Author Topic: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*  (Read 14400 times)

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #15 on: November 06, 2018, 01:45:58 PM »
I was actually okay with Glenn's dumpster adventures. I understood the 'drama' of waiting for weeks, and loved that he made it. What got me was that as soon as he makes it back to Maggie, he's killed by Negan. In my mind, it was very poor storytelling. What was the point of Glenn surviving the dumpster attack if he was just going to be killed off right after that? It makes his 'miraculous survival' at the dumpster meaningless and trite. So the dumpster thing didn't bother me; it was that combined with his death a couple of episodes later.

Otherwise, I pretty much agree with everything you said, although I strongly suspected that they wouldn't want to take Rick out permanently, and that there would at least be some ambiguity as to his fate. It's just the immediacy of these 'original films' that frustrates me, and makes me feel used. I agree that it cheapens Rick's entire exit.

Offline perc2100

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #16 on: November 07, 2018, 09:30:48 AM »
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I was actually okay with Glenn's dumpster adventures. I understood the 'drama' of waiting for weeks, and loved that he made it. What got me was that as soon as he makes it back to Maggie, he's killed by Negan. In my mind, it was very poor storytelling. What was the point of Glenn surviving the dumpster attack if he was just going to be killed off right after that? It makes his 'miraculous survival' at the dumpster meaningless and trite. So the dumpster thing didn't bother me; it was that combined with his death a couple of episodes later.

Otherwise, I pretty much agree with everything you said, although I strongly suspected that they wouldn't want to take Rick out permanently, and that there would at least be some ambiguity as to his fate. It's just the immediacy of these 'original films' that frustrates me, and makes me feel used. I agree that it cheapens Rick's entire exit.
Great points about what worked/didn't about Glenn's Dumpster Days.  I think what bugged me the most was how that situation was 'sold' to viewers: it felt hacky.  From what I remember they weren't quite committing to the "he's definitely dead" side but also not committing to "he might've survived."  It, again, felt like a very disingenuous move on AMC's part: same was the handling with "Rick's Last Episode!!" shenanigans. 

Good news in my head, though, is that ending would've killed my enthusiasm for the entire season if it had happened the last several seasons.  Not only was the episode REALLY well done other than the helicopter ending, but the season in general has been great.  I'm still really looking forward to the next episodes to see what the 'new' world and communities will look like.  Even with what I think was a significant artistic misstep (albeit a solid business decision), I'm still really excited about this season and where its headed - and I haven't been able to say that about TWD in quite a long time, I think!

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #17 on: Today at 07:24:50 AM »

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #17 on: November 12, 2018, 01:43:30 PM »
Those who are interested can ready my episode 6 review here.

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Overall, I am very happy with how the show is aligning with the comics, yet at the same time bringing in new material (such as the mysterious happenings in Alexandria causing everyone to mistrust strangers to such a big extent).

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #18 on: November 26, 2018, 01:13:31 PM »
Here's my take on the midseason finale. IMHO it was the best episode of the season so far.

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Offline meecheles

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #19 on: November 26, 2018, 04:40:14 PM »
I think I'm OK with the walkers evolving. I was shocked when I heard them  speak. I know for sure I'm not OK with Judith making grown up decisions and carrying a gun. I know she has to grow up fast  due the environment , but I'm on the fence.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #20 on: November 26, 2018, 07:06:34 PM »
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I think I'm OK with the walkers evolving. I was shocked when I heard them  speak. I know for sure I'm not OK with Judith making grown up decisions and carrying a gun. I know she has to grow up fast  due the environment , but I'm on the fence.

I think they were in a hurry to have her replace (some) aspects of Carl. Henry seems to be dealing with the other part of Carl's comic book storylines.

