S08.E14: Still Gotta Mean Something

[oakville]

I find it frustrating that you have to watch Talking Dead to get plot points explained from the Walking Dead.

Edited April 3, 2018 by oakville

[spiderpig]

In the spirit of brother/sisterhood and goodwill, I feel obligated to say something nice for a change.

The actress playing Jadis has a fabulous name:  Pollyanna McIntosh.  It sounds like a Cabbage Patch Doll.  I want to bake an apple pie and serve it warm with ice cream.

That said, the direction this show is taking really pisses me off.

[AngelaHunter]

11 hours ago, Mu Shu said:

I think it’s pretty fucked to make people stay up late on a Sunday night to find out what happened on a show AFTER the show.

Ah, now I see why I never understand what's happening on the show. I have never watched the aftershow, where the inexplicable is explained. This is necessary because the writing is so poor/it's so dark that no one can figure out WTF is going on during the episode. Guess I'll have to continue getting my answers on this forum, since no way in hell am I tuning in to any show-to-explain-the-show-after-the-show.

11 hours ago, diebartdie said:

The walker on the cart thing, it folded down so the mouth could have been right on Negan's pride.

Thank you for enduring that torture for our enlightenment! Should I feel stupid because I couldn't somehow divine that?  Maybe they should have notations on the screen, stop the action and turn it into a contest where viewers can call a number to try and guess what we're seeing means. I must say, "The walker folds down so it can bite Negan's junk!" would not have been my first guess.

Dicks and dicks! It always come down to the dick! Always! Has Kirkman's obsession with male sex organs spread to everyone else there?

[SoSueMe]

1 hour ago, spiderpig said:

In the spirit of brother/sisterhood and goodwill, I feel obligated to say something nice for a change.

The actress playing Jadis has a fabulous name:  Pollyanna McIntosh.  It sounds like a Cabbage Patch Doll.  I want to bake an apple pie and serve it warm with ice cream.

That said, the direction this show is taking really pisses me off.

You are so nice!!! Her name alone is enough to piss me off even if I'd never seen her. Or her ridiculous bangs. Or her IKEA digs.

[spiderpig]

1 minute ago, SoSueMe said:

You are so nice!!! Her name alone is enough to piss me off even if I'd never seen her. Or her ridiculous bangs. Or her IKEA digs.

Yeah -- what's with the ready-for-assembly bunk thing?  And now that her minions are burgers, she has a mini ponytail.  What was she packing for?  The helicopter?  We are in serious Lost territory.

Still love the name.

[heisenberg]

1 hour ago, spiderpig said:

In the spirit of brother/sisterhood and goodwill, I feel obligated to say something nice for a change.

The actress playing Jadis has a fabulous name:  Pollyanna McIntosh.  It sounds like a Cabbage Patch Doll.  I want to bake an apple pie and serve it warm with ice cream.

That said, the direction this show is taking really pisses me off.

When I wrote bad acting in the previous post I wasn't talking about the actors (except for a few).  They became bad because of the writing and direction,  Who wouldn't?  I saw Pollyanna McIntosh in movies and she was good,   Andrew Lincoln and the others were good when they were well directed. 

 

I imagine the actors when getting their script "Are we gonna say that shit over again?"...

[nodorothyparker]

13 hours ago, diebartdie said:

Well, I took one for the team yall and watched talking dead. The walker on the cart thing, it folded down so the mouth could have been right on Negan's pride. Now how the eff we were supposed to know that, I haven't a clue.

You definitely score points for clearing that up.  After seeing lots of people in various places having no idea what was supposed to be happening in that scene, I went back and rewatched it.  It doesn't get any better in the cold light of day where one minute Motormouth is laying on the ground still tied to a dolly and then the next he suddenly has a flaming road flare.  And oh wait, a gun in the other hand.  And there are inexplicably pictures or "snaps" on the ground the next to him.  Um, what?  Oh, he mentions something about a bag of guns and whatever that Jadis apparently conveniently left within reach for him.  Again, what?  And then for the piece de resistance we wheel out the walker on a cart that has no legs so it's not like it can pursue you and arms that are apparently part of the framework now so it can't make a deadly Dale swipe for you either.  So what, its entire use is dependent on having someone tied up so you can wheel it up next to them?  That's if you don't forget and leave your magic bag of guns and road flares next to him?  

It's like so many things from the last couple of seasons.  They obviously had an idea of something they thought would be cool to see on screen but couldn't figure out how to make it make any kind of sense and said oh fuck it, we'll film it anyway and tell them how awesome it is.

[meep.meep]

Everytime I see dear sweet little Henry, I wish they had cast some kid less angelic looking, and preferably non-white.  How about Asian?  He could be Jerry's cousin.  Or Hispanic, or middle eastern, or black?  Then the scene where Ezekial hugs him wouldn't have been so cringingly Uncle Tom-ish.

