This episode gives Homelander a lot of spaces, and considering how volatile he is. it makes the episode running in high tension. However this pretty good tense seems to disappear into thin air once you finished the episode. I'm not saying that it lost its tense, it's just the bits of pieces presented seem to be saved for the finale--or, for the next season. Many things are left hanging in the episode, following prior episode. Which can be good if the finale is great, but it gambles heavily on that chance. Not to mention the promotional text, "the Boys learn this lesson the hard way" turns out to be only promotional. Some dialogues between characters seem to be forced and sped up to move the plot forward (ie. Hughie and Starlight) and it seems less convincing considering they had a great start. However credit is due to Karl Urban as he excellently portrayed the filled-with-grudge Billy Butcher really well.
The ending was beautiful, with Rick reflecting on his memories with Carl and the kind of society they wanted to live in together. However such sweet ending was not built on top of strong father-and-son relationship that would have made the ending more cathartic. It was instead built on the on-going pretext of tense, violence, and betrayal.
Which, on one hand, resulted in climactic "mercy triumphs" theme that this season has been playing around (while still not completely fulfilling its potential). On the other hand, such weak development, overshadowed by other subplots, yearns me for more--for a more personal development between Rick, Negan, and Carl that could have been. The fast-and-loose resolution to the conflict that the season has been building instead downplayed all the hate and grudge between characters (minor and major) to forcefully pull that sweet ending in one episode.
Disappointing it maybe, hopefully this finale is a sign that Walking Dead finally put to rest the "conflict between communities" that they have played for several seasons, and start a new, different arc in the next.
Still as eccentric as the first season, this season starts out with similar spectacle and embezzlement. The plot paces faster than the first, however there are still scenes that feel a bit little dragging, like they're still playing out with David's mind as he goes. The writing can be weak at times, like the part where David meets with Syd again. David felt it was just like yesterday, but for Syd it's been a year. There can be so much tension in their relationship, but it is simply resolved with a sex in astral plane. As a pilot episode, this episode doesn't fare too well. But still intriguing at very least.
Fantastic visual. Immersive world-building. The two quickly establish Altered Carbon as the classic cyberpunk series. However, as in seem to be common among cyberpunk TV/movie adaptation, the season pilot could've worked better on the narrative. The world building is impressive (e.g. in dialogues showing corporation looming over public facility) but the story itself isn't quite engaging. The episode hooks me up instantly to the world but I feel some kind of disconnection in the characters - there seems to be something troubling Takeshi but there's not enough reason to care about his struggle. Action is nice tough, especially the bar scene.
Ground to earth, humane episode. It's interesting to watch this after 15 Million Merits as 15MM attempted to take it in macro scale with the issue of infinite distraction, The Entire History of You takes it very grounded with the issue of privacy/surveillance. It's really an interesting inversion between the two theme. Usually it's the reverse.
Technology is intertwined with daily life, people interact with them convincingly through, and I like the bits of airport/government surveillance shown up briefly. Characters aren't as nuanced as the The National Anthem, however it progresses necessarily and believable "just enough' to the issue it tries to bring up: trust, memory, and relationship. The ending resonate a lot with me and left me pondering of the circumstances. It gets it "just right", however there's room for improvement. This is a science fiction drama and a very worthy theme to revisit some time later.
I feel like the all bad episodes and dumb characters' decision are made only for this last episode. This episode highlights the quality of Carl's leadership and the supposedly possible scenario of Carl as Rick's substitute. Or, as Negan said himself, "one of [the] top guys."
However all that seems to fall flat with the impending doom of Carl, as a walker somehow has bitten him on the stomach. Which is a major let down. We've seen him this played out with a lot of characters before: Dale, Hershel, Glen. The most interesting part from Walking Dead is the dynamics between Rick and the other characters who serve as his more rational mind. All those characters are dead though, and every time one of them get to bite the dust, we get to see Rick turning either to a desperate version or "Ricktator" version of himself. With the preview for the upcoming episode, it seems like TWD intends to play the "Ricktator" persona again. Which is getting boring after a while.
Aside from Carl, there are only two other characters worthy to mention. One is Maggie, where we see her trying to maintain a leadership position. This has been an interesting take, especially seeing her relation with Jesus. There is a lot of Rick we've been seeing from Maggie in the last two seasons, and her hatred towards Savior is rightfully understandable seeing what happened to Glenn. Jesus never experienced this sort of horror, and so he always tries to play it humane and safe. Seeing the two play along is a nice one.
