The unconventional structures really ooze arrogance. They keep trying to tell their stories with confusing timelines. They've done it for the past few seasons, ever since they left the prison. It's like they want the show to feel intelligent but it's just annoying and leaves a lot of holes.
Yep. There's been an air of "look at how artsy we are!" for a while, but the craftsmanship just isn't there to back it up. And all it does it hurt the overall product. Time that could be spent on telling a coherent story or on development for underutilized characters is instead used up on flashbacks, flashforwards, slow-mo shots of everyone's faces, etc.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cast members drop off in the next couple of years, namely the folks who've been around since season one. Just speculation, but I feel like they'll want to be done with the show at some point.
At the very end of the episode when Rick made his way back to Alexandria and everyone is gone, all I kept thinking was "Man, if this is how Rick goes out, then that
would be a big deal." All of those visions of the future Rick was having, and then it's him that doesn't live to see it. Or maybe Rick kills/captures Negan now -- that certainly would have been unexpected at this point.
That's the biggest failure of last night's episode. They kept teasing "the shocking moment that everyone will be talking about!", but after 85 minutes of making it abundantly clear that something bad was going to happen to Carl, the only uncertainty I had was
how Carl was going to die. If Gimple really thought there was a ton of shock value in the Carl revelation, then I don't know what to say.
Daryl being fake shot at the end of the season was one of the worst things I've seen in this series.
And that was only like the third-most infuriating thing from that season, behind the Glenn dumpster fake-out and the galling Negan cliffhanger.
