Normally my wife and I binge watch TWD on Netflix. We signed up for Sling tonight just to watch the season premiere. This episode was completely worth it. The whole thing was just the ultimate edge of your seat episode. From the first part where they didn’t immediately show us who it was that got whacked, and you’re like “COME ON!” Then you see it’s Abraham, and you let your guard down*. You think that’s it. But then Glenn. And then the whole ride in the RV, with Negan and Rick and the hatchet, you’re wondering if this is when Rick loses his hand. And honestly, when Rick was hanging from the zombie on the bridge, I wasn’t entirely convinced this wasn’t the end for Rick. Then at the end, the whole scene with Carl and Rick and Negan-- I don’t think I took a breath for about three minutes. Great ep. It can only go down from here!
*I gotta admit, when I saw Abraham take it on the head, after I laughed at “Suck my nuts,” I was a little disappointed. Let down. I was all ready for a holy-shit moment; it was the whole reason we signed up to watch the season premiere in real time. And Abraham dying didn’t do it for me. Yes, I loved his character, but he wasn’t a character I’ve been emotionally invested in for several seasons. Only Michonne, Carl, Maggie, Daryl, Glenn or Rick would’ve scratched that holy-shit itch. The holy-shit deaths are my favorite. I love being shocked. Shane, Carol’s daughter, Lori, Andrea, Hershel, Beth and now Glenn-- these are the kinds of deaths that keep me engrossed in this show.
I’m out.
The cliffhanger episode of last season was just sickening to watch, pure sadism drawn out for an hour or 90 minutes or whatever, but at least that part seemed over. Now this was another hour of almost pure sadism – some walkers fought in a little interlude, but mostly an hour of utter sadistic shit. I don’t mind the gore, or that two likable characters were killed. It’s Negan’s fucked up abuse drawn out for way too long. Yeah, he’s a sadistic fuck. I get it. We hate him. Rick hates him. Rick’s going to kill him. Move on.
I might as well watch a couple of the Saw movies if I enjoyed this kind of thing. And I don’t care if it’s true to the comic or whatever. I signed up for a zombie show, not some fucked up shit with a perfectly non-zombie person torturing other non-zombie people mentally and physically for hours.
Agreed. I have bitched when the writers seemed to have phoned it in. This was not one of those times. I expected a death, some mourning, and then a renewed vow to fight on with Negan looking like an idiot for letting Rick go.
It seems like many in this thread and many of my friends now hate the writers and hate the show because of how dark and sadistic it was. These same people will be tuning in every week to watch the eventual demise of Negan.
Wow. Intense. Awesomely intense. That was gripping TV. What a redemption after the slow season ending. I can understand why the need to serials shake shit up now and again.
This episode pissed me off to the point I’m probably done. I’ve put up with crappy writing. I’ve put up with characters doing stupid shit that any half-thinking person wouldn’t do when caught in the ZA. I don’t care that they killed off two characters I liked.
I haven’t blanched at the violence on this show before. But that whole, long, gratuitously violent scene with Abe was bad enough, but then they dialed it up to 12 with Glen. It was just utter bullshit. It’s not something I wanted to see. It’s not something I NEEDED to see to get the point of the story. It was just crappy TV-making, where all they wanted was shock-value and gore. Fuck that.
I thought it was exactly what it needed to be. We watched a group that had overcome everything they’d previously come across be reduced to sobbing, weeping, wailing shells. That sets things up for the Negan-ocracy and Rick’s acceptance of that. The group had to be completely broken for the storyline to continue.
I have such little faith in the producers and was already angry about how the episode was jerking the audience around that when they showed both Abraham, and Glenn die I assumed it was Rick just imaging Negan kill everyone one by one so they could drag out the reveal even longer.
Instead it was just Misery Porn.
Also, serious question, Chris Hardwick understands no one really died right? His maudlin attitude during the live Talking Dead commercials when main characters die make me want to give him a wedgie.
