After Another Brick, It's Time to Stop Pretending 'The Walking Dead' Is Worth Watching

Last night’s midseason finale didn’t save ‘The Walking Dead’—it buried the show even deeper.

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Complex Original

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The Walking Dead’s mid-season finale marked the third 90-minute episode in just eight installments. Why? I don't know, but the show certainly hasn't made a compelling enough argument with that extra time. Last night, the midseason finale of season 7, was its last chance to do so. 

Finally, after all that time, The Walking Dead began pulling together the storyline that's been inevitable for the entire season: Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom joining forces to take down Negan and the Saviors once and for all. There’s nothing inherently wrong with predictability—many of Westworld’s “twists” could be seen from 5,280 feet away, and the show wasn’t much worse for it—but it comes with the caveat that if we know what’s coming, the payoff better be huge. The problem with TWD, though, once again, is that it was all stalling and little payoff. 

This latest stretch of TWD needed us to believe that the Alexandrians were truly, utterly fucked—that Rick and Co. had run into a genuinely superior force and, this time, things were different. In order to get us to buy in, this idea was rubbed in our faces with the subtlety of a brick through a window. We slogged through 60 minutes of Daryl the Prisoner before moving onto another 90 minutes of Negan swinging his dick bat around Alexandria, reminding its residents that everything they have now belongs to him. We watched Rick repeatedly try to convince his squad, himself, and us that this is the way things are now. And when that wasn’t happening, we spent entire episodes in the Hilltop and the Kingdom, respectively, in an effort to establish a larger world and an eventual triumvirate. But because of this structure, TWD failed to build momentum for the impending war. What could have been a riveting, inspiring return to power collapsed into a fractured, monotonous cycle between the Alexandrians being miserable under Negan’s new rule and the two other communities being slightly less miserable with the status quo. 

At the last possible moment in the midseason finale, the tone changed almost instantaneously. Negan’s latest murders were arguably his most justifiable yet. He stabbed Spencer, someone we already hated, for cowardly trying to betray Rick and had one of his goons choose a victim (bye, bye Olivia) after Rosita’s attempted assassination wounded Lucille. Neither death did anything to make the character more villainous. (I’m not in the camp that thinks Jeffrey Dean Morgan isn’t imposing enough as Negan. This development just wasn’t enough to help his cause.) And yet the killings, along with another one TWD’s hallmark “tell don’t show” monologues courtesy of Michonne, suddenly convinced Rick to fight back. 

The episode could have ended on the wonderfully unnerving overhead shot of Rick standing alone and stunned in the middle of the street in front of a pool table surrounded by Spencer’s blood. It would have left the show as hopeless as it’d been all season, but at least we would have had some semblance of consistency. Instead, the show went on for another half-hour, with Rick trekking to the Hilltop to say “it’s on.” Still unaware of the Kingdom’s existence, he had no more resources at his disposal than he did for the last seven episodes. Neither of the communities even have guns. But he declared that he’d fight the Saviors again nonetheless, all because we need something to be excited about when the second half of the season returns in February. It made no narrative sense—just another instance of TWD placing more emphasis on the future instead of the present and hoping we’ll keep staying along. [Ed. note: OK, so you're saying The Walking Dead is like the Sixers telling us to #TrustTheProcess?] Why should we stick with the show, though, when the idea of it is always better than the execution? 

It’s become tiring to essentially repeat the same criticism, but it’s worth harping on until the writers change. For years, the most watched show on cable could fall back on its ratings and ignore what the critics had to say. But with viewership reaching its lowest since season 3, I’m not so sure it has that luxury anymore. JDM’s Negan was supposed to breathe new life into the series, and as satisfying as it’s been to watch him toy with the character, it’s just not enough. There are some fine actors here, with the exception of Chandler Riggs, who’s never made Carl compelling enough to make Negan’s interest in him add up. And the comic book offers an intriguing outline for many more seasons. Much better show’s have less to work with, so it’s time for TWD to stop squandering its assets. I’m hard-pressed to offer a scenario in which those who have given up should return, but if this show’s going to continue for years to come it may as well try a better pace of storytelling. 

In all likelihood, season 7 will end with the definitive defeat of Negan and the Saviors. And that’s alright. If the next eight episodes set the war at a reasonable pace and don’t leave us with some bullshit to wait for all summer, they just may be worthwhile. But expecting The Walking Dead not to botch something is giving it way too much credit. Self-perpetuating cycles never end without drastic interventions. 

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