The Walking Dead stormed into Season 7 with one of the most predicted premieres of its run, thank you in big component to a few summertime-long speculation approximately which person would fall to Negan’s barbed cord bat (wonder, it changed into two characters!). It wrapped up, however, with the bottom rated season finale for the reason that Season 2.
So what offers? What slowed this show’s roll so significantly? Well, it truely failed to assist that Season 7 become Walking Dead’s most self-indulgent and turgidly-paced season to this point. Being this a few years right into a zompocalypse tale and not using a clear endgame, and considering a giant ensemble of characters that want to be serviced well, Walking Dead started out to crack and collapse underneath its own sheer weight and self-significance. Gone have been maximum of the silly tricks and needlessly deceptive techniques of Season 6, but in their area changed into a rather plodding and bulky season that slow-burned us into a alternatively flat payoff.
Basically, the whole thing branched out of the tragedy and terror of an overcooked and bloated season best that noticed each Glenn and Abraham get used as gimmicks for the buzz bin mystery that kept the verbal exchange approximately the show going among seasons. For an hour and a 1/2, the episode broke Rick down to some extent of submission at the same time as stretching the misery out so that we, as visitors, could purchase that Rick — a person who’d as soon as been pushed so mad that he imagined smartphone calls along with his useless spouse — turned into by some means now pushed to a breaking point.
The Walking Dead : How the Scavengers Changed Everything
From there, the rest of Season 7, everything of Season 7, changed into approximately choosing up the pieces. So much in order that the second half of have become one long weird and banal scavenger hunt for guns and items so that every one the action (and tiger attacks) can be saved for the finale. And due to the fact the solid is so huge, and episodes would take turns checking in with characters and locations, we got to the factor in which we had been six months out from the most efficient and nonetheless dealing with Daryl’s guilt concerning Glenn – a factor that not surely resonated all that properly really because of the pacing and assemble of the storytelling.
The high-quality elements of Season 7 needed to do with world constructing. The creation of The Kingdom, King Ezekiel, and the entire shared delusion of that community turned into extremely good. In reality, due to the fact Season 7 changed into such a morbid yr (for an already dire and dour series), it became the moments of levity that truly shined. Like with that first Kingdom episode, “The Well,” or “Say Yes,” in which Rick and Michonne had been off on their own, getting a few fine couple time, and slaying walkers in a carnival. Also, for what it is well worth, I matter watching Saviors and Trash People get mauled through a tiger as “right instances.” So those beats within the season finale in reality made for some amusing carnage.
From a “new community” viewpoint, seeing how the Saviors perform, regulations and factors and all, turned into a pleasing diversion. It’s just that, possibly, we spent an excessive amount of time there. After our first move around with Dwight and Daryl (“The Cell”), we again to get a second tour with Carl (“Sing Me a Song”), and then, afterward again with Eugene (“Hostiles and Calamities”). Each time, we repeated a few of the identical beats as before – on a show wherein among the ethical dilemmas and ethical quagmires already get recycled quite a bit (we are seven years in now, the floor’s drying up). After a while, it have become “greater of the identical.” Which is a good way to segue over to Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan.
Morgan was fantastic as Negan, developing a commanding, dominating, charismatic presence that oozed each sleaze and reason. The man or woman changed into overused even though and kept onscreen an excessive amount of. Hell, he become overused just in the season best, but specifically following that it commenced to stand out. The remaining component you need to do with a villain like Negan is put on him out or make him too predictable. You do not want him to experience like a novelty, or a catchphrase device. You want to get the sense that he could speak your ear off, but you do not without a doubt need him to do it. This is one of the instances wherein a few restraint, on the subject of changing comic web page to screen, might have labored wonders.
Five Times Negan Has Smashed Expectations In The Walking Dead
It turned into also a massive stretch to shop for that there weren’t regular assaults on Negan’s existence, from both inside and outside his company. It turned into hard to consider that Rosita’s try to kill him turned into an outlier occasion. In the returned half of the season, a number of Negan’s “wives” conspired to look him useless, and that turned into a welcome flip, but you continue to had to surprise why Negan changed into, once in a while, coming off as too trusting – and a bit dense, like when he believed Dwight’s story about Sherry, and in the end the framing of Dr. Carson. To that extent too, did Negan certainly purchase Eugene’s tale about how Sasha died? We go away the season now with Negan — an adversary who turned into by some means clever sufficient to cut a marvel deal with the Scavengers — standing on a balcony, talking approximately struggle, with mystery traitors in his midst.
The season finale became an awesome episode, however a rather gentle finale. Imagine if that episode had come some weeks quicker and hadn’t been the only to take us out of the season. We could have left the tale with a smidgen of momentum instead of it all simply feeling like an okay finishing to a slow spring run. Sasha’s death changed into nicely carried out, but she wasn’t a huge enough person to cling your seasonal hat on. That’s no longer to discount that she’s been round on the grounds that Season three, but most of the time she became described through who she’d just lost – be it Bob or Tyrese or Abraham. Rosita, on the turn aspect, kind of blossomed in the wake of the season highest quality. With Abraham gone, she could rise up and be extra of a pressure at the collection. Sure, she turned into regularly a cussed and frustrating pressure, but we now depart this season with a far clearer feel of who she is and what she will be able to make contributions.
Showrunner Scott Gimple has already pop out saying that Season 8 can be a quicker-moving, extra extreme season, that’s amazing to understand, and additionally fitting thinking about that we are now on the precipice of warfare. Plus, with Alexandria, Hilltop, and The Kingdom now aligned in ideals, matters might float a chunk smoother from an ensemble point of view. Having the Scavengers over on the enemy side too facilitates topics for the reason that they’re a alternatively ridiculous gang who feels even extra out of step with the actual international of the show than the purposefully obtuse Kingdom group. I changed into satisfied to peer Negan make a laugh of them a touch bit there, within the season finale, due to the fact they have got been slimy and questionably cartoonish from the get cross.
The Conculsion
Season 7 successfully expanded the arena of the show, giving Walking Dead a much larger palette to color on. However, the pacing and structure of the season, as a whole, made for an frequently lumbering and wallowing watch. For a protracted stretch, particularly within the 2d half of the season, it felt like things by no means pretty picked up or stuck on, and that everything changed into being saved for the finale – which wound up now not being pretty meaty sufficient to justify the months of fasting. Jeffrey Dean Morgan introduced a vibrant strength to a essentially flat season, however Negan turned into overused to the point of becoming a one-trick pony.
Buy Season 7 now on DVD and Blu-ray.
Source: DVD + Blu Ray
