Theres two famous idioms. One is “kill your darlings.” The other is “looks good on paper.” The first one means that you sometimes have to get rid of characters, subplots or even just a few sentences if it doesn’t fit the overall story. The other means sometimes plans, actions and especially potential employees look great at first. But then things fail apart.
The Walking Dead had been in print for eight years by the time it premiered during a six-episode run on AMC in the Fall of 2011. There was a tremendous response that led for the show to be renewed for a second season. But there were already problems as the network didn’t have much hope in the show and limited the budget. This led to Frank Darabont, who developed the show, leaving after the first season.
And the second season took place mostly at that farm. But it did help build up Glenn Rhee (Stephen Yeun) as a major character who was universally liked. At first it seemed he would be the token Asian-American character. He wasn’t always perfect but as his relationship with Maggie (Lauren Cohan), they seemed to be a better liked couple than Rick and Lori Grimes (Andrew Lincoln and Sarah Waynes Callies). Then there was they will they or won’t they vibe between Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride).
Yes the second season felt more like a soap opera with zombies. (I mean “walkers.”) The show seemed to pick up the slack during the third and fourth seasons with the setting moving to the abandoned prison and introducing The Governor (David Morrissey) as a great antagonist/villain. Yet problems already started to show by the end of the fourth season when it began to focus more on individual stories.
This became more of a problem in the fifth season. It seemed the show was repeating the same formulas over and over. A new character or two is introduced. There is initial resentment. There’s a person who feels they are in high up in authority who becomes a tyrant. Rick throws his foolish authority around himself. People fight. There’s a lot of groady deaths. They persevere. Rinse and repeat.
Let’s face it. That Terminus arc was so over and done with quick it presented a weird feeling among fans. They were glad it wasn’t stretched out so much but they wished they’ve could of done more. I remember at one point, a character sees a walker and isn’t even phased as this is just smacking a mosquito.
And that’s the problem. There was no major investments anymore. Rather than focus on new ideas, they just had people killed off. Basically nothing made sense anymore. There’s a difference between killing your darlings and killing off characters just because you can’t come up with a better plot device.
They managed to walk from Georgia to Virginia in a very short time. Only once did we ever see any survivors deal with severe weather elements and they half-assed that. After a year or so, why were there even “walkers?” Flesh rots quicker in warmer temperatures. Then there are the numerous scavenger insects (beetles, ants, maggots) and even wildlife (bears, coyotes, mountain lions) that can stop a person especially one stumbling along the woods.
And the whole thing with Alexandria just pised me off. It would be normal for people to try to rebuild a society. That’s what we’ve been doing for centuries when bad things . But Rick and the Grimes Gang ran around screaming “The sky is falling!” all the time. (Notice that Rick, a former law officer, didn’t do much at the farm to keep it safe?)
This is where I began to resent Rick and Carl (Chandler Riggs) or “Coral!”and that stupid hat the little twerp wore. I knew it wouldn’t happen but I thought they’d listen to their fanbase and kill off one or both of them by this point. I’m sure the showrunners of Lost had a lot in store for Ana Lucia until Michelle Rodriguez’s bland acting and audience backlash led to her demise at the end of just one season.
That brings us to Negan, the character played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Negan had been teased all of the fifth season. But when he appeared in the season finale, he didn’t appear to be the murderous unrelenting maniacal leader he was in the graphic novels. No, he seemed like a 40-something adolescent who peaked in 11th grade trying to hold on to those days where he was the baseball team’s captain two years in a .
The Governor and Shane (Jon Bernthal) had some feeling of humanity behind their viciousness. Shane was pining for the love of Lori, who he was boning. (And it’s probably true that Judith was their love child.) The Governor himself was unable to let go his own daughter who had turned into a walker.
Negan was just your typical one-dimensional movie villain. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) saw this. That’s why he didn’t show any weakness to Negan. And that’s why it was a sure bet Negan would kill him off immediately with Lucille, the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. And even Lucille shows Negan is nothing. He has to present a weapon to make himself feel superior. He’s the guy who keeps showing up to old high school games but won’t send a birthday card to his estranged child.
It didn’t help that Morgan had played the same character, Edward Blake aka The Comedian in Watchmen. And he played it better. Yet while that character was meant to be a little over the top as it masked a hidden frailty in the character, organ never did really work as Negan and I’ve wonder why the series kept him around so long.
Negan also killed Glenn in a moment that angered fans. Yeun claims he pushed for the fate but I think it’s because he knew the show was falling apart and it’s best to leave when you . Since then, he’s had a better film career. Yet, just because it happens on paper doesn’t mean it works in real life. Actors bring something special to a role. They can make you like a psychopath like Dr. Hannibal Lecter and hate what’s supposed to be a genial character like Grandpa Joe.
It was probably no surprise that when the show ended it’s run in late November 2022, it seemed to come almost with a whimper. It didn’t help the show ended just as the Covid-19 pandemic was ending as people began to take precautions and vaccines more seriously.
But I also think the show itself following the murders of Abraham and Glenn became nothing more than a cynical exploitation of violence. This was a turn off to some people who saw connections with active shooters and violence following the election of Donald Trump less than three weeks after the broadcast of the sixth season opener which aired 10 years ago on this date, Oct. 23, 2016.
The show has many spinoffs but the current one, Dead City, that has Negan and Maggie working together. Yeah, it’s a stupid idea. I basically gave up watching anything connected to the show years ago. Speaking of Lecter, this is why he and Clarice Starling didn’t end up together at the end of the 2001 movie Hannibal even though they did in the book.
I guess it might’ve look good on paper.
What do you think? Please comment.
