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

It's like when a huge company's profits go down. They still made a huge profit but when it goes down from the previous year its perceived not good.

 

This is one of my pet hates about modern society. I don’t know if it’s more a US thing maybe? This notion that a business has to keep growing, like growth is all that matters, at any cost. It’s one of the reasons we have the global financial crisis a few years back. This notion is silly and stupid in my opinion. The idea that bigger is always better (see ‘Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered’).

Firstly of course art is not business. I know TV shows may be viewed as a business by some but hopefully we can agree it is still art.

The Walking Dead is a pretty non-mainstream genre horror programme. To get the ratings it does even now is amazing and a great success. This isn’t some mainstream TV show aimed at the whole family. I think the article itself says it is still comfortably the highest rated scripted TV show on US television or something. I don’t know how these things are done but even if it isn’t it is easily one of the most rated shows.

So how, in any logical world, are figures like that for a genre horror show considered bad or not good? It’s still a great success. You could say that the peak ratings from a few years back were unsustainable for a show like that, but everyone involved should be extremely happy they are still getting the ratings they are.

It’s like a band releasing an album that, for whatever reason (a really catchy lead single) becomes hugely successful and sells 15 million copies. Now if the next two album ‘only’ sell 10 million would anyone in their right mind turn around and say ‘they are finished, they should give up’ when they are still hugely successful and selling more albums than anyone.

It’s all about perspective and how you look at it and I think you are looking at it upside down.

 

Personally I agree. But viewership rTings are eyeballs watching which in turn bring in advertising revenue up or down just line box off receipts. More money, more budget for the show and profits for the studio to in turn produce more shows.

It shows a reduction in their audience. A band would probably either shorten a tour or play in smaller venues next time.

 

I never thought someone could make a zombie apocalypse boring, but they somehow did. Astounding!

 

I agree that they have to spend some money in a gunfight battle coordinator or better editing. All season leading to this and it was very weak.

But I have a few questions for the smarter here:

1) What was the purpose of having Sasha arrive in a coffin? Negan tells Alexandria that she is in there alive, so what is the point?

2) What were those scenes with Sasha and Maggie sitting down "watching something"? I get that since the audience is expecting a Sasha death, we are supposed to get anxious that Maggie is also going to die and we are being shown the two of them in some kind of afterlife. But Maggie doesn't die. So what is the meaning of those scenes? Are they flashbacks to when and where?

Really good to see Abraham again. Kept waiting for Glenn, specially after those Sasha and Maggie "afterlife" looking scenes.

3) If that was a message from Dwight to Darryl, what is it that he "didn't know"? He knew that Negan was coming the next day, he told Alexandria this. That Negan was a bad guy who kills people?

4) Carl is about to get killed and Rick does absolutely nothing when Negan is a few inches from his face and Rick's hands are not tied or anything? My kid is about to get killed and it literally has to be over my dead body. The call back to Rick's "I will kill you" speech from Terminus was just lazy writing. It was thrilling the first time, but the producer's really don't know how much they have lost their audience if they think that doing it a second time will do anything for the fans.

 

1 - I have no idea on that, for dramatic effect? Seemed silly

2 - Those scenes reminded me of earlier in last season when Sasha was overcoming the death of that other guy and she went a bit crazy and Maggie pulled her back in. But I didn't see the point in them

3) Dwight didn't know Negan had made a deal with the junkyard people

4) Rick had seen the script and knew Carl wasn't really going to die but was going to be saved by a well trained baddie killing tiger Also didn't make sense, he would have said goodbye or hugged him. Bad writing in that the character isn't supposed to know what happens next!

 

That's probably it, but what bothers me is why would Dwight bring it in the first place? Really. Why did he write "didn't know" on a wooden soldier, then toss it arbitrarily on the ground somewhere only to have Daryl, of all people, randomly pick it up?!? Completely ridiculous. Is that the best the writers could come up with, or did I miss something?

 

Capitalism

 

Agree. Plot wise it made no sense. I could understand Dwight having it on him, as he probably worked on these things as he travelled, but as a means of leaving a message dreadful.

 

Watch on Netflix "Train to Busan", a Korean movie that seems to take place in the World War Z (the movie, not the book) universe. Excellent.

 

They are going to remake that in the US. Don't know why when the Korean movie is so well regarded. There is also a prequel cartoon to that which has just been released here called Seoul Station.

There are rumours as well that David Fincher may direct the sequel to World War Z, which would be amazing I think.

 

I saw that. It is excellent for the genre.

 

"Train" seems to take place in the WWZ universe (it seems to me) because the zombies are the same (very fast moving, not really dead just infected from bites, fast turning), some of the swarm visuals are the same and the movie WWZ has a segment in Korea (IIRC). Don't really need a WWZ sequel with this already out there.

 

I'm always amazed at how many bullets come out of all the various weaponry, without anyone seemingly having to reload them.

 

Trust me, on AMC, TV is a business. Art is the last thing they're thinking about. I think you're confusing American TV with the BBC. Ratings are business, and the entire enterprise hinges on how much money they can charge for commercials, and that rate is dependent on ratings. If ratings are down, advertisers won't be willing to pay as much money... and trust me, Walking Dead is a very expensive show to produce: 20 speaking roles, hundreds of extras, lots of hand-made props, special make-up, complicated stunts... I would be amazed if they could shoot one episode for less than $8 million.

There have been some critical situations where somebody ran out of bullets and got eaten by zombies. I like to think the editor is counting how many "bangs" come out of the guns and make them more-or-less realistic, even cutting in a scene where the character reloads. Note that many of the gun blasts are added in post -- the actors are often just pantomiming a recoil, and they add a muzzle flash and smoke as VFX.

 

According to this article, originally was $3.4 million, then cut to $3 million.

Here’s how much it costs to make an episode of ‘The Walking Dead’

 

There is only one entrance to Alexandria, how did Ezekiel's people sneak in? Not over the fence, not with the tiger.

With all the padding this season, a full episode dedicated to the gun battle could have been pulled off by better writers and a better director. If on S08E01, or however long they drag it out, that battle is also over in 10 minutes, I quit.

If I remember correctly the Wolves/walkers invasion of Alexandria took up two full episodes. Somebody correct me if I am wrong please. That for me was TWD at its best.

 

Didn't the battle take place just outside the gate?

 

No it was inside as they chased them out of the compound and they shut the gate as they left. Negan gave the finger as driving out.

The people could have climbed over but not the tiger or the horses so that does seem a bit of a plot hole.

 

And how do you get a tiger to attack the "right" person? Easy! King Ezekiel had a laser pointer and shined it on a savior.

 

How do you know that?

 

There is that storm drain but I thought it was full of walkers and anyway you couldn't get a horse or tiger through it.

 

If they closed the gate when they left, then it was open during the battle...

 

They must have broken through the 4th wall.

 

Uh, you're referencing an article done several years ago about Frank Darabont's ongoing lawsuit against AMC over his termination and the profit share on Walking Dead. Seven seasons in, trust me, the price has gone up. As the article says: "Perhaps The Walking Dead's seventh season has assumed a larger budget, however." I would be extremely surprised that they could do the show for less than $6 million-$7 million, even with the Georgia tax benefits, because of the large number of cast members, the stunts, the (mostly) location shooting, and tons of visual effects. Most network hour-long scripted shows start at $3 million in the first season and then go up from there. A large part of the reasons why Darabont clashed with AMC is they wanted to cut the budget for the second season, and he wanted it to go up about 10-20%.