The other is Eugene. Previous episode seems to attempt to establish Eugene as an opportunist, craving for attention "loser" type. Despite the worst from episode 7, it got a very good portrayal of Eugene. However this episode flips that good development around and give back Eugene a sense of "good heart". It is questionable direction especially after a very good take on Eugene before, though I'd guess it is a plot point to somehow give a way for Gabriel to return to his friends. TWD did this a lot to their characters only to make way for plot, just like what happened to Daryl too often.
As for the other characters, there are really no interesting thing to mention. This episode feels like just another "buildup episode" TWD has been going on lately. Too often. A lot of things happen at once, characters barely take meaningful action, only waiting and kiting in an attempt to build something for the next episode(s).
I think that's one of the thing been plaguing TWD lately: too many setups. It results in weak characters, dumb decisions, and overarching senseless plot. As a mid-season finale, I have to say this one is disappointing
Finally a decent episode. Part of the reason this episode works better than previous episodes is because it focuses on one arc (Ezekiel and Carol story). It makes the episode less jumbled and give the characters some breathing space.
The beginning starts out rather unconvincingly, but as the episode progresses they finally show some stakes at the life of character (Ezekiel). No more tricks: life could actually mean something. However, in contrast to this, bunch of lives of The Kingdom fighters hardly mean anything in this episode. They got slaughtered, and there was a brief flashback about them with their families, but they were really faceless. It feels like they're just a plot point for the main character (Ezekiel). The only meaningful death here might be Shiva, the pet tiger. Her death proves well not just because it's the closest to one of the main character, but because they have enough screentime and not just jumbled in the beginning of the episode.
But both The Kingdom fighters and her death is an important plot point to get to the most important point of this episode: the arc of Ezekiel. It shows that it only takes a front stage, a speech, and confidence to make "some guy" to be a thing he is now: a leader. The intro with him, starting as a just your ordinary Joe going to dressing room, to be a king complete with attributes, play a lot with the idea of dramaturgy - what matters is your front stage, not back stage.
That aside, in the action department they really need some better directing and plotting. The car chase doesn't look convincing at all with Rick and Daryl able to avoid a light machine gun shots and the absence of tense/feeling of being pursuit in the chase. There is also some stupidly inconvenient action that the characters should have thought up, like Carol shooting that damn car's tire if she doesn't want the car to go.
It's still okay-ish though, especially compared to previous disastrous episodes.
Everyone might not know how Balsa looks like but come on. A woman with spear dragging a boy around shouldn't be that common, right?
They used a distraction but we never get to see how a bunch of few people manage to distract a 300 person manhunt. There was an interesting hunt for Balsa by the elite force but it was cut short by deus ex machina. And after journeying far into the North, why the heck Balsa returned to the capital?
The episode is still not focused with so many events happening all at once. The shootout is still as bad as before (seriously, TWD should stop making shootout too often).
Too many stupid inconsistencies for people who are supposed to be experienced in combat and survival after all these years (Rick and co, and the Saviors.), e.g. leaving your badly shot friend alone in the middle of nowhere (where both walkers and humans could be a threat), planning absolutely nothing for the POW aside from "hey let's go to Maggie she knows this better", shooting in an open field with no cover at all, and the damned walkers tumbling down from hill--what the hell is this? You've survived from walkers for god knows how long and then suddenly you forgot how to handle this kind of thing?
On a more positive note, I'm looking forward to how they would handle Morgan. I can see the potential, though it should be better executed. Morgan went from a traumatic madman to a peace-loving hippie and then back to madman--some might say this is an inconsistency, I'd say TWD could build on this to show that Morgan never returned sane all along. I like the slight throwback to the events portrayed in Season 3, with Morgan saying, "everybody turns!" However at this moment TWD needs to portray this "never returned to sanity" Morgan more evidently, showing that his peace-loving might be a facade. As it is now it feels like he's an inconsistent character.
I feel a bit mixed about the return of the "familiar face" (Morales). The person yapped for a while only to be killed mercilessly. The conversation between him and Rick could lead to interesting possibilities - moral dilemmas and such - with Rick reminiscing the people they both used to know (Lori, Glenn, etc; especially Glenn as he was killed by Negan) and how the situation they faced made them the person they're not used to be. It falls flat, however, with the quick demise of Morales.
