Intro:
Buckle up, strap yourselves in because we are in for a strange and bumpy ride as we dive deep into Season 8 of the Walking dead!
Season 8 picks up not exactly right after season seven ended. We get a brief montage of the three communities working together to make weapons, armor and other items for the war with Negan.
There’s some weird kind of poetic speeches like you would see in some cheesy old war movie. The Generals long winded cadence to ready his men for the battle ahead.
That works for those movies, but really doesn't do much here. It just comes across as cheesy. I would much rather see everyone terrified and nervous about going into a war with another group.
This is more realistic as none of these people are soldiers or signed up for that sort of thing. The Emotions would be high. There would be more silence than noise or talk, more stoicism. People focusing, trying to build their courage up to go into battle.
But much of season 8 is like this, cheesy, awkward, and leaving you to wonder how any of these people survived this long or for that matter through one battle.
We really have come off the rails here in Season 8. In terms of Writing.
Don't let the flashing sounds, explosions, and abundance of action scenes distract you from the lack of creative writing.
We will start with episode one, when Rick arrives at the Sanctuary with his armor plated vehicles.
Here is the first red flag for me.
Negan is always one or two steps ahead of his enemies, including Rick.
Negan has the upper hand, he has more troops, and more weapons. He has several outposts that stretch out his reach around the area.
Negan knows they are at war and yet he allows Rick and the others enough time to build up their ranks, build armored cars, and give out cheesy speeches.
Negan could have attacked at any time, almost immediately after the declaration of War that he gave at the end of Season 7.
He could have easily taken any one of the communities out, quickly, and efficiently. And yet he didn't.
What he did do, was sit around and do nothing. He places a few scouts out and about but only one person per area, making them easy targets. Why would he do this when he has the manpower to put a minimum of squads of ten on watch?
If I am Negan, and have half a brain. I would have patrols on every road that led to and from the Sanctuary, twenty four seven. I'd recon hideout watching what Rick and his people do.
But no… none of that.
Rick is just able to drive right up to the front gates of the Sanctuary unchecked…
This is insulting to Negan's Character and frankly goes against it in a big way. Negan is supposed to be playing Chess while everyone is playing checkers and that is not the case anymore.
To make matters worse and the second red flag, as if all that wasn't enough, Negan just walks out onto an open balcony with no cover and no real way to escape to greet Rick and his Army.
Why would you do this? You are now exposed; you could be killed instantly. And why does Rick give ultimatums? You literally along with everyone else have a clear shot of Negan. Take the damn shot!
Sure you may have to fight off a few of his lieutenants, but you were already prepared for that.
This is a bizarre scene…
Rick stands there all the time of the day to take Negan down and doesn't.
Instead and here is another stupid move, the shoot out all the windows of the sanctuary. Scattering Negan and his men.
So you could have shot Negan and most of his Lieutenants and basically ended it right there but instead you waste a ton of ammo on windows.
This is a bad strategy. Because its the apocalypse, and ammo is in short supply. Why would you waste it on windows?
The answer is you wouldn't. You would take into account the scarcity of ammo, weapons, and people and be far more strategic in your operations.
None of that happens here.
Negan has to crawl away, and find cover as Rick and his group open fire.
And another red flag… Rick and his army apparently have the cheat code of infinite ammo.
First off every weapon they have seems to be fully automatic, which is ridiculous in and of itself. There are over 330 million legal firearms in the US. How many of them are full auto? If I had to guess probably less than thirty percent.
Even if you managed to find the very few military rifles that are fully automatic you would not have this many…
And yet they all are. Including the ones that aren't military weapons! I saw later on in the show a man firing a rifle, an M-14 that has a ten round mag and is only a semi-auto and it was full auto…
(If you didn't know they CGI they gunshot into this show which makes it even more cheesy. Some words of advice, if you aren't gonna have real firing weapons on set, don't do close ups of the weapons firing. You could clearly see no brass ejecting from the ports or the bolts moving back and forth…)
ITs so unbelievably cheesy!!!!
Not to mention they fire all those shots at the sanctuary and never once do they hit any of the saviors… none of the meaningful ones anyway.
So the war is on!
Now I do think it is clever that they move a herd of walkers into the sanctuary basically blocking them in.
But the fact that they could get away with such a complicated task to begin with makes my head explode. Again how the hell did these people get so close to sanctuary unchecked?
