The Walking Dead is the biggest show on cable TV, and with good reason. Few shows are as brutal, tense, and shocking as
AMC"s zombie drama. Few shows throw as many curve-balls at viewers, hitting us hard with tragedy, violence, and insanely good make-up and special effects.
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But for all that, the show is not without its problems. If you"ve been reading my reviews for the past few years, you"ll know that I"ve been banging away at these for some time now. As much as I really do loveThe Walking Dead, I know it couldbe a better TV show.
Here,we"ll take a look at the five biggest problems with Season 6 of the show. It"s been a season that"s as uneven as any I can recall, swerving between some of the best, most intense action and violence we"ve seen in the entire run ofThe Walking Dead,and some of the most inexplicably big missesalso.
Let"s take a look at each. Feel free to shout out other problems in the comments, or tell me how wrong I am. I"m game foreither.
(Credit: AMC)
(Note: I"m still getting used to the whole "making videos" thing so bear with me. Feedback is lovely.)
1. The writers totally botched Glenn"s death.
The entire fake-out for Glenn"s death was ridiculous. He fake-died in the third episode, but it wasn"t until the seventh episode that they revealed it was just a fake-out. The three episodes in-between consisted of two filler episodes and one, admittedly interesting, backstory detailing Morgan"s transformation. All of this is hugely pointless and gimmicky, and may be even more insulting if the show follows the comic books.
Making matters worse, his death isn"t even really discussed during much of this time, leaving us to wonder what"s going on in the head"s of our merry band of survivors.
This problem was so jarring in the first half of Season 6, I devoted an entire post to pointing out just how ridiculous and over-extended the feint became.Nothing else this season has left such a sour taste.
The whole thing is a huge shame because Season 6 started out with such huge potential, and continues to be a pretty strong season even now. But Glenn"s fake death was a black spot on the season, and could become an even bigger blotch depending on how the season ends...
2. Characters keep acting out of character to further the plot.
Characters acting weird to further the plot continuesto be a problem in the sixth season, and has been for pretty much the entire run ofThe Walking Dead. Characters constantly do things that don"t make sense, and it feels like the writers are shoehorning their characters into unreasonable actions simply to further the plot, rather than allowing organic characters to act in natural ways and letting the plot follow after.
Good dramas do the latter, allowing a story to follow its characters rather than the other way around. A show like Breaking Badtells the tale of Walter White"s character flaws---his ambition, pride, disregard for others---and those flaws shape the tragic course of events.The Walking Dead seems intent on shaping characters in order to keep them enslaved to the narrative.
For instance, Carol had no reason to go kill the captured Wolf when the zombies had broken through Alexandria"s defenses. Carol"s too smart for that, no matter how much she disagrees with Morgan. She could have easily waited until the danger had passed and then gone to Rick and they could have handled the problem. Instead she puts everyone in danger. Sure, Carol has done questionable things in the past, but she"s almost always done them rationally, to protect others. This was not rational.
Then there"s Rick. He had no reason to take a bunch of kids on his mission when the zombies overran Alexandria. If he"d been thinking at all, which I assume he does at times, he"d have taken the kids to a safe place first, probably avoiding the terrible fate that awaited them. His plan to herd the zombies out of the quarry also seemed really far-fetched and not terribly bright. I could go on. His solo attempt to take on the zombie horde after Carl is shot; his plan to take down Negan without doing any re-con or finding out anything about the enemy, and so forth.
Maggie continues to act as if she"s not pregnant at all, with no explanation for her recklessness. It made sense that she"d try to go find Glenn, but it made much less sense for her to accompany the raiding party. At least the show acknowledged as much, even if they didn"t do much to confront it.
There"s more: Glenn backing himself into a corner to save Maggie from what was, by all appearances, a pretty safe situation and almost getting swarmed by zombies; the Hilltop community sending out their only doctor scavenging; Rick choosing Maggie to negotiate with Gregory rather than doing it himself; Rick and Daryl not taking the truck of supplies back to Alexandria, and not driving two cars.
Lots of these little actions that go against the grain of characters make me think the writers care less about what their characters actually believe, and more about how they can get from Point A to Point B.
3. Plausibility simply doesn"t matter to The Walking Dead writers.
In the fenced off sanctuary of Alexandria there are new faces every week. Between Season 5 and Season 6 we suddenly had a bunch of new characters, some of whom were explained as being away during the previous season, and others who just appear out of nowhere. Many of these minor bit roles are either window dressing or, if they"re speaking parts and defy Rick, tend to get eaten by zombies. It"s silly, and reminds me a lot ofLost, which suffered from the same bizarre casting disaster. New faces don"t just show up on magical islands in the middle of nowhere. Same goes forfortified coloniesin the middle of a zombie apocalypse where everyone is accounted for and nobody comes and goes without checking in.
One of the big reasons for these new faces seems to be so that the writers can simply have them killed off quickly, making them little more than cannon fodder. Which brings up the other big, implausible device used inThe Walking Dead.Let"s this The Implausible Zombie.
The Implausible Zombie is sneaky, and easily creeps up on unsuspecting survivors---despite being slow and really noisy. The Implausible Zombie, despite shuffling at a "walker"s" pace, can easily trap groups of the living, in spite of their speed disadvantage. The Implausible Zombie is usually used to force a plot along---trapping Glenn on his dumpster, or killing off anyone who doubts Rick"s judgment, like poor Carter in the Season 6 premiere, or that one guy who ran away in the third episode. Poor bastard.
