Monday, November 26, 2018

Dead On Its Feet

Last night was the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead.  It's one of the shows I sort of watch, but sort of don't--if I miss it, no big deal.

But this ninth season has been a big deal, since Rick, the hero from the start, left. (But--Spoiler Alert--he didn't die, he miraculously survived to do some Walking Dead TV movies.  Another character, Maggie, also left, which much less fanfare). So how has the show gone on without him?

The short answer is who cares? The Walking Dead never made much sense, and really said everything it had to say by around season three.  Even with Rick gone, there are plenty of other audience favorites to keep the story moving forward.  The plot has jumped ahead several years (so that Rick's daughter is grown up enough to shoot people) and still has, among others, Daryl, Michonne, Carol, Ezekiel and Eugene.  And it's still got Negan, who, for an enterprising villain, sure took a long time to escape from his cell.

So the question now is how to build a new society. (Though hasn't that always been the question?)  And we know, in the new storyline, people will continue to do stupid things that get themselves in trouble, and occasionally killed.  And the zombies will keep popping up in inexhaustible numbers at unfortunate times doing whatever it is they're required to do.  The biggest change in the past few years is the downward slump in audience size.  That's the only thing that could really end it all.

PS  That sitcom built around Sue Heck has been rejected by ABC.  I haven't seen the pilot, but I'm guessing it's just as well.  Sue Heck was a great character on The Middle, but I'm not sure if an entirely new show with her at the center would work. As it was, it was hard to keep her peppy character going into college and adulthood.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Lawrence King said...

I started watching TWD only a couple years ago, as some of my friends are really into it. I know that its fans consider the earlier seasons to be much better, but since I'm not a huge fan, I have no desire to go back and watch the earlier seasons.

So my perspective as a relative newbie is a bit different. I find the episodes when a main character dies to be intolerable, because they spend the whole episode being sad. "Poor so-and-so... We must carry on in his honor." Maybe if I had been watching from the beginning and had grown to love this character, I would welcome 60 minutes of "We are so sad he died" -- but I doubt it.

And in the new season, they twice jumped forward in time (a year and half at the beginning, and then five years recently). Maybe that would be okay if nothing interesting happened during that time. But clearly stuff happened, for the three good-guy settlements now dislike each other. And the writers plan to slowly reveal what happened. Well, if it's so interesting, why not just show us?

6:18 PM, November 27, 2018  
Blogger LAGuy said...

I think the show is worse than that. Every death is arbitrary. The writers decide it's time for a character to go, and they die for some stupid reason. If it's not their time, they survive for some equally arbitrary reason. Maybe it's tough to keep a show like this going week after week, but even taking that into account they do a pretty shoddy job.

8:57 PM, November 27, 2018  
Anonymous Denver Guy said...

I finally stopped watching TWD, after being a loyal fan from the beginning. I had two reasons.

1) The ending of last season was a great point to end on. Our heroes had triumphed over the villains, with some integrity left intact. The prospects were good that society would finally begin to regenerate, and it was clear they weren't ever going to explore how this all happened (where did the virus come from), which was the one element of the story I still would like tyo see.

2) I forced myself to watch all of the last season of Fear the Walking Dead, but it was atrocious. I figured that TWD would be going down the same path with nonsensical plot lines., and I would rather remember TWD as it was when I liked it. Same reason I haven't finished up the last few seasons of Dexter - I'm told they are horrible.

Sad to hear about Sue Heck - maybe another network will give it a go. I am looking forward to the return of Brooklyn 99. Also, I'm enjoying Manifest now, though only have seen the first 3 episodes so far.

9:07 AM, November 29, 2018  
Blogger LAGuy said...

I saw the pilot of Manifest and thought it wasn't bad, but I'm just not ready to commit to another Lost-like show right now.

12:12 PM, November 29, 2018  
Blogger Jerine said...


I dunno why but my heard starts swinging when I look at Walking Dead Rick Grimes Season 5 Jacket given to Rick Grimes' character. C'mon, why Negan is given a much classier outfit whereas Grimes has been neglected in this regard?

12:48 AM, August 09, 2019  
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7:14 AM, May 09, 2023  

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