[Malankazooie]

Other then the zombie car limbo of death, the episode was kind of meh, to be honest. I've got a feeling the rest of the season is going to be Rick's group trying to convince the other communities to "rise up" and join them in their pending war with the Survivors. We'll see, I hope I'm wrong, but the show has history in how slow it moves, so why change now.

[worry]

I thought it was decent. Xander Berkeley is having some fun as Gregory and it's pretty entertaining. The guy who plays Negin Jr. is having fun as Negin Jr., but he's pretty annoying. Watching people defuse bombs might be the most boring thing on Earth, but the rest of the highway scene was rad. It appears Ezekiel takes advice so he knows what to do the exact opposite of, which means the head knight is gonna do something stupid. Squire Boy too, probably. What else? Oh, Daryl telling the King "you don't act like one" like a few hours into their acquaintance, when Ezekiel had pretty much done nothing except generic king stuff, was pretty awful writing. Do these scripts go through more than one draft, you think? Zero other ideas what Daryl could have said in anger?

[acesn8s]

This past episode was one of those that the more I thought about it, the more I disliked it.

This new group is super lame.

[Malankazooie]

The show seems to be running out of ideas. I mean, isn't the new group just another version of the Survivors? "Get us guns" or threat. And, "We take".

And I hope no one is fooled that Carol will not eventually be brought into the fight. She will find out what happened eventually (probably when their need is most dire) and then kill switch engage.

It looks like next week's episode is one of those where they spend most of the hour with one person, this time it's Eugene's turn. I could be wrong though, as it also seems there may be some Dwight conflict sprinkled throughout.

I wonder if Eugene will get the same treatment Daryl did.

[acesn8s]

We take, but we don't disturb...unless you consider kidnapping Gab, stealing all of Alexandria's supplies, throwing Rick into a pit like Ash in Army of Darkness. Oh and we'll take on the Saviors, even though we don't know a damn thing about them. Sprinkle in post-apocalyptic goth wear and Jodie Foster twin-speak from Nell and I'm really annoyed.


I'd love to watch a season of them trying to take a city or part of a city to secure supplies, equipment, etc. Do a road fortification project to connect Hilltop, the Kingdom, and Alexandria and have to deal with the noise drawing hordes, other survivors, etc.

[worry]

The Carol/Daryl stuff is still one of the only lights of the show left though, and the spike zombie -- while nonsensical for this show -- was neat to see in action in purely a SFX context. Kinda looked like a zombie Mouth of Sauron. I suppose it's worth remembering that zombies can be stopped with pillow avalanches, in case the day ever comes.

But yah, the Matrix Reloaded Cavepeople were a total air ball. And aces nailed it with the take/disturb inconsistency. This show only employs writers who think they nailed it on the first draft.

[Malankazooie]

Got caught up with the latest episode. It was probably the best one since coming back from mid-season break. Eugene likes the terrible song. Dwight seems to be getting shit on all the time, which is setting up something for him *winkwink *nudgenudge. And lets just say Eugene may lose some fans based on how things seem to be going for him *winkwink *nudgenudge.

Next episode looks like it sex scavenge time for Rick and Michonne.

[Malankazooie]

Well, the "Richonne" sex excursion/salvaging happened... meh.

Dumb people fought with dumb ideas and plans and guilt about knowing where guns are and stuff ... meh

And the junkyard gang wants more guns and a cat. Also, why does their leader talk like that? Has the apocalypse been going on so long now that language/communication is digressing back to the grunts/farts/sqeaks of cavemen or something? Or is it done for intimidation? If I was Rick's group I would laugh at them for it. I'd be all like: *grunnfh "me get gun", "try to find big gun that go boom", "you help fight bad men" *rrrgrrhummmf.

And dumb pair is going to see one come back with story to make everyone sad. . . . meh.

[worry]

Caught up from the Eugene episode to tonight's.

Eugene episode was decent. Didn't tell us anything new about anyone, but it was definitely a surprisingly good character-consistency episode. It was actually free of people we know making bad decisions for no reason.

Rick & Michonne episode was pretty spotty. I don't like Rick in general, obv, and this giddy schoolboy idiot version isn't helping. LOL at him falling off the ferris wheel. Rosita's been annoying in this protracted death spiral she's got going. I didn't mind Tara's moral dilemma stuff, since it's in character and it makes perfect sense. I did laugh when it went straight from a shot of like Rick and Michonne living it up out there like teens on a first date to a shot of Judith being babysat by a non-family member. Remember back in the good old days when we thought maybe everyone had learned Morse Code and were blinking at each other, or Father Gabriel had buried guns in that fake grave? Turns out, nope, no plan, never had one. Just go out finding guns for a bunch of cavegoths.