Beyond this are lots of smaller details. Day suddenly changing to night, or the other way around. The final scene in the Season 6 midseason finale being altered into something entirely different for the midseason premiere. All these small details add up and make me question the showrunners" commitment to consistency.
4. There"s way too much filler.
Season 6 continues theWalking Dead tradition of padding each season with filler episodes that do nothing to further the plot, and focus on characters we don"t care about. Episode 5, "Now" was almost entirely filler. Almost none of the main characters we actually care about were present, and the recent Wolf attack on Alexandria was barely even mentioned---for no good reason. Frankly, itwas an episode that didn"t even need to exist.
The following week"s episode, "Always Accountable" continued this tradition, spending altogether too much time on a relatively uneventful trip with Abraham, Sasha, and Daryl. It wasn"t nearly as bad as the previous week, but it came during the Glenn fiasco, which made it more painful than it had to be. The two episodes could have easily been combined and probably turned into one good episode, which would have also shortened the time between Glenn"s "death" and "resurrection." Often, the best advice anyone can give writers is that less is more. Cut unnecessary words. Trim off the fat.
Too much filler, too many episodes that could be cut or condensed,simply kill the pacing.
One way to fix this would be to stop splitting episodes between small groups of characters. Have multiple stories going on at once---a la Game of Thrones---so that we"re never stuck with an episode that completely misses the mark or makes us wait for the more interesting bits.
The worst part about all this filler is that it dilutes the show. We have episodes like the attack on Alexandria that are absolutely outstanding---tense, violent, frightening. We have episodes with such great drama and such brutal action, and then filling in the space between them we get fluff and filler. Some of these episodes could probably be cut down to just a scene or two. It gives off the impression that the writers are filling a quota rather than telling the story in just the right amount of time.
5.The Walking Dead can"t do (most) relationships.
Season 6 ofThe Walking Dead is like that moment inHarry Potterwhen everyone started snogging all the time.
Sure, we"ve had some relationship drama in the past. The Rick/Lori/Shane love-triangle resulted in Shane going crazy and Rick having to kill him. Then Rick and Lori stopped speaking, and then she died and Carl had to put a bullet in her head to stop her from zombifying. Then Rick went crazy for a while, too. Love in the apocalypse is all death and crazy.
Then in Season 5 we had Rick"s budding romance with Jessie, resulting in him killing yet another man---her husband, Pete---before giving up on her entirely when walkers take down her creepy kid, Sam, and then her.
But in Season 6, the romantic stuff really comes out of the woodwork. Suddenly. For instance, suddenly Rick and Michonne are an item. I even like them as an item, but it happens out of the blue. And then...sort of disappears. We see almost no more coupling between the two after their initial moment together on the couch and subsequent night together. Was it all just a one-night stand? Probably not, but you wouldn"t know it from watchingThe Walking Dead.
Then there"s Carol and Tobin. That just happens out of the blue also, and is given almost zero screen time to develop either before or after. And this is after dozens of episodes building a potential thing between Carol and Daryl, our favorite rhyming couple. Carl and Enid"s potential is barely explored, even though kids that age---even in zombie times---would have raging, out-of-control hormones. The one lesbian couple we"ve seen so far in the show is between Tara and Denise and neither that romance, or its potentially controversial nature, is explored at all. The one gay couple the show has introduced---between Aaron and Eric---is similarly left on the sidelines, with Eric barely showing up on screen at all.
This ham-handed handling of love and sex isn"t anything new, it"s just more apparent this season. Tyreese had a girlfriend once, for about an episode before she died. Beth had a boyfriend for an episode before he died. Sasha"s relationship with Bob was actually one of the best in the show, but then he died and she went crazy and now we have to suffer through one of the most awkward love triangles ever, between Abraham, Sasha, and Rosita.
Welcome back to Alexandria for The Walking Dead: Season 6! I hope you weren’t expecting a cozy sit down with one of Carol’s amazing baked goods, because it is going to be anything but relaxing this season. There are twists turns and HUGE surprises coming up quicker than a walker with an appetite.Xem thêm: Cách đưa thông tin lên google mien phi, thiết lập trang thông tin miễn phí về sản phẩm
As you’ll recall, the last episode of The Walking Dead: Season 5 culminated with Pete killing Deanna’s husband, and Deanna ordering Rick to kill Pete, the nasty abusive husband, which he does. Alexandria seemed like a mighty quiet place before our band of Walker wackers got there…and now they’re about to REALLY shake things up!
Everything That Happened On The Walking: Season 6
No time to read the recap? No problem! Here’s the trailer to get you started!
Episode 1 “First Time Again”
After the town meeting turned execution from the previous season, Morgan and Rick run into a large herd of walkers in a quarry. Rick, ever the diplomat, uses this opportunity to chew the Alexandrians out over their lack of self-defense, making them hate and fear him even more. Fortunately for him, the plot they devise to get rid of him falls apart. Don’t worry, it isn’t because his attitude improved. It’s because a honking horn sounds near Alexandria. The herd is on its way for brains and crumpets.
If your interest in TWD was wavering, this season will rekindle it. There is lots of action, the great escapes you love, and of course: Lucille. Buy The Walking Dead Season 6 on DVD now!