REVIEWED: THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 8

With Christmas around the corner, the inevitable mid-season finales are rolling in. And boy, it is ABOUT TIME. Before I really start I want to say, that if (the big thing) didn’t happen, I would honestly rank this season a 2, don’t ask me what the range would be because my ratings are a mess, I think you guys know it and I know it too. (Yes, all the ratings I give tend to be over six but that is because I really don’t want to be too harsh to films – OK).

Last year, we saw the head bashing of Abraham and Glenn (oh yeah – SPOILERS, but why would you click if you hadn’t already watched it. Honestly I don’t care, but whatever you do please stay – I need the views. You can go and check out my other posts, like this one, or this one, or how about this one. Shameless plugging!), and that head bashing was enough to suffice our appetite for season 7a. But then season 7b came and nothing happened. A war was supposed to be seen, but all that happened was eight episodes teasing a war, and then Sasha deciding to kill herself, and then it was “oh my god, next season is going to be amazing“.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE SEASON BAR THAT THING

It wasn’t, and it hasn’t been. I was reading reviews for the first episode when it came out back in October, and found a quote that I think perfectly represents the show at the moment.

The Walking Dead creators and AMC have underestimated their audience, they know we are going to watch, so they give us the bare minimum and treat “their audience as though they are stupid”.

This has not changed for the past two seasons, and whether they care to admit it or not it is a problem. The rating for this show have fallen to the lowest since SEASON 2. Things need to change, they just have to change – I don’t want to be that guy that just says “the entire season is trash” because honestly some episodes are good and there is some good character development going on. But, it is almost as if the creators went:

“Right, you wanna see people die. Look we killed them, we killed them too – and more gunfire, now blow that up and make Rick chase them down. Yeah, that’s great have the machine gun kill them all. YEAH”.

When, that is not what I wanted, I wanted to actually see stakes – not just watching people who I can’t even remember die. Since halfway through season 6, they have teased Negan. It was a massive build up in season 6, then they got they heads bashed, then the entirety of Season 7 was a build up. and now finally in Season 8, this so called “All Out War”, has done nothing, no-one of significance died – Shiva died, but we never saw her in all her glory. All the people in the Kingdom dying didn’t mean a damn thing to me, and technically it only lasted five days. And what the hell was going on with Old Man Rick, don’t show me if it isn’t going to be IRRELEVANT.

Because it was only five days long, the story was weak. At times stretching, some episodes were good, and there has been character development – like for Negan and Gabriel and even Eugene. But, the worst thing about the season is the story, a lot of the time is spent trying to get everything into place only for Negan and everyone to get out. Some characters get lost like Morgan, Jesus and Daryl.

AND THEN

The bombshell dropped. Literally making everything above less true. The stakes are there, the shocks are back and it is what I was craving for since Glenn’s death.

CAAAAAAARRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLL! Carl, how can you do that to my man Carl, why AMC, why? We need to take a second and remember all the memes that will now be laid to rest. But on a serious note, I hated Carl at the start, only when he killed his mum, did I like him a little bit more because he finally rid us off that woman (damn it, I hated Lori). And he slowly started to grow on me, I was wondering where he was during the season but thought he was in college so was too busy – like Michonne and Rosita.

I honestly should have recorded my reaction. Because, during the entire episode we see Carl struggling, and even when he tells Negan to kill him, I was confused. He had saved the day and was still struggling to walk and was get yellower and yellower, and then you have that sort of cinematic reveal. Where Rick is walking past everyone and you see him walking to a bitten Carl, the shock factor was there because we were all expecting Rick to die and Carl to take over. Plus, it is his son!

WHY IT FELT KIND OF CHEAP BUT I DON’T CARE

A lot has been said on why it has been a cheap death, the creators threw it in because they knew that people will stop watching and there was no real emotional lead up throughout the entire season. Carl just got his one episode to shine, instead of it being something where Carl and Rick are constantly bashing heads throughout the season, and this death will make Rick take a new view on how to deal with Negan. It’s almost as if it was something tagged on at the end to make sure people will still keep on watching. But, whilst everyone says it is a cheap death, I couldn’t care less. Carl DIED – this has to be one the BIGGEST shocks I have ever seen on TV.

Someone had to die, it is that simple – the entire season was so poor and this so called “All Out War”, was mainly just a little battle. I just literally  thought that anyone but Carl would die. Of course, this shock is a heaven sent for the creators because now the creators can use this to drag out this war until the end of the season.

WHAT I WANT TO SEE NEXT

Here is where it gets sticky. “What I want to see next” verses “What I’m probably going to get” are two very different sides. We are probably going to see a couple episodes with Rick hating his life, crying all the time and really trying to take on a view. Daryl will blame himself. And, not much will happen in the first three episodes, Morgan will save Ezekeli, and the season will ultimately end with Rick not killing Negan and locking him up or something like that. The season will continue to move at a slow pace when you think about it

What I actually want to see and something I think TWD can do well is I want to see how his death affects the whole family, not just Rick, Michonne and Daryl. But Morgan, Carol, Maggie – the wider cast. I never have requests like this, but TWD can pull these sort of episodes off – case and point Gabriel and Negan stuck in the van. I also hope that they do not drag this on any longer than needed, Carl’s death may have been cheap but his consequences and repercussions don’t need to be. Rick can grieve but at the very least have someone else stand up and lead like Maggie (I actually think this will happen).

What the Walking Dead need to understand is that this is not a comic book, this is a TV Show. Eventually this HAS to end, whether that is everyone dying or them finding a cure, progression needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly. Because viewers are not going to stay on for twenty season, there needs to be an ending – case and point, Game of Thrones.

Carl’s death is a good step in the right direction, start being bold, actually progressing as a TV Show instead of a really slow pace that is sort of limping along to it’s eventual death.

AZ