If it makes you feel any better, that spoiler is not very accurate.

Makes sense you could get sick by covering yourself in zombie guts. If they bite you, they are infecting you with some kind of virus from their saliva or some other bodily fluid. if you take their guts and spread it on your skin, there's a good chance that some of that could be obsorbed through your pores or from an open cut would.

I would have assumed that when the zombies bite you, the infection enters your bloodstream. However that may not be correct as they've displayed people being bitten on a limb and they could just cut off their limb and stop the infection from spreading. So if it enters the bloodstream, it does so very slowly.

They've had episodes where they smothered themselves in guts before or swap through a swamp full of decaying corpses and who knows what. I guess nobody even gets a staph infection in this new world.. so it appears to be nothing to worry about.

Also I thought it was interesting that Negan didn't really need Gabriel's help at all to get out of there. He could have slimed himself and just walked out on his own. I think the show has shown that any major character with a weapon can take out a few hundred walkers with a stick or less.

Everyone already has "the virus". Getting bit doesn't give that person the virus. I'm pretty sure that the walkers usually just have so much bacteria in them that a bite from one causes infection from bacteria that leads to quick death.

There’s a Walking Dead sheep game that will get going at some point in the future, including some good questions for hate-watchers. Join us, won’t you?

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/64...heep-game.html

Those amazing graphics! Highlight of the episode for me.

Loved that they pulled out another Activision classic given they wanted to be clever with that transition within the Rick/Daryl fight.

Best make some other plans for Sunday evenings now then because they would have to deviate pretty far from the comic for it not to generally go down that way. Save yourself all the hours leading up to what is essentially them staying true to the source material (like they have been since Jesus first appeared).

Calling all you hate-watchers, fans of the show, Gimple acolytes, and the fools who keep watching hoping Laurie Cohen will get her shirt ripped off ...

THE WOOLKING DEAD is needing ... BRAINS! No, that’s not right ... we need players! That’s right, a Reverse Sheep game of undead proportions has arrived. It doesn’t matter if you can’t find Carl or if Lori flipped another car. Can’t remember if Morgan is killing or not killing? Doesn’t matter. We’ll even go a step beyond the early seasons and allow more than one black guy to play at a time. (Too much?)

There is a secret about this game though ... we all have the answers inside us already!

https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/64...heep-game.html

As for this episode ... Can Rick and Daryl do anything together without fucking it up?

From what we have seen so far this year, does any of last season matter? Oh shit, I spoke too soon. Next week ... no, no, no ... not the fucking trash people again!

It's like Rick started a war he doesn't want to win.

LSG Media is dropping their Walking Dead Podcast after the mid-season finale. (It’s one of two that I listen to each week.)

Where can I find the other one?

I disagree as most people I work with who were TWD fans have either checked out or put this in the DVR watchlist when they get time. There is no buzz in my work every Monday anymore as this and Game of Thrones were the last true water cooler talk shows.

Does your work place have millions of people? Anecdotal. All ratings drop at some point for show that have been on for several years. AMC just posted record revenue and stated The Walking Dead was on of the reasons. They are making bank so yea it means nothing in the grande scheme of things.

If my work place was a true representation of what is happening then Diesel Brothers would the highest rated TV show on the planet...

The same is at least partially true for me as well. People I know are watching, but it's not must watch live on Sunday night, event TV anymore.

I just read the article from Deadline and there are several ways to look at it. Yes, AMC is doing well and TWD is their biggest money maker, but it also said in the article that it has a solid amount of shows right now including hits like Better Call Saul that are making a difference too.

AMC has built a reputation with me where I’m going to give a shot to any new show because of the success of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, TWD, etc. I don’t do that for every Network. So in a macro picture, AMC is doing just fine.

But please don’t spin it that AMC is pleased that TWD has lost half their audience in 2 years? Yes TV shows all peak, but once the viewership decreases, it continues decreasing. The President of AMC says in the article that TWD could go on for decades, so we all know that’s ‘spin’ if the ratings continue to decrease.

AMC will reveal on Sunday on Talking Dead who the crossover character on FTWD will be. Apparently all indications are it will be:



Greg Nicotero is denying this though.

I'll say this now.. This original show won't make it to 2020.

