User Reviews

Alexandria, The Kingdom, Hilltop, Oceanside and The Sanctuary are living peacefully in the post-apocalyptical world. Rick and a group goes to Washington to scavenge seeds, a wagon and tools in a museum but when they are returning, the young Ken is attacked by a walker and dies. His parents blame Maggie for the death of his beloved son and Gregory manipulates the old couple.

"A New Beginning" is the beginning of a new season with the communities with no external enemies. This time, the enemy seem to be the friction between and within the communities, with Gregory trying to overthrow Maggie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A New Beginning"

There were some tense moments when the group was in Washington, D.C. collecting needed items to begin civilization again. Some of the action scenes were predictable, however, how Maggie handled an assassination attempt surprised me a bit. It was good she showed that nobody was above the law. If there is going to be civilization again, there has to be standards people follow. Michone touched on this subject with Rick in a quieter moment, but it is a topic that needs to be addressed.

There is great tension building between Hilltop and The Sanctuary. Hilltop feels it is putting forth too much effort for too few benefits. Rick spoke with Maggie about Hilltop providing more food, but Maggie made it clear there were limits. There is a bridge that needs to be repaired, and Maggie said to make the groups more equal in contributing to the common good , the people at the Sanctuary would have to do most of the work. This only seemed fair as Hilltop provides most of their food. Regardless...food supplies are running low which will probably lead to future conflict.

Season 8 ended with situations that have not materialized as of yet. Who were those in the helicopters? What about the woman selling information? Hopefully many of those mysteries will be covered soon. It is interesting to see people getting back to the basics.

Overall...it is interesting how the people survive. I think the episodes are going to be well thought out and good if this first episode is an indicator. Set back and enjoy! I think the people left watching the series are diehard fans.

S9E1 lives up to it's title by bringing dramatic pacing, post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and (mostly) rational plotting back into TWD. Clearly Angela Kang did some serious housecleaning and/or asskicking among the show's writing staff and it shows. The improvement is marked over the two seasons of the disastrously mishandled "All-Out War" arc. If it continues, then the next few episodes will be well worth watching.

There is some intelligent political commentary in the plot which is refreshing after the gross military and historical ignorance that was on display all through Season 8. There is also some reasonably astute thinking about the problems of rebooting civilization in the aftermath of apocalypse which I also appreciate. I know TWD's a drama, not a documentary, but some of us prefer not having our intelligence insulted while we're being entertained.

Characterization in this episode also makes sense as far as it goes. I'm sure that sounds like "damning with faint praise" but after the many bizarre flips of the past few seasons, I have trouble trusting the show again. As soon as Maggie ordered You-Know-Who's body cut down (ninety seconds or so after stringing him up), I had the suspicion he wasn't dead at all and next week his forgiveness would be announced in a long speech full of sappy platitudes.

In the same vein, I found it impossible to believe anything Carol said because of the numerous personality swings the writers have perpetrated on this character. It doesn't matter that Melissa McBride handled all her scenes expertly; the character of Carol is just too damaged for me to buy into her anymore. And as for "EzekCarol", don't even get me started: I stopped taking that clown, Ezekiel, seriously five minutes after the writers introduced him back in Season 7.

This is the point where the obsessed Deadheads start grumbling, "Why is this hater even watching the show?" and the answer is I used to love it. Hell, unlike most doubters, I even liked the first half of Season 6. I consider that just as much part of the "Golden Age of TWD" as Seasons 1-5. I especially identify with the character of Rick Grimes and after all these years of following him, I want to see how his character arc is resolved. After that though, I don't know...

I'm streaming the show on Amazon and I am deliberately buying it one episode at a time because I suspect I'm going to stop watching after Andrew Lincoln's departure. I'm just not interested enough in any of the surviving characters to stay with the show after Rick is gone. I like Darrell a lot of course but he's too reticent and inarticulate to be at the center of things (unless the TWD writers pull a "Carol" on him and give him a completely new personality. Which would be obnoxious. And just like them). At some future time, I might buy a second-hand copy of this season (or the coming ones) on Ebay but I can't see myself staying emotionally invested in TWD without the presence of the Regulator. To me, TWD was, above all else, the Epic of Rick and without him, it's dead.

After the carnage that was Season 8 of THE WALKING DEAD, and its protracted All Out War story line, the show is back in Season 9 with a extra long premiere that time jumps a year and a half in the aftermath of the defeat of Negan and the Saviors, and at least I can say that they gave most of us fans what we like best: nasty looking Walkers dying nasty deaths, but not before they haven't taking out a supporting character or two, and come close to chowing down on a series regular. I knew poor Ken (we hardly knew ye) was done for when he went back for the horse, just as I was sure Ezekiel was going to be fine when he went through the glass floor at the museum.

As Season 9 opens, all the different communities are living in an uneasy peace, as some are doing better than others, which makes it look like it will be the main plot tension in this first half of the season. Everyone seems to have settled into their roles, again, some better than others: Maggie is ruling the Hilltop with a firm hand, while the Sanctuary is struggling, and its neediness is resented. All is clearly not well, and resentments soon bubble to the top with resulting violence. Carol and Ezekiel are a thing, while Rick Grimes and Michonne have settled in like an old married couple at Alexandria, raising a now growing Judith. Darryl is not happy with his new job in management, and Gregory is scheming a return to power - that does not work out well. Resources are starting to run low, namely gasoline and bullets, and the un-maintained roads and bridges are starting to seriously decay. Over it all looms the long shadow of the unseen Negan, presumably locked away in that cell back in Alexandria.

