DJariya

16 episode 8th season


My DVR picked up a bunch of Walking Dead specials/behind the scenes documentaries that have aired over the last few days. I've watched a few of them so far and found them decent.

I loved the one where the cast made fun of how Andrew Lincoln pronounces "Carl" or "Coral"

Luds

Eh, last few seasons have sucked so much I've got zero excitement for this. Hope they trim the fat this season, and yeah does that includes Tara What a useless character.

dex14

TGM

MLBFan24

I hope there are more zombies this season...

OldBoy

there have been some good specials prior to tonight with cast and crew. one that retrospects the entire series (may be on demand).

tonight there is S7 finale with a bonus scene in case anyone interested prior to premiere. 7:30pm EST...

Troy Stiffler

Damnit. They had to run it into the ground. I'm probably enjoying Z Nation more than TWD now. I watched Glen get his face bashed in. Other than that, I skipped over two seasons now. Still fun to check in and see how everyone is doing once in awhile.

The should give it some closure and, if they want to keep going, start fresh in a new part of the universe (not 'Fear' either).

mcnabb

I still think the show is stuck in neutral with Negan as it’s the same shit every episode. And I’m sure the theme of Season 8 will be the group exacting revenge on Negan, but it seems cliched at this point. I honestly think they need to get away from Alexandria housing development as it would give the show a fresh storyline. But this season looks like all the developments banding together against Negan.

Bill Needle

While this version is vastly superior to the “Fear” version it does suffer from pacing problems. There is far too much lingering on peripheral characters that serve no real purpose (Tara) and story progression suffers. I don’t mind a slow episode here and there, but put it in the overall story arc, and enough with wasting 25% of the season focusing on characters no one will ever care about no matter how much you force feed them to us. And of course it comes at the expense of time spent with characters that are far more important and interesting.

Michael Corvin

Looking forward to the quality writing that the Walking Dead has continued to deliver the last two seasons.

mcnabb

I agree as I’ve been advocating for the past 3 seasons I wish they would trim the cast and focus on 6-7 characters. But I guess they have to keep the secondary characters to kill each season?

DthRdrX

Comic issue 100 had that huge death scene. I wonder if they will pull something similar tonight.

OldBoy

Fucking cable went out for a bit. Missed most of S7 finale, but it still recorded and back. They originally said 11pm. Phew. This and GoT are only shows I watch live. Partly bc I want to and partly bc it will be spoiled on every medium next day. Internet still out, but at least cable back. I forgot about Sasha. Too bad. But damn fine shootout...

OldBoy

I really don’t get the ire over some seasons, specially recently. There are only a handful of dramas that for me have never diminished and remained compelling throughout long run. The others include GoT, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, er (first 7 years I believe. Since Edwards departure it went or maybe a couple seasons later (I think Noah Wylie’s departure was the back breaker) went downhill. Forget what season that was and West Wing (save for very last season, hated everything about election and Smits and Alda. Was abysmal to me. But very last episode was a decent send off).

Michael Corvin

The Walking Dead is a unique beast though. Even if there is a bad Game of Thrones episode, it still has unrivlaed production and phenomenal acting to help bouy it along. Same for Breaking Bad. Even a weaker episode was most likely laying groundwork for a greater purpose/payoff down the line. Even on the less than stellar seasons of er with a weaker cast, there was still a solid medical drama at its core. All these shows have layers they can fall back on during rough patches.

It's not the same with TWD. Strip away the characters in Walking Dead and you're left with, well-nothing. It's not like there's going to be some revolutionary way to kill walkers that's suddenly going to advance the plot. The writers have clearly given up on the characters seeking something greater than simple survival. There is no bigger picture(scientists working on a cure, a government/military stronghold, no word out of City Z that things are getting better, etc.) to advance the world. There are no layers to the show. Once you kill off some of the better characters and make a couple more idiots (see video above), you have a show just going through the motions.

DJariya

FYI Talking Dead is 2 hours tonight if anyone on the East coast wants to stay up late.

It’s live from the Greek Theatre in LA. Not the usual dinky studio.

OldBoy

ok, the dream sequence was a little bad...

Bill Needle

So was it half or only a third of the episode comprised of Rick asking if it was over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

Also, pretty sure Storm Troopers could teach these folks a thing or two about shooting.

Bill Needle

Forgot to add: Steven Ogg (Simon) steals every moment he is on screen.

General Zod

Every opportunity to take out Negan and his lieutenants and they didn't do it. Again. I know that would more or less end this immediately so they can't do that but why would we keep watching the same stupid moves over and over. Just shoot him instead of trying to do some funky Rube Goldberg method.

spsimmons

That episode sucked. Hearing Weird Al in a Walking Dead episode kicked total ass though. I never thought I'd give up on The Walking Dead, but I'm borderline thinking about it now.

Raul3

I subscribed to Youtube TV to watch this.

I was ready to let the show go, I didn't hate the previous seasons, but I don't have enough free time lately for one hour of this. But my wife is a fan, or something, she complains more about the show, and I had to find a way to watch the show live.

Since I was ready to leave, I've already the plot from the comics, what happens with everyone and where they are now. So I think I understood the episode as Rick being in 3 different time settings. Present, near future, and long term future. In the long term future I was actually expecting them to show "everything".

Other than that, all the scenes that happened in the present were kind of dumb

Coral

They were right there for the taking. Negan in the cross-hairs, popped in the skull and then everyone else mowed down. This is war, isn't it?

Rick's speech was long. I swear I've heard Rick give the same speech like 10 times through the seasons.

Don't get the dream sequence. And why has Rick aged like 20 years while Judith is only about 6 years and Michone stayed the same? Between TWD and Ray Donovan tonight - got some weird dreams going on.

DJariya

It was a decent set up for the season, but being the 100th episode, I didn't really see anything that made it a Milestone episode.

Obviously they aren't taking out Negan in the 1st episode, so there's no point to be frustrated about that.

But sure, there was a huge opportunity to take him out right there without all that chit chat.

The flash forward/dream sequence was kind of weird considering how old Rick looked and Judith ^^ as mentioned barely looked 5 or 6 years old.

Definitely a more action-oriented episode and not the somber gore-fest of last season's premiere that offended so many of the fanbase.

That last scene with Gabriel and Negan....

"I hope you brought your shitting pants on....because you're about to shit in your pants"




That was probably some of the worst dialogue Gimple has ever written. And he's the showrunner. How the hell did anyone think that was amusing dialogue?

and I hope Gabriel feeds Gregory to the Walkers for fucking him over.

For a guy who started out as a makeup artist, IMO Greg Nicotero has become a pretty solid director. He did good work in this episode as several of his other episodes. Some good pyrotechnics.

CrabBisqueFan

Give the episode 5/10

Not the worst season premiere but have been many better