[TV] The Walking Dead (*Spoilers*)

[Deleted]

I agree that it is a cheerleader for The Walking Dead. I was under the impression that was the only purpose for the show from its inception.

From what I saw in the opening season the point was to bring in the actors and showrunners for interviews, to basically do interviews that for any other show would end up as "Extra Features" interviews on the DVD's, to discuss plot points, to maybe hint at upcoming things, that sort of thing. But over time that's changed, probably when they realised that they were getting an extra half hour of people watching marketting for a TV show that they are already going to be watching.

[Kelimbror]

Pretty much. Michael Rooker was on last week and he was great because he was actually discussing what Merle would do, even after the character is dead. Not just going "lols it was great when X happened right? woo hype!"

A great example of the type of content they are capable of, but seem to ignore in favor of woo hype, as you say. Like I said, the cast interviews still seem to go strongly...it's all the other crap that feels bad man. Even the celebrity guests feel like transparent shills for the show...it's odd.

I just won't watch it anymore unless I hear a cast member is on...but it's still mostly a waste of time.

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I don't even know why people watch The Talking Dead. Seems like a waste of time (inb4 hurr durr everything is a waste of time).

It used to have more insightful interviews which is just a nice way to get a behind the scenes look at how characters are. It's pretty much a waste now though.

[TJ]

Holy shit can this season get any worse, good god every episode is a snorefest full of filler. Need Negan.

[eschatological]

I think guests like Yvette from Community and even Damon Lindleof and Kevin Smith, people who can discuss themes and motifs and things like that, are great guests for shows like TTD. To me, that was what the original intent of TTD was: a fan community discussing the world the show existed in and the emotive force behind it.

When people like Gimple comes on to try and explain away the show, it suffers immensely. It starts to sound more like a "Behind the Show" thing which is more about how to produce a season of television without really telling a lot of story, rather than an exploration of the world the show occupies.

[Kelimbror]

I think guests like Yvette from Community and even Damon Lindleof and Kevin Smith, people who can discuss themes and motifs and things like that, are great guests for shows like TTD. To me, that was what the original intent of TTD was: a fan community discussing the world the show existed in and the emotive force behind it.

That was one of the worst examples though. They both seemed paid to just rave about Glen dying as if they didn't know the outcome, while both being in the know about him coming back. Though their fandom of the show did seem genuine, so I don't disagree with your overall point...but they were some of the ones I was thinking about when I said it felt like the celebrity guests were paid to sell the show.

Maybe I was reading too much into it though, idk.

[draykorinee]

Quote:
The Wall Street Journal - ‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: Season 6, Episode 7, ‘Heads Up’

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/...de-7-heads-up/

"Glenn surviving is not believable. It is not believable that he was pushed off the dumpster with his head pointed away from it, and landed with his head right next to it. It is not believable that two men landed in a clutch of dozens of walkers, one was torn to shreds and the other was not harmed at all. It’s even less believable when you see how much of his body was exposed to the walkers."

"That’s all secondary, however, to the worst sin: they wrote a powerful story that culminated in a horrible tragedy. And then they backtracked on it. Glenn getting trapped, falling off the dumpster, apparently dying, was the climax of a three-episode tale that showed off absolutely fantastic storytelling. Every second was exhausting, and visceral, and while Glenn’s death was shocking and upsetting, it served that story. More than served it, it made that story. Now they’ve erased that."

"But it was a poorly executed cliffhanger, and Glenn under the dumpster will join Bobby in the shower, the cork on the Island of Lost, and the St. Elsewhere snow globe in slideshows of far-fetched TV plot twists."





Time magazine - What Tonight’s Walking Dead Means for Television

http://time.com/4123840/the-walking-dead-recap/

"Glenn escaping seemingly certain death by, basically, crawling away seemed particularly chintzy."

"Having played the “fake death” card once, the series can’t, really, again — but it’s hard not to see how, with all the attention the series garnered from one fake-out, they wouldn’t be tempted. Death-defying acts are addictive, even if they sap the audience’s trust little by little."




Rolling Stone - 'The Walking Dead' Recap: Welcome Back?

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/recap...-back-20151122

"We've got some good news and some bad news. The good news? Glenn's alive. The bad news? See the good news."

