Walking Dead thread. Spoilers abound probably.

[Bunch]

Who watches and what do you think of this season? I'm having a hard time getting into it. The Saviours are such obvious asses and I really have a hard time with what happened in the escape in the last two episodes.

 

[The Butcher]

I was bummed by last episode not showing:

Spoiler

1. how Gene broke the Saviors out of zombie-besieged Sanctuary, and

2. how Carl got bitten by a zombie (if that is indeed a zombie bite.

To be honest, the writing’s gone downhill since S03 (Darabont’s departure?). Habit, plus Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan performance, is the main reason I watch it these days.

 

[Bunch]

I was bummed by last episode not showing:

Spoiler

1. how Gene broke the Saviors out of zombie-besieged Sanctuary, and

2. how Carl got bitten by a zombie (if that is indeed a zombie bite.

To be honest, the writing’s gone downhill since S03 (Darabont’s departure?). Habit, plus Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan performance, is the main reason I watch it these days.

Yes to both of your spoiler comments. Very annoying.

Negan has gotten old to me. He's no longer shocking and just seems too contrived at this point.

 

[noman]

I still watch TWD, because I hate myself.

Agreed with every comment so far: The writing has taken a nose dive, I am disappoint with the last few episodes, and the Negan arc has dragged on waaaaay too long.

The one thing about TWD I do like is the acting, for the most part, is solid.

 

[Bunch]

I still watch TWD, because I hate myself.

Agreed with every comment so far: The writing has taken a nose dive, I am disappoint with the last few episodes, and the Negan arc has dragged on waaaaay too long.

The one thing about TWD I do like is the acting, for the most part, is solid.

The Neegan arc has completely lost my wife on the show.

Spoiler: Spoiler

yeah wtf is with the escape. I mean how do you go from trapped with a ton of z's outside burning through ammo to escaped organization, resupplied in what appears to be hours or at most a day and zero info leaks. Just seems like sloppy railroad writing.

 

[noman]

The Neegan arc has completely lost my wife on the show.

Spoiler: Spoiler

yeah wtf is with the escape. I mean how do you go from trapped with a ton of z's outside burning through ammo to escaped organization, resupplied in what appears to be hours or at most a day and zero info leaks. Just seems like sloppy railroad writing.

It's not just sloppy writing; it's genuinely bad writing.

The event in question was going to happen. Because the writers will never let the good guys have a solid win. At the most, they will get a Pyrrhic victory. For example:

Spoiler: Spoiler

"Yay! We beat the Governor! Yay! But half our people are dead, the other half are scattered to the winds, and we lost the Prison! So...winning?"

TWD SOP plot structure runs something like this:

Heroes wonder through the wilderness --> Heroes find a Good Thing --> Bad Thing shows up to ruin the Good Thing --> Conflict, melodrama, and bad decisions --> Heroes overcome the Bad Thing but lose the Good Thing in the process --> Heroes return to the wilderness --> Rinse and repeat.

It's like watching Nascar, in that they go round and round, only with zombies and more talking.

And stupid decisions are the key. When TWD is criticized, the most common defense I've seen is, "We'll it's like real life; that's what people would do in real life."

There may be merit in this. People make stupid decisions in real life. People make stupid decisions in TWD.

On point, regarding the escape:

Spoiler: Spoiler

The Saviors got out because of Eugene (who made a good decision for his character and has an actual interesting story arc this time) had the knowhow to resupply them, but mostly because the A-Team (Daryl and a few others) decided to jump the gun on Rick's plan to starve them out because...no actual reason whatsoever except senseless melodramatic plot idiocy. Because the heroes can't allowed to have a clean win.

TWD was a promsing zombie series. IMO it's degenerated into a character drama about needless suffering resulting from amazingly bad decision-making.

But I still watch it. So note my own bad decision making.

Trying to be positive for a moment, I do like TWD's villains. One of my pet peeves is stupid villains (I'm looking at you King! Yes you!). TWD has great villains. The Governor was genuinely creepy AF. Terminus was wonderful! And I love Negan, because who dosen't love a junior warlord with a good rationale?

EDIT: That moment when I realize I don't know how spoilers work.

 

[Bunch]

It's not just sloppy writing; it's genuinely bad writing.

Spoiler: Spoiler

The Saviors got out because of Eugene (who made a good decision for his character and has an actual interesting story arc this time) had the knowhow to resupply them, but mostly because the A-Team (Daryl and a few others) decided to jump the gun on Rick's plan to starve them out because...no actual reason whatsoever except senseless melodramatic plot idiocy. Because the heroes can't allowed to have a clean win.

But I still watch it. So note my own bad decision making.
EDIT: That moment when I realize I don't know how spoilers work.

Yes!

Spoiler: WTF logic.

So what exactly did Eugene do? Apparently they had enough ammo to deal with the undead siege. So they were never in danger of starving. In fact leaving them outside would have allowed for more accurate shooting and better ammo conservation. Exactly why we're they ever nervous?

 

[noman]

Yes!

Spoiler: WTF logic.

So what exactly did Eugene do? Apparently they had enough ammo to deal with the undead siege. So they were never in danger of starving. In fact leaving them outside would have allowed for more accurate shooting and better ammo conservation. Exactly why we're they ever nervous?

Spoiler

IIRC there was an issue of food supplies, as that was one of the reasons the workers wanted to rebel. But it was kinda glossed over (I could be wrong). I do remember that the ammo issue was that they had enough ammo to kill the zombies that had them pinned in, but would not have enough ammo to then proceed to fight Rick's group and their allies. Eugene changed that, as he was able to make more, which was done off-screen and sped up through movie magic time manipulation, apparently.

 

[Voros]

No masterpiece and it gets bogged down by attempts at characterization that it can’t really pull off but it has zombies and the actors keep me engaged.

 

[noman]

No masterpiece and it gets bogged down by attempts at characterization that it can’t really pull off but it has zombies and the actors keep me engaged.

Pretty much this.

The zombies are now pretty much background noise, a general environmental hazard affecting hero and villian alike. The show is no more a human drama seasoned with the occasional zombie than an actual zombie show.

The acting is excellent, though, and as I said upthread, I've been really impressed with the villains.

 

[Voros]

Regarding the recent escape from the zombies, I assume Eugene's plan that freed them from that danger will be shown in a future episode.