Spoilers Walking Dead Season 8 discussion and spoilers.

Dunno, seemed pretty obvious when he was losing his wrestling match with the walker last week, and then kinda shocking when he got up 'unscathed'. Another cheap cop out. Then this week they just straightened that out and showed that what should have happened DID happen, and he got his dumb ass bit.

 

I was watching it with some friends, when Carl lifted his shirt to reveal he had bitten there were a few "Awws" and a couple of gasps...then my wife blurts out "When did that happen!?" We have been watching every episode, and it wasn't totally obvious to us he got bit, and my wife is usually really good at figuring that stuff out as we are watching the shows.

I knew Chandler Riggs was going to college, but I figured they would write him off, with the ability to come back later.

I was actually wanting Daryl to go away, especially with all the bone headed things he has been doing.

Although if Carl is infected, he could purposely get captured by Negan, turn, then cause all kinds of trouble...wouldn't mind seeing that. But that might be too much of a Sasha repeat.

So will Jeffery Dean Morgan want to just do cameos until Negan's character becomes a focal point again? Been awhile since I read the aftermath of All Out War, but it seems Negan was relegated to a cage for awhile before the "other" event started going down.

 

Killing off the (arguably) second most important character places the series on a path toward ending, no matter how much AMC wants to milk this for another eight years. Without the one driving force behind so many of Rick's decisions now dead, the showrunners cannot have Rick simply turn into " my loss has made me Mr. Merciful" so easily after losing Carl, which would be out of character, and take his combative nature away. But, for whatever reason, Riggs was let go/terminated/released from his contract, so it places the series in a tough bind to overcome.

I agree that Daryl has been reduced to a dumbass, but his swooning chick-magnet status still shields him...for now. I would actually applaud the showrunners if they dared to kill him off, not long after Carl, to finally regain an edge the series has not enjoyed since killing off Beth in S5.

Who knows, but I feel Negan would escape to be a problem for another day, and unlike the Governor, he will just vanish. That's a change from the usual fate of WD villains.

 

What should they do...shoot at each other no jump around like idiots? That's not story or character development, especially for Michonne, who once suffered from being more image than character. Now, she is--effectively--a wife and stepmother, and that gives her a greater purpose than just swing a sword around with a scowl.

 

I suspect Michonne will start taking up the slack as Rick's conscience once Carl goes full undead. At this point, she's the only one qualified and close enough to him to fit the bill, really.

 

This is the problem I have with TWD, in that its always the people with a conscience, the ones who've retained their humanity and compassion who wind up dead; Dale, Hershel, Beth, Glenn, now Carl...

I realise there's a logic to that, they're "too good" to survive in the new world order but it does get a bit wearing because you need characters like that to stop the others going too far. I do find it interesting that Rick (at the moment) seems to be supplying his own conscience.

I used to love Daryl but his story's just stagnated now and he still kinds feels like the outsider, which he shouldn't because he's more a member of the community than just about anyone.

I'm guessing given the relative positioning of both Carol and Morgan, that they might be able to save Ezekiel, and that everyone now has to effectively fall back to Hilltop, which they must have a reasonable chance of defending at least.

 

Its the end result of so much of modern entertainment--characters embracing generally nihilistic beliefs while truly good characters (whether in comedy or drama) or either marginalized, or killed off. The only characters who seem to survive/progress are those who are "conflicted", "dark", or so psychologically screwed up, that no real world person would ever want anything to do with him or her. Its more apparent with TWD because it has a smaller cast, so the few moral characters stand out like a light...until they are snuffed out.

Don't forget, the other "hope" characters that were killed off were:

• Bob, who tried to tell Rick about hope/better days...and was bitten only minutes later.
• T-Dog, who was shot down by Rick and Daryl when he argued to let Oscar and Axel join the rest of the prison group. Of course, we know what happened to T-Dog not long after.
• Tyreese, who did not want to kill, was forever traumatized by the entire Mika/Lizzie situation, and in his most hopeful moment, convinced Rick to do a prisoner swap for Beth, instead of the "slash and kill" approach created by Rick.

He's been turned into a dumbass who will do anything based on impulse. Sense be damned. All of the growth the character experienced while traveling with Beth has been lost. ...and contrary to some Daryl fans, his getting weepy over Carol running away (season 7) is not growth or development.

Until the split in the group allows the prisoners to either make some deal, or escape--probably leading to another major death.

 

http://rare.us/people/some-fans-of-...appy-with-the-events-of-the-midseason-finale/

Petition started to fire showrunner.