On the one hand it emphasizes the merciless trait Rick's group might have become. On the other hand, it's a waste of a character. It feels like Rick-Morales encounter wanted to be a Rick-Morgan encounter in Season 3, with both characters reminiscing the past, the common grounds they used to have, the vastly different situation they got themselves into, etc. It ends up only as a tease though, with Morales' death. Which is a shame. It's been long since TWD has a good protagonist-antagonist dynamics.
The second episode after the fantastic pilot is the hardest part: as it has to struggle to maintain the tense and sense of amazement the pilot has achieved before. Legion's episode 2 faces exactly the same struggle, and it fares rather decently for a second episode.
In contrast with the mind-boggling shots in the pilot, episode 2 takes a more linear shots, showing the way Haller starts to make sense of his life. We are introduced to the mentor characters, Melanie and Ptonomy, who helps Haller rediscover who he really is by looking through his memories. This plot device is useful not just as the typical "discovering power" trope in superheroes films, but also a clarification for the previous episode as we here, just like Haller, start to differentiate which is part of his memories and which is not.
With the introduction of Melanie and Ptonomy, the show is getting a very Heroes (2006) -esque vibe, especially with the memory alteration plot and the government hunt after mutants and their headquarter going on. Fortunately, the show doesn't attempt to get big and impersonal as typical superhero movies do, as with the cliffhanger we're getting back to Haller and the life around him as the focus.
A Rick-Michonne bonding episode with throwback to previous elements used in TWD ("dumpster", "on top of tank while surrounded by zombies", etc) that goes off for too long. Should've spent half of the time instead of a whole episode. The throwback also makes the tense caused by such situation seem much more trivial.
The events in the Scavenger's group is interesting. Particularly the armorized zombie, it's a nod to the zombie genre once again. Pollyanna McIntos's performance as Jadis (the Scavenger's leader) leave a strong impression for this new group: a distinctively group isolated from everything else that's been going on, with a peculiar, cautious approach to outsider.
Unfortunately Scavengers' introduction is as isolated as their aura in the film: it is a bit janky and deus ex machina-ish, with them being suddenly introduced with no prior foreshadowing that they existed. In a huge pile of rubble in the middle of the woods-laden zombiescape, even. The deal they made with Rick and co's is also unnervingly pragmatical. Why would they trust a group of strangers to bring loads of gun into their territory? More so with Rick's group. Why would Rick trust in giving such a large group with such a big loads of gun? What would not prevent them to scavenge Alexandria in return with that mass of power? Season 3 played this tense very well - distrust, cautiousness, distance. This season has been downplaying that human element in an attempt to sprint for the fateful showdown with Saviors, and it seems to show its worst part with this the Scavenger's plot.
Satisfying action and zombie-fest after a while with the tripwire scene. However the way Rick attempts to mobilize people to fight Savior kinda puts off the suspension of disbelief - it's not convincing. Especially so with the case of Hilltop residents, there is no previous portrayal that they were under stress in Savior's pressure. It shouldn't be too easy to put them to a fight when they already have a decent life.
That was a long episode. The scenes with Carl and Negan feels a bit janky, especially in the start when Carl jumped out from the truck. It feels like Carl is holding something. One time he's so mad and furious, another time he stays silent letting all that chance slip when he actually have the chance to kill Negan.
As others have said, Negan really let himself on zero security. While there might be reasons he's doing that (seems like his over-confidence), the fact that Carl attempted to do nothing about it makes the whole scenes with Carl and Negan feel janky. All in all we are only presented Negan's interaction with Carl's hateful glare in the background. For someone who is badass enough to slip into the enemy's lair in earlier minutes, all the silent shots Carl is having is really dampening his earlier murderous rage. On the other hand, I understand that the episode attempts to portray Negan in more humanistic side, but the jankiness on his interaction with Carl makes this kinda difficult to watch.
This episode kinda shows up abruptly. I even forgot that Tara and Heath were going outside.
Tara is an underdeveloped character; while it might be a nice idea to give her some spotlight, giving a whole episode to her seems a bit too much. I get the impression that this episode tries to do two things: 1) playing the allegory on what is necessary and what is evil (as seen through the Heath and Tara dialogue at the beginning of the eps and Cyndie and Tara later) on WD's apparently moral dilemmas; 2) setting up new community for a backup army against Negan later. However I feel like it doesn't get it right.
