So, let's start with the positives:
This episode was very suspenseful. All week I had been stressing out over who was going to die, and the episode carried that on very well. I was genuinely scared and anxious for most of this episode, and that fear was very well developed and maintained throughout the episode.
Very strong tension was built at every encounter with the Saviors blocking off the roads.
Then, right when I thought Rick's group was going to get the upper hand by sneaking through the forest, the whistling started. I FREAKED out. Absolutely terrifying. So good.
Negan's introduction with the group surrounded by the Saviors? Terrifying. Negan's dialogue? Terrifying, sick, charming, morbid, tense....extremely well done and well acted. Love to hate him. Hate to love him.
Aside from that, even the Morgan-Carol story was mildly interesting...I liked seeing Morgan break his no-kill policy. It should make for a more interesting story arc (and a role reversal perhaps) between him and Carol...and the Kingdom group will hopefully be interesting.
Now the elephant screaming in the corner.....the negative(s).
First of all, I don't think it needed to be 90 minutes: I like longer episodes, but usually you do that when you have more good and important material to cram in. I didn't feel like they had enough to justify extending the episode. Like Batman v. Superman, it could have been done quicker and neater....that's just me being picky.
The big problem was obviously the ending. We had been preparing for almost half a season (some for longer) to lose a character we loved. We even had to deal with the fake loss of Glenn and such earlier on. I had been preparing myself to lose a character I cared about; not in a begrudging way, either. I don't want to lose a beloved character, but I'm willing to swallow that pill in order to love the show more and be completely shocked and thrown off. I was deeply INVESTED for this to happen.
But then to leave such a cheap cliffhanger after so much build up? I would have had just as much reason to continue watching had you showed who died! Maybe even more! By the time October and S7 roll around, I'm not even going to care as much anymore...It would have been better to know NOW and deal with the emotional fallout for 6 months, and then see where that leaves Rick and the group. I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat.
Everyone is saying they did it to keep people watching, which is a feeling I can definitely empathize with. But like....we would have kept watching anyway! Now it backfired and people hated the episode.
Not happy about the ending. And I know, it's not about making me happy, but I would have been happy being unhappy about the death of a big character. What I'm feeling is actually just pure frustration at cheap business models to keep people watching. You sold out, boys. This season was so much stronger than others, but you sold out and made it suck. Sorry. I'll always be a fan, but that sucked.
So, all in all, I would not say that WHOLE episode was bad and worthy of such terrible ratings as 1's and 2's. But that ending did a lot to ruin a very tense, suspenseful, scary, and well designed episode.
This episode was very suspenseful. All week I had been stressing out over who was going to die, and the episode carried that on very well. I was genuinely scared and anxious for most of this episode, and that fear was very well developed and maintained throughout the episode.
Very strong tension was built at every encounter with the Saviors blocking off the roads.
Then, right when I thought Rick's group was going to get the upper hand by sneaking through the forest, the whistling started. I FREAKED out. Absolutely terrifying. So good.
Negan's introduction with the group surrounded by the Saviors? Terrifying. Negan's dialogue? Terrifying, sick, charming, morbid, tense....extremely well done and well acted. Love to hate him. Hate to love him.
Aside from that, even the Morgan-Carol story was mildly interesting...I liked seeing Morgan break his no-kill policy. It should make for a more interesting story arc (and a role reversal perhaps) between him and Carol...and the Kingdom group will hopefully be interesting.
Now the elephant screaming in the corner.....the negative(s).
First of all, I don't think it needed to be 90 minutes: I like longer episodes, but usually you do that when you have more good and important material to cram in. I didn't feel like they had enough to justify extending the episode. Like Batman v. Superman, it could have been done quicker and neater....that's just me being picky.
The big problem was obviously the ending. We had been preparing for almost half a season (some for longer) to lose a character we loved. We even had to deal with the fake loss of Glenn and such earlier on. I had been preparing myself to lose a character I cared about; not in a begrudging way, either. I don't want to lose a beloved character, but I'm willing to swallow that pill in order to love the show more and be completely shocked and thrown off. I was deeply INVESTED for this to happen.
But then to leave such a cheap cliffhanger after so much build up? I would have had just as much reason to continue watching had you showed who died! Maybe even more! By the time October and S7 roll around, I'm not even going to care as much anymore...It would have been better to know NOW and deal with the emotional fallout for 6 months, and then see where that leaves Rick and the group. I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat.
Everyone is saying they did it to keep people watching, which is a feeling I can definitely empathize with. But like....we would have kept watching anyway! Now it backfired and people hated the episode.
Not happy about the ending. And I know, it's not about making me happy, but I would have been happy being unhappy about the death of a big character. What I'm feeling is actually just pure frustration at cheap business models to keep people watching. You sold out, boys. This season was so much stronger than others, but you sold out and made it suck. Sorry. I'll always be a fan, but that sucked.
So, all in all, I would not say that WHOLE episode was bad and worthy of such terrible ratings as 1's and 2's. But that ending did a lot to ruin a very tense, suspenseful, scary, and well designed episode.