Next Sunday, October 23rd, sees the return of the AMC drama, “The Walking Dead.” This show happens to be a favorite of mine and fans like myself are eagerly awaiting the season 7 premiere. This premiere, in particular, happens to be a highly anticipated one, as last season ended on a cliffhanger. One of the many characters in the show was given a death sentence, courtesy of new villain Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his weapon of choice Lucille (a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire). For months, fans have speculated as to who got the proverbial axe in the season finale, with people making videos examining the positioning of the camera during the scene (the death scene in the finale was done from a P.O.V. shot), the blurred audio in the end, and the order in which the villain chooses his victim by a game of “ennie minee miny moe.” The show’s producers, actors, and anyone affiliated with the show have been very secretive about who got finished off and have hyped up this premiere more than any other premiere in the show's history. However, I believe that AMC had inadvertently killed some of their own hype by delaying this anticipated reveal. By saving it for a premiere rather than having an impactful finale, the flow of the story was completely ruined and when the reveal of who died does come out, it will only serve as a “lose/lose” situation.
Before I get into that however, I want to examine the second half of season six and why it was such a let-down from my perspective. Having been a fan of the comics the “Walking Dead” was based off of, I was eagerly awaiting Negan’s appearance in the show since season 6 started. Negan’s initial appearance in the comics is quite simple; he breaks the main characters spirits, kills one of the most beloved characters at the time, established his dominance over them and does it all with so much profanity even the most vulgar sailor would blush. In the show however, they dragged out the mystery of “Who is Negan?” never actually showing the villain himself until the finale, only making mention of how scary and terrifying he was. I was actually OK with this approach, thinking that his appearance at the finale and subsequent murder of a main character would be a huge payoff for all the anticipation. Even the season 6 finale, as slow paced as it was, continued to build up Negan’s inevitable appearance with the main cast trying to save one of their own, only to be stopped by Negan’s men at every turn and finally being cornered and confronted with the man himself. Now, out of the entire hour and a half that the finale was given, Negan was given a grand total of 15 minutes. Granted, in those 15 minutes, Mr. Jeffrey Dean Morgan did an incredible job portraying the character (minus the profanity for obvious reasons), but having so little screen time sort of killed all of this build-up. A whole season of anticipation for 15 minutes was as disappointing as the hype for Jared Leto’s Joker performance in “Suicide Squad,” where Leto only had 7 or so minutes of screen time. To add insult to injury for Negan’s appearance, the person he killed wasn’t even revealed! A key moment of the characters introduction saved for the season 7 premiere.
Needless to say, when I saw that finale for the first time, I was livid. I was highly anticipating my favorite characters introduction, and they ruined it for a ratings gimmick. It was obvious that AMC thought that it would be a good idea to draw people back to the show in the fall by having this 6 month long mystery of who got “Lucielled,” but the show itself didn’t need such a gimmick. The whole reason people watch “The Walking Dead,” or at least one of the reasons, is because of the strong character development and action scenes. Having cheap gimmicks like that, while it might get you more views, undermines the integrity of the show and makes it feel like any other show on television. Speaking of the kill of the season, let’s go over why exactly having such a gimmick ruins the pace of the story. Because we’ve had so much time to ponder who died, there are ultimately two ways this can go down. Either the person who died is a major cast member, in which case fans will get mad about the decision (and possibly quit watching if it was their favorite) or it’s not a major character and people get mad because there was so much anticipation for one lousy kill. While I hope that AMC has enough sense to stick with the former, they tend to keep their major actors around a lot longer than they should in this show. The whole point of the Walking Dead is that “no one is safe,” yet no major characters really died last season, only characters introduced either that season or the back half of season 5. It’s kind of hard to say that “no one is safe” when it’s clear that “just about everyone is safe.”
Despite all of this, because my favorite character Negan is now in the show for the foreseeable future, I will still tune in to see who ultimately gets killed in the season premiere, just like AMC wants me to. Hopefully the payoff in this premiere will be worth the wait, otherwise AMC will just prove that they’re all bark and no bite.
