Make the Walking Dead Great Again
Few are the series that improve with age. Information technology's been 15 years, at least, since The Simpsons was essential viewing. The internet has just about settled down afterward the climax of Game Of Thrones jumped the dragon. Then there's the soon-to-be-rebooted Dexter, which concluded so disappointingly in 2013 that, for a minute there, you yourself might have hoped for the sugariness release of the killer's table.
Fifty-fifty rarer are the shows that escape the trough and return to something budgeted their best after a tour of the doldrums. The West Wing ended stiff, despite the get out of creator Aaron Sorkin at the end of season 4. x years on, information technology'south merely about possible to talk about Lost without erupting with fury – the striking drama'southward belatedly on revival just added to the disappointment of the series toothless ending. And what of Homeland, which reached its creative top simply when everyone had decided they'd had enough of its airheaded shit and stopped watching. And and then there's The Walking Expressionless.
If you were to plot the highs and lows of the ten seasons of The Walking Expressionless to date – which we take, here – that graph would either look similar the Kathmandu skyline or a very alarming heart-rate monitor. Now in its 11th year, in that location's never been a series more wildly inconsistent that The Walking Dead. In that location are weeks where AMC's adaptation of writer Robert Kirkman's hit graphic novel – the run of which wrapped upwards in 2019 – is non only essential television, but transcendent viewing. Rarely has episodic Tv been as surprising, cathartic or unsettling as flavor four's 'The Grove'. These were great times for the show; and then strong was the story that 17.three million Americans tuned into the premiere of season five.
And then… well, and then there'due south season seven. And season eight. And the thirteen episodes of season two where – with the exception of show stalwart Daryl (Norman Reedus) making a necklace out of zombie ears – very trivial happened beyond a lot of very sad people sat around, existence very sorry, on a subcontract. I fabricated it through the subcontract twelvemonth and was rewarded for it. The prison house; the Governor; the arrival of Michonne; Oooh! Morgan'due south dorsum! What a trip it all was. Just season eight broke me. And I wasn't alone – by the middle of the run, just half-dozen.8 million were tuning in regularly. I can tell you exactly when I bailed. At the end of the episode entitled 'Award', in which Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) dies.
Not that I was peculiarly fastened to Carl/Coral – if I could accept reached into the screen in seasons prior, picked Rick Grimes petulant spawn upwards and placed him at the decaying feet of the nearest zombie, I would take. Happily. But the character had grown in complexity as Riggs had grown in years – he was, after all, just 10 years former when the show debuted. When the time came to kill him off, information technology felt like a drastic motion.
Prominent characters had met their finish earlier, yes. But this was the outset fourth dimension a major death felt similar a stunt – or, as has been rumoured, a sacrifice at the anxiety of the cult of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan. A reason to extend his run, at the expense of the evidence. "Hey, don't think about the inertia of the storytelling! Yeah, distressing almost the Trash Hipsters and the introduction of the anaemic Oceanside plot arc! Await at Carl! He dead!" I stepped away – into the path of sister championship Fear The Walking Dead, which – equally unlikely equally information technology seems – had get the better series.
But at the start of season nine I started to hear rumblings – maybe whispers is a better give-and-take, given the debut of Samantha Morton'southward troupe of pare mask-wearing cultists – of a revival taking place, a resurrection if you will. A new showrunner came aboard, Angela Kang – with Scott One thousand. Gimple taking an oversight office. It even rebranded with new opening credits. And, when Andrew Lincoln was written out in the superb episode 'What Comes After', in the ongoing absence of Maggie (Lauren Cohan), and with Negan's appearances stunted by his residence in a jail cell, The Walking Dead became an ensemble evidence once more. When an infusion of a raft of likeable, nuanced new characters – known every bit Magna's group – was introduced in the aforementioned episode, they had space to develop and grow, without two of the star characters dominating proceedings week to week.
The arrival of the amiable Luke (Dan Fogler) was the infusion of desultory levity the show desperately needed. The complicated Lydia provided a new reason for a jaded cast of players to keep on fighting. Nobody said the undead apocalypse would exist a hoot, simply a few years into Trump's tenure, the more apocalyptic the real world felt, the less appealing The Walking Dead'due south weekly misery became. Light and shade restored, the flavour'due south penultimate episode 'The Calm Before' aired in March 2019. It was the best episode since season four, heartbreaking rather than just cruel, thanks to the variety of tone throughout.
And then into season ten where we observe ourselves currently. The Walking Dead no longer feels like a chore. With new strands of intrigue opening up week to week – what happened to Rick? Can Negan actually be trusted? Who are the survivalists hunting people in the wood? The bear witness is now rarely a burden on those who've come this far and are reluctant to bond early on. Viewing figures remain low – but, lurching towards season eleven and the conclusion of the primary serial, whatever remaining fanbase is perchance more engaged with these characters fates than ever earlier. If you're exiled, it might be worth coming dorsum.
Source: https://www.nme.com/features/opinion/the-walking-dead-got-good-again-2907174
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