To its credit (the one and only moment of praise I can think of) this first episode of the new season gets on with the fighting and we finally get to see the "good" guys fight back against cardboard villain Negan.
However, that is its only good point. The rest is just more of the same interminable writing that has plagued the show for the past few seasons and especially last year.
Rick and his cohorts come up with an unnecessarily convoluted plot to bring the dead to Negan's compound - literally thousands of them - and all armed to the teeth, they confront him.
And nothing of any consequence happened.
Negan is not dead. His plot armour is thicker than the main glacis of an M1 Abrams. There is even a point where Negan and his top bad dudes come out to confront the Ricksurgency, and stand in plain sight of thirty or more people armed with modern assault rifles, not fifty feet away.
No one shoots him. A single bullet would be all it would take. But no, the clever writers think what we all want to see is a pissing contest between Rick and Negan. They talk... and talk... and talk.
Finally, when Rick deigns to start shooting, he misses. So does everyone else that takes his cue to start firing. Negan and his minions scuttle inside.
Now, although I said well done for getting on with the fighting, which was something I imagined they would defer until later in the season, given how padded and slow last season was, I am not impressed. A quick glance at the write-ups for future episodes suggests Negan is going to run, and run, and run. No quick end of the worst villain in the show's history, no siree. They are going to drag it out until the end of this season, I'm sure.
It's not just the lame plot that gets to me. The character writing is abysmal, in part because the cast is now so huge as to not allow sufficient time to develop them. I've been hoping for a cull of the numbers for some time, since the size of the cast has become ridiculously unwieldy, yet it hasn't happened. Even in this episode, where a death or two wouldn't be out of the question, no one of any consequence dies. Just faceless minions and zombies.
I don't really know what more to say about this show. Once good, now a turgid melodrama with characters that are less than one-dimensional.
Someone, somewhere, will perhaps take these episodes and edit them down to the thirty minute mark, cutting out all the padding and filler and make them into something enjoyable to watch. For now, though, they are just bloated exercises in excess, written by people who have no idea how to make an enjoyable TV drama.
SUMMARY: More of the same nonsense from last season. Beyond broken at this point.
However, that is its only good point. The rest is just more of the same interminable writing that has plagued the show for the past few seasons and especially last year.
Rick and his cohorts come up with an unnecessarily convoluted plot to bring the dead to Negan's compound - literally thousands of them - and all armed to the teeth, they confront him.
And nothing of any consequence happened.
Negan is not dead. His plot armour is thicker than the main glacis of an M1 Abrams. There is even a point where Negan and his top bad dudes come out to confront the Ricksurgency, and stand in plain sight of thirty or more people armed with modern assault rifles, not fifty feet away.
No one shoots him. A single bullet would be all it would take. But no, the clever writers think what we all want to see is a pissing contest between Rick and Negan. They talk... and talk... and talk.
Finally, when Rick deigns to start shooting, he misses. So does everyone else that takes his cue to start firing. Negan and his minions scuttle inside.
Now, although I said well done for getting on with the fighting, which was something I imagined they would defer until later in the season, given how padded and slow last season was, I am not impressed. A quick glance at the write-ups for future episodes suggests Negan is going to run, and run, and run. No quick end of the worst villain in the show's history, no siree. They are going to drag it out until the end of this season, I'm sure.
It's not just the lame plot that gets to me. The character writing is abysmal, in part because the cast is now so huge as to not allow sufficient time to develop them. I've been hoping for a cull of the numbers for some time, since the size of the cast has become ridiculously unwieldy, yet it hasn't happened. Even in this episode, where a death or two wouldn't be out of the question, no one of any consequence dies. Just faceless minions and zombies.
I don't really know what more to say about this show. Once good, now a turgid melodrama with characters that are less than one-dimensional.
Someone, somewhere, will perhaps take these episodes and edit them down to the thirty minute mark, cutting out all the padding and filler and make them into something enjoyable to watch. For now, though, they are just bloated exercises in excess, written by people who have no idea how to make an enjoyable TV drama.
SUMMARY: More of the same nonsense from last season. Beyond broken at this point.