"Right here and now, though? It's hard to understand the point of all this tomfoolery.... It surely wasn't to strengthen the storytelling, because Glenn's survival actually screws that up — on two levels. For one, it unravels the spiky "compassion kills" theme that had been clinging tightly to the season's first four episodes. More importantly, an improbable escape defuses tension, which isn't a smart choice for an action-horror show."

"Because this week's episode — “Heads Up" — puts its big twist before the opening credits, the rest of the show feels especially anticlimactic. For the third week in a row, The Walking Dead didn't really advance the plot in any significant way, at least until the end."




The NY Times - ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 6, Episode 7: It’s the Not Knowing

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/ar...wing.html?_r=0

"I noted a couple of weeks ago that I stopped caring one way or the other, after the show extravagantly milked the mystery in the weakest episode of the season. ... And while I’m all for narrative experimentation to elicit emotion, especially from long-running series, there’s a thin line between inventiveness and shenanigans."

"The whole Glenn thing fell on the wrong side for me, for several reasons. For one thing, it’s simply implausible that with so many zombies descending upon him, not one would give him a nibble. I’m sure fresh innards are the Cronut of the walker diet but do you mean to tell me there wasn’t a single leg-man in the crowd? Glenn’s were just laying there, uncovered by Nicholas, ready for the feasting."

"Thematically, “The Walking Dead” draws much of its emotional power from the fact that everyone is on the menu.... But if you can’t trust that the people it’s apparently killed are really dead, it undercuts its own greatest strength."

"Finally, there was the gimmickry of this particular stunt. Not just the initial misdirection and later moves like painting Glenn’s name on the death wall just so Maggie could erase it later, but themetatextual gamesmanship, like the show releasing a vague statement claiming “some version of Glenn” will eventually return and then removing Steven Yeun’s name from the credits for a few episodes."




The Daily Beast - ‘The Walking Dead’: Yes, Glenn Is Alive and We All Just Got Trolled

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...t-trolled.html

"Cop-out. Cheap trick. Rip-off. There are lots of ways to describe what happened in the first five minutes of Sunday’s Walking Dead episode, “Heads Up,” in which Glenn, who appeared to meet his doom in this season’s third episode, “Thank You,” miraculously survived falling off a dumpster into a throng of hundreds of bloodthirsty walkers.

The unsavory conclusion, either way, remains the same: in creating false suspense and undermining the life-or-death stakes it thrives on, The Walking Dead just lost at its own game."

"It would be one thing if AMC’s zombie epic brought Glenn back through some unforeseen feat of storytelling, finding some imaginative way to defy all the doubters who declared the stunt a no-win situation. Killing Glenn would mean giving a beloved character a pointless death then stringing audiences along with false hope for weeks, they said. And letting him live against such impossible odds would mean ignoring some of the show’s fundamental rules for no reason other than pulling off a cheap stunt.

That is, unless the show’s writers introduced some creative alternative to the conundrum. No such luck. Instead of some daring escape or5 rescue effort, The Walking Dead opted for the most obvious way out of its impossible situation: it simply had Glenn crawl under the dumpster, while all those walkers inexplicably ignored him, until he was nearly out of reach."





Variety - ‘Talking Dead’ Plays Role Of ‘Walking Dead’s’ Cheerful Cheerleader

http://variety.com/2015/tv/columns/t...mc-1201646550/


“Talking Dead” exists for one simple reason.... Nobody should expect or harbor any illusions about it being “Meet the Press. … Still, the show continues to treat its viewers as if they’re as mindless as the zombies who populate the mother ship. Or worse, treat a fan base that’s obviously pretty sophisticated and diverse as if they were all teenage groupies."

"Chris Hardwick’s role as host is obviously intended to be one of unbridled enthusiasm. But after the weeks of speculation prompted by the “Is Glenn dead?” story line, there were all sorts of questions he could have asked – without being negative or accusatory – instead of just acting as a cheerleader and apologist."

"And while a bit of artistic license is understandable, one needn’t be a nitpicker to feel that even a show about zombies shouldn’t become the TV version of the boy who cried wolf.

Such a dudd, good job TWD.

[pateuvasiliu]

Holy shit can this season get any worse, good god every episode is a snorefest full of filler. Need Negan.