All in all, this episode, directed by Greg Nicotero, was a good one, even if felt slow at times, and as though nothing too consequential was happening. After the very uneven pacing of Season's 7 & 8, it felt as if things were getting back on an even keel. And if anyone was wondering whatever happened to 90's comedian Brett Butler, well, now you know. But even bigger than the shadow of the unseen Negan, is the shadow of the impending departure from the series of Andrew Lincoln, the how and why of which remains to be seen, but as all of us fans know this will be another body blow to THE WALKING DEAD, a show that has more than a few of them, narrative wise, in the past two seasons, starting with the horrific Season 7 opener that saw the gruesome deaths of Glenn and Abraham. For most of us fans who had invested so much in these characters, nothing has been the same since. And let's not talk about what happened to Carl last season.

The coming departure of Rick, and Maggie too, is going to open a massive hole in the center of THE WALKING DEAD universe, and ultimately this Season 9 opener gave no clues how it will be filled, much less how this franchise will continue for another ten years as AMC has promised. As far as I'm concerned, The Whisperers can't show up soon enough.

And what about Dwight...and Heath...and Georgie Girl? At least the mystery of Morales has been solved.

Ok epsiode nothing more. It has as allways some stupid moments. Like when the kid dies trying rescuing the horse. Every1 shouts run cause of the massive zombiehord.. the kid tries rescuse the horse and gets biten, well what then the rick and company do, they go back and kill the huge hord of ''10-20 zombies'' easy as that. So bad writing.

And the dumb mother of this boys complains to Maggi how she is not ok sharing food with saviores and wants em dead, but she lets one of them sing and speak for her dead son. Good job

Twd had a lot of pressure with this premiere and the entire season, since the last 2 seasons were disappointing and boring and people hated and abandoned her. But before this complicated forecast, the premiere gives us hope and gives us a glimpse of the following episodes. It is not the best episode, but Angela Kang manages to give us an episode with a relatively slow pace but with good scenes. good points: seeing the city after years I liked it, the interactions between the characters, a good script and development of the same, good presentation of the plot that will develop and the death of greogory was spectacular. bad points: the scene of the capitol and the glass floor was somewhat forced and when the horses are stopped by the mud and rick and the others decide to leave but still end up killing the walkers, somewhat forced.

I don't understand why "Meegan" aka Maggie had to spare Gregory's life after defending herself? Instead displayed his death to the entire group. I'm sure Negan's bat is somewhere around to take control. Spoiler alert Negan's sister Meegan will save the saviors!! 🤣😂🤣😂

I love shows in wich people think: "Let's start with the heaviest item first over a glass floor and after that we do not lift the light items over the sides of the staires." Please... Make them think and plan better. Stupidity to create a storyline is not a credible storyline.

Then... We are with 9 and we run from walkers... Then one goes back to save a horse... he get's bitten and three attend him and 5 kill all the walkers. Where is the logic in that? Who killed Kenny? Well, stupidity did.

Please... Writers... Your audience is smart. Don't treat us like empty heads.

And if that was the Smithsonian... I would have taken some really expensive stamps. :))

So there is a significant time jump from the end of season 8 to where the series picks up, thinking around 5 to 6 years from the age of Judith in this episode. The manual that was given to Maggie in season 8 is working like a treat, hilltop, Alexandria are thriving. The saviours in the sanctuary not so much, we still don't know anything about the kingdom or Oceanside but seem to be ok from the looks of king Ezekiel and Carol.

As for the episode being promising we pick the core group up in Washington on a supply run, which last season were so boring but this was actually entertaining with walkers actually causing a problem. Good old fashion zombie killing whilst picking up so desired items for a museum, plows, an old horse drawn cart and other tools that can be copied. Only issue the glass floor of the museum and you guessed it, someone falls through, Ezekiel to be honest but nothing happened and he returned safely.

Alone the trip back to the hilltop / sanctuary they faced a small heard of walkers and come across "another" bridge that has been damaged. From what they were saying many bridges have been torn down from a large storm hitting the east coast. This is where the fun and reminiscence of the series this used to be ended.

After one of the more disposable characters was bitten and killed of this is the catalyst for the season 9 story. A lot of talking later an attempt on Maggie's life from the father of the boy who died has caused Maggie to have a sudden change of character in the space of a minute and now wants to be the tough leader that Rick has been. In the end results in Gregorys death, just such a sudden change of character doesn't help the story.

So we can only wait and see where this series will go, will it fall into the traps of the last few series or be the walker killing series we loved in the first place?

We finally saw some relationship, but unfortunately those interactions butchered by bad executions.

Firstly, we're in a museum and some guy getting pulled from his legs by a walker. There isn't any build up for the tension, just another cliche for the audiance. Secondly, we're still in a museum and some guy falling from a glass floor. Tension is great but overall that scene just doesn't make any sense and stupid. Thirdly, we're out of the museum and some guy getting bite by some walker. We don't even know the guy's name but they still tryna make his sloppy death emotional with bad cinematography and some fake crying. Fourthly, we're in some kind of funeral, some dude is singing, they didn't give us anything emotional about the guy who's dead, so we still don't care about the guy who's lying dead in the coffin, so it's boring and trying too hard. Fifthly, we're at the hilltop, I guess, some guy wants to kill some girl. His plan was just all over the place. What the hell even was that. Sixthly, guy's plan to kill the girl have failed, tomorrow happened, the guy that everyone hates will be punished, two kids comes out of nowhere and the death that everyone want ruins by these brats