 

The only thing that matters is the number of people that are still watching. If the dropoff this season was significant, changes will happen.

 

In that case prepare for MASSIVE changes, as this season fell off a cliff.

 

around 25% fewer people watching than last year seems pretty damn significant to me.

 

Few TV series run close to a decade and maintain all-time ratings highs. Its next to unheard of, so a drop off is expected. The only time the ratings will rise this late in the life of a show usually centers around a series finale.

 

Renewed for Season 9, New Showrunner Named

 

One can only hope Angela Kang is not a Gimple acolyte (keeping everything as is, including regularly scheduled character deaths), and will have her own vision, despite certain formats in place.

 

It would be nice to change the format slightly. Ep1 - attempt to pay off the cliffhanger, set up the new conflict. Eps 2-9 - Stall, Ep10 - Kill someone, or have cliffhanger that you might, advance plot from Ep1 *slightly*

Become way too much of BIG episodes 1 and 10 (or last of half/season whatever the number) with filler junk in the middle. Filler has become less entertaining as well, lots of standing around handwringing over whatever happened in the premier, not even building to things or going on side quests anymore. Just hanging out waiting to find out who they kill in the finale this season.

 

"She succeeds Scott Gimple, who will now oversee both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead in his new position as the franchise’s chief content officer."

Is this a promotion, or a case of failing up to get him out of the way?

 

I hope this means less instrumental close-up montages and more actual story.

 

^^^
This X10,000 - Most of the 'Big Episode' time overruns seem due to these popping up every few minutes. It was nice when used occasionally for some emphasis, but lately is - "Oh look another 5 minute montage because someone opened a can of beans..."

 

The Walking Dead - mid season premiere--
"Honor"

Well this is it: Carl died. The one character nearly everyone thought would survive and become the "future" of the ZA world takes his leave. When a series runs this long and used major character deaths quite liberally, its difficult to play the heart-strings of audiences, but it worked well enough, since he was one of the few killed characters that was truly likeable and had not outlived his usefulness to the show.

Michonne's anguish was the most effective reaction of all; her arc was so tied to Carl as being one of the few characters (in addition to Andrea) who brought her back to humanity--first being sort of a big sister figure, then surrogate mother, and as Carl pointed out, his best friend. With that lost, it makes one wonder if she will return to her old ways of just existing with next to no emotional connection to anyone, including Rick and/or Judith (despite her promise to be strong for them and herself).

Morgan gutting one of the Saviors with his bare hands, and Benjamin's brother using his own training to kill Gavin. I guess this kind of violence (specifically, the child's loss of innocence) leads to his leaving TWD and moving to Fear the Walking Dead. His arc has to mean something, other than trying to find some "balance" between the Eastman way and his "Clear" days. The series seems to have "lost the plot" with Morgan not long after he was reintroduced. If he has to find personal redemption, I hope its after he bumps off some of the annoying FTWD characters....

If AMC was not so greedy, Carl's death would spell the beginning of the end of the series, as I cannot imagine going through the Whisperer arc and having it serve any character development purpose other than how freaky they are, and after the cannibals of Terminus, freaky has been played out on this series...so has heroes suffering season after season.

At the end of it all, we cannot ignore the well-publicized behind the scenes issues, from Gimple promising Chandler Riggs that he would be returning for future seasons, a denied pay raise (apparently, Lauren Cohan recently faced the same issue....), Riggs saying he wanted to go to college, to other questionable stories about the reasons Riggs left the series.

Whatever the true cause of his departure, the series is forced to take a far different direction in that the evil-leader-kills/heroes-fight-back model which was used with three significant arcs (The Governor, Terminus and Negan) cannot be handled in the same way, but what does that mean if Rick--thanks to the death of son--becomes the peacemaker he was at the start of season 4?

Best moment: Carl wanting to die in the church, for obvious reasons. This is the same Carl who (in season two) childishly mocked Carol for believing that Sophia was in Heaven, but one of his last requests illustrated just how much he matured over the years.

So, it was Carl dreaming of a future of older Rick, Michonne & Judith, one where Eugene and--of all people--Negan have been brought into the community. While that is the dream of someone who understands what forgiveness really means, its difficult to imagine certain characters, such as Daryl or Maggie ever forgiving Negan.

This was the best episode in some time, but I have the nagging feeling this level of quality drama will not last long.

 

Man, just not feeling it tonight, think they’ve gone to this well one too many times and I only feel manipulation.