I just finished a rewatch of seasons 3 through 8. Prior to this I had watched the entire show all the way up to and including the S8 finale week by week; as episodes were released, one episode at a time.
Before this rewatch I felt the same way many of you do about the current state of The Walking Dead. Among other things, I felt that the Saviors arc was dragging on, I was underwhelmed by Carl's death, I didn't care about the newer characters/storylines and I could barely be bothered keeping track of who everyone was, their motivations and what they were up to. I was watching the show because I had always watched it, not because I enjoyed it.
I urge anyone who feels this way to go back and watch TWD as a long post-apocalyptic movie instead of a weekly episodic TV drama.
Consuming episodes when you want to for as long as you want to genuinely changes the show. Everything is much clearer and more satisfying as you're not forced to interpret everything in weekly bite sized segments and context for what the characters are up to is regularly reinforced.
The plot is tight and nicely paced when there aren't cliffhangers every 5 seconds. Little things I missed or forgot during my initial watch now had impact and I found myself not being so bothered by episodes that I had originally disliked during my first viewing.
Did Carl have to die? Maybe not, but Carl's death was used as the catalyst for Rick's transformation, it gave him a reason to save Negan; It pushed the story forward and helped characters evolve.
Did the Saviors need to take up 2 full seasons? Probably not, but I did enjoy the vast majority of their story and by the end of this rewatch I found myself as invested in the Saviours as I was in the Survivors.
The occasional cringey moments and the eps that focused wholly on boring settlements like Hilltop, Kingdom and Oceanside became smaller issues because I wasn't being forced to watch one 45 minute chunk of the TWD per week.
Because the show was constantly moving forward I wasn't lingering on aspects of it that bothered me for a week at a time. Those moments were what they were and there was always something new to focus on if i was left feeling underwhelmed by something that had happened.
In conclusion, TWD isn't perfect, but I think it deserves more credit than we give it. The final scene of S8 was a great way to bookend everything that's happened so far, and I'm interested to see what's in store for S9, even if it is Rick's last season.
Submitted June 30, 2018 at 08:10PM by WearerofConverse https://ift.tt/2lLPX2I
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