[Raven1707]

The Sunday Cable Ratings are in for "Still Gotta Mean Something":

After an improvement the previous week, “The Walking Dead” hit a season low in the ratings Sunday.

It was still the top show on cable by a lot, but “The Walking Dead’s” 2.6 rating among adults 18-49 was down from 3.0 a week earlier. It also slipped in viewers from 6.77 million to 6.3 million.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/sunday-cable-ratings-april-1-2018/

And here are the Live + Same Day ratings for Season 8 so far:

10-22-17 “Mercy” 11.439 million
10-29-17 “The Damned” 8.923 million
11-05-17 “Monsters” 8.519 million
11-12-17 “Some Guy” 8.688 million
11-19-17 “The Big Scary U” 7.845 million
11-26-17 “The King, The Widow, & Rick” 8.282 million
12-03-17 “Time For After” 7.468 million
12-10-17 “How It’s Gotta Be” 7.885 million

02-25-18 “Honor”  8.282 million
03-04-18 “The Lost or the Plunderers” 6.820 million
03-11-18 “Dead or Alive Or” 6.604 million
03-18-18 “The Key” 6.663 million
03-25-18 “Do Not Send Us Astray” 6.774 million
04-01-18 “Still Gotta Mean Something” 6.295 million

Not looking good...

[AngelaHunter]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

couldn't figure out how to make it make any kind of sense and said oh fuck it, we'll film it anyway and tell them how awesome it is.

I have a feeling this is how many episodes come to be. "Eh, we'll make up some BS story by the time we get to TTD."

 

2 hours ago, heisenberg said:

I saw Pollyanna McIntosh in movies and she was good,

Funny you say that. I never saw her before, but in this ep, I was actually thinking that she's a pretty good actor when they aren't making her talk like Jar Jar and look like a goon with that ridiculous hairdo. Too bad about the "Pollyanna". Guess the parental units were big Disney fans.

[Token]

I remember a time when I could watch a TV show and understand what was going on just from watching the episode.  

[HighMaintenance]

On 4/2/2018 at 1:09 PM, mightysparrow said:

It's awful.  They're in Atlanta, for God's sake.  They can't find ONE PERSON who knows how to do a wig with locs.  Not just for Michonne but for that woodland creature on Zeke's head too.

Which begs the common sense question: why would ANYONE have long hair in the ZA?  All the better to snag you when you're crawling through hordes of zombies and trees and brambles.  Not to mention 100 degree heat/humidity.  

As far as the lack of mourning/reaction by Camp Dinner Bell regarding Carl's death.  Combat shock?  Severe Dissociation?  Piss poor writing?  por que no todos?

[iMonrey]

Quote

The easy thing would be for the writers to have Rick kill Negan in a blaze of glory with Lucille reduced to a coil of wire and ash... but instead they have gone somewhere unexpected by explaining Negan and Rick's transformations as a natural evolution wrought by circumstance.  I haven't enjoyed the prolonged 16 episodes edging session to which the writers have subjected the audience, but I finally get where they are going and it actually might be interesting.

They're not going to "humanize" Negan by giving him a sympathetic backstory. I don't care if his wife was named Lucille or if he used to shit rainbows and unicorns. I'm never going to get to a point where I go "Oh, so that makes what he did to Glenn OK. I see now." I'm guessing pretty much everyone's life sucks in the zombie apocalypse. Not all of them turned into brain-bashing monsters.

I'm also sick to death of this show trying to tell me there's some equivalency between Rick and Negan, because there isn't. Rick and his group have never extorted food or supplies from other groups with death threats. Rick has never bashed someone's brains in and laughed about it and talked about how gross it was. Rick has never hot-ironed someone in the face because they disobeyed him. There is nothing similar about them aside from the fact that they are both men who are looked to for leadership (and, possibly, who do not deserve to be). That's where the similarity ends.

Quote

But I get so sick of hearing (seemingly almost every week) how different shots are callbacks to previous episodes.  They usually point these out on Talking Dead:  "Rick is standing next to a picture, which is a callback to season 3, when he was also standing next to a picture", or something else equally ridiculous.  It just makes the people making the show sound so pompous.

Preach it.

Quote

Ah, now I see why I never understand what's happening on the show. I have never watched the aftershow, where the inexplicable is explained. 

They don't really "explain" anything, though, aside from the absurd "call-backs" noted above. Instead they just fan-girl every little thing like it's brilliant and everyone is loving it. Chris Hardwick once had the colossal gall to say "everyone loves Jadis" and I nearly gagged.

[diebartdie]

59 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Too bad about the "Pollyanna". Guess the parental units were big Disney fans.

I think it's a sweet, old-fashioned name, I adore it! I once had a girlfriend named Sally and my wife is named Becky so yeah, old timey girl names do it for me!

[mjc570]

On 4/3/2018 at 3:13 PM, diebartdie said:

I think it's a sweet, old-fashioned name, I adore it! I once had a girlfriend named Sally and my wife is named Becky so yeah, old timey girl names do it for me!

