The Walking Dead: “No Way Out” Review

I did not want to watch this episode. “No Way Out” really tested my tolerance for this show because everything bad happens in it. The Walking Dead has been struggling with its storytelling for quite some time. It’s clear that the writers are having trouble coming up with new and interesting conflicts, because they’ve resorted to rehashing older storylines. Except it’s somehow even worse than that—those storylines have lost all meaning and are damn near impossible to get invested in anymore. The Walking Dead has devolved into a pointless mess of plotlines that it’s not at all committed to keeping up with, and “No Way Out” illustrates that perfectly.

The Walking Dead: “Start to Finish” Midseason Finale Review

I’m starting to question what it is I even enjoy about this show anymore—because I do enjoy it—but I just hate so many of the characters. At the forefront of my hatred is none other than Rick, but even characters I like have started pissing me off this season. I also, until this season, never noticed how much time has, or rather hasn’t, passed in the show. The first eight episodes of Season 6 take place over the course of maybe three days, if that, and that just doesn’t seem like enough time for any of the characters to work through their emotional issues, especially while dealing with a walker-apocalypse. To top that off, some of those episodes feature numerous pointless subplots that amount to nothing.

What I’m trying to say is that Season 6 has not had The Walking Dead’s strongest storytelling. Spoilers below the jump.

The Walking Dead: “First Time Again” Review

Now that Fear the Walking Dead’s first season has wrapped up, The Walking Dead is back on for another sixteen episodes, and despite my growing dislike for Rick, I found “First Time Again” immensely enjoyable. Now that Morgan’s in Alexandria, he and Rick are getting to know one another again—Rick is a vastly different person than Morgan knew from Season 1, while Morgan is still reserved, kind, and disapproving of violence.

Their conflict with each other is, quite unsurprisingly, nothing like what the trailer wanted us to think. This is because The Walking Dead, at six seasons in, still hasn’t figured out that trailers are not actually supposed to blatantly lie to audiences. Nevertheless, it was still good to see that someone doesn’t think everything Rick did was completely justifiable. Unlike Rick, Morgan chooses to see the best in people, and he has faith that deep down Rick can still be a good person.

While I most certainly still have numerous grievances about Rick’s character, all in all this episode was a lot of fun, and it did remind me why I loved this show so much.

Spoilers up ahead.

Trailer Tuesdays: The Walking Dead Season 6 and Fear the Walking Dead

Well, it’s nearly that time again. The Walking Dead’s next season is almost upon us, and if it’s anything like the previous seasons, I will spend my time watching it hating Rick Grimes with every fiber of my being while simultaneously being invested in everyone else.

And not only is The Walking Dead starting back up again, its spinoff show Fear the Walking Dead is finally making its way to the small screen. I’m going to be honest here: right now I’m much more interested in the spinoff than the actual show.

The Walking Dead: “Conquer” Review

I love The Walking Dead. Truly, I do, but dear God, if this season taught me anything, it’s that Rick is a horrible leader and I was right to hate him. At this point, I don’t know why anyone would ever like his character. There have been a few other characters I absolutely disliked—Lori and Shane come to mind—but the biggest difference between them and Rick is that Rick is the main character, which means he’s going to be on the show until it ends. He will never go away. He will never not be the leader. He will never stop taking away screen time from better characters.

It also hasn’t helped that despite all the other characters dealing with some really unfortunate deaths, one of which was unnecessarily brutal, the entire season finale, “Conquer”—which was an hour and a half long, instead of just an hour like all the other episodes—was mostly a Rick Grimes appreciation episode.

The Walking Dead: “What Happened and What’s Going On” Review

This season started off so happy. I was genuinely surprised by how happy it was. Then, in the midseason finale, The Walking Dead killed off Beth, whom I loved, and another beloved character died this week as well. Even worse, “What Happened and What’s Going On” was yet another episode almost as emotionally draining as “The Grove”, made only more emotional by one of the characters hallucinating the two little girls from the “The Grove” as he slowly bled out and died.

Spoilers after the jump.

The Walking Dead: “Coda” Midseason Review

The Walking Dead started off this season on the happiest note I have seen on the show in a while. It was nothing but smiles, hugs, kisses, and old friends being reunited with one another. And honestly, it was a refreshing break from all the horribleness in the previous seasons.

It was also rather awful to watch, since by the very nature of the show, we could tell that something completely heartbreaking and/or bloody would happen to at least one of the characters in the near future to ruin the moment. And The Walking Dead did not leave us waiting long. Only two episodes later, a couple survivors from Terminus ambushed our group, knocked one of them out, and kidnapped him. And it was all downhill from there.

Trigger warning for mentions of rape and sexual abuse.

The Walking Dead: “No Sanctuary” Review

Well, The Walking Dead has finally returned for what will be another season I will probably both love and hate. In the season opening, despite how we last left our characters—they were about to be cannibalized by the people at Terminus—we surprisingly have no major character deaths and even get a happy ending for once.

Spoilers ahead.

Trailer Tuesdays: The Walking Dead Season 5

I’m not sure whether to be excited for this season, or to dread it. Last season left me very ambivalent—parts of it, like the Governor’s storyline, I really hated. Yet some things, such as “The Grove”, I absolutely adored. I can only hope this season has learned from the shortcomings of the last one.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Finale

I hate cliffhangers. I really do, because no matter how angry I get at the rest of the season, cliffhanger endings actually make me want to tune in for the next season. Season 4 has left me feeling very ambivalent about this show. There are parts of it that I really did not like—such as the Governor’s storyline and ending—and there have been other parts of it that I loved.

Spoilers and a trigger warning for rape ahead.