*Hello friends, be sure to watch out for SPIDERS and SPOILERS along the way to the Sanctuary.*
Hello readers new and old, I’m back to write my only review of this second half of the season released in a timely manner. I apologize for being such a ghost to my readers lately, but I’m happy to be back to writing again. It’s been a long angst filled winter chocked full of writers block for me, but it’s over now. As it stands for the show, this was an amazing episode and a great way to close out this dynamite season as I loved how they made everything tie together so nicely.
What I Liked:
First off, it was great to see Abraham again in the form of a continuing flashback with how he interacted with Sasha, from the scene where Sasha begged Abraham not to leave, to where Abraham said that if you’re going to die it had best be with some form of meaning to it. I loved how they built up the fight and what happened with Sasha sacrificing herself for Rick’s group. It was an emotional goodbye to a great character, and her death had a lot of meaning to it since it helped Rick’s group break free from the struggle briefly. I enjoyed seeing how Negan turned the tables on Rick briefly, and how Negan planned to kill Carl, but Rick wasn’t going to bend the knee to Negan again. It was great to see Ezekiel and Maggie come to rescue Alexandria at the last minute to help turn the tables on Negan and Jadis. Lastly, that joke where Jadis talked to Michonne saying “I lay with him later, you mind?” had me in tears and was well played. With that said, there were still somethings that I didn’t enjoy.
What I didn’t Like:
It was a shocking moment to see Jadis’s group betray Rick’s group, and while it was a great plot twist, it’s made me dislike Jadis as a character. I didn’t enjoy how Eugene has basically gone over to the “dark side” of serving Negan, and I dislike that Rick and his group were dumb enough to fall for Dwight’s deception. Not that the scene where Daryl confronted Dwight wasn’t worth seeing, I just think that Daryl should have known better. Lastly, I feel as if the scene where that woman beat Michonne was a bit gratuitous and unnecessary, but I understand what dramatic tension the writers were aiming for with it. There are some things shaping up for next season that I’m looking forward to seeing play out.
What I Expect To Happen Next Season:
For starters, it’s obvious there are going to be some strong forms of tension between Negan, Dwight, and Eugene because Negan is on to Eugene about Sasha, and Negan could easily find out about Dwight’s deception about Sherry escaping. I’m curious if Jadis will keep working with Negan, or if she will work to betray Negan like she did to Rick. I’m thinking Morgan might start down a dark path again, and I think that Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie will need to figure out the best ways to defend their respective communities from Negan’s army.
I felt overall season seven was pretty killer, and despite being slow at certain points, it’s like if season two happened without being horrible. I look forward to this coming October to see where things go, and I lament that October is far away at the same time.
Hello again world of WordPress, Kevin here bringing you my brief thoughts on Walking Dead episode 7.4, “Service”. I missed reviewing the last two episodes just because I’ve been busy with work and accepting the outcome of the Presidential Election last week. Here’s to hoping we can get “Negan Lucille” into office someday, candidates who will take care of the deficit by “shutting that shit down, no exceptions!” As for the two previous episodes, I know some people might have found them boring, but I’m rather enjoying how much dialogue and plot driven things are becoming in The Walking Dead again. These eipsodes were a breath of fresh air from the season premiere. It’s like the creators are trying to Make the Plot Great Again. Terrible political jokes aside, I rather enjoyed this episode as a whole.
What I enjoyed:
I rather like the direction they are taking with Rick’s character development since Negan is working to break Rick like a whipped dog. I don’t mean to say that Rick deserves to be treated this way, but I’m curious to see where things will go with how Negan is treating Rick. Such as if Rick ends up breaking completely, or just becomes a worse person than he was in the middle of season five. I enjoyed seeing the tense air between the members of Alexandria and the Saviors with how the actors played everything out. The scene where Carl confronts the Saviors and stands up to Negan was well made. Same goes for the scene where Dwight was creepily taunting Rosita.