So I guess you like Honeysuckle Weeks? (Foyle's War)

Edited April 5, 2018 by mjc570
names should be correctly cited

[AngelaHunter]

29 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Rick and his group have never extorted food or supplies from other groups with death threats.

True, except for when he did it to the Oceanside women. He discussed taking over Alexandria, but he didn't really do it. He came close to snuffing out the Porchdick because he wanted to get into his wife's pants but also didn't do that, well, not then anyway.;) So yeah, he's mostly all talk. But no, he's not like Negan - he may be ruthless, but not a sadist and he's also never enslaved anyone, coerced women into sex or bragged about the size of his unit, thank god.

35 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Chris Hardwick once had the colossal gall to say "everyone loves Jadis" and I nearly gagged.

And "everyone" would be... ? Ass-kissing little toady. No, I've never watched him and never will, not even to get the ep I just saw explained to me, even though I'm not nearly artistic and deep enough to get it on my own.

29 minutes ago, diebartdie said:

I once had a girlfriend named Sally and my wife is named Becky so yeah, old timey girl names do it for me!

I like old-fashioned names, but "Pollyanna" is just too Disney-esque for me.

[watch2much]

if I were Norman, that hair in my face would drive me nuts.  just because they are in the zombie apocalypse doesn't mean all the scissors are gone.  I would think having peripheral vision would be a benefit when trying to avoid walkers....he has none with that hair.

so, I'm still hanging in there but keep wondering why I'm doing so.  I have all the same complaints as have been mentioned here.  This show is tedious to watch now.  When I think of what it once was and what it's now become.....makes me very sad.

[Nashville]

6 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

Thank you for enduring that torture for our enlightenment! Should I feel stupid because I couldn't somehow divine that?  Maybe they should have notations on the screen, stop the action and turn it into a contest where viewers can call a number to try and guess what we're seeing means. I must say, "The walker folds down so it can bite Negan's junk!" would not have been my first guess.

I haven’t watched this episode yet, and judging from the descriptions I have to say - the likelihood I’ll have be pulling it up on my On Demand any time soon is decreasing by leaps and bounds.

 

6 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

Dicks and dicks! It always come down to the dick! Always! Has Kirkman's obsession with male sex organs spread to everyone else there?

Isn’t the underlying root of ALL obsession an envious lust for that which one does not - cannot - have? ;)

[AngelaHunter]

32 minutes ago, Nashville said:

I haven’t watched this episode yet, and judging from the descriptions I have to say - the likelihood I’ll have be pulling it up on my On Demand any time soon is decreasing by leaps and bounds.

Rick's sneaky murder spree is the only part worth watching, IMO, and only because it was surprising, to me anyway. Oh, and the Jadis/Negan thing, just because it was  so messed up. Skip all the speeches, Carol's bottomless well of tears, Morgan's usual blah blah blah, "I dont' die... I'm not right" making the ZA all about him and whatever.

35 minutes ago, Nashville said:

Isn’t the underlying root of ALL obsession an envious lust for that which one does not - cannot - have? ;)

If that's the case, the depth and extent of his penile interest/obsession (How many men say to a deadly adversary, "We cross DICKS again? How many 50-year old men yell about how big their dicks are?) must mean he needs pepper and tweezers to find it. Negan is his self-insert Mary Sue. I know Kirkman's made a fortune from it, but it's just puzzling and kind of distasteful. Or maybe he just hasn't come out of the closet. Who knows?

1 hour ago, watch2much said:

if I were Norman, that hair in my face would drive me nuts.

Ack! I know. Obviously someone is deliberately taking a lock of his hair and laying it directly over his right eye, as though someone who is fighting any kind of battle, or just trying to eat dinner, wouldn't brush it away. It's so STOOOPID.

[diebartdie]

1 hour ago, AngelaHunter said:

If that's the case, the depth and extent of his penile interest/obsession (How many men say to a deadly adversary, "We cross DICKS again? How many 50-year old men yell about how big their dicks are?) must mean he needs pepper and tweezers to find it. Negan is his self-insert Mary Sue. I know Kirkman's made a fortune from it, but it's just puzzling and kind of distasteful. Or maybe he just hasn't come out of the closet. Who knows?

Ack! I know. Obviously someone is deliberately taking a lock of his hair and laying it directly over his right eye, as though someone who is fighting any kind of battle, or just trying to eat dinner, wouldn't brush it away. It's so STOOOPID.