It's like the Writers made Negan a complete idiot for the sake of drawing out this war between him and Rick. Because the reality is Rick and his people would have been dead long ago…
Rick though again has a chance to Kill Negan, he sees him pinned down and can get the jump on him but Gabriel as always screws things up.. Gabriel convinces him to leave and continue the mission..
The Mission is to take out Negan!! Why are playing games here people?
Anyway..
We cut to the Group splitting up and going after all the outposts. This is a smart play. However the outposts seem to be irrelevant and useless.
Why have them if you don't use them? Why have them and only seem to have two or three guys on watch? You are at war, everyone should be on high alert and those outposts should be guarded like Fort Knox.
So aside from walkers surrounding one of the outposts the groups make quick and easy work of them.
Except the one they do a friendly drive by.
All of Negan's people are ignorantly unaware and just cleaning weapons, treating the workers like shit as always…
And then suddenly with no problems pulls up a squad of armored cars to wreak havoc. Again they all have full autos and manage to hit very few of the Saviors in the first volley.
So now we get the pleasure to see a battle go on for an entire show if not longer. Again All of these folks have full auto rifles and are managing not to hit a thing.
It's interesting to note that we see them all on both sides going gung ho with their trigger fingers and no one stops to reload. I made sure to pay attention, and nope, no one changes a magazine out… just keeps endlessly firing for all of eternity.
It's also interesting to note that none of them are carrying mag pouches, or backpacks. Where the hell are they keeping this endless supply of ammo? Don't know..
This entire battle again makes little to no sense. Their plan is never to advance on the Saviors beyond their vehicles. Just keep firing at them, eventually the ones they kill will turn and then eat the ones that haven’t!
WHAT A JOKE!
First off you have no idea when those bodies will turn, could be hours or could be days. It depends really on when the plot needs them to. But still! You are just gonna waste precious ammo shooting at this group hoping that a few turn in the next ten minutes.
Fire fights in real life combat can be over in seconds. There's a few variables. One of them being ammo, and how much you have. The average soldier carries a little over hundred rounds on him. I want to say 180 rounds but I can't remember.
If you were an idiot, had a full auto rifle and happy trigger finger you could burn through that ammo in under five minutes. I am not kidding.
And yet here is Rick's group just spraying and praying for what seems like an hour or so? Hard to tell but the battle drags on the entire show.
In reality it would be over in minutes because all of them would have run out of ammo. They would have had to wrestle each other or something…
This scene is asinine, and just goes to show you that whoever wrote it knows nothing about combat, how weapons work, or for that matter any real tactical thought.
I mean shit man, even old Arnold movies made more sense than this.
Its just plain awful. And to make matters worse no one is really dying here, I mean sure the saviors are. And ya some of them finally come back as zombies and go to work… how clever.
Its also interesting to note how everyone becomes stupid when the show needs them to so they can be bit. The saviors all head guns with and endless supply of ammo, and they just let the zombies bite them.
Ugh it's so BAD!!!
And I have not even passed episodes one and two yet!!!!!!
Food for thought. If you plan to do combat scenes in any thing. Do some research. Maybe hire someone, any one. Hire the half drunken jarhead grunt that tends bar in Los Angeles. Because even he would have ripped this scene to shreds.
But this is just foreshadowing of things to come my friends.
Because if all this stupidity wasnt enough, Rick runs into an old friend from season one! Well I can't remember his name because well. He wasn't very important then and certainly isn't now.
This man left with his family to go the Birmingham at the end of season one.
How did he manage to go from Birmingham Alabama to Washington DC? Don't know….
And what are the odds that he would run into the saviors, join them and be in a building that Rick happens to go into with just Daryl? Pretty good I guess…
UGH I HATE WHAT THEY DID TO THIS SHOW!
So, we get this waste of a scene… We know Rick isnt gonna die here. And since this dude was a nobody in season one we just have to wait for Daryl to show up and save the day.
And sure enough he does!
I like where Daryl is at right now. He's in a “I dont care Im here to win this”. He didn't care who it was, he just took him out.
Daryl is actually one of the few characters or really the only character this season that doesn't really deviate from who they are. While all the other characters are turned upside down from Sunday, he remains pretty much in plain with who he is.
His move later on with the sanctuary is a bit off character but not as much as others.
The writers have no idea what to do with these well developed characters and frankly are ruining them this season.
Oh ya Aarons partner dies. I know I didn't care either. I almost forgot. Don't worry the show wasted a lot of time on it.