Offline perc2100

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #21 on: December 03, 2018, 05:46:26 PM »
Took me a little while to catch up on the last two episodes.  I have REALLY mixed feelings.  I feel like with the snap of a finger TWD writers essentially rebooted back to a more-or-less status quo.  We have Judith-as-Carl now, which I'm not opposed to on its face: in fact, I'm far more interested in how she got to this point than where she's at.  Again, we've all seen Carl as a youngin' so this just feels like "Judith is a slightly cooler character than Carl because the actress has more charisma.  In the show's favor, the actress seems better-than-average for TV kid actors, so I'm curious to see where her arc goes in the very near future: I'm at a use-em-or-dump-em mindset with the ginormous cast, so I hope she gets interesting stuff to do ASAP and not just revert to "first couple seasons Carl" of 'kid-in-distress' mode.  It was compelling storytelling the first time around, will be redundant and not interesting to me the second time: I really, really hope we don't have a Carl 2.0 here in any way.

We also immediately have massive tension in the group (w/out a lot of explanation).  I think the writers and show runners past and present think the characters are more interesting fighting amongst themselves, but at this point I feel like that's been the bulk of this series.  I was really looking forward to seeing how all of the colonies were dealing w/each other after the time jump, and the answer is "same as it ever was."  I was really hoping to see more interesting workings and camaraderie, for a change of pace, but nope: lots of tension between colonies and characters.  Again.

Michonne is back to being boring.  Again.  I'm so over gloomy, angsty, "could've fronted a band in the early 1990's" Michonne.  The show was doing so well developing her this season, and after the time jump she seems lame.  And for no reason, yet.

TWD also reverted back to their tried-and-true trope of "we're killing off a character tonight or maybe next week, so wer're going to cram a ton of development into it right now since we haven't really developed this character in a looooong time" and killed of Jesus.  I like that turn of events, and I think TWD is at its creative best when it covers the more interesting story lines from the comic but also deviates enough for long-time readers to still be significantly surprised.  Jesus is a character that, IIRC, doesn't exactly have much character development in the books either.  I read an 'exit interview' where the actor that plays Jesus essentially wanted off the show because he didn't have anything to do, and I can't blame him there.  The business side of the show dictating the narrative is nothing new, and while I'm always slightly bummed when an actor is unhappy and wants off, I think TWD handled it well.  We've all known The Whisperers were coming (er...maybe most of us - I don't want to be definitive as I'm sure someone here didn't know) since the summer, and comics readers have known all along this was down the road.  So there was zero surprise when The Whisperers appeared.  While I was busy condescendingly rolling my eyes hearing Eugene insist the zombies have evolved, out-of-the-blue the killed of Jesus!  I really appreciate with this show can surprise me, as it doesn't happen as often as I'd like, and this was a fun surprise to me.  I honestly thought for a little bit that Jesus was being developed to maybe be a lot more integral to the series: I gave it 50/50 the buildup/development was either 1) he's dying tonight 2) he's being elevated!

I dug what felt like an old school horror movie throwback with the nighttime, foggy graveyard climax.  In a show that sometimes feels like they're intentionally trying to stray from its horror roots diving into classic horror tropes seems like a breath of fresh air every once in awhile.  This half season seems like the writers have done a good, improved job tonally, even if said tones are still mostly "angry," "dour" and "kind of scary."   I think this show needs more humor, and some of the convos with the new crew of people Judith saved have amused me.  As a musician/HS music teacher the music conversation made me smile, though I find it hard to believe those chumps stumbled into a legit Stradivarius.  The sentiments were 100% on point, and the idea of carrying around a Strad is clever for most of the general world who doesn't know that instrument would've been trashed loooooooooong ago because of how fragile instruments hundreds of years old made of wood are.  I digress a bit, and overall I became automatically endeared to that character.  That I can't remember the name of.  Oh well: maybe by the next finale.

Generally I felt like post-Rick was quite a step back from the genuinely fresh feel of the first several issues.  It's like the showrunner and network don't have faith that reformatting things slightly would keep old viewers/entice new ones.  The only interesting thing about the Whisperers, IMO, are how Negan factors into the storyline.  There is a LOT of ground to mine with the culture of The Whisperers as well: are there other reasons to roam the wild dressed as zombies?  "World War Z" (the book) has a great story about humans that had some weird mental thing where they wanted to dress as zombies, live as them, become one with their culture.  They'd bite other humans (and get shot by them) and try to assimilate into the zombie world (to worse results than The Whispers seem to be having).  The books made The Whisperers generally feel way one-dimensional, as Kirkman tends to do with many of his villain characters (the TV-only watching fans will never know how lame The Governor was in the books - generally the show has made him and Negan vastly superior, with more depth, as living/breathing characters than the books ever did).  Perhaps the show will do the same with Whisperers, but generally I think keeping them a half-season concern is the right way to go.

