There were some lows before but I'm not one of the people who already declared it dead after season three or four. It wasn't that bad, and if nothing else I'ld watch it once a week for the tranquility, more or less, of a largely deserted, post-apocalyptic world devoid of most humans and thus mostly devoid of their noisiness, chatter and banter and their general idiocy and stupidity. A world where nature had started to take over again. It was cool.
But now we had an episode that was largely - dark. Dark in the sense that the screen would actually stay almost completely black for the longest part. Dark equals boring if you can't see what's going on on screen. I get it, our party are fighting their way out of underground caves and down there it is largely dark, but being able to see what is going on is kind of important when watching a show, otherwise one might just as well just listen to a podcast. Something, at least. Instead, a lot of noise. The usual fighting noises, heavy breathing, heads cracking, brains splattering and so on. Still not sure what went on down there and what happened in those 45 minutes, except that they made it out at the end. Because it was too dark. I switched off the lights and tried to watch it in the dark and still could hardly see a thing. But in the end they made it.
Oh, and Negan and Alpha made out. Hmm. Behold those twists and turns. At this point I'm getting a bit tired of the habitual swagger of the main characters. It's all become quite predictable. Everybody showing off how fearless, cool and unimpressed they are by the other. I mean, they're all killers. Everybody who made it this far in this world and is still alive is a killer. And that's ok under the circumstances. Everyone there is a badass but you don't constantly need to show it off to impress. On the other hand, perhaps all this will evolve into some new sort of warrior society, the next step in homo sapiens' evolution, if the walkers ain't it. Get ready for a fight between Negan and Beta.
All this could have been done in 10 minutes. Conclusion: What a filler. Not a good start for a premiere, mid-season or not. To be diplomatic, not a good episode at all. Note to future directors: Do not let your heros spend 40 minutes crawling through caves or underground tunnels in the dark, it's pointless TV.
Oh, and Negan and Alpha made out. Hmm. Behold those twists and turns. At this point I'm getting a bit tired of the habitual swagger of the main characters. It's all become quite predictable. Everybody showing off how fearless, cool and unimpressed they are by the other. I mean, they're all killers. Everybody who made it this far in this world and is still alive is a killer. And that's ok under the circumstances. Everyone there is a badass but you don't constantly need to show it off to impress. On the other hand, perhaps all this will evolve into some new sort of warrior society, the next step in homo sapiens' evolution, if the walkers ain't it. Get ready for a fight between Negan and Beta.
All this could have been done in 10 minutes. Conclusion: What a filler. Not a good start for a premiere, mid-season or not. To be diplomatic, not a good episode at all. Note to future directors: Do not let your heros spend 40 minutes crawling through caves or underground tunnels in the dark, it's pointless TV.
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