The Walking Dead Season 7! Part 2 Sunday February 12th 2017!

Agree about Fear however my suggestion is a Limited series of 10-12 episodes. Fear is weak because they are trying to turn it into another hit series and drag out their stories for years.

 

Good point. "Fear" may have been a bit better if they didn't string it out so slowly to try to have it do another 7-10 season run. It still would have been pretty bleccch with that cast and set of writers, though.

I actually gave up on "Fear" half-way through the second season. I have the second half (eight or however many episodes) still sitting on my DVR. I don't know if I'll watch them any time soon, or ever. The thing is such an unbelievable slog.

 

I'm just not looking forward to the show like I was before; I subscribe on AppleTV and we'd get the show early Monday morning. For the previous three seasons I'd watch it as soon as I got up and before going to work, simply to avoid any spoilers. Now I may get to it by Wednesday, and even then I've already had most of the episode spoiled for me and don't care.

I've also got well over a year of the comic unread and probably won't bother with "Fear" this season.

Too much horrible stuff going on in real life to watch another show about people being horrible to each other.

 

If only Daryl wasn't held back and killed that Savior. Then Neegan could have come in and bashed a few more heads in as punishment. Hopefully Enid being one of them.

Seriously, what was Daryl thinking??? Did he forget what his actions did to Glen?

 

Last night's show did it for me.

 

14 episodes too late? I think in terms of real time it's probably been a few days. Daryl was kept prisoner, then escaped, went to Hilltop but quickly went off with Rick and is now back, so realistically this may have been the first quiet moment they have had.

I do think the Sasha thing is a bit bonkers. Rositta I could understand, as her mind has gone, but Sasha seems to have her head screwed on and no way would she just run in to their compound like that.

 

I agree on Sasha she seemed to be quite grounded.

Only 2 episodes left.

 

Definitely, within the plotting of the show, that is probably logistically the first moment they had to have that discussion. I wasn't blaming the characters for being 14 episodes too late. I was blaming the writers for splitting everyone up, removing *the viewer* from the weight of Glenn's death by a measure of five months or so, putting a bunch of boring, tedious stuff in between, and then still expecting the viewer to feel any weight to Maggie and Daryl's conversation. It also doesn't help that Daryl just mumbles his way through everything, and as someone else pointed out, within *the same scene* that he was apologizing for his impulsive hot head which *totally DID* contribute to Glenn's death, almost impulsively got he and Maggie killed wanting to go after that Savior dude.

This show has a serious problem (laziness of the writers for one) in depicting so many characters inexplicably volunteering for suicide missions (call me misanthropic, but way more people would be either outright cowards or cautious to the point of not doing the "I want to be useful! Let me go on your dangerous mission for which I have no experience and training!" thing). Not to mention people jumping the gun and impulsively doing things (e.g. Daryl, Rosita, Sasha).

At least some of Rick's "mistakes" are realistic to some degree, and the fallout is somewhat realistic as well. So when he bursts into Alexandria and decides they have to proactive about moving that huge group of zombies, and then biffs the whole thing, it's realistic in that Rick long-term is probably right, but the Alexandria people rightly also feel like they were fine before Rick got there and probably would have been fine for quite a while before something bad happened.

 

You make some valid points, although I can overlook some faults as I like the show so much.

I think the Maggie/Daryl thing would have been more powerful in scripting terms if it came when he turned up at the hilltop after escaping and Maggie just hugged him and told him it was ok. That would have been very moving.

And you are right about the suicide missions. You would think by now that those left would have a great sense of self preservation as that would be how they have survived so long. Why don't they all just sneak away to somewhere else?

 

Farewell to those of you who have stopped watching (do you still read this thread?)

I'm still tuning in, and it seems ratings are pretty stable at this point:

The Walking Dead Ratings Stay Strong Against NCAA Tournament

• 7x01: 17.03 million
• 7x02: 12.46 million
• 7x03: 11.72 million
• 7x04: 11.40 million
• 7x05: 11.00 million
• 7x06: 10.40 million
• 7x07: 10.48 million
• 7x08: 10.58 million
• 7x09: 12 million
• 7x10: 11.08 million
• 7x11: 10.42 million
• 7x12: 10.16 million
• 7x13: 10.68 million
• 7x14: 10.32 million

 

I still watch but like many others I now watch it on DVR whenever time permits instead of watching it live. 2 episodes left so will prob. watch those live.

 

The season has stayed relatively consistent within itself I suppose, but the ratings *are* lower than recent seasons. The 10.4 million number from 7x06 was the lowest rated episode since Season 3.

The lowest rated Season 6 episode still brought in over 12 million viewers.