Ok, Im not trying to defend any of this because there isnt really any way to, in the comics, Negan is more "mutherfucker" this and "fuckin' mutherfuckin' fuck face" than he is "balls, dicks, nutsack". I think this was the show runners "compromise" and man, it failed so hard. I didnt get it. I mean The Magicians on Syfy (SYFY FOR GOD'S SAKE) has characters saying fuck ALL. THE. TIME. All they did on that show (until this season I think) was block PART of the word. So you would hear "mother _ucker" or "Fuc_ me", whatever. Hell even FX's Mr Robot has "fuck" all over the show. Who cares? I mean sure, profanity can be very ff putting but "mutherfuckin' fuck face" befits an asshole like Negan so much more than this dick and balls stuff. DICK AND BALLS just makes him juvenile and unbelievable as a person who could cntrol all those mean ass dudes he has with him. Hell, the most powerful would be for him to NEVER say ANY profanity.

 

The thing about Norman Reedus is he is VERY self conscious about his right eye. It bulges under his eye because after a severe motorcycle accident, he had to have a metal plate there, he almost lost his eye. Whenever he is not on TWD, the makeup people working with him can easily disguise it, or well enough. On TWD where they go for a far more natural, no makeup look, the only way he can "hide" the deformity is with his hair. He really ought to just own it for fuck's sake. We've been watching the show for years now, we're all used to the welt, he should stop covering it and let it be.

[AngelaHunter]

42 minutes ago, diebartdie said:

Ok, Im not trying to defend any of this because there isnt really any way to, in the comics, Negan is more "mutherfucker" this and "fuckin' mutherfuckin' fuck face" than he is "balls, dicks, nutsack". I think this was the show runners "compromise"

Yep. You're right. That talk makes Negan sound like arrested development which isn't really intimdating. The word "fuck" will make everyone's heads implode and their ears fall off, but watching someone's guts being ripped out and dropped on the road is just ho-hum. And we're not talking using the word as a verb,(god forbid that adults on an adult show should ever say that!) but just as an adverb or an adjective, for fuck's sake! Who is running this show - little children, who titter and giggle over pee and poop and dicks and balls but whose faces drop at "fuck"? It was like Abe: "Motherdick." Fucking really? I'm fairly sure that everyone who watches this ultra-violent and gory show has heard the "F" word before. So bizarre. Torture porn, gore porn - A-O.K. A word? - where's my swooning couch?

52 minutes ago, diebartdie said:

The thing about Norman Reedus is he is VERY self conscious about his right eye.

Yeah I know he has a big bag under that eye. I"m sorry he's embarassed about it, but he's a man pushing 50 and a baggy eye is hardly shocking. That one piece of hair hanging in it constantly looks much worse and silly, too. Nothing wrong with aging,Norman! Personally I like a man with signs of aging on his face rather than the Kabuki-mask plastic surgery look. Yeah, I'm sure my opinion weighs heavily with him, lol!

Negan was much more intimidating this way IMO,instead of the poo/pee stuff,  although I fainted several times watching this because - F-bombs! Eek.

[seacliffsal]

Wow!  I was able to speed through the episode (DVR) due to the Negan speeches and tears about Henry.  I did rewind and watch at normal speed when all of a sudden Negan had weapons and flares, but, nope, there was no way to make sense of that scene.  I also was able to save time by not watching Talking Dead as I have decided that if I don't care for the guests I won't watch it.  Of course, with speeding through the episode and deleting the talk show, it got me thinking about how little I really care anymore.  Somehow I don't think it matters to the show runner and creator that they are losing fans and some fans are just holding on for one or two characters (me...).  Such a shame as it wasn't that long ago (hmm, I believe I can connect it to the appearance and prioritization of Negan), that this was MUST SEE t.v. and one that I was able to discuss with a lot of people (and, of course, here on the site).  There were weeks I couldn't even get through the entire discussion due to how many pages long it was.  Now it's two days after the episode aired and I'm commenting on the third page.  

Oh, I also wanted to comment on the connections to past seasons and episodes that they like to make.  Sure, they used the locale of where Sophia was hiding for Henry which, first of all, reminds viewers that the show is filmed in Georgia although it is set in Virginia (way to be confusing...), AND, secondly, that the locale was previously used when the show was still riveting.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

On 4/2/2018 at 9:34 PM, mandolin said:

It makes me sad that the best parts of an episode are call backs to earlier (good) seasons (Sophia’s hiding spot, “you know me!”). Do the writers realize it makes me dislike the current crap even more? And that simply reusing past places, lines, etc isn’t enough to make a good episode. And the fact that they DO remember things that happened in the past but so often choose not to be consistent make me feel some kind of way. And it ain’t good. 

They need the callbacks to remind people that this show used to be worth watching.
 

9 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I guess it wasn't just the Easter Bunny that laid an egg.

[ByTor]

17 hours ago, watch2much said:

  just because they are in the zombie apocalypse doesn't mean all the scissors are gone.

Scissors are apparently still readily available, thus explaining Carol's ability to maintain her short sassy 'do.

I'm glad Negan has always demonstrated his "people are a resource" stance.  He particularly demonstrated that belief by throwing their doctor (arguably one of their most valuable resources) into a furnace.  As far as who he picked up on the road, I've seen it stated that is was "obviously" bar code tattoo woman, but I thought it "obviously" was Simon LOL.

