Which was the mature way of writing her character. Negan finally apologized, but murder--particularly when it happens in front of a loved one--is not easily forgotten or forgiven. This should make their dynamic in the forthcoming series quite interesting. I just do not want to see Negan revert to the arrogance / swagger / threatening behavior toward any of the heroes who might guest star, as it would render his growth in TWD's series finale as pointless and dishonest on his part.
I am hoping they won't either. But i am thinking they
will have a scenario where Negan is confronted by a victim of his cruelty who did not have Maggie's opporuntity of seeing how Negan has changed over the years. And she still will be dealing with her mixed feeling, but she had months to do so. That new antagonist will
not. SO that seems like a conflict just ripe for showing.
Now, they
might show how Negan can
still be vicious, but i think it would be more for Annie & the baby, or even protecting Herschel. But it will have Negan being conflicted on it.
I don't think ANnie, the baby or Herschel will be killed, though i wold think that them beign in danger in some way (maybe needing medicine or something), will be the driving force for them to go to New York. And having a common goal would seem logical, as opposed simply exploring.
Not sure if its the same boat.
I am pretty sure it is... the Rick/Michonne scenes felt like a trailer for their series, with a segment to show us how it is related to what we have seen so far.
I'm sure viewers notice the three rings on the back of Rick's jacket. It makes me wonder if Anne/Jadis will return in the Rick & Michonne series.
She absolutely
has to be in it... though i would imagine maybe the first episode or 2. They might even show Huck, as she trained Jadis. I don't know if it was the actress or the director, but it seemd like she was trying too hard on Huck, so she might not be that exciting a character to bring back... but would be logical. I forget...did she do something "wrong" that forced her to be assigned to infiltrate the Campus Colony? If so, that might be part of the storyline.... maybe Huck helps Rick in some way?
I've always been under the impression that each spin-off was a limited series, with each show eventually coming together with some linked plot.
The Rick/Michonne series was just suppsoed to be Rick in his own movies... with the first being him being put in his new situation, the last assuming he was supposed to return to TWD, and not sure what the middle would have done. This was announced way before COvid, so not sure if Covid sabotaged that plan.
With Daryl (and Carol,at the time)....not sure if this French plot was always there, or an alternative to run with what World Beyond planted.
And Maggie and Negan -- not sure if there will be any major tie-in. I think the enhanced zombie thing is more to raise the stakes of that show. i doubt we will find out much more than they exist out there.
By the way, i too appreciate your reviews here
@TREK_GOD_1 . You gave us a lot of substance to discuss. I
was just a tad annoyed, since i didn't have AMC+, so i had to wait on commenting, so that threw me off a lot.
But it has been good to elaborate on things, and see details i missed the first time
Pamela is not a villain like those people. She is more of the type of villain we have in the real world today. That is the point of the final story arc.
White, economically privileged folk whose main goal in life is to maintain their socio-economic status survive the apocalypse and form a community that maintains their status and privilege and (as much as they can) the status quo of what came before. Everyone has the same types of jobs as they had before the apocalypse and although there are really nice things for everyone to do in the community, its purpose is to keep the common people happy so the class structures can be preserved.
The whole Commonwealth story is a commentary on our contemporary society and the "villains" that maintain class structures today. That's why Mercer's final commnent comes across so powerfully.
I definitely see that living on the SOuth Side of Chicago, after growing up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. The lotting after George Floyd definitely demonstrated the cluelessness of many to inequity, and seeing how many still live that way.
However, i think they showed Pamela's villainy pretty poorly. She seemed to be clueless as to Sebastian's evil doings, for example. A quick rationalizing by Pamela here and there on her politics, but not enough to see her as a villain. Kinda like the "Ming the Administrator" complaint of SyFy's Flash Gordon series vs. the Mingthe Merciless image many of us have. I am not sure how they could have showed it....it wasn't a problem of acting, just writing.
Hornsby was done much better, but then snuffed out (along with his assassin) pretty quickly to tie up his villainy.
I was still hoping that just once we'd see someone bit who died and didn't come back. It'd be good to see that tiny injection of hope for the future.
Yeah.....maybe they will save it for when they finally wrap up the entire universe? ??? Not sure if they will, or it will simply end, like the Berlantiverse.
And one more thing - I think the fact that they made Negan a believably likeable character is an EXTREMELY underrated piece of writing. They portrayed the guy as such a horrible bastard that 5 million viewers tuned out the moment he killed Glenn. And now he is arguably the main protagonist, and it actually doesn't feel forced. Incredible.
I think part of it is the long game of it. For those of us who stuck with the show after killing Glenn (which was hard for me), we had how many years of seeing Negan grow? They also wrote in year sof Judith having a relationship with Negan, so as to help with the humanizing (and making him going after her in the Winter trek very beleivable as well), and having him infiltrate the WHisperers also felt like a natural transition period, where he was "still Negan" but also working "for good." They also had the scene where an ex-savior did horrific things in his name, and was sobered by it.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan did a great job with Negan, so that he felt like the same character all the way through, but with true growth and change
They also had a similar long game with Eugene, where his progression seemed very logical.
Another important thing to remember is that unlike all other episodes for the past few years, the finale was not made available on AMC+ prior to airing on AMC itself. Therefore it would have gotten more broadcast night viewers by simple virtue of being the first available opportunity for anyone to watch it.
We know the numbers in AMC+ are considered record breaking, and while those exact numbers have never been publicized they must be good enough for AMC to greenlight three spin-offs to replace it. So while I don't doubt the finale had higher viewers overall compared to usual (high profile episodes do draw more viewers out) I suspect if one were to compare it to the numbers the other episodes make, streaming included, there probably isn't that much of a noticeable difference.
I think World Beyond would have gotten to that, but it flopped and AMC pretended it was meant to be a limited series.
I agree with
@Blake Eddington -- World Beyond, despite how it was spun, i think it was hoped this would be the
new show going forward. But it flopped tremendously, despite the new things it opened up, and some connections to other shows.
I think the 3 spinoffs are an attempt to squeeze that very last popularity out for AMC, so they have something to make a profit from. But at this stage, they missed the boat, and will be dying off slowly and quietly, i think. I mean, let's look at it:
1. The biggest is the Rick/Michonne movies. First, Michone wasn't even in the picture at first (these were announced way before her departure). These were also suppsoed to be
theaterical movies. But i think it's apparent they wouldn't be able to make these that type of success. so it's been reverted to a limited series (6 episodes easily translating from 3 movies).
The other 2 new shows, which seem to be limited series as well, is partially, in my opinion , due to popular stars who seemto have bad agents, and not getting starring roles else where. Norman Reedus has "Ride with Norman Reedus", and i couple of direct-to-video movies... but anything else? Laurie Cohan's show failed unfortunately at ABC, so she came back to TWD, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan also hasn't gotten a lot of good roles either. So they are available, and all are popular characters... so we can squeeze out a season...but beyond that???
With other spinoffs...as we mentioned, WOrld Beyond fizzled out, Fear seemed to have shot itself in the leg. When Morgan appeared, the series felt like it was gettign a lot bette, with lots more characters to root for. But when they Character Assassinated Strand, it felt like it went down in quality. And Kim DIckens returning -- seems like another publicity stunt. I never felt she was very good in her role, and don't see how it will help the next season. And Tales -- kinda disappointing, despite HUGE potential. We will see if they make more. Seems like cheap one to produce, but i think they lost the TWD hype.
we will see after 2023 if there is really a future for TWD universe.
If AMC wants to keep profiting from TWD, they need to do better merchandising, such as partnering with ALdi's to sell "Carol's Cookies... so good it will make you want to look at the flowers"
