JackONeill

Nor in mine. But they are colorful in that respect. See what you learn?

Apparently, she had a certain skill with Denise.

Someday someone will write a book about this show. Either the show has incredibly bad luck or TOTB really don't know what they're doing. I am fully aware that other shows hire actors only to lose them in a short period of time. Sometimes they're fired; sometimes, they move on because they've figured out that what they were "sold" isn't the show that's being made. (Yes, that's a simplification. There can be many reasons. But ahyt's not the point of this post.) I also know some of this could be attributed to "Well, this is a zombie show, so people are going to die." But my point is there's something else happening here. (And by the way, I get what happened with the actor who played Heath. He got a new show. And Sacha of course.) But look at everyone else. With some characters, you can say their story-arc was over. Maybe Beth fell into that camp. But instead of going through every one person by person, look at Jesus. He was an intriguing character. His introduction to the show was super. He was someone who could give Rick AND Daryl (together) a run for their money. He presented intriguing things. But then he all but disappeared. To me—and this is just me—after Abe and Glenn bought it, I expected Jesus to rise up to the head of the ranks. Someone like that was badly needed. But no. Even though he was involved in the first raid of the Saviors he sort of, again, disappeared into the wallpaper. Then he became a pacifist or some such. But all along he never stood up to Gregory. Jesus was clearly liked and respected in Hilltop, and he knew people wanted him to step up, but he didn't. But whether you care for this part of the story or not, the really insulting thing is that it wasn't really SHOWN. It was more like we were just told all this. (Sure there were some scenes, but I think you know what I mean. All in all, Jesus said fewer words than Negan's left nut.) What happened? Look at us now. We're down to just a few of the A-team, a bunch of newbies, and—heaven help us—a bunch of millennials. And none of them are all that compelling!!! What the hell has happened to this show (not that it was great, but c'mon)?

I knew it!!! It was the Venusians!!! This show thinks it’s so clever.

I wouldn't say incoherent. More like unappealing, trite, been-there-done-that, pointless. Something like that.

Yes, I heartily agree. It gladdens this old cowboy's heart to see the cavalry coming over the hill to save the day. But ........ would Magna and crew really do that at this point in the relationship? Yes, they see that Michaonne is a good fighter, but they've also seen her be quite ... moody. They've been stripped of their weapons twice, though they've gotten them back. They have also seen and felt the tension between Alexandria and Hilltop, and have to be wondering what the hell they've walked into (or been carried in a wagon into). Did Michonne casually say, "Hey, let's go Walker killing? First one who gets ten, gets whatever the kid was drinking!" or did she say, "Hey, let's go save Jesus and Daryl?" to which they would have said, "Who?" Maybe Michaonne mentioned a dog was involved, and nobody wants to see a doggie get hurt. But, okay, fine, I'll just handwave it all away. Meanwhile, I'll continue to believe that Jesus is STILL alive and any minute now he's really going to show us why he's on this show . . . any minute now. Oh, I hear that the store where Jesus got his body armor is having a BIG after-Thanksgiving sale.

I wonder if they sat around right after they locked up Negan and delegated duties: Okay you feed him, you wash his sheets, you clean his ass, you oil his bat, etc. Seriously, they had to have a talk like that. Gabe alluded to it. To me, that would be more interesting to watch than watching the teenagers go out drinking. Gee, there’s a first — kids drinking. And it’s not even the first time in the ZA. They did it — and better — on FTWD.

Some rescue mission!

Sandra Bullock in a horror movie !?!

The slowest climax ever. Make of that what you wish.

How do they have flashlights?

Am I supposed to remember who these kids are? Or care?

I think they’re dragging out this Michonne mystery thing. Problem is — It’s already happened. And I’m more interested in what is about to happen.

The last truly great thing about this show, and it was a thing that really showed why this show was once something — it’s when all of our people were in that little barn before Aaron took them to Alexandria. It was night and our crew was a muddied mess. They'd just lost Bob and Beth. There was a whole lot of second-guessing going on. A herd shows up and attacks the barn. One by one (some of them were in the back of the barn and didn’t know what was going on initially) they went and pressed back on the door. The only sounds were Walkers and grunts. No person said anything or asked for help, but there were a lot of glances and they all pitched in. They pressed into one another to press into the door. And unbelievably they managed to hold back the Walkers. It was a thing of beauty, of real poetry. Then the next morning we saw that a storm had come through and reeked chaos outside the barn. Very spooky. Very supernatural. But that is where the show started it’s slide into a shitshow. Think of what came after — Alexandria, which included Rick “dating” Blondie, the dumpster dive and, of course, Negan. And etc, etc, etc. That was the valley into which we still haven’t climbed out of.

