By: Heather Seebach
**Warning: The following contains spoilers about the Season 6 finale**
As some of you may have noticed, I took a break from reviewing this season of The Walking Dead for personal reasons. I'm here now with this S6 finale review not because it's important, but because it pissed me off enough to actually bring me out of semi-retirement. Yeah, that much.
Now, AMC's Negan may not be able to unleash his colorful vocabulary of expletives like in the comics but I fucking can and fucking will in this rant so if that offends you....piss off!
I....am....LIVID!
Considering how watered-down the Governor was compared to the books, Negan is the first genuine, terrifying villain this show has gotten. Everything was riding on this. Fans of the books and show alike have been salivating for fucking MONTHS over this introduction, and hanging on the mystery of who would be the unlucky bastard to meet Lucille. Would it be Glenn? Daryl? Carol? There has been SO much build-up and frankly we fucking EARNED a proper resolution!
Most of the finale was fantastic - Jeffrey Dean Morgan makes a good Negan and the tension was damn palpable. I was starting to feel nauseated just waiting for the big closing scene. And then the writers dropped the ball on the single most important fucking scene ever. Here I was waiting on pee-pee-pants city and instead we got shit-the-bed city. What the fuck was that?!
All that build-up to absolutely NOTHING. What a goddamn, barbed-wire-wrapped slap in our fucking FACES! How can these show-runners disrespect their own fans SO much? What's worse is how this is the second time (at least) they have done it this season. ENOUGH with the cunting cliffhangers!!
By not showing who dies, they effectively took ALL the wind out of what may be the single most important moment of the Walking Dead narrative. And for what? To keep fans lingering, eager to see what happened? NO! I have already witnessed the backlash on social media - I am not the only one who is pissed off. If anything, they will lose viewers this way. Hope you're fucking happy!
I have not forgotten what a tense episode it was - primarily thanks to the Negan dialogue that was ripped directly from Robert Kirkman's pages - but that final moment is un-fucking-forgivable. I would have understood if they needed to rein in the gore, or if they copped out and killed off a lesser character. Disappointed, yes, but understanding. THIS, however, is gutless bullshit and it's not the first time and I for one am SICK OF IT. And I am not alone. No matter who died - whether they stuck to the books or not - I would have been down for it. Thats what I found so exciting. Instead they did literally the ONLY thing that I could hate.
Thanks for the blue balls, AMC. Take Lucille and shove it up your asses.
Current Mood:
**UPDATE**
Okay, now that I have calmed down a bit, I can discuss the other aspects of this finale. We've clearly covered the "ugly" already, so here are the good and the bad....
The Good:
- Negan's mind games while the gang tried to get to Hilltop were great. For the first time in a long time we saw Rick Grimes out-witted, out-gunned, and terrified. Sure, it was tedious watching them drive that RV in circles across 4 commercial breaks but the tension was there all the same.
- Steven Ogg! Better known to many as Trevor from GTA V, though he also had recent memorable roles on Better Call Saul and Broad City. I love this guy! He got to play a menacing creep here, with the titular line, no less.
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. I've always been a fan, and he was a damn fine choice for this role. The costume is right from the page, as was his evil monologue. He's not quite as physically imposing as I hoped he would be but JDM makes up for it with his sadistic smile.
- The final scene with everyone in their knees is perfectly tense. The terror and hopelessness in their eyes, especially Rick's, sells it. And when Negan played eeny-meeny-miny-moe, my stomach was in my throat.
- The Kingdom is coming! Fans of the comics recognize those dudes with the horses and the padding. A nice little tease of whats to come.
The Bad:
- The Carol storyline that just won't die. I have LOVED Carol since she developed her bloodthirst back at the prison but this latest character arc is plain silly. So, she says she cannot kill and is therefore useless to her loved ones. Um, she had no problem killing all those guys on the road. Enough with the forced melodrama please, just let Carol be Carol.
- They are pretty certain of an Alexandria attack and yet every single capable fighter leaves. It's cool though, they got a priest and a baby to hold down the fort!
As I stated previously, this was a pretty good finale overall, albeit ruined by an infuriating ciffhanger. I have already heard some people argue, "Well, are you surprised?" No, but that doesn't mean I can't also be disappointed and irate. Or am I expected to roll over and just accept insulting mediocrity? There are cliffhangers, and then there are complete cock-ups like this. The moment is incomplete, interrupted, and ruined. They may do this often but this is the ONE time it absolutely cannot be done. We were robbed of completion and its downright criminal.
