Screw them, they should have known a lot more about Negan than what they told Rick’s group.
“Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
He’s just a sensitive soul.
Governor and Terminus were pretty bad. I don’t think Negan surpasses those other than the hype. Plus The Governor was really toned down for tv.
This was my problem with it too. The show is violent so that didn’t bother me that much. The narrative manipulation was what pissed me off. If this show had real characters that felt like people they could have showed Negan kill them at the end of last season and it would have been just as effective a cliff hanger.
I agree the Governor was toned down for tv vs. the comic book. But we are discussing the world created in the tv show. And that is where I disagree - The Governor had a larger group of people than Rick had at that time but his actions were still fairly localized and “small scale” compared to Negan. He had no influence outside his community, didn’t control any territory, nor did he have control over any other communities. And from what we’ve seen so far I think you can argue Negan is far more ruthless. The Governor at least tried to maintain a facade as a magnanimous leader to his people and only a select smaller group saw the bad things he did. Terminus was even smaller, a small group of opportunistic cannibalistic survivors with no real influence outside their compound.
The thing is you know Rick’s group and have an affinity for them. Negan’s group is undoubtedly brutal and sadistic. But Negan also demonstrates a large amount of rationality with the employment of said brutality. Rick’s group killed damn near 30 or more of Negan’s. Many in their sleep. Negan wants a productive society and uses violence and the threat of violence to enforce “the law.” His group, by many measures, is more successful than Rick’s.
Does Negan have to be rough? Well you see what happens to nice folks in Terminus. They get preyed upon by the strong and turn into cannibals. They ate a lot of children in Terminus. That’s the world the characters inhabit. Walking Dead is not about zombies. It’s about humans.
In the real world how do we deal with other countries? We talk nicely! Backed up by 1000s of nuclear warheads, aircraft carriers, tanks, artillery, war planes, and other things. Many of them used on a daily basis to impose our will on some and to demonstrate that we will impose our will on others. That’s life. It reminds me of reading Lord of the Flies and everyone fixating on the lack of civility of the children while ignoring the fact they were rescued by a naval cruiser.
Gee, they get captured. . .again by a nut-ball.
Maybe, Glen will crawl under another dumpster or Rick will wake up and it’s all a dream or Rick wakes up from his coma and none of this ever happened.
At the end of the series, Rick wakes up in the hospital after being shot, and realises it was all a dream.
…and his marriage is still a wreck, his wife is banging his best friend, and his kid won’t stay in the God damn house. Upon reflection, Rick decides the coma induced apocalypse was much better for him.
I really don’t understand the people saying they’re done with the show cause of the violence, they crossed a line, etc. Not as much in this thread but on Facebook and stuff. We knew going in we were going to see someone have their skull bashed in with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire - what the fuck did people expect? That said, the psychological torture of watching Rick be reduced to sniveling and crying during the Carl scene shook me more than the deaths did. And the deaths shook me quite a bit.
As far as Hardwick, he’s not the most sincere guy but it would’ve felt very weird for him to come on all peppy during the breaks. This was not a fun episode to watch. It was was a good, gripping, intense episode, but not a fun one. I cried, then was in shock, then didn’t blink during the scene with Carl, then cried again at “he was our family too” and the dinner table. The downside is I’m not sure how the rest of the season can live up to this episode.
I hate you.
So very, very much.
I’m not out (not yet, anyway), but I agree with this. Put me down as another person who used the term “torture porn” while watching this extremely graphic episode. I’m not lily-livered about tv violence, but there comes a point where I do wonder why I’m watching this - what entertainment value am I finding in watching a man have his brains bashed in while his wife and all his friends watch?
I used the term Torture Porn, but Misery Porn works, too. We saw the depiction of a strong man completely broken - is my life better for having seen that?
This summer, my brother-in-law informed me that “The Walking Dead” is the best show on television, and possibly the best show ever. I will agree that it has us talking and discussing it and watching obsessively, but I’m not entirely sure if that is because it is so good. I’m at a point where I wish the show would just end already, so I could stop watching it. I’m in this far, and I’m probably in to the end, but I don’t really want to be any more. Like others have said, I wanted a tv show about how humans would live after the Zombie Apocalypse, not a weekly hour of torture porn, or The Adventures of the Stupidest People Alive Who Are Physically Incapable Of Ever Learning Anything.
The show doesn’t have to end for you to quit watching. Just turn the channel or read a book. I do find it interesting that in a show where people get devoured alive on a continuous basis that a bit of violence by a dude with a bat is the final straw.
And the show is not really about zombies. It’s about trying to reestablish order.
My sentiments exactly. With no end in sight, it feels a bit like an exercise in masochism to commit any more time into the show. I’ll echo another poster’s sentiment that it felt a bit like watching a Saw movie, which isn’t my thing. Last night’s episode was tense as hell, but I don’t see “take out Negan as revenge” as a satisfying conclusion to what is certainly going to be a season or two of misery for the remaining heroes. If I knew there was going to be an ending to the series in 2-3 years, I’d want to stick around to see what happens after Negan. As it stands, the cycle of survival, settlement, peace, and mayhem is wearing thin.
OK, this was certainly effective; I admit to the odd gasp or two. But there’s one thing I’m really hoping will improve:
This. I have a feeling that there will be very few episodes in the near future that will be fun to watch. I need something to root for—some ray of hope, some possibility that things might actually get better someday. Not just things to be against and people to hate until you find other people you can hate more. I’m afraid it’ll become just all misery, all the time, everything is shit, everybody sucks, everybody dies and we’ll call it edgy.
Now I’m not watching the show with the expectation that in the end, all’s gonna be fine. But I’m also not sure I want to watch people stumbling from one shit situation into ever shittier ones. I’m not sure I’d find that, you know, entertaining.
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I think the people that are criticizing the writing and the gore / violence aren’t really grasping what the show was about.
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Seeing the effects to Glen was literally the most violent, goriest thing I’ve ever seen on TV.
You (the writers) can insult my intelligence with the frequently idiotic behavior of your characters. You (generic “you”) can think I’m a wimp. You (other posters) can flat out say that I’m too stupid to understand that a show I’ve been watching for however-long isn’t *really *about the zombies. Whatever. I don’t give a shit.
But having to see Abe was bad enough. And then to dial it up even further with Glen… it pissed me right the fuck off that I was being subjected to it, all in the name of shock value.
Dumbest show in TV history
I think with all the people who have been disembowled and eaten alive by zombies and how gory some of those close ups are that the issue isn’t necessary the gore alone. I think what’s bothering people has to do a bit more with the pacing and anticipation.
I have been saying for a while now that at some point the show has to pivot from showing the end of a civilization to the building of a new one. The comic has done this pretty successfully, hopefully the show will too.