Yeah, I got to agree with GrumpyBunny here. That level of brutality and sadism was absolutely necessary to break Rick and the rest and bring them inline with the new order. Think about how arrogant they were (in hindsight) last season as they confidently rallied their people and planned to do a pre-emptive strike on Negan. Rick was on-and-on about how they’ve handled threats before and this was no different. Well, as we saw it was different. Anything less than what they did last night and it was just another Rick vs. Bad Guy storyline. I think to a degree it was needed for the audience as well, a shock to the system that things are now different. Certainly the writers could drop the ball going forward but this isn’t The Governor or Terminus level bad - this is a whole new world of bad.
Is the story going to end at some point? I feel like I can appreciate(enjoy??) an episode like this more if I knew the whole show had an end point.
I hope season 8(next year) is it and they can work towards some kind of ending. I’m aware the comic rolls along forever, but the show can’t and it’d be great for the people in charge to plan out an ending.
I only watched a little bit of Talking Dead and it was just ridiculous. You’d think someone had actually died in his family. It was so over the top and insincere. My other complaint, and all due respect to the actor and the character Abraham but the way they kept pushing Glenn and Abraham’s death as being equivalent was infuriating. Glenn was an original cast member. I’ve never been a big fan of the Abraham character so I know I’m biased but c’mon… he was introduced a couple seasons ago and has always been a 2nd tier character on the show. His death was nothing more than a set-up to make the death of Glenn the real shock for the fans.
“Hey you. Dumbass. Hey you in the tank. Cozy in there?” - Glenn, Days Gone Bye
I agree that the show needed this. They can’t jus stay, comfortably, in Alexandria forever. Now we get to see what will happen when Rick is tasked with raiding another group, like the HillTop folks. And I think most of us called it correct with Abraham getting the bat. Glenn? Not so much.
Not a chance. If you’re in Negan’s group, you’ve got it good. Other folks doing the hard work while you reap the spoils.
Yeah, the group was utterly broken! I was captivated by the utter humiliation of Rick. And I thought for sure that Negan wouldn’t stop until Carl’s arm got hacked off. Brutal!
Agreed. This moment is probably the most pivotal moment in the entire series, and it had to outdo what people already knew from the books, for it to matter. They fed us Abraham to let our guard down, then all of a sudden Glenn gets it. Negan kept dangerously flirting with Rick and that axe, and I have to say, it kept me on edge.
I have my gripes about how the last season ended, but I think this opening episode delivered.
The violence was necessary. But I hated the way they stretched out the ‘reveal’. Especially after months of ‘Eeenie, meenie, miney, moe’ 168 times a day. They should have just opened up with the whack-and-reveal.
Yeah, I get all the justifications for the insane level of violence in this show, but enough is too much: count me as another one who objects to solid hours of torture porn as an entertainment. I get enough of this sort of depravity reading about the exploits of organizations such as Daesh or Boko Haram.
[Quote=UltraVires]
It seems like many in this thread and many of my friends now hate the writers and hate the show because of how dark and sadistic it was. These same people will be tuning in every week to watch the eventual demise of Negan.
[/Quote]
I don’t hate the writers (anyway, blame the producers if there is blame for anyone) but I think viewers may want to question themselves a bit as to what sort of entertainment they are getting out of watching a relentlessly sadistic spectacle such as we saw last night. Like some others here, I don’t find Negan to be a particularly interesting or even plausible character; pretty much the Governor cranked up to 11, with a dash of Terminus for seasoning.
Despite my misgivings, I’ve gone with the show this far, and there are hints of a ‘B’ plotline that brings in another, less obnoxious group of survivors, so I’ll continue watching. I will retain the right to not necessarily like what I’m seeing, however. Go ahead and call me a hypocrite if you want.
Jesus warned our gang last season - “Your world is about to get a whole lot bigger…”
They didn’t understand just how big it was going to get. Seeing Rick on his knees in last season’s finale and then seeing him finally break in the premiere was really something interesting to watch.
I think the people that are criticizing the writing and the gore / violence aren’t really grasping what the show was about.
The whole point is that humans are way worse than zombies. They’re the true danger - like Rick stated, “We are the Walking Dead.”
That’s never been more true than right now. They’re dead…broken…nothing like they once were. It’s a whole new way of life now, and the transition was not an easy one.
FWIW - I loved it. They promised us an epic premiere and I think they delivered.