness]

It hasn't been thrilling me either.

 

[Man in the Suit]

I had a TWD sponsored post on Facebook saying "Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Negan are back tonight!"

It's sad when they have to tell us the main characters are in an episode!

 

[Legion]

It was going to happen eventually. The reason why Game of Thrones is still a ratings juggernaut is because it's moving forward rapidly and starting to wrap things up. In other words, it's eventful. I don't mind a slow burn, but The Walking Dead has been dragging its feet for a while now, and I say that as someone who's mostly enjoyed this season. I understand that they want to keep the golden cash cow going for a while, but once you see that they devoted an entire episode to Tara, arguably the least popular of the main cast, you have to sit back and say "something's gotta give". They're going to lose more viewers if they keep stalling like that. It reminds me of the episode of Lost where the writers decided they needed to set an end date after writing an episode dedicated to how Jack got his tattoos. I'd rather see the show wrap up in nine or ten seasons on a high note with the characters starting to move on course to the finish line rather than stretching it out over fifteen seasons because AMC doesn't want to drop their baby.

It's not just that it's slow. If you explained the plot of GoT to someone who has never watched before they might be like "so after 6 seasons this character still hasn't achieved their goal?". But so much happens and the characters and storylines are so well crafted it never feels slow. Everything that happens has a purpose.

With the Walking Dead you really could just watch the premiere, mid-season finale, mid-season premiere and the finale and not miss anything. We're seven seasons in and the group is still just meandering around the same area. They alternate between running into groups that are super cruel or super naive. Characters that should know better do dumb things. There's no goal for the characters other than to just keep things going. What really differentiates each season is Rick's stance as a leader. Is he going to be reasonable? charismatic? aggressive? Or submissive like in this season.

 

[Reek]

"Kid, I'm not going to lie to you...but you scare the ****ing **** out of me."

 

[Reek]

How can you not love Negan?

 

[Sawyer]

More worthwhile episode than we've seen in awhile, definitely more worthy of the 90 minute running time than the last one we got.

Though I don't agree with certain people saying Negan is a bad character or that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was miscast, I do feel a bit like something is lost in translation with the character. I can't quite put my finger on it. I guess in the comics, he always seems a bit like an overgrown kid, but here it's just not quite that. I don't know.

 

[Reek]

It's that JDM is TRYING to seem charming instead of just coming across that way in a comic book. I thought tonight's episode may have gained him some more fans though...

not real sure what they are going to go for in the finale... He shaves... that's about all I can gather

 

[Drizzle]

not real sure what they are going to go for in the finale... He shaves... that's about all I can gather

I'm guessing the big thing to move the plot forward in the finale may be Rick deciding to do something about the Saviors. Maybe he finds out about the Kingdom and gets the motivation to not be submissive anymore, that there's a way to fight these people. Maybe seeing Negan holding Judith will get him out of this state but I don't want to see an entire season of Rick under Negan's thumb, and I don't think anyone else does either. It's not a good look for the show.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Two more trigger pulls and Carl could have really progressed the season. He'd already killed two guys, that rifle could have cut Negan and his human shield down with ease, I know why it didn't happen but it makes no sense from a character standpoint as Carl was surrounded and must have figured surrendering meant death.

From what I've read about the comics Negan, Sawyer is right that he is supposed be a bit of a manchild, but JDM was never going to be able to pull that off as he's too much of an Alpha male type.

He's doing a good job though, Negan is the villain and in that regard the performance is working, from the minute he swaggerd on screen with that s**t eating grin I've been wanting to see him get his ass kicked, and since the season 7 premiere I've just been looking forward to Rick or Daryl stomping him out and Maggie putting him down for good.

Rick was barely in the ep and I'm not sure what he was actually doing, but the preacher talking about him as a leader was an interesting contrast with what we saw of Negan's leadership at the compound, his delusion that he's respected when in truth he's just feared, as at his core he's essentially the extreme embodiment of a bully.

If next week is the mid-season finale they have 3 pieces in motion, Michonne on her way to the compound, Daryl escaping and Rick returning to find Negan with Judith.

 

[Matt]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.forb...-dead-but-he-still-needs-to-go/?client=safari

 

[WereCoyote]

I think the Season Finale will be the lead up to the All Out War Arc in the comic, and the 2nd half will be that Arc ending with

Spoiler

Negan in Morgan's prison cell. With the offseason being the time jump from the comics and Season 8 being the Fair Preparation and Whisperer War.

 

[Hunter Rider]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.forb...-dead-but-he-still-needs-to-go/?client=safari

I disagree with this entire article bar this paragraph.

Also, the nature of a Big Bad on this epic scale necessitates the expansion of the Known World of Survivors. In order to illustrate how vast Negan's power is, the story needs to incorporate several new communities, all under Negan's thumb. This leads to a bunch of new side characters and the splitting up of our core group, fragmenting it ever further into more and more distant and disjointed storylines. We've barely seen Maggie or Carol or Morgan this season. Some new characters have shown up once and never again.

They should have intercut the itroduction of these other communities into the main character's storyline, and thus by ep 4 everything would be in place to start some progression on the fight back.

I think the Season Finale will be the lead up to the All Out War Arc in the comic, and the 2nd half will be that Arc ending with

Spoiler

Negan in Morgan's prison cell. With the offseason being the time jump from the comics and Season 8 being the Fair Preparation and Whisperer War.

If they don't kill off Negan they'll be making another huge misstep, the main reason he works for most of the people who don't think he's terrible as a chracter, is we want to see Rick or Maggie kill him for what he did, there is no logical or acceptable answer for Maggie or Rick to allow him to live, the only reason he's still alive in the comics is because the creators are in love with their own creation.

 

[WereCoyote]

I disagree with this entire article bar this paragraph.

They should have intercut the itroduction of these other communities into the main character's storyline, and thus by ep 4 everything would be in place to start some progression on the fight back.



If they don't kill off Negan they'll be making another huge misstep, the main reason he works for most of the people who don't think he's terrible as a chracter, is we want to see Rick or Maggie kill him for what he did, there is no logical or acceptable answer for Maggie or Rick to allow him to live, the only reason he's still alive in the comics is because the creators are in love with their own creation.

Well get ready for it Hunter, because JDM already said on Howard Stern last week

Spoiler

that Negan doesn't die in Season 7 as he is going to be around for Season 8.