Kingdom episode: I liked it for the most part. It did have some dumb stuff like a pretty reasonably intense Morgan freakout ending w/ him lightly kicking a basket over to find a cantaloupe, and the return of TWD's infamous awful monologues (this time with Richard -- appropriate since that's basically the long form of "Rick"). Still, a lot of the tense stuff worked, there was some genuinely grim content ("Bury Me Here"), and it actually moved the season arc forward a notch.

[acesn8s]

I never put together why Ben was so important to the Kingdom.

Spoiler

Guess I never will.

I was nice to see "Clear" flashback from Morgan, to know that he's still fighting that monster inside of him. It gives clarity to his strong stance on not killing.

[worry]

I think Ben's status = like "oldest orphan" so everyone felt parental toward him, plus he's probably a "squire" in their way of thinking.

[Malankazooie]

Not a bad episode. The show seems to be better when it sticks to a single, cogent narrative for the 60 min. instead of jumping around.

The Morgan nutzo switch is somewhat unbelievable though. So now I am to believe that Morgan is abandoning his Buddhist "don't kill, injure your enemy / injure yourself" philosophy to "now I'm going to kill them all"? All because Dwayne err... Benjamin is killed and Richard spills the beans about being responsible? I guess the Clear call back attempts to show that Morgan seems to be fighting that urge and this finally pushes him back to killing machine mode.

And the way Carol received the important info so she can pivot back to murderous badass just fell short for me. It just didn't have the same impact it could/should have had.

Also, when the camera was zoomed on on Richard during his monologue I could only think of this for some reason.

[worry]

I thought Morgan's struggle was okay (for this show, and again, right up until it climaxed with him kicking a basket over), and I think Carol pulls him back from the edge by trading places with him. He is, essentially, saved. I also think this means she's gonna die, cuz that would complete her sacrifice, so to speak. The impact/payoff is yet to come. (I'm not saying it will be good).

[acesn8s]

I was a little surprised she went to The Kingdom instead of back Alexandria. Glad to see her back in action, though.

I've got a 7 year-old girl and seeing Katy's backpack and listening to Richard's history pulled at my heart strings. I still think his plan was overly complex and dependent on predicting The Savior's actions, I would have preferred seeing him gun down the asshole or leader to kick things off instead.

I was annoyed by the end of episode because of, "That's it?" (kinda like Crossroads of Twilight). After thinking about it and talking about it with various people, I actually like the episode.

[Tattersail_]

I was hoping Morgan gave the saviours a beat down. I was so hoping for it.

[Malankazooie]

Well that was kind of a yawntastic episode. It's purpose probably being to set the table for the big season ender? (not sure really).

The way they handled Daryl's anguish over what happened and how that was reconciled with Maggie just didn't deliver any emotional punch for me. Maybe because it took so long to address it or possibly it was just not executed all that well.

How Rosita and Sasha bonded over reminiscing about Abraham and getting to know one another was better, I guess (kinda cheesy though). Also tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber just aggravate me so much that any bonding or human moment they may have is overshadowed by how dumb they both are. And gee was that shadowy figure Daryl or hmmmm..... someone else? (who may or may not be struggling with how things are going presently).

Creepy savior correcting Carl's girlfriend that she should say vegetables instead of veggies is, creepy

The best part of the episode is Simon though. Simon is a giant amount peons and whenever he has screen time you seem to lean in just a little bit more because you don't want to miss any of his awesomeness.

[worry]

Well that was easy!

[Malankazooie]

Yep, too easy. Oceanside got Negan'd (or Rick Rolled if you will) by Rick and Co. I like how the show attempts to convey the position that Rick's group really is just like The Saviors for the most part, minus all the murdery, murdering (at least I think that is what the show is trying to accomplish).

There was some pretty cool zombie effects from Oceanside. I could swear I saw Barnacle Bill the sailor amoungst them.

Well, next week is season 7 finale. There better be at least a couple of sweet tiger maulings. The show better have thrown all the money reserved for tiger special effects into this finale, because so far the tiger has been kind of dissapointing.

[acesn8s]

I think they've failed to portray Negan as anything other than a 2 dimensional villain. I'm also seeing the same move set from JDM whenever he needs to deliver a line. Can't wait to see an end to this story arc.

[Tattersail_]

If Negan doesn't die next episode then the whole season has been absolutely pointless. I don't think they have done this well at all. Did the comics just fizzle out? I cannot see what another season would do, or be focused upon, this Negan group is worse than the Governor. The Governi#or was a much more sinister bad guy. I like Negan's acting but its gone no where.