That's TWD since the start.

Good premiere, midseason finale, good premiere, good finale + cliffhanger.


What I don't get is how dozens of millions tune in to watch this yet BB had a fraction of the viewership, despite BrBa being light years better in quality.

[Graeham]

It may simply be a matter of the 'mindless masses' being the main target audience. I don't know - that sounds pretty harsh but I feel like people who speculate and admire a solid plot tend to be in the minority. TWD has a pretty odd fanbase though - there's a lot of people who get really crazy over 'shipping' certain characters with each other.

It doesn't help that some of the actors push the agenda too. I admire Glenn's actor because he is pretty blunt about some of the show's failings whereas Rick's actor just laps up everything and pushes it as 'awesome' even when the 'twists' are pretty lacking.

[Arrowstormen]

All media/stories are subjective, I know some people who like The Walking Dead more than Breaking Bad, and those people aren't wrong to think that. If some people think the show and characters are well written, they're not wrong either. I mean, some people out there will claim that Harry Potter is horribly written, and I think that's nuts, but that's the nature of the beast.

[Immitis]

Be that as it may, Blizzard uses the same plot over and over again. The only thing worse is every single piece of anime having at least ONE character with amnesia. God I can't stand that =D

MY SECRET POWER IS I CAN COPY YOUR POWER!!!

dunn dunn dunnnnnn

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Then why exactly is the world in such a chaos if zombies are such a minor threat?

I'm well aware this show is about humanity at it's worst, but zombies are what made it happen, now zombies don't even matter anymore. Now you just have to wait for a next bunch of "bad guys" for Rick and Co. to beat, it's like a superhero movie, you wait for the next villain to show up and then move on.

thewalking dead universe is a world with no prior zombie mythos, the word zombie doesnt even exist in this world. and, everyone in the world became infected at once. with no warning as far as we know.


the world fell apart because millions of people die everyday, and unlike in our world they didnt know to aim for the head.

millions upon millions ALL OVER THE WORLD all at once.

90% of the reason zombies won is surprise, the other 10% was people being dicks

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also willing to bet all those critics change their tune if glenn gets the bat. critics are suckers for things like that

[Halicia]

also willing to bet all those critics change their tune if glenn gets the bat. critics are suckers for things like that

glenn better die.

I love him, I really do. But I hate this !@#$ing soap opera "It was my evil twin that died, not me! aha!" BS.

Part of what made the last episode or two "better" was seeing how people reacted to simply "not knowing" if people were gone for good or not.

Part of what made me want Glenn dead was that everyone !#$%ing forgot how to walk the minute a truck horn started honking.

Herd or otherwise, (most of) these people have been surviving in zombie-infested wastelands for a while now... so WTF happened that made them suddenly become so clueless about survival ?

I've been looking forward to this season for several years now, and so far its been a huge disappointment. I *hope* they're just beating around the bush and haven't done a total rewrite of this current arc, but I won't hold my breath.

[eschatological]

I was re-watching this on my DVR and accidental hit play on the commercial right before the show started up again after the opening credits. Know what it was? A "Stay Tuned" from AMC for a special message from Steven Yeun (Glenn)...during the first commercial break of Into The Badlands. Now, that show's quality notwithstanding, it's pretty good, but marketing like that makes it feel like the writers of TWD are truly trying to string people around, then hype the fan service.

It then makes me wonder if they do things like show Glenn before the opening credits, so they can advertise this message for the rest of the show, as well as TTD, even though it makes the rest of the episode lose any emotional impact. Imagine if our first indication Glenn is alive are the green balloons, then we flash to him and Enid in the woods, then we flash to him crawling under the dumpster. That's storytelling, but it doesn't leave space for "special messages" from the actor. It literally seems like this show is now being written for hashtag moments and marketing purposes.

[Gilian]

Such a dudd, good job TWD.

Funny that they are all reacting like they didn't expect him to live, like it was extremely far fetched for him to survive... like they haven't seen all previous seasons. This show is full of ridiculous events and unbelievably dumb characters. Just see all previous seasons that are full of unrealistic bullshit which makes you scratch your head and think "wtf are they doing?". So if you can't handle that kind of writing you are watching the wrong show I guess.
I have so many more questions than just how Glenn survived... Like, why aren't they just taking care of all those walkers outside the walls? How hard is it to distract them and get outside? Why aren't they just killing them? There are really not THAT many. I can think of 10 ways of doing it.