Why would you dedicate so much time to a relationship and a character that was never developed? Given little to no attention from the beginning? Eric was barely a B level character.
This is like the Sasha episode, where we are made to watch an entire episode of her make stupid decisions that ultimately lead to her death. They drag it out to make you care, but you can't because the Character was never developed in such a way to make you care. You cant make up for that in a single episode.
We won't suddenly become invested in a character enough to make us feel real emotion when they are killed off in a single episode. This is Eric, no one cares. No one was ever made to care, and we won't in thirty minutes.
Stop doing this.
The show focuses heavily on the King too, and he is always smiling even though they are headed to battle. I don't hate his speeches, but again his character is over the top. The fact that he keeps mentioning that his ranks are untouched undoubtedly makes you believe something bad is about to happen at some point to them.
And sure enough it does. Would you know it! The King and his people get mowed down in a field by two fifty caliber machine guns.
Interestly enough, the show actually decided to accurately show the sheer power of the fifty cal, blowing the people to pieces.
Thankfully the king was defended and his army fell on him. They dogpiled that dude and somehow he managed to get out from under that dead weight.
Needless to say he aint smiling no more…
Neither is Jerry…
Thankfully the show only killed off a bunch of characters we knew nothing about in the scene…
The king ends up getting taken hostage by a guy who looks like Jeffery Dahmer.. Not sure what decade this dude just came from but whatever.
They waste some time and end up getting trapped at a gate as the dead kingdom fighters are walking toward them.
Jerry thankfully comes out of nowhere to save the day, and splits jeffery Dahmer in two with his battle axe. Ok, that's badass.
Carol gets into a fire fight with the saviors loading up the fifty cals, and that entire scene is dumb. She gives up, and instead of just shooting her and carrying on, one of them gets close enough to get killed by Carol and she opens a gate of walkers… whatever.
This is where I see that a semi auto M-14 becomes fully automatic….
At this point my eyes have rolled so far into the back of my head I forgot the rest of that atrocious episode…
Oh ya, the King is depressed and stumbles back into his community with just Jerry and Carol, the entire community looks on in sadness and horror that everyone is dead.
Honestly, that's how it would have happened from the rip if Negan wasn't sitting on his hands for some reason. But oh well.
And now we take a break from our usual programming to cut to Negan and Gabriel hanging out.
Gabriel somehow finds a way into Negan's head and we get to see a softer side of old Negan. We learn that he used to work with people, and had a wife that he wasn't particularly good to but loved her nonetheless.
Its almost like the show is trying to change Negan into a victim? Could this be to make him an anti-hero later? How could this be? He's such a bad man who manipulates and kills people… Guess time will tell dear listener.
All jokes aside I actually enjoyed The exchange between Negan and Gabriel. These are two opposites coming into collision. A man of faith who feels he's on a mission from God, and another who thinks he is God.
It was actually well done and I enjoyed it. I like the Negan kind of takes to Gabriel a little and works together to get out.
Now Gabriel gets sick, none of this really matters, it's just a subplot that leads to a doctor being killed.
It's really just there to fill the gaps.
So all is going to plan, and we get some filler until Daryl and some others get a wild hair to finish the fight and deviate from Rick's plan.
Now this is in my opinion where Daryl goes off character a little. He is always resourceful but he is also extremely loyal and follows Rick's orders to the Tee, he always has. So for him to do this is way off base for him
Their plan is to drive a garbage truck into the sanctuary and let the walkers surrounding inside to finish them off.
Well this doesn't work, and allows Eugine to come up with a plan to clear the walkers and now Negan has escaped.
Go figure!
This garbage truck scene is another bizarre moment. Negan was supposedly trapped and all Rick and the group had to do was wait it out. How did letting the walkers inside change that? Why now does the sanctuary have the ability to clear all of them?
None of this makes sense.. It seems like the writers accidentally wrote themselves into a corner and had to find a way out.
So we get this convenient scene…
And to top off all the bad writing this season we have Carl come across a random person. Now Rick Scares him off in the beginning but Carl being the kid that never, ever, not once has listened to his parents. Decides to venture off and find this man and save him.
Eventually he does, he sees him killing walkers in the woods.
Carl offers food and water to him, asks him the three questions and they proceed to head to Alexandria.
In the process of that they come across some walkers. Now the smart thing to do would be to avoid them. But the man tells Carl that his mother believed that killing them would release their trapped spirits.