Negan is a bad person, but after Rick's display (murdering people who saved your worthless life and were about to fight on your side? really??), I really have a hard time calling him the good guy.  I'm not making comparisons over who's worse, IMO it's like saying who's worse, Charles Manson or Ted Bundy, but I think they're both a couple of pieces of shit.  In my TWD fantasy, my favorite character, Rosita, would take Lucille and stick it up both Negan's AND Rick's asses.

I'm a little confused over talk of Morgan leaving.  I've only seen a few episodes of FTWD (that woman who plays Madison, I just can't look at that mouth), but isn't the timeline still behind that of TWD?  Why can't he be on both shows?

Edited April 4, 2018 by ByTor

[The Mighty Peanut]

On 4/2/2018 at 8:35 AM, icemiser69 said:

Why can't we know what Carl wrote to his dad?

This is one question I can answer. It’s so when Rick learns his son’s dying wish was to give peace a chance, he will have an existential crisis owing to the fact that he has become a ruthless killer. YOU KNOW, BRAND NEW MATERIAL THAT IS NOT RECYCLED AT ALL AND NO ONE COULD HAVE EVER PREDICTED.

[diebartdie]

You know what NO ONE ever could have predicted? Lucille was the name of Negan's wife!

 

 

 

Oh wait a minute, I think Nashville did....

[Persnickety1]

On 4/2/2018 at 7:34 PM, mandolin said:

It makes me sad that the best parts of an episode are call backs to earlier (good) seasons (Sophia’s hiding spot, “you know me!”). Do the writers realize it makes me dislike the current crap even more? And that simply reusing past places, lines, etc isn’t enough to make a good episode. And the fact that they DO remember things that happened in the past but so often choose not to be consistent make me feel some kind of way. And it ain’t good. 

Apparently in an attempt to torture myself, I just began re-watching seasons 1 and 2, when Darabont was at the helm.  

Yowza, what a difference between the brilliance of those first two seasons and the buckets full of crap AMC et al is feeding the viewers now.

On 4/3/2018 at 9:01 AM, heisenberg said:

When I wrote bad acting in the previous post I wasn't talking about the actors (except for a few).  They became bad because of the writing and direction,  Who wouldn't?  I saw Pollyanna McIntosh in movies and she was good,   Andrew Lincoln and the others were good when they were well directed. 

 

I imagine the actors when getting their script "Are we gonna say that shit over again?"...

Again, I just began re-watching seasons 1 and 2.  

You know, the "good old days" when Reedus didn't mumble and grunt his way through his lines.

Dear gawd, if he had to recite that speech to Carol about the Cherokee Rose now, it would make the closed captioning explode.

And Maggie's gross over-enunciation and laughable attempt at a southern accent becomes more cringe inducing every season.

22 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

If he had let those saviors live and brought them back and they joined CDB, perhaps they could have gotten even more saviors to switch sides.  Saviors that otherwise would still be trying to kill members of CDB (Team Rick).  Team Rick has already lost a lot of people, with no sign of replacements.

We know that Eugene is helping make more bullets for Nagen.  Do we have any idea how much ammo Team Rick has left?

ETA:  Why does Rick have all of those letters from Carl in his drawer?  Shouldn't he have delivered all of the letters that Carl wrote?

This bugged the crap out of me, too.  Who the fresh hell are those addressed to that Rick hasn't had contact with since Carl's death?  

I'm trying to fan wank by saying one is probably to Judith...but that's all I got.  No clue who the other recipients might be.  Ugh.

21 hours ago, watch2much said:

if I were Norman, that hair in my face would drive me nuts.  just because they are in the zombie apocalypse doesn't mean all the scissors are gone.  I would think having peripheral vision would be a benefit when trying to avoid walkers....he has none with that hair.

so, I'm still hanging in there but keep wondering why I'm doing so.  I have all the same complaints as have been mentioned here.  This show is tedious to watch now.  When I think of what it once was and what it's now become.....makes me very sad.

Remember season 1 and 2 when Darryl had short hair, actually spoke in words, and looked at least halfway clean?  

Interestingly, in season 1 and 2, both had full-on walker attacks (the original CDB campsite and at the farm).  

Both occurred in the dark of night.

And EVERYTHING could be seen.  

None of this Keller-vision bullshit to save money on special effects that we have now.  The scenes were set in darkness, but the viewing audience could actually see every single detail of what was going on.  

Talk about how the mighty have fallen.