Going forward:
I cautiously optimistic.  I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt that they've earned this season in developing Michonne & explaining WTH is up with her right now.  I'm hoping the characters get to a place where they can actually develop and evolve in this new world (that somehow how working vehicles w/no oil refinery or oil drilling mechanisms in place?!).  I wish the show would've let us live the bulk of this season living in the new world, which radically changed twice from last year's finale to the mid-season finale this year.  Rushing into The Whisperers feels to me the writers don't have faith in not having a human bad guy for a season.  While a female Big Bad is a nice variation on TWD season formula, it's still the formula.  This series needs something fresh as a palate cleanser from what felt like a decade-old "All Out War" slog.  Something currently in the books, and perhaps hinted at last season, could be just that: the show needs to get there sooner rather than later, though, and not fall into their same ol' tropes that seem to me to have gotten a bit stale.

Offline perc2100

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #22 on: December 03, 2018, 06:04:23 PM »
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Here's my take on the midseason finale. IMHO it was the best episode of the season so far.

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This has been a sedate discussion: surprisingly, I think.  It doesn't get said, but I really enjoy your reviews: you do a great job giving just enough analyzation, minor speculation, relating it to the books, etc. without just summarizing the beats of the episode.  Thanks for the write-ups, Jun!

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #23 on: December 04, 2018, 06:22:36 AM »
Thanks, Perc! I started out just writing recaps, then realized that it wasn't really offering anything new to the reader. I then started moving toward a more stream-of-consciousness thing, and now I organize it more to comment on the major plot points and character development. ;)

I actually loved the introduction of the Whisperers, and am really excited for it. I suspect that Judith is there to take on the 'friendship with Negan' aspects of Carl in the comics, while Henry is there to take on the 'interaction with future character related to Whisperers' aspect of his storyline.

As for the conflict... I'd be more interested in it if they'd actually give us some details about it. Then it might make all of this waiting worthwhile.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #24 on: December 21, 2018, 09:07:37 AM »
Grimes Family Video

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Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #25 on: December 21, 2018, 12:03:17 PM »
I admit that I starting watching it again after vowing off Walking Dead in the middle of season 8.  I binged it an episode before the mid season finale.  Much better than it's been in years past.  Still some groaners for me.  Henry just rushing off like that, what kid that grew up in this environment would do that?  The big groan was the final scene in the mid season finale.  Can they just let Negan go?  That whole story arch was stretched out far too long which lead me to stop watching Walking Dead.  I rather they just move on with the new storylines.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #26 on: February 18, 2019, 01:20:49 PM »
Who is enjoying the Whisperers? Here's my review of epsisode 10.

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Offline omraged9

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #27 on: February 18, 2019, 04:03:40 PM »
I was surprised by how much I liked the past 2 episodes. I've lost some interest in TWD for the past 3 seasons when the writing started getting more stale. While I liked the first half of the season for the most part with the new showrunner coming in, it didn't fully regain my interest until now. I didn't expect to like the Whisperers arc that much but I thought they made walkers more frightening for the first time since maybe season 2. With each walker that comes on screen, I'm holding my breath sometimes wondering if they're going suddenly pull a knife and shank one of the good guys. Or when they suddenly stop walking like a normal zombie and they turn and look at you, it has such a startling effect.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #28 on: February 18, 2019, 04:58:51 PM »
They have definitely amped up the actual horror this season with the advent of the Whisperers, with Rosita and Eugene terrified in the woods, with the graveyard scene where Jesus fights them, with the Walkers appearing in the woods to accost Alden and Luke... I agree that this is a really cool aspect of this season.

Offline chaosdreamer

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Re: Walking Dead Season 9 *Spoilers*
« Reply #29 on: February 19, 2019, 09:09:33 AM »
I've found the Whisperers arc surprisingly enjoyable so far (surprisingly because I'm not a fan of the creep/horror factor) but I'm still on the fence with wherever they are going with Negan.