The former, to me, is presented in a rather in-your-face way, as if the audience isn't smart enough to realize it. Even more, this problem is brought up to the screen without the necessary buildup. It seems like something's lingering in the character's head but not in audience's. As for the latter, while I think showing this up sooner is better than jotting them up randomly in the heat, I'm not sure how would the series handle it with the already too many communities present at the same time. Each we have seen only the surfaces, with its superficial character (Kingdom being feudalistic and Hilltop being gullible). The challenge would be how to present those as a real, thriving community, not just bunch of people who gather in one spot for the sake of plot progression. This episode itself seems to be already showing this superficiality: look at how the conflict is managed about Tara's coming to the community. People were getting along together so quickly (offering her a place just because she spared someone's life there? While still being deeply suspicious?), conflict is resolved only by a handful of people so quickly.
With only two episodes left for this season, I'm not sure where it's going, but I hope it would still be enough before we go to the main event in Season 8.
This episode gives spotlight to Dwight, but we were not given enough reasons to care about him. Only by partially showing his background and his interaction with Daryl in this episode that we were given reasons, but not enough prior to warrant our attention in one episode. Daryl's torture scene seems to be a little confusing at first but it starts to make sense as the episode progresses.
All in all not really a bad episode actually, but it can be spent much shorter.
Who would expect what Negan did? Abraham's death was expected, and it put audience to relieve. It was a terrible death, yes, but "at least it's not Daryl/Glenn". However, Negan's first swing is a false flag. The producer surely knows this, and Negan swings his second swing: toward Glenn.
Like this is not enough, Negan pulls another stunt. That is, if Rick wants to have the remaining crew alive, he got to cut Carl's arm. When Rick finally put himself together to have his son's arm cut off, suddenly Negan stops him, pulling a Binding of Isaac-esque situation: "you don't have to cut his arm, Rick, you just have to obey me, your god."
Even after months of gap between Season 6 and 7, this episode can bring the intensity, the brutality, and the hatred toward this Negan character. It's a needed start for this season.
Pretty decent animation. Captures a lot from the manga (Mozgus' expression, Guts x Casca, Puck Spark) though not flawless yet. Things like character's movement could be better, also the scenes can be a bit longer (Guts x Casca hug, Mozgus' last moments, Isidro's act, Farnese being horrified) to give more impact, but it's good enough I guess. Mozgus' rock form animation is pretty solid. Music fits nicely.
This episode only makes much more sense if you've read the manga. It cuts a lot of things and compressed a number of subplots into shallow scenes. You know this happened and that happened, but you can't really understand why it happened and what is its relevance.
Still a bit too fast-paced here and there, but generally an improvement from the previous episode. Some dialogues seem to be hurried without enough break, but the CGI is overall well done (except a few parts) and there are a number of hand-drawn scenes. There is no awkward music playing in inappropriate moment, and the sound effects isn't jarring like before. Not bad!
I don't really have problems with CGI, but it seems off here and there (especially when Guts throw the knife to kill a rabbit). The face also looks pretty jarring somehow.
As for the story itself, I think Isidro's presence is a bit distracting there, cutting off the interaction Guts should've had with Puck. Also why the heck they skip to the Iron Chain Knights right after this episode?
Okay so the episode was kind of dragging on with Rick's group being played around with Negan's group, but I guess it's purposeful to make the viewers the feeling of being toyed with and to give more screen time for the characters for the emotional build up.
However, the ending... with that kind of build up, the episode ends with a goddamn cliffhanger! What the hell is the purpose of 45 minutes long build up? The scene with Negan screams terror, the moment he started to swing his barbed wire lashes out fear, but the episode ends without revealing anyone. It's a shame. Should have shown the victim's face, or at least hair, or anything from his/her back, so at least the viewers can speculate.
The episode continues with the clumsiness of last week's episode. Now not only we get to see Carol's teenager mood-swing, we get to see Daryl's too. The usually calculating hunter now risk himself and his comrade's life a few days after Denise got murdered. Daryl wanting to finish Dwight once and for all, that is understandable. After all it's not only once Daryl seems to be reckless and going in his way. But him needing to wait a few days after Denise's demise just to fit in with Carol's disappearance seems kinda forced. Not to mention everyone seems to become so reckless by wanting to be involved in the search party. I mean they have a home to protect. Why every bits of them seems so motivated to get out of their home?
That said, this episode leaves us with an interesting cliff-hanger. We all know, especially comic book readers, that someone is going to die in the next episode. But who? Carol, Daryl, and Glenn are all out of there. There is also Michonne. The episode spent quite a time to give Maggie and Rick more screen time (which usually means someone close to them is going to die in the next eps), so it's kind of difficult to predict which of them is going to leave the show.
Terrible pacing. It starts really slow, boring the audience with too many character introduction and flimsy animation.
