I’m still sticking with it, but agree that it is getting tired. They’ve dragged on the thing with the Saviors far too long and the “character episodes” blow.
I’m not sure about the TV show, but I stopped reading the comic book because the novelty just wore off after a while. You can only rely on shock and violence to carry the series for so long. After a while, the audience becomes desensitized, and it’s not like they could really escalate the existing theme. So instead, the comic began to focus on developing characters that no one cared about, or exposition of the philosophies of various factions. I understand that they had to take such a risk for the series to continue, but there is a risk that readers will not respond to the changes. In my case, the new direction was not appealing.
“I stopped following the show after the second season but read about this season and watched some scenes. I had this discussion at work just a few days ago. It’s all inflation / desensitized. In real life, roadside billboards get bigger and bolder to avoid your latent noise filter. On TV, violence and content has slowly grown through desensitization and one-upmanship akin to an ISIS video. After the Red Wedding (another show I don’t watch but did watch the scene just to keep up with social happenings) the gloves just came off. It’s been brewing for awhile now following some of the other HBO content, The Shield ending and Sons of Anarchy. It’s about creating buzz and ratings and that has essentially come down to who can create the most “oh my God that’s so disgusting… I have to see it” moment, which is essentially the click bate of TV where you tune in because of a headline then find yourself mentally anesthetized watching the next 10 episodes for the conclusion. It’s just producers sitting around saying, “Oh my God, how about a baseball bat and his wife’s there, but wait, no, she’s pregnant and lets crush his jaw….” it has nothing to do with adding to the plot and is just a cheap ratings ploy since CGI has been played out. Cheap thrills for small minds, we’re late cycle in the current social construct.”
Already called it.
Also just got a nice reminder when I called el_macca a smug asshat, haha.
I haven’t seen an episode since it came back from winter break. I’m pretty bummed. It was easily one of the best shows on, but now it feels like a chore to watch.
I agree the last few character episodes were torturous to watch, but the final two episodes of the season should be pretty fast paced and with a pretty significant character death or two. Unfortunately though, I fear that they’re going to leave the resolution of the showdown with the Saviors as a cliffhanger.
#1: why would the scavengers turn on rick’s group and remain under the thumb of negan when they could turn on rick after defeating negan and become the undisputed ruler of the territory? also, why did the scavengers lose all sense of sentence structure and speak like stereotypical russians with limited fluency in english? the urgency to come across as competent would still exist in a post-apocalyptic world and speaking normally goes a long way in this regard.
#2: what are the odds both the hilltop and kingdom show up at the same time to save the day? why didn’t the kingdom send a messenger to let rick know of their intentions to fight with him? it would’ve been quite helpful.
#3: why did rick’s group trust the scavengers with explosives and guns given they lost all language skills?
#4: was morgan really running around with a stick during a gunfight and did he really get a kill with his stick? last i checked, piercing a living man’s body with an unsharpened stick would be incredibly difficult. he did it with ease. i think he’s a superhero now.
#5: why did they make negan yell a bunch of corny crap after the ambush. unnecessary and seemed incredibly amateur and cartoonish.
i’m sure there are a million other reasons why this show has become way too corny. i’ve been watching since season one and i’ll likely watch it until it dies, mostly because it’s one of the few shows my wife and i watch together and there is nothing else to watch on sunday nights.
I’m sure I’ll stick with it too just to see how they eventually decide to end the show, but I think I’ll just DVR and watch a few episodes at a time from now on.