While searching for Father Gabriel, the group comes across a mysterious new collective of survivors. Back at the Kingdom, Carol and Daryl have an emotional reunion.While searching for Father Gabriel, the group comes across a mysterious new collective of survivors. Back at the Kingdom, Carol and Daryl have an emotional reunion.While searching for Father Gabriel, the group comes across a mysterious new collective of survivors. Back at the Kingdom, Carol and Daryl have an emotional reunion.
Lauren Cohan
- Maggie Greene
- (credit only)
Chandler Riggs
- Carl Grimes
- (credit only)
Sonequa Martin-Green
- Sasha Williams
- (credit only)
Josh McDermitt
- Eugene Porter
- (credit only)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
- Negan
- (credit only)
Austin Amelio
- Dwight
- (credit only)
Tom Payne
- Paul 'Jesus' Rovia
- (credit only)
Xander Berkeley
- Gregory
- (credit only)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe flowers we always see with Carol (Melissa McBride) on her wardrobe or even in her new home are a direct reference to the "look at the flowers" moment in season 4.
- GoofsRick forgets his police self-defense training (that he has randomly shown before) in dealing with the spiked walker, never realizing that he could simply take out its legs.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Talking Dead: Rock in the Road (2017)
Featured review
Friends or enemies?
After being very pleasantly surprised by the previous episode "Rock in the Road", which restored some hope that was very much needed and too overdue, part of me was really hoping that what was good in that episode would carry over here in "New Best Friends", that it would mean that Season 7 was continuing to finally go somewhere. The last thing wanted was that episode being a fluke and that the quality would slip back down again.
Sadly that is something that in my view "New Best Friends" does. It is definitely not one of the worst episodes of Season 7 or of 'The Walking Dead' overall (both before and especially since), neither is it one of the best on both counts. As far as the previous Season 7 episodes go, it doesn't feel like filler like "Swear" did, doesn't have Negan over-dominating in a caricaturish manner like "Service" had, doesn't do as bad a job at doing not enough with a lot of content over an extended running time and ending up over-stretching it like "Sing Me a Song" did, but the problems "New Best Friends" has is closest to some of the ones seen in "Sing Me a Song" and "Go Getters".
"New Best Friends" does have things that it does well. Most of it is made well, with a good deal of atmosphere and the grit and claustrophobia was effective without being too gimmicky. The music is haunting and not overbearing. Much of the acting is very good, especially from Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride.
While a lot more could have been done with the content, "New Best Friends" at least didn't feel too much like a filler episode. Carrying on from the events from before, it continues to move the pieces around (something that only started to happen in "Sing Me a Song") that took too long to be laid out and did leave me intrigued for what was to come. Actually found the Daryl and Carol subplot more interesting than the main one, admittedly it is soapy at times but it is also very moving and really liked the chemistry between Daryl and Carol and the former's sympathetic side. The ending was fun.
However, somehow tonally "New Best Friends" felt on the muddled side. Did appreciate that it was continuing to move away from the dark, uncompromising brutality seen in much of the season's first half, but everything with the group and other group of survivors could have done with a lot more tension and tautness. It also goes too overboard on the absurdity and on the wrong side of bizarre, with too many forced contrivances. The writing is not long winded, but can feel forced and could have been tighter.
Most of the time the production values were fine, but the junkyard setting is incredibly cheap looking with over-obvious and amateurish use of green screen, and some of the editing later on seemed a little rushed. The Jadis group have only been introduced but much of me cannot make up my mind of whether they are intriguing or if they are too annoying or weird here, to me they lean towards the latter from the look of them for example. While most of the acting was good, Jadis does not have much distinction here, too calm to the point of blandness and with not much of the cunning and sly side she'd have in later episodes, and Pollyanna McIntosh doesn't look comfortable yet.
In conclusion, not an easy episode to rate and review. 5/10
Sadly that is something that in my view "New Best Friends" does. It is definitely not one of the worst episodes of Season 7 or of 'The Walking Dead' overall (both before and especially since), neither is it one of the best on both counts. As far as the previous Season 7 episodes go, it doesn't feel like filler like "Swear" did, doesn't have Negan over-dominating in a caricaturish manner like "Service" had, doesn't do as bad a job at doing not enough with a lot of content over an extended running time and ending up over-stretching it like "Sing Me a Song" did, but the problems "New Best Friends" has is closest to some of the ones seen in "Sing Me a Song" and "Go Getters".
"New Best Friends" does have things that it does well. Most of it is made well, with a good deal of atmosphere and the grit and claustrophobia was effective without being too gimmicky. The music is haunting and not overbearing. Much of the acting is very good, especially from Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride.
While a lot more could have been done with the content, "New Best Friends" at least didn't feel too much like a filler episode. Carrying on from the events from before, it continues to move the pieces around (something that only started to happen in "Sing Me a Song") that took too long to be laid out and did leave me intrigued for what was to come. Actually found the Daryl and Carol subplot more interesting than the main one, admittedly it is soapy at times but it is also very moving and really liked the chemistry between Daryl and Carol and the former's sympathetic side. The ending was fun.
However, somehow tonally "New Best Friends" felt on the muddled side. Did appreciate that it was continuing to move away from the dark, uncompromising brutality seen in much of the season's first half, but everything with the group and other group of survivors could have done with a lot more tension and tautness. It also goes too overboard on the absurdity and on the wrong side of bizarre, with too many forced contrivances. The writing is not long winded, but can feel forced and could have been tighter.
Most of the time the production values were fine, but the junkyard setting is incredibly cheap looking with over-obvious and amateurish use of green screen, and some of the editing later on seemed a little rushed. The Jadis group have only been introduced but much of me cannot make up my mind of whether they are intriguing or if they are too annoying or weird here, to me they lean towards the latter from the look of them for example. While most of the acting was good, Jadis does not have much distinction here, too calm to the point of blandness and with not much of the cunning and sly side she'd have in later episodes, and Pollyanna McIntosh doesn't look comfortable yet.
In conclusion, not an easy episode to rate and review. 5/10
helpful•113
- TheLittleSongbird
- Mar 15, 2021
Details
- Runtime46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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