By now I'm sure most everyone has either seen or heard about the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead.
Did it give us Negan? Yes.
Did it give us a Negan we will enjoy next season? I believe so, yes.
Did it resolve whatever was going on with Carol? No. If anything, I'm more frustrated with Carol right now than any other character. And that's not normal for me. I've liked Carol for the past several seasons, until recently. I was actually hoping she'd be the one to die. But she's safe, as usual.
Did it deliver a spectacular 90 minute long episode? No. A million times no. It was boring and lacking in substance.
Spoilers ahead!
The Walking Dead season 6 finale was 90 minutes of boring. It was as frustrating as the episodes from the beginning of the season. What do I mean by that? Well, the beginning of season 6, the first half took place over a period of a few days. For another show, this is fine. For the Walking Dead? This was a first. While it was interesting and artistic, or was frustrating. The show was moving at a glacial pace. But whatever, I got over it. I got my Rickyl fix and moved on.
The season finale? It was not artistic, it was not symbolic, it was boring. Long and dull. Substance-less. I literally fell asleep in the middle of it. Why would the writers do this? No idea, but I feel like six seasons in, they're struggling to keep us entertained. They're trying to find new ways to write the show so that it stays interesting. The most interesting bit of the finale was the last ten minutes and it was also the most disappointing ten minutes of the entire episode.
*SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS*
*YOU'VE BEEN WARNED*
The season finale begins in the thick of it. A man is being chased through the woods by Negan's group. Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, and Rosita are no where to be found and will remain that way until the last ten minutes. Daryl fans don't know if he's alive until the end. Carol is still running away like a child with Morgan trying to find her. Rick's group (what's left of it) preparing to take Maggie to the Hilltop.
The only time we're in Alexandria is at the beginning of the episode for about 5 minutes. Carl locks Ingrid in a closet to keep her there when she wants to leave with the others, Gabriel is left in charge of the compound, and the main cast, plus Aaron for some unknown reason, are taking a sick Maggie to the Hilltop.
The whole fucking episode is just this group being roadblocked by the Saviors at every possible road to the Hilltop. The only break from this are the Morgan and Carol scenes. Morgan finds her at a library and patches her up. He wants to take her back, she runs away to avoid it. Morgan takes off to find her and runs into two guys from the Hilltop. Their part is done. It was pointless and boring. If you're going to have those scenes, at least make them interesting and relevant to the plot.
So after that, we're still following Rick's group around and they're starting to realize how big Negan's group is. They, without explanation, have Eugene drive the RV and the rest take off into the woods with Maggie on stretcher. They get caught and herded to Negan. Negan has Eugene already.
Negan forces everyone to their knees while he gives a soliloquy. Oh but wait, Glenn, Rosita, Michonne, and Daryl FINALLY make an appearance and are forced to their knees too. Glenn freaks out when Negan threatens Maggie. But most of the rest of it is just Negan talking. He plays eeny meeny miny mo to decide who he's going to kill with the bat. And kill someone he does, but who? We have no idea. It showed us one second from the POV of the character getting beaten and then it faded to black with just dialogue.
Now my question is, what. The. Actual. Fuck?! I did not sit through 90 minutes of mostly boring plot fillers and commercials to not even find out which character dies! Oh but the writer says they did that because the death of the character is the start of a new story (Talking Dead).
Philosophical bull shit. You didn't reveal it because you're killing off a character that is hugely popular and you want people to come back for season 7. You knew revealing this death would result in a loss of viewers, so you decided to make us wait, citing some philosophical answer that no one really cares about. But the problem is, you let your viewers down as it is. You made us sit through 90 minutes of fillers and commercials. You teased us for months with Negan and this death. You teased us when you faked Glenn's death and again when you shot Daryl. All of this is fine when you finally deliver. Instead the writers of the Walking Dead yanked it at the last second. Jerked our chains instead of giving out to us straight.
I'm not sure I can deal with that if this is how the writers are going to be.