[Khuteh]

I was re-watching this on my DVR and accidental hit play on the commercial right before the show started up again after the opening credits. Know what it was? A "Stay Tuned" from AMC for a special message from Steven Yeun (Glenn)...during the first commercial break of Into The Badlands. Now, that show's quality notwithstanding, it's pretty good, but marketing like that makes it feel like the writers of TWD are truly trying to string people around, then hype the fan service.

It then makes me wonder if they do things like show Glenn before the opening credits, so they can advertise this message for the rest of the show, as well as TTD, even though it makes the rest of the episode lose any emotional impact. Imagine if our first indication Glenn is alive are the green balloons, then we flash to him and Enid in the woods, then we flash to him crawling under the dumpster. That's storytelling, but it doesn't leave space for "special messages" from the actor. It literally seems like this show is now being written for hashtag moments and marketing purposes.

Totally agree with your thoughts on this, I was a huge fan but now I feel it's just a marketing adventure. Marketing a substandard product.

An example of this was TWD phone game app thing released a few weeks ago, I felt like more effort went into this products launch than the writing of the scripts.

Lost v2 anyone?

Don't get me wrong I enjoy the show, but it's not in my top 5 'must watch' series each week, which is sad, because it was number 1.

[Waaldo]

I was re-watching this on my DVR and accidental hit play on the commercial right before the show started up again after the opening credits. Know what it was? A "Stay Tuned" from AMC for a special message from Steven Yeun (Glenn)...during the first commercial break of Into The Badlands. Now, that show's quality notwithstanding, it's pretty good, but marketing like that makes it feel like the writers of TWD are truly trying to string people around, then hype the fan service.

It then makes me wonder if they do things like show Glenn before the opening credits, so they can advertise this message for the rest of the show, as well as TTD, even though it makes the rest of the episode lose any emotional impact. Imagine if our first indication Glenn is alive are the green balloons, then we flash to him and Enid in the woods, then we flash to him crawling under the dumpster. That's storytelling, but it doesn't leave space for "special messages" from the actor. It literally seems like this show is now being written for hashtag moments and marketing purposes.

Have you seen the Into the Badlands commercials? There is more Walking Dead in them then Into the Badlands.

Glen's alive, as expected. I might watch the mid season finale, but after that I'm done with this show.

[Immitis]

walking dead is the most popular show in america... you guys are surprised the ads are out in full force?


of course a show that gets 10+ million views a week is going to use that. and of course theyre going to use it to boost their other shows, every network does this.

i think sometimes you guys forget just how popular the walking dead is, its literally a freak of nature, itslightning in a bottle levels of success.

[TJ]

walking dead is the most popular show in america... you guys are surprised the ads are out in full force?


of course a show that gets 10+ million views a week is going to use that. and of course theyre going to use it to boost their other shows, every network does this.

i think sometimes you guys forget just how popular the walking dead is, its literally a freak of nature, itslightning in a bottle levels of success.

I think it's pretty easy to forget when you look at the quality of the episodes each week.. Especially when you think that there's some shows that were cancelled that were 5 times as good.

[Immitis]

I think it's pretty easy to forget when you look at the quality of the episodes each week.. Especially when you think that there's some shows that were cancelled that were 5 times as good.

hannibal was the most beautiful show ever on tv, its last season dipped below 500k

what the masses want the masses get. entertainment is about money, not creative integrity otherwise the cinemas would be full of indie movies

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not that i agree with walking dead having bad quality. only gripe i have with this season is morgan and how long theyve taken to show glenn alive and the only episode i actually disliked was the morgan one

[Bill Nye the Spy]

That's TWD since the start.

Good premiere, midseason finale, good premiere, good finale + cliffhanger.


What I don't get is how dozens of millions tune in to watch this yet BB had a fraction of the viewership, despite BrBa being light years better in quality.

I don't get why people hold Breaking Bad as some amazing show. I always found it mediocre

[draykorinee]

I don't get why people hold Breaking Bad as some amazing show. I always found it mediocre

Hipsters being hipsterish? Either way it is a decidedly average show for me.