Was very underwhelmed generally by Season 8, which is to me and many others one of the weakest seasons of 'The Walking Dead'. Though the second half of it did improve. It did have a few good episodes, with the previous two being surprisingly good without being a return to form. But when the season was at its worst, it was worse than bad. Of the previous instalments of Season 8, "Mercy" and "Monsters" were particular letdowns and a pale shadow of the once brilliant show's former self.
"The King, The Widow and Rick" is not just one of the worst episodes of Season 8 (the worst too since "Monsters") it is also one of the worst of the whole of 'The Walking Dead' in my view. For pretty much the same reasons as the first three episodes of the season, except doing the flaws even worse here and making more flaws. Actually do feel bad writing an honest negative review for "The King, The Widow and Rick", speaking as a generally generous reviewer, but this just did nothing for me. It was almost as if the huge improvement seen with the previous two episodes did not happen.
It's not a complete shambles. There's some nice scenery and Maggie's role was quite nice in the only halfway intriguing plot strand of the episode.
Everything else is poor. Usually the acting in 'The Walking Dead' is great, here the actors struggle to do anything interesting, intense or emotional complexity with such trash material that they are well above, most are underused as well. The story is a complete disjointed shambles and the main reason as to why "The King, The Widow and Rick" fails as badly as it does. It tries to include too many plot strands and characters and doesn't advance or do much with any of the plot strands or characters. Only the strand with the prisoners has a little interest but that could have done with a lot more tension and everything in the sprawling storytelling is bland.
Pretty much none of the characters are that interesting and some are unnecessary or add little, have not seen zombies this useless on the show for goodness knows how long. Many of them also behave in ways that are cliched and ridiculous, Michonne and Rosita especially. Add to all those a cripplingly slow pace and we have an episode that feels bland, uneventful but also having too much content and doing nothing with it. The dialogue is back to the rambling, excessively talk-heavy kind heard in the first three episodes of the season. The action is chaotic and silly, while the music is gimmicky and misplaced this time, not the usual hauntingly ominous stuff, and the production values have really slipped since the second half of Season 7, with some very chaotic and self-indulgent photography going on.
In conclusion, very bad. 2/10.
"The King, The Widow and Rick" is not just one of the worst episodes of Season 8 (the worst too since "Monsters") it is also one of the worst of the whole of 'The Walking Dead' in my view. For pretty much the same reasons as the first three episodes of the season, except doing the flaws even worse here and making more flaws. Actually do feel bad writing an honest negative review for "The King, The Widow and Rick", speaking as a generally generous reviewer, but this just did nothing for me. It was almost as if the huge improvement seen with the previous two episodes did not happen.
It's not a complete shambles. There's some nice scenery and Maggie's role was quite nice in the only halfway intriguing plot strand of the episode.
Everything else is poor. Usually the acting in 'The Walking Dead' is great, here the actors struggle to do anything interesting, intense or emotional complexity with such trash material that they are well above, most are underused as well. The story is a complete disjointed shambles and the main reason as to why "The King, The Widow and Rick" fails as badly as it does. It tries to include too many plot strands and characters and doesn't advance or do much with any of the plot strands or characters. Only the strand with the prisoners has a little interest but that could have done with a lot more tension and everything in the sprawling storytelling is bland.
Pretty much none of the characters are that interesting and some are unnecessary or add little, have not seen zombies this useless on the show for goodness knows how long. Many of them also behave in ways that are cliched and ridiculous, Michonne and Rosita especially. Add to all those a cripplingly slow pace and we have an episode that feels bland, uneventful but also having too much content and doing nothing with it. The dialogue is back to the rambling, excessively talk-heavy kind heard in the first three episodes of the season. The action is chaotic and silly, while the music is gimmicky and misplaced this time, not the usual hauntingly ominous stuff, and the production values have really slipped since the second half of Season 7, with some very chaotic and self-indulgent photography going on.
In conclusion, very bad. 2/10.