It appears their season-opener Negan gimmick may have somehow backfired in the long-run, as the season opener this season did quite well, but then ratings dropped off much more quickly and steeply than in some past seasons.

The show still has inexplicably high ratings, but there's no question that this season has seen an unexpected drop in ratings. I don't think AMC nor the showrunners thought the epic "Negan Season" would see a drop in ratings like this.

I suspect they will speed-up Season 8 a bit, both in terms of how much time/action the entire season covers, as well as the action within individual episodes. I think people are dropping off as the showrunners clearly are trying to slow the show down to not pass the comic book storylines (and to just prolong the lucrative series in general; where they can attach the inane "Talking Dead", thus creating another high rated show out of thin air).

If the trend from Season 6 to 7 continues from 7 to 8, it could eventually become a serious problem. It *may* not be simply that this season is too slow and boring and tedious for viewers. The show may simply be starting to run its course and just drop off from being such a huge pop culture lynchpin.

 

I think killing Glenn really made some people stop watching.

 

yea, LOL... it was a little too chatty...

 

Damn, only 2 shows left! They should get exciting after this weeks ending....

 

can the writers pass up the opportunity to have Negan say to Eugene "Careful With That Axe, Eugene"

 

Currently binge watching 7 seasons of Shameless - much stronger writing and always keeps you guessing. Walking Dead melodrama just isn't cutting it anymore.

 

I know there is a lot of grumbling on this thread but they must be doing something right then to get these ratings. I mean a pretty normal cop or hospital show would kill for these ratings, and this is a genre horror series which is pretty bleak at times. Some accomplishment then to get the ratings they do.

 

I think the original showrunners and the early seasons of the show should get some definite credit for making the show a hit.

But at this stage, "The Walking Dead" is just a big giant brand. It's more like a show based on Hot Topic merchandise than the other way around. It's such a huge juggernaut that it will take some of the most wretched TV of all time to truly tank the show. I think it's just a pop culture thing at this stage. That's not to say they can't make it better.

I do think the show is starting to run its course just objectively based on slightly lower ratings and a totally subjectively based on what appears to be a slight waning in interest in merchandising and all of that. But it's still huge in that regard.

The show has also embraced some fans' silly literal blind attachment to characters. The show has unfortunately allowed perhaps the most ridiculous, juvenile, pre-emptive fan movement in the history of TV fandom ("If Daryl dies, we riot") to actually play a role in molding this show. The masses of fans often seem less enamored with the show and treat it like it's "American Idol" and root for their character to not be killed off.

The original idea of killing off "main cast" members to remind the audience that "anybody can die" was not a bad idea (though I still sense they're unlikely to kill, say, Rick or Daryl and make this actually fully true), but now it has become a gimmick that we can set the watch to. Season premieres and/or finales will often have a requisite killing-off of a cast member. If a sort of mid-level character starts spilling a ton of their life back story, and/or starts talking about planning for the future, they're probably dead.

The first "Honest Trailer" on YouTube for "The Walking Dead" does a good job of explaining why people who have such issues with the show *still* watch it.

 

I'm a sucker for zombie shows and have been watching since the first episode (I've also been reading the comic book for years). I keep hoping they'll turn it around but until then I'll at least have fun laughing at some of its more ridiculous points.

 

Yeah, same here. I don't really have an issue with it now, it's just a TV show after all. I think series 2 got really slow in the middle but apart from that I enjoy the show.

It's a thing now with the internet and social media - something HAS to be the best thing ever or really terrible, nothing is allowed to just be OK, and most art really is OK. As such I think a show like this gets unfair criticism as people seem to want every single episode to be a season finale or something.

And I think the inherent problem in a TV show like this is that almost by definition there will never be a 'third act' or resolution, it could just go on forever really.

 

Sorry for the off topic post but I though this might appeal to Walking Dead fans - if you don't mind subtitles, there's a decent Korean zombie movie currently on Netflix called Train to Busan. Highly recommended if - like me - you're bored with the slow-moving mediocrity that is the current state of TWD.

 

I almost gave up on Fear during the boat episodes, but I've actually enjoyed the later episodes. It was much better waiting and watching as a binge also.

 

Reading the comics for year. Since the Whispers, the comic has been a slog-fest.

That said, I didn't write anything about last week's episode, and I didn't feel like writing about this week's episode because I would sound totally negative in anything I had to say. So, I'll try for something positive here:

Last week and this week was the absolute nadir of crap by any standards.

They could have introduced Archie Bunker to the narrative and it would have seemed more plausible.

I continue to watch because it's become a family tradition.

I have curse words.

I'm sorry, but that's the about all of the positive comments that I'm able to muster at the moment.

 

Great, great movie. I hear there is a sequel on the way.