Well, here it is, the seventh season of The Walking Dead and I think that everyone knew who was going to get battered by Negan(Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Lucille. The first episode begins with Rick threatening to kill Negan after one of the group is murdered. Negan isn't impressed, though and he takes Rick off with him to the RV and talks to him. He throws an axe on the roof and tells Rick to go up there. Rick collapses on top of the RV and remembers what happened that night. We see Abraham fall victim to Lucille and he dies. This was not much of a surprise to me, but I was disappointed all the same. Abraham was a good, tough guy who was a real plus to the group. He took no prisoners, but I liked him. Anyway, Abraham dies. Rosita is devastated and Negan rubs her nose in it by getting her to look at the bat which is covered in Abraham's blood. Daryl explodes and tries to get Negan but to no avail.
Unfortunately for Daryl, his actions make Negan even more angry and he takes his anger out on Glenn who is the next to die. I know that this was expected as it was in the comic, but I didn't think that he was going to get it so soon. Maggie is devastated, obviously. Cut back to Rick who gets down from the RV and gives Negan the axe and they return to the horror. Negan tries to get Rick to cut off Carl's arm in a ploy to get him to submit to him. Rick has no choice but he is stopped before he can do it. Negan takes Daryl with him and he tells them that he will be back in a week and they will be expected to have supplies for him.
The rest of the group head back to Alexandria. They bring Abraham and Glenn with them. This episode was brutal but I liked the dark tone here. It is violent and nasty, but that is great. Negan has to be built up to be the ultimate psychopathic creep who doesn't care who he hurts. He needs to be the real baddie if there is to be a battle between good and evil. I think that Jeffrey Dean Morgan has done a great job. He is the smiling killer, the twisted psycho who plays his psychological games with the group and tries to break them. I liked this episode because it shows how bad he is. I know that some people didn't like the violence here, but I loved it, even if it did mean that we lost two regulars. I guess that I wasn't a huge fan of the Glenn and Maggie relationship for some reason. I don't know why but anyway, this episode was great, in my opinion.
I usually skip over your reviews of the walking dead because I watch it on Netflix and are a season behind everyone else. But after all the buzz about episode one this season I had to buy it on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Dean Morgan is a great actor and his character Negan is easily one of the most hated villains ever created. He does an outstanding job playing the part.
The episode was extremely gory and violent, and I see why it could be over the top for many. Whether it went too far or not I don't know, but it definitely got the desired results they were looking for. First shock, then hatred of Negan.
Where I don't like the direction the series is going is that even with all of the human to human conflict it has always been about survival from the zombies. This episode and block of shows is different. I just hope the series doesn't lose its direction and become a show only about this character for too long.
Others that lost their way in the same way- Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek TNG, to name a few. They all lost site of what made them great and once they had their ultimate bad guy, it focused too much too long on that instead of sticking to their roots.
Time will tell if the same thing happens to the walking dead.
I see what you mean about Negan and his storyline.I have to say that I like Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan.Somehow he makes him come to life.I do wonder about the new direction of the show and I think that it has changed in a way this season.The expectation for this season was huge and the build up was massive so it was always going to have to be a shocking opening episode.Personally,I loved it.I loved the gritty feel to it and I loved the nastiness of Negan.Obviously, I hope that Rick and the others find a way to destroy Negan.I do not want him to come out on top at the end of this.But I love a good villain.The Governor was great but he pales in comparison to Negan.I wonder what will happen with the characters and I do wonder if the zombies are even relevant in this season so far.I think that this season is trying to create the classic good vs evil battle and instead of fighting the zombies, they are fighting each other.That is my take on it.I am going to go with it as I love the show and I like the characters.It will be interesting to see how this storyline plays out.Hopefully it will have a happy endi g.Thanks for commenting Tony!
DeleteYou're welcome. I love the show too so I'm not going to write it off too early without giving it a chance. I'll give it a few episodes and see where it stands.
ReplyDeleteAnd once i get a chance to watch them I'll catch up on your reviews.