I think that goose was killed a few seasons ago. Now it’s just a bunch of ducklings wandering around. (Yeah, I know I mixed my birds. But the one bird I haven’t mixed up is my middle one — which is pointed directly at this show.)

What's interesting — or sad, depending on your viewpoint — but who the heck is (was) Jesus? Seriously!!! I mean, contrast him with Merle. Merle was at best a third-string character. But people got to know him, and either despised him or, in some respects, admired him. I won't say he was fully fleshed-out, because, frankly, I don't think any character on a TV show can be fully fleshed out. But people knew who Merle was. So, again, who was Jesus? What did we know or learn about him? He started off with a bang, but he had this element of "Man With No Name" persona. But then that was sort of dropped. Then we went all peace-nil on us, despite his "fightin'-ways." Now there was this glimmer of something with Aaron. And now ... he's dead. Who was he, and what did he contribute to the story? How did he move the story forward? I have nothing against the actor, but what a waste!!!

I'm afraid that we're going to find out the rift between Alexandria and Hilltop was started because of the rift between Michonne and Maggie. Even though the last episode that had Maggie in it would have seemed to show that Maggie was "over" killing Negan outright, but we know that bugged her, big time, and understandably. But I could see a long-simmering feud like that as a cause for the two encampments to be "cool" toward one another. What makes no sense, in that context, are the scars on Daryl and Carol. Plus now with Lauren Cohan gone, how will they resolve Maggie vs. Michonne, if that's what it is? Then again, this show never resolves anything, so why am I worried?

That’s the problem with this show. All this stuff that Nashville just said is true of course, but I honestly don’t remember it, because frankly was it really all that important? Sure, making bullets is damn important, but in the long drawn-out process this show employs in telling a story, it’s hard to keep track of everything. But the bigger problem is that the point of the particular story (Eugene making bullets) only gets scant attention to start with, then it wanders, then wanders some more (episodes pass with no mention of it), only to finally peter out with little to no significance. Look at the story of Jesus. Started out interetsing, then it ... wandered ... and changed ... then wandered some more. Somewhere in that process I lost interest.

Did no one catch the zip code of Alexandria? 90210. [Please advise if I'm dating myself?]

I think, IMO, where TPTB gets into trouble (well, there are many areas, but I'll limit it to one) is when they try to get into the head of the big baddies, as they did with the Gov and definitely Negan. I mean with Negan we knew how big his dick was and how big his balls were. We had just a little of that—just a sketch really—of Terminus, the Claimers, and the Wolves. I don't much care for why someone's evil or sick or mad. Just let them be mad and let them run wild. But do it quickly. Don't belabor it. Have you ever wondered why most (nearly all) of the Twilight Zone episodes were only 30 minutes instead of a full hour—Serling knew the more you explain things, the more you lose the power of surprise and fear.

This!!!!! (My highlight, BTW.) But really, as much as I love horses (a wanna-be-cowboy), mountain bikes give so many more advantages. And it's so realistic. But it doesn't fit with child-boy Kirkman's view of the apocalypse.

To me, the Wolves were both frightening AND a success because they were “in and out” quickly. Like the Terminus people. And the Claimers. They weren’t like the Governor and (god forbid, never again please) Negan. Do we really need to have a season or more about crazy dudes who drape skins over their bodies? This show really fails when they try to tell a real story, I think because they don’t have good writers and (IMO) not great actors. This show is better with shorter pieces.

I think Kirkman likes swords and arrows. I think it appeals to the fanboy in him. So he's probably been champing at the bit to do away with guns and bullets. Now he's in his element. And, oh, hey, let's throw in a sling-shot because, you know, that's super-cool.

Plus, if I remember correctly, they were in an area with lots of small trees. And it was night. I wouldn't have trusted Robin Hood to get me out of that mess.

This is the truly annoying thing—the fakeouts. Although to say it that way sort of implies that TPTB actually had a plan, that they'd come up with something clever to surprise us with. Take the blood on Michonne's arm. Based upon what we knew of Michonne and the scenes they showed us, it didn't take much to figure out that Michonne was probably just blowing off steam. But certainly, there had to be more to it, right? I mean the Hitchcockian way the camera pulled back to show us the blood!!!!!! Maybe she'd switched sides, and was going to hook up with Negan! Or maybe she was preparing to battle with Maggie for some yet undisclosed reason! Maybe she'd been taken over by the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It just had to be something stunning and surprising so we waited . . . and waited . . . and nothing came of it. Then there was Glenn under the dumpster. You know, in 20 or so years, someone's going to write a behind the scenes book and it will come out in the open . . . which will probably be a lot of nothing.