I happen to agree with that a little. BUT! I don't agree with engaging with zombies unless you absolutely have to. This may be the Resident evil player in me.. But nonetheless no unnecessary risks!
But that's what they do, now you don't know that Carl gets bit here but eventually you find out he does.
Like I said earlier the rate at which you turn is whatever the plot needs it to be. In this case a few days for Carl, many days before he even shows signs of becoming sick.
Enough time to write letters to everyone including Negan, and help this guy in a sewer until he could convince his dad to let him in.
So that brings me to the scene where negan rolls up to Alexandria looking for Rick, its time to go nuclear.. Well kind of. Negan finally grows a set and attacks back.
Carl distracts Negan just long enough for people to escape, feeding him some BS line.. I love this scene because Negan gets pissed and says “I thought we were having a moment kid you little shit”
Anyway Negan lays waste to most of Alexandria while they all hide in the Sewer. This is when we find out Carl is Bit.
Apparently Chandler Riggs was set to graduate and go off to college so he had to depart from the show. At least that's how I remember it.
Now me personally, I would have rather seen Carl go out in a better way. But the show is trying to set it up so that Rick and the group dont kill the saviors or Negan. Which is odd I know but thats the direction its going.
It's a sort of let's forgive and coexist.
This is great and I believe we should forgive our enemies and love one another as the Bible and Jesus teaches us.
But the reality is people like Negan don’t forgive, and don’t coexist.
It's like my Sgt Major in bootcamp said, sometimes there's people in this world that need killing, and that's what you are gonna go do.
He was right. Sometimes people are too far gone and can't get with the program, becoming a danger to everyone around them.
But this show is gonna try to prove otherwise… that bashing out the brains of two of your friends, one who was a father and killing many others can all be forgiven…
Needless to say It was a pretty emotional episode. I will say it was one of the better ones of the season.
From my Rant so far that is not saying much…
So Rick once again sets off to mess around with the Garbage pail kids… He finds out that they're all dead because Simon went rogue and shot them all. Jadis is the only survivor.
Seeing this, Rick basically says screw it and leaves her. Because she no longer has anything to offer them.
Rick for the record Is Negan at this moment. Rick has channeled his inner monster but is no longer controlling it.
He shares more in common with Morgan and Negan than Glenn and Herschell at this point.
So Jadis has nothing to offer, fine leave her be. And honestly thats smart, because Jadis only ever messed with Rick anyway.
Any way Back at the Sanctuary Negan was given a great Idea by the traitor Eugien. So the Saviors begin to dip their weapons in walker guts in order to unleash some psychological warfare on the hilltop.
All of this because Negan wants to keep the hilltop and kingdom alive and providing. Simon does not seem to understand why and just wants to go full nuclear.
I think both are technically right.
After all, why does Negan put up with negotiations? Why not just take over those communities and have your workers farm and tend to the land and provide?
Either way, Negan wants to keep them alive and providing.
So they set off on their mission when Negan gets side swiped by Rick!
Just as I mentioned in the last episode when the head of a snake is cut off the body dies or maybe someone else steps up, but its not the same.
And that's what happens. Simon and Dwight think Negan is dead so Simon steps up as leader.
Simon decides to move along as planned but they are gonna take everyone out at the hilltop and do it for Negan!
We find Rick and Negan in a nice bout, they taunt each other and fight a little. But Negan manages to escape when Walkers get let out.
Back at the hilltop Simon and his crew arrive and wage a nice battle. But the Hilltop was prepared and eventually chased them out.
Unfortunately tho that evening when everyone is asleep, anyone who was cut or hit with an arrow ends up turning and the Hilltop is awakened to a real life nightmare.
Thankfully again none of the main characters die here… they all manage to escape.
We are led to believe that Tara might turn from Dwight's Arrow but we all know she won't because Dwight didn't taint his arrows.
Once again everyone makes it… Everyone that matters anyway.
So we get to see later on just how much Rick has become an uncontrolled monster. As he and Morgan set off to look for the escaped prisoners at Hilltop.
They get captured, but only briefly as a convenient herd of walkers find their way into the warehouse. The Saviors release Rick and Morgan in good faith and they all work together to clear the warehouse. In fact one of the saviors saves Rick's life.
But then suddenly Rick and Morgan shoot all of them in the back. And kill them.
The one long haired prick gets away but Morgan cuts him off at the pass and traps him with walkers.
This scene is important because it shows that Rick isn't playing games anymore. He will lie and go against his word and kill anyone.
