TWD: The Final Episodes (spoilers)

[Transmute Jun]

This show has had its ups and downs, but the final episodes (the last 8 episodes of the series) begin tonight!

[Zero]

I'm excited to see how it all ends!  There have been some great TV moments in the series throughout the years.

[perc2100]

I'm excited to see how it all ends!  There have been some great TV moments in the series throughout the years.

Yeah I stopped watching this series after Rick left/before Michonne left, but after reading the comics I'm curious to see how they wrap up the series.  As a 46 year old horror fan, I'll _NEVER_ not smile knowing that we got an incredibly popular zombie TV series on cable TV that was originally run by a DGA/WGA Award nominated writer/director!  Obviously this show as often veered pretty far away from the comics, and the gut punch ending of the comics run is already (almost) impossible to happen on the series, but I'll watch these last few months of the show to see how it ends, and appreciate that for a few years a zombie show that was quite graphic was the mainstream hit of TV!

[Transmute Jun]

It's amazing when you think that in order to get the comic published, Kirkman had to pitch it as a sci-fi story with aliens...

Here is my review of last night's episode. It's off to a decent start.

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[perc2100]

It's amazing when you think that in order to get the comic published, Kirkman had to pitch it as a sci-fi story with aliens...

Right, and the issue where he had a 'addendum' type of thing that went full-sci-fi is hilarious 

[Zero]

Yeah I stopped watching this series after Rick left/before Michonne left, but after reading the comics I'm curious to see how they wrap up the series.  As a 46 year old horror fan, I'll _NEVER_ not smile knowing that we got an incredibly popular zombie TV series on cable TV that was originally run by a DGA/WGA Award nominated writer/director!  Obviously this show as often veered pretty far away from the comics, and the gut punch ending of the comics run is already (almost) impossible to happen on the series, but I'll watch these last few months of the show to see how it ends, and appreciate that for a few years a zombie show that was quite graphic was the mainstream hit of TV!

I actually did stop watching it for a while after season 9's finale, but I went back to it eventually and got caught up during early to mid-2021 (since I was working from home and had some more free time, ha ha).  I'm actually still a few episodes behind on season 11 though.  Bwuhahahaha! XD

Comment to the bold text:
True story!  Right!?  I feel the same way.  Amazing how it was the "hit" show for a bit, especially during the earlier seasons!  I remember the huge buzz it caused back in the day, especially for certain season premieres, ha ha.

[debster]

I've been watching it throughout the run, although I definitely lost interest in the middle. I really just want to see it through and hope that the ending episodes are good.

[perc2100]

I actually did stop watching it for a while after season 9's finale, but I went back to it eventually and got caught up during early to mid-2021 (since I was working from home and had some more free time, ha ha).  I'm actually still a few episodes behind on season 11 though.  Bwuhahahaha! XD

Comment to the bold text:
True story!  Right!?  I feel the same way.  Amazing how it was the "hit" show for a bit, especially during the earlier seasons!  I remember the huge buzz it caused back in the day, especially for certain season premieres, ha ha.

Yeah for a brief moment we had a zombie series as the #1 show on cable TV and a big budget Brad Pitt starring/producing mainstream zombie movie in theaters.

We had it all... 

[Transmute Jun]

Here are my thoughts on last night's episode.

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[Transmute Jun]

I'm not sure about these 'smart' walkers... it feels awfully late in the series to be introducing them. But I loved Eugene's character arc.

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[perc2100]

I'm not sure about these 'smart' walkers... it feels awfully late in the series to be introducing them. But I loved Eugene's character arc.

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I agree, and it'll be curious to see how they play into a finale scenario.  Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on one's opinion of the situation) this franchise feels never-ending with spinoffs and sequels and whatnot; from that perspective TWD may feel like SW, where tons of little branches or story and situations extend and evolve into other series.

On a related note, I (finally) caught up with ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP, and they to had a story thread on 'smart'/super zombies that had evolved into better problem solvers & faster/more resilient than the regular ones.  I guess Snyder did the same for ARMY OF THE DEAD, and of course the godfather of the modern zombie genre George Romero himself originated that concept first with DAY OF THE DEAD (good ol' Bub - the zombie who could learn) and took it several steps further in LAND OF THE DEAD with Big Daddy & his crew.  Out of all of those Romero seemingly was the only writer/director to develop the idea, so there are a myriad of possibilities one could explore in TWD family of shows.

[Transmute Jun]

I agree that there is too much in the way coming for TWD spinoffs. It feels like they're over-saturating the market, as Star Trek and Star Wars are currently close to doing. Do we really need 2 spinoffs at once, plus the Rick/Michonne mini-series? And Fear is still limping along.

I'd love to see them focus on one thing at a time. I'm all for planting seeds to pay off later (I love that) but planning something this big, which could never come to fruition in this series feels like a bit much.

I guess I should revise that...  in the comics, the alst book was a decade or so after the events in the Commonwealth. Maybe the last episode of the television show will also be 10 years later and have the smart walkers in it? But even so, that wouldn't be very fulfilling. And it negates everything they ever did, stabbing people in the head to prevent them from turning, killing walkers, etc., if they could potentially 'come back'. That's what Herschel had been trying to do in his barn way back when.

[Transmute Jun]

This week's episode was all about the people at the Commonwealth...

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[Transmute Jun]

The storyline is moving along... but it's starting to feel like there's too much for them to do in the final 3 episodes, which makes me feel like they're going to leave a lot of loose ends for the sequel series. Sigh....

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[perc2100]

The storyline is moving along... but it's starting to feel like there's too much for them to do in the final 3 episodes, which makes me feel like they're going to leave a lot of loose ends for the sequel series. Sigh....

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It always seems odd to me that a comic book feels like it ties up loose ends moreso than a (relatively) major TV series.  I'm never a fan of movies or series that feel like they're spending more work/time setting up future installments vs producing a really solid self-contained storyline (looking at you AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2).  I mean, we have masterpieces like the Indiana Jones movie series that is about to drop #5 on us where each film is one self-contained story with full character arcs, etc: all made tons of money, all(most) broadly liked, etc.  I legit wish more series followed THAT lead, rather than wasting audience's time setting up potential future story arcs.
I personally thought that a detriment to The Walking Dead TV series vs comic is the production team HAS to cater to its cast, rather than 1) leaving characters out in order to focus on other characters 2) killing off whomever to serve a story, rather than serving human beings or what not.  TWD does better with this sometimes, and worse with others, while still letting the series 'breathe' enough to discover itself and be its own entity: adding characters to the mix not from the comics, giving characters more room to grow/develop in the series than comics, etc.  But it's hard for me to keep interest in something that feels like its just constantly spinning its wheels for commerce rather than story narrative, and it feels like TWD crossed that threshold awhile ago.
I dunno if I was hoping for more finality in this series than we're obviously getting, but the way they're playing this season out is not keeping my interest or making me excited for any future series (I'm MUCH more interested in the anthology series (though TBH I apparently missed Tales of the Walking Dead completely w/out seeing any episodes)