17 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

Wow!  I was able to speed through the episode (DVR) due to the Negan speeches and tears about Henry.  I did rewind and watch at normal speed when all of a sudden Negan had weapons and flares, but, nope, there was no way to make sense of that scene.  I also was able to save time by not watching Talking Dead as I have decided that if I don't care for the guests I won't watch it.  Of course, with speeding through the episode and deleting the talk show, it got me thinking about how little I really care anymore.  Somehow I don't think it matters to the show runner and creator that they are losing fans and some fans are just holding on for one or two characters (me...).  Such a shame as it wasn't that long ago (hmm, I believe I can connect it to the appearance and prioritization of Negan), that this was MUST SEE t.v. and one that I was able to discuss with a lot of people (and, of course, here on the site).  There were weeks I couldn't even get through the entire discussion due to how many pages long it was.  Now it's two days after the episode aired and I'm commenting on the third page.  

Oh, I also wanted to comment on the connections to past seasons and episodes that they like to make.  Sure, they used the locale of where Sophia was hiding for Henry which, first of all, reminds viewers that the show is filmed in Georgia although it is set in Virginia (way to be confusing...), AND, secondly, that the locale was previously used when the show was still riveting.

This show is like a proverbial Humpty Dumpty.

I doubt even if Darabont by some miracle returned to the show that he could put it back together again.  

I think it's irreparably broken.

13 hours ago, iRarelyWatchTV36 said:

They need the callbacks to remind people that this show used to be worth watching.
 

Indeed.

There's just no comparison to the initial seasons of this show with Darabont and, in my opinion, the downward decline since season 3.

While there were episodes I have enjoyed, objectively speaking, had I started watching this show in season 3 with the claustrophobic and dim surroundings of the prison, I doubt I would have become a dedicated viewer.  Talk about an Easter egg and foreboding.  I guess since the audience chose to hang in there and not bitch about all of the dimly lit scenes in season 3, they have since pushed the envelope to where one needs to use closed captioning to at least hear what's going on since it's not easily seen.  I'm sure the notoriously tightwads at AMC are saving a huge amount of money on special effects with this "technique."  

As for this episode, I loved seeing Jared get his comeuppance (and thanks to AMC/Gimple/et al for actually not filming that in Keller vision).  

I spent the first half of the episode thinking Negan had met the woman of his dreams in Jadis, a woman who wouldn't take his shit and could outsmart him, and that he might free the other harem wives and settle down to live happily ever after as Mr. Jadis...

But then she dropped her "lady balls" somewhere in that story line and turned him loose.

Ugh.

I still enjoy the show, but for entirely different reasons than I did in seasons 1 and 2.  Now it's almost for comical relief, and that's a bloody shame considering its brilliant start.  

[Raven1707]

On 4/2/2018 at 4:37 PM, SoSueMe said:

Do we know for sure if the show will be back in the fall?

From January 13th:

AMC has picked up “The Walking Dead” for a ninth season, keeping the highest-rated scripted series on TV into 2019.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/more-tv-news/the-walking-dead-strolls-into-season-9-gets-new-showrunner/

[ByTor]

1 hour ago, diebartdie said:

You know what NO ONE ever could have predicted? Lucille was the name of Negan's wife!

 

 

 

Oh wait a minute, I think Nashville did....

Not to take anything away from @Nashville, but I think we all predicted that :)

[diebartdie]

lol, I know but it would have taken me alll damn day to type everyone's name out so I went with nashville ;)

[AngelaHunter]

Lucille must have been someone very special that he would name a hard piece of wood covered in spikes after her.

4 hours ago, Persnickety1 said:

Remember season 1 and 2 when Darryl had short hair, actually spoke in words, and looked at least halfway clean human.

Edited for accuracy.

 

4 hours ago, Persnickety1 said:

I doubt even if Darabont by some miracle returned to the show that he could put it back together again.  

I think it's irreparably broken.

Something I've thought and said for awhile now. Agree still.

 

4 hours ago, Persnickety1 said:

thinking Negan had met the woman of his dreams in Jadis, a woman who wouldn't take his shit and could outsmart him, and that he might free the other harem wives and settle down to live happily ever after as Mr. Jadis...

I still think they might be a good match. She rarely speaks, so nothing would interrupt his juvenile verbal diarrhea. Anyway, the harem wives probably aren't subjected to much in the way of servicing him. Anyone who brags that way about his parts is probably impotent.

[nodorothyparker]

5 hours ago, diebartdie said:

You know what NO ONE ever could have predicted? Lucille was the name of Negan's wife!

Did I hallucinate it or didn't we already get this big revelation in the episode of Negan and FPP stuck in the trailer where FPP failed on more than one occasion to kill FPP as well?  I'm now beginning to fear we're going to be expected to sit through Chatty Cathy making this big reveal to each character, probably after they each fail to kill him in increasingly convoluted ways.

Edit to add:  Yes, he did already tell FPP much of this story in The Big Scary U.  Just checked. So now we're recycling the same back story in the same damn season.  Yet our original characters can't be given 30 seconds to organically react to the death of one of their own.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

You know how Negan always tells the new groups they "absorb" that half of what they have/produce is now his.  Well, I really want that bastard dead now because when he showed up, he took at least 85% of the enjoyment I ever could produce from watching TWD.  Why taking (at least) 35% more from me than what everyone else gets!? 

