Walking Dead Season 7 first episode

[YoungOnce]

Ok... The first episode was pretty rough. No spoilers here, but, this kind of episode makes me ask myself why I want to get invested in this kind of story. It's a really well done show. I may just be at the age that I need lighter fare.

Here's the thing for me. When a really bad person does really bad things in a movie, there is something in the back of my mind that is saying "it's ok... This bad person will get their just desserts in a couple of hours." There is a catharsis that takes place when justice is meted out. But here, I don't think we will get any cathartic justice for quite a while.

Brutal... Just very literally and emotionally brutal.

[YoungOnce]

Posted this and then saw the other Season 7 thread... Mods feel free to delete this thread.

[emeraldknight47]

I hope the Mods DON'T delete this thread. This episode was big enough to warrant a thread all it's own IMHO.

Yes, this episode was----there is no other word----brutal. Likely made all the more brutal when you consider that Negan (as JDM said on TALKING DEAD) does NOT consider himself "the bad guy," he just feels he's meting out justice to those who killed his people (even if his people seem, by and large, like a most despicable group of individuals). Negan makes The Governor look like a teddy bear in comparison. But, damn, as much as I hate the character, I love the actor playing the character. JDM always brings 100% to whatever role he takes on and this one is no different.

The death of ******* AND ***** was unexpected, although one death had it's foreshadowing a couple of seasons back, if memory serves.

At first, I was feeling like the show runners were going to string the audience along and not reveal which characters met their fate until the end of the episode, but the way they played it out proved to be very satisfying, or at least as satisfying as scenes like that can be.

As horrific as they were, I think the scenes involving Negan, Rick and Carl were perhaps even moreso. I felt my body completely tense up as Rick approached what seemed to be an unavoidable event. Would comic Negan have gone the path that TV Negan chose? Hard to say since I've not read the comics, but it definitely was what it took for Negan to break Rick and bring him into line. Watching Rick's veneer of bravado and leadership fall away was one of those TV moments that's going to have a lot of reasonance with me and knowing what Carl was prepared to sacrifice made me admire him as a character brave beyond his years.

I know this is fiction, but I've been with these characters since the beginning and so I say: To those who passed in this evenings episode, RIP. To those who survived it and have to live with the horrific memories of what they witnessed (or, in Daryl's case, what he caused), hopefully you can find some measure of peace in knowing that those who perished saved your lives. Lastly, to Negan; you'd better watch your *** because you have created your own worst enemy and you don't even realize it yet....

[Hector]

Agreed, brutal episode. JDM makes Darth Vader look like Mother Teressa, lol.

The only thing I'm in disagreement with you is on Carl, sure, he was "heroic" in that moment, but I hate that actor...the worst actor in the show by a mile...everybody in the group showed true extreme fear, even the stoic baddarze Michonne...but Carl is such a wooden actor...I really detached myself from his plight, the teen just doesn't have much range...and I could've not given a rat's butt if he had lived or died.

I hate his stupid patch, I hate his stupid hair, I hate his stupid hat...

[Hector]

[emeraldknight47]

I do have to wonder if Negan and The Saviors have a dentist in their number; Negan's teeth were purty and white! LOL!

[Hector]

Not whiter than John Wesley Shipp's veneers in the Flash, that was just outright plain scary, lol...