Speaking of Dwight, if Negan is the big dog around the yard, Dwight is the simpering little hound dancing in his shadow for Negan’s approval. It seems that the writers are actually trying to make us hate Dwight more than Negan, and it’s working for me. I think Dwight is losing his humanity becuase of Negan’s actions, and Dwight sees parts of his old-self in Daryl that he now hates. IE, the scene where Dwight takes Daryl’s bike and then purposely taunts him over it saying, “You can have it back Daryl, just say the word!” Which I think was a reference to last week where Daryl refused to call himself “Negan”.
As for Negan himself, I am falling in love with how Jeffery Dean Morgan plays this psychopath. I find myself quoting Negan in my head all of the time with how he goes from being funny to dead serious in a heartbeat, he’s the kind of villain that’s “so bad he’s good.” I’m finally starting to catch up on the source material, so I will incorporate how the show version of Negan compares to the comic version of Negan in future reviews. Here’s to hoping the writers don’t screwover Negan like they screwed up the Governor’s story arc. With all of that said, I still had a few bones to pick with this episode.
What I didn’t enjoy:
Am I wrong for thinking that this episode didn’t have to be be 90 minutes long? I feel the episode itself became a lot worse once Negan left Alexandria. Negan was really the person who made this episode pop for me. With that said, I didn’t feel like Negan needed to take every single gun from Alexandria, as it decreases their chances of survival in the now zombie infested world they live. Negan said he didn’t want Rick’s group starving to death, but God forbid another Walker heard needs to stroll through Alexandria again. I know what these plot points stood for though, it was to demonstrate how much control Negan has over Rick now vs who Rick used to be, as Negan even mockingly pointed out to Rick with that scene where Negan was holding Deanna’s camcorder. Lastly, while I thank Father Gabriel for buying Maggie more time, I don’t like the idea of her being found out at the Hilltop colony later this season by Negan. This season will prove to be a bitter sweet symphony of writing if so.
I look forward to see where things will be going this season, while last season gave us a lot of action, I’m thinking this is going the season where Walking Dead comes back to plot over action, like a better and darker version of season two. I pretty much gave away my song for this review, so here’s your moment of zen:
Warning: be prepared for lots and lots of spoilers.
Hello again WordPress readers, Kevin here coming to bring you my thoughts on this highly emotional episode titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”. First, I just want to point out I may not do live broadcasts on Facebook anymore for live reactions as even that seems to cause drama involving spoilers.It’s hard to tell eggshells apart from mindfields these days. Anyways, I will stop derailing and digress onto the show.
What I liked:
This episode was well made in how it made me want to punch the writers in the face like Daryl did to Negan in the first half, and then had me on my knees emotionally in the second half when we found out who Negan’s victims were. The writers wanted us to feel exactly how much pain Rick’s group was in the second half of the episode after they lost Glenn and Abraham to “Lucille”. I think this episode will really set the tone for how insanely goddam brutal this season is going to be.
I enjoyed Jeffery Dean Morgan’s acting as Negan, and while I’m still behind on the comics for Negan, Morgan’s acting is top notch as my new favorite TV psychopath. Your move, Game of Thrones.
Speaking of Game of Thrones, could Negan be shaped up to be like Ramsay Snow? For instance, the secene where Negan almost forces Rick to cut off Carl’s arm shows us just how twisted Negan really is. The same goes with how Negan took Daryl to be his captive and threatened to send “bits of Daryl” to Rick’s door, much like Ramsay would do to his enemies.Eitherway, I’m not expecting any happy resolutions in this season with an opening episode like that one.
What I didn’t like:
What I hated about this episode is what I loved about this episode: It made me wait a little longer for the death reveal, then smashed my heart to pieces like Glenn and Abraham’s skulls. Walking Dead pulled a fast one on all of us thinking only one person was going to die, but they killed off a second character in a huge emotional tirade that caught all of us by surprise (even if comic readers did know about Glenn and Abraham dying). Add the trauma of that scene where Rick almost cut off Carl’s hand, and you have one fine recipe for fan heartbreak, and my massive headache. Seriously, I need some tylenol after watching this episode because of how much it played mind games with me.
R.I.P. Glenn and Abraham, I would have liked to have seen you both develope as characters in the upcoming story arc. Instead, the writers decided to not deviate from the comics too heavily this time.
We will see where things go moving forward, which I doubt will involve anything aside from brutal and dark writing.
-KCard