Makes me want to break Lucille and shove the big half up his ass, sharp end first.

[dnagirl]

On 4/3/2018 at 6:10 PM, diebartdie said:

Ok, Im not trying to defend any of this because there isnt really any way to, in the comics, Negan is more "mutherfucker" this and "fuckin' mutherfuckin' fuck face" than he is "balls, dicks, nutsack". I think this was the show runners "compromise" and man, it failed so hard. I didnt get it. I mean The Magicians on Syfy (SYFY FOR GOD'S SAKE) has characters saying fuck ALL. THE. TIME. All they did on that show (until this season I think) was block PART of the word. So you would hear "mother _ucker" or "Fuc_ me", whatever. Hell even FX's Mr Robot has "fuck" all over the show. Who cares? I mean sure, profanity can be very ff putting but "mutherfuckin' fuck face" befits an asshole like Negan so much more than this dick and balls stuff. DICK AND BALLS just makes him juvenile and unbelievable as a person who could cntrol all those mean ass dudes he has with him. Hell, the most powerful would be for him to NEVER say ANY profanity.

I keep saying to my husband, "who writes Negan's lines...some 13 year old boy?"  Because he sounds like a 13 year old boy with all the cock and balls and shit pants and whatnot.  It juvenilizes (not a word and I don't care) the character and just adds to the sense that Negan is a buffoon.  Which he most certainly was not intended to be originally, IMO.

 

As for Jadis, how did she go from a short, blunt bob with horribly short bangs to a ponytail with no bangs?  Has she been wearing a wig this entire time? I still also don't get the whole white gown barefoot thing.  Did she strip her clothes because she was laying in blood?  Ok, I get that.  But why did she have an ankle-length white gown underneath pants?  More importantly, how?  And why not put the boots back on?  Fucks sake, it's the zombie apocalypse!  No one runs around without shoes!

 

So many questions...still left unanswered.  So much I've never broken through.

[EllenC]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

Did I hallucinate it or didn't we already get this big revelation in the episode of Negan and FPP stuck in the trailer where FPP failed on more than one occasion to kill FPP as well?  I'm now beginning to fear we're going to be expected to sit through Chatty Cathy making this big reveal to each character, probably after they each fail to kill him in increasingly convoluted ways.

Edit to add:  Yes, he did already tell FPP much of this story in The Big Scary U.  Just checked. So now we're recycling the same back story in the same damn season.  Yet our original characters can't be given 30 seconds to organically react to the death of one of their own.

I just died a little inside, imagining Negan going through the cast 1-by-1 telling his sad little back story until someone sets him on his redemption arc. Motherdick indeed. Please, people, do you not remember what happened to Glenn at least?

I must have lost interest/consciousness for a minute and not seen the drawer full of undelivered Carl notes? 1 for Heath, 1 for Tobin, 1 for Gabriel, 1 for Eugene ... Yeah, this is how I amuse myself with the show now. Tangents. (At least it's not the same 'you can come back' etc. story again.)

Edited April 5, 2018 by EllenC

[AngelaHunter]

1 hour ago, dnagirl said:

Because he sounds like a 13 year old boy with all the cock and balls and shit pants

No no no! No "cock" allowed. I guess that's on par with "fuck" so it's 'dick' only, please, unless it's "penis" which IMO is worse than "cock". We're sensitive here and need our bad words at junior high level. Is "balls" allowed? I only recall Negan and now Simon saying "sack", "nuts" and "nutsack."  So, no "balls" I guess, as somehow 'nutsack' is deemed more genteel. Who knew?

However, they can say "prick" but

NOT if it refers to an actual dick,

but only to a person Negan hates, like Rick.

The Prick.

 

3 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

Yes, he did already tell FPP much of this story in The Big Scary U. 

Right. He did relate some of his sad tale to Father Pee, right after he gave him the grand announcement that he'd rubbed one out right in the very spot where FP's butt was planted. Ew. The situation is never too dire for Negan to mention his willy.

Did anyone see "The Resident" where JDM rubs one out right in a woman's bathtub? Hee.

Wow. I'm sure I used to have more interesting comments to make about this show.:(

[The Mighty Peanut]

9 hours ago, Persnickety1 said:

I'm trying to fan wank by saying one is probably to Judith...but that's all I got.  No clue who the other recipients might be.  Ugh.

Probably all of Negan’s kids after he makes Rick godfather in Carl’s ZA happyland.

[Nashville]

12 hours ago, diebartdie said:

lol, I know but it would have taken me alll damn day to type everyone's name out so I went with nashville ;)

It’s still nice to be appreciated.  :D

[dnagirl]

21 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

No no no! No "cock" allowed. I guess that's on par with "fuck" so it's 'dick' only, please, unless it's "penis" which IMO is worse than "cock". We're sensitive here and need our bad words at junior high level. Is "balls" allowed? I only recall Negan and now Simon saying "sack", "nuts" and "nutsack."  So, no "balls" I guess, as somehow 'nutsack' is deemed more genteel. Who knew?