Maybe not, and big deal. It's been on eight years. Yes, ratings for any long-running show decline. The face that the drop off has been steep could be because the quality has dropped or it could just be viewer fatigue. At any rate, it is what it is.

I still enjoy the show, and I will watch until I don't. I almost did stop when Glen was murdered because that was such a brutal episode that I couldn't even call it entertainment. But I hung in then.

I'm of the opinion that the more people talk the show down, the more it discourages even people who enjoy it. I know that's the nature of the internet, though

I look at a show like ER and that went about 15 years with essentially a new cast halfway through. I think TWD can go another 5-6 seasons because there will always be a fanbase out there, just look how FTWD stays on TV despite the fact that it’s a bad show.

I honestly think the President of AMC thinks this franchise can be like SNL where it just goes on forever and just keeps playing to new generations. How many people say, “SNL was better when I was a kid!”

If there is no endgame to TWD, then I’ll probably bolt in the next year or two and they will be left with a truly niche audience that just love this genre. If they announced they plan 2,3, or 4 more seasons and have a definitive ending, then I would stick around.

The other one I listen to is Bald Move’s Watching Dead - Walking Dead Podcast.

Anybody have any other good suggestions?

That is where TWD is failing. They could go on much longer IF they would churn the cast. One of the things that made the show so successful early on was that on any given week just about any character could die. Now the main characters have plot armor so strong it must be made from Mithril. Or adamantium. Or light saber crystals. Anyway, the protective cloak over the main characters has just gotten ludicrous and there are no longer any stakes to the show. Unless you are a redshirt.

We are on Season 8 and at this point should only have 1 or 2 of the current characters surrounded by a new cast.

Good point about ER. But, just like TWD, the quality of the show took a BIG dip IMO and I bailed not long after Greene left, maybe Carol left. I don't remember. I do remember a LOT of cyber complaining about it just like TWD. It's also a good point about the cast changes. That's the nature of this show, and in general I like it. I like most of the newer cast, including Tara, whom I know people love to hate. I love Eugene. I like Rosita and Arron. I give them a chance, and I like them.

I look at this as long-form tv. They are telling a story. There was a beginning (and it was a GOOD one. I wish they could get that first producer back. Since he's suing them, that's kind of a long shot), and there will be an end. In the meantime they are telling a story that does have an end point.

And while people may find it repetitive, the story is progressing.

Look how far they've come. In the beginning there was Rick, alone. They've gone from living in a camp and having nothing to living in a community with electricity and food and clean water.

They are building a society. Look at history if you want to know how messy and warlike that process is. Alexandria, in their time, just found out a couple of months ago that there even WERE more communities. After this war they will probably establish trade with Hilltop, the Kingdom, and Oceanside. I actually find it exciting to watch the this transformation.

And there is the possibility that their world is likely to get a LOT bigger because someone has a helicopter. Has the government not fallen after all????

Many of the complaints likely center around people's disappointment that there aren't more walker kills. While the show demonstrates that walkers continue to be a problem, it has also said, in so many words, that everyone
who has survived is a strong person who has figured out a way to live with the walker threat. They know how to kill lone walkers and how to distract the herds. And now, they have learned how to use them as weapons. It's been a couple of years and people have adapted.

The irony is that if the people were still being slaughtered by lone walkers, viewers would complain that the characters were stupid and hadn't yet figured out how to deal with the threat.

Look, I complain, too. It's sometimes fun, and gives us a way to talk about the show. And there are plot holes in every show, book, movie, and every piece of fiction ever created. That's just life.

But, I think for a show that has so many years behind it, TWD is doing well. It still has legs.

Honestly, the more I watch this show, and the more I see of him, Rick has inadvertently become the villain of the story. He's been the cause of as much chaos and death as The Governor and Negan combined, he never learns a goddamn thing, and he's wildly inconsistent. He was zero idea what he's doing yet somehow always comes out intact while those around him suffer and die. Alexandria? A thriving, gated community, is now embroiled in a war with the Saviors. The Kingdom? Decimated and leaderless. Hilltop is about the same, but that's only because Gregory is somehow an even worse leader than Rick. Sure, Negan will eventually fall, but Rick will find a way to piss off another menace that will bring a wide swath of the survivors of this war to an untimely end.