Rick is now just as bad as far as I can tell as Negan.
Rick was always the moral one, taking the high road. And This was an easy road to take. These men wanted to help you and work with you. You told them they could and then double crossed them.
That's dirty…
You hear Rick kind of play over it a little with Morgan but not a whole lot..
Rick also gets on the Radio after Carl's death and tells Negan that he's coming for him and that there is no chance for peace. So again Rick is full send with this war.
Back at the sanctuary things aren't all ok.. Negan shows back up and surprises everyone including Simon. He messes with Simon and Dwight a little but he knows the truth about both of them.
Negan Fights Simon for the leadership position and ends up killing Simon.
Negan also turns Dwight into a worker, much like what Daryl was last season.
And so all that goes on… and Machonne ventures out to the Sanctuary to read a letter that Carl wrote to Negan. But Negan isn't having it. Rick and the group have done too much to come back from that now.
And that makes perfect sense. If I was Negan I would want to put an end to it as well.
The season ends with everyone in a field, Rick thinks he got the jump on Negan but really Negan tricked him and now has them trapped.
Negan and his army open fire on Rick and his group but wouldn't you know it! The old traitor Eugine pulls through and tampers with the ammo he built.
The guns all misfire, killing some of the saviors and wounding many more.
Negan's hand gets messed up badly and he tries to crawl away but Rick catches up to him.
They both fight it out but eventually Rick gets the upper hand and slices Negan's throat with a broken piece of glass.
Now Negan should be dead here but he isnt…
In some weird twist of event Rick calls his doctor to come save him.
Wait what?
After all this you decide to save Negan?
That's right, fair listener we went through that entire season of shenanigans only to end up here where Rick suddenly and out of nowhere has a change of heart about Negan.
Now first of all if you did have a change of heart about killing Negan why would you slit his throat? Its hard enough to survive that in real life with modern medicine let alone an apocalypse and a guy who was barely a resident before the pandemic.
But whatever….
That isn't even my biggest beef.
Sure I get it he read Carls letter… again.
But how do you go from shooting saviors in the back, ones who helped you. To now suddenly spare the life of the man that killed your friends and terrorized your people? In the span of one episode at that.
I could understand if Rick was having a change of heart when Carl died but he went deeper into rage mode… and now out of nowhere he snaps to?
No….
Sadly what happened is one, Negan is such a well loved character this show couldn't kill him off. Just like they could not kill any other of the well known characters off this season.
Notice we had a giant war and the only ones who died were basic C list, undeveloped characters? That's why the entire season was so flat.
Ya you lost Simon, but that was the only meaningful loss in the entire season. It actually made the season interesting to see Negan's guys start to turn on him. Because as I said before the Tyrant can only rule for so long before someone tries to overthrow him.
Rick doesn't suffer from that problem, even Maggie respects his decision enough not to go over and kill Negan herself when he decides to save him. Believe me though she wasn't happy about it.
Or maybe Negan is being kept alive because rumors swirled up during the end of this season. And that Rumor was Carl wouldn't be the only actor departing from the show.
Yup Andrew Lincoln has decided to break away too, Turns out his reasoning was he was missing his family back in London.
Or could it be that Andrew saw the writing on the wall and how bad this show has gotten and wanted to break away while it still had a little shred of credit left? And that most of the people he started off with in season one, the group that got along so well and made the show what it was, is mostly gone now.
Daryl and Carol are the only two left from season one, besides Morgan. I usually don't include Morgan because his appearance in season one was so short.
So how will that work?
The Walking Dead is about Rick Grimes. That's what it was always about.
The other characters orbited around him.
It will be interesting to see how Season nine goes and what happens next. How will the show progress without Rick's Character.
What will happen with Negan? Will he fill Rick's shoes? If so, how?
How do you take a character that was a psychotic maniac and place him in the role of the fearless respectable leader?
The answer is you can't.
Negan cant become the hero or anti-hero for that matter.
There's no way in any logical realm that he could appeal to Maggie, and that's exactly who he has to appeal to.
According to how the season ends Rick may have a hard time appealing to Maggie too as she is not at all happy that Neagan is alive and seems to have a plan in place to get him and kill him even if that means hurting Rick.
SO with that said, what is gonna happen?
Seeing as the writers couldn't handle this season, I am in fear of what's to come.
Wrap up:
//
Intro/outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Other Intro:
The Walking Dead Main Theme
The Walking Dead
By Bear McCreary