However, they can say "prick" but

NOT if it refers to an actual dick,

but only to a person Negan hates, like Rick.

The Prick.

This is all so very confusing.  I obviously am not anywhere near the same level of intelligence as these writers.  The shitting pants pantshitters that they are.  (sarcasm, just in case no one understands me.  Which happens often in real life.)

[AngelaHunter]

12 hours ago, dnagirl said:

This is all so very confusing.

I know. I found it (and find) it all very puzzling but I think I've got all the rules straight now.

[Primetimer]

Rick Grimes gets his anger out one way or another and brings Morgan along for the ride in our latest EPIC OLD-SCHOOL RECAP!

View the full article

[Iguessnot]

On ‎4‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 12:05 PM, nodorothyparker said:

You definitely score points for clearing that up.  After seeing lots of people in various places having no idea what was supposed to be happening in that scene, I went back and rewatched it.  It doesn't get any better in the cold light of day where one minute Motormouth is laying on the ground still tied to a dolly and then the next he suddenly has a flaming road flare.  And oh wait, a gun in the other hand.  And there are inexplicably pictures or "snaps" on the ground the next to him.  Um, what?  Oh, he mentions something about a bag of guns and whatever that Jadis apparently conveniently left within reach for him.  Again, what?  And then for the piece de resistance we wheel out the walker on a cart that has no legs so it's not like it can pursue you and arms that are apparently part of the framework now so it can't make a deadly Dale swipe for you either.  So what, its entire use is dependent on having someone tied up so you can wheel it up next to them?  That's if you don't forget and leave your magic bag of guns and road flares next to him?  

It's like so many things from the last couple of seasons.  They obviously had an idea of something they thought would be cool to see on screen but couldn't figure out how to make it make any kind of sense and said oh fuck it, we'll film it anyway and tell them how awesome it is.

Another thing. Why did Jadis roll the walker up to Negan, then duck behind the trash heap? The walker had no ability to move anywhere and even if the cart had the ability to tilt down, it wasn't close to Negan. Secondly, why would she need a flare for a low hovering helicopter in broad daylight?

[Raven1707]

The Cable Live +3 ratings are in for "Still Gotta Mean Something":

“The Walking Dead” moved into first place among adults 18-49 for the week of March 26 thanks to delayed viewing.

After three days of catchup, “The Walking Dead” has a 4.1 rating among adults 18-49. That moves it ahead of the primetime NCAA men’s Final Four game (3.3, unchanged) between Kansas and Villanova. (The other Final Four contest wasn’t in primetime and therefore isn’t included here; it would likely rank third in adults 18-49 and second in viewers.)

The Kansas-Villanova game remained the most-watched on cable with 10.78 million viewers. “The Walking Dead” is at 9.29 million, adding a little under 3 million people over three days.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/dvr-ratings/cable-live-3-ratings-for-march-26-april-1-2018/

And here are the Live + Same Day and Live +3 ratings for Season 8 so far:

10-22-17 “Mercy” 11.439 million; 15.047 million
10-29-17 “The Damned” 8.923 million; 12.247 million
11-05-17 “Monsters” 8.519 million; 12.086 million
11-12-17 “Some Guy” 8.688 million; 12.361 million
11-19-17 “The Big Scary U” 7.845 million; not reported
11-26-17 “The King, The Widow, & Rick” 8.282 million; 11.878 million
12-03-17 “Time For After” 7.468 million; 10.737 million
12-10-17 “How It’s Gotta Be” 7.885 million; 11.510 million

02-25-18 “Honor” 8.282 million; not reported
03-04-18 “The Lost or the Plunderers” 6.820 million; 9.894 million
03-11-18 “Dead or Alive Or” 6.604 million; not reported
03-18-18 “The Key” 6.663 million; 9.761 million
03-25-18 “Do Not Send Us Astray” 6.774 million; not reported
04-01-18 “Still Gotta Mean Something” 6.295 million 9.291 million

[Nashville]

Okay, I finally pulled up this episode and watched it on OnDemand - and all I think really needs to be said about it is that it took me three tries to watch the episode; both times on the first two attempts, I fell asleep mid-watch.

 

On 4/6/2018 at 4:08 PM, PreviouslyTV said:

Rick Grimes gets his anger out one way or another and brings Morgan along for the ride in our latest EPIC OLD-SCHOOL RECAP!

View the full article

Two best bits in this this recap:

• Negan somehow now has a gun in one hand and a lit flare in the other because fuck this show.
• "We're done," says Jared. "Let's dump 'em and bounce. I want a sandwich." I have never identified with anyone on this show more than at this moment.

[wrlord]

ok. CDB is now officially a bunch of psychopaths who will kill anyone who wishes them a good morning.

If it weren't for Glenn and Abe, I'd be team Negan at this point.