I went from someone not too long ago who couldn’t stand horror–especially zombies–to being a full dead-head in the space of a few months. I finished all of TWD in four months and now I’m halfway through S3 of FTWD as of today. I will discuss spoilers up until that point, but please avoid spoilers for anything beyond that.
The Walking Dead was phenomenal. I had no idea what I’d been missing all these years. I thought it was going to be your run of the mill drama with horror elements, filled with poorly handled tropes and weak characters and a somewhat unearned cult following. God…the characters were some of the best TV characters I’ve ever watched in a show with this much action and adventure, and especially the women, which was such a treat. The first few seasons of the show were some of the most surprising episodes of television I’ve ever watched, in large part because there was so much raw humanity on display that I found to be endlessly compelling, hopeful, uplifting, tragic and heart-wrenching.
The show evolved into something different, but I especially felt the shift around the time Negan showed up, what with all those fantasy-coded warring factions. Can you imagine one of the earlier characters like Lori in what the show became, because I sure can’t. While the saviours arc was incredibly frustrating and hate-inducing, I was surprised that I found myself okay with letting Negan redeem himself. I really hated the guy, I really didn’t understand why so many people were simping on him, his backstory with his wife kinda made me hate him even more, lol, but he managed to make me root for him in the end. Maggie’s speech to him in the last episode was exceptionally powerful and, I felt, entirely fitting and emotionally resonant.
The Reapers were the lowest point of the show for me, and especially Leah. She was one giant walking cliche and represented the type of writing I initially thought I was going to get out of the show. The only good part about that arc was how Pope got so little opportunity to be the PoS he was before Daryl was like ‘nah.’
I actually really enjoyed the Whisperers arc, and I thought Alpha was performed spectacularly by the actress and was a very intriguing and well-conceived, formidable villain. Negan 'partnering' with her felt wonderfully like crack fanfiction- like, these two characters definitely should not be meeting and they DEFINITELY should not be f**king, but here we are. Lydia was another surprise- I thought she was going to fall into the cliche trap but the writing for her character surprised me at nearly every turn. That poor girl.
The moment we met ten year old Judith Grimes I was literally this meme:
The death that broke me was Carl. God…I haven’t cried like that in a very long time. Glenn’s was the most disturbing and shocking. Sasha’s was also very tragic, performed to perfection, made all the sadder for how pointless it was. We gotta shout out Rosita here as well…her goodbye to Eugene, my god. The first traumatizing death for me was Dale. He was my first fave and as soon as Shane started threatening him, I feared the end was near. He was too good for this world. Daryl (I now understand why people stan Norman Reedus) and old man Hershel also became favourites, later followed by Carol and Michonne. I'm obsessed with the portrayal of friendship between Daryle and Carol. Michonne and Rick were the best couple of the show for me; I had been shipping them long before they got together. Much later in the show, Eugene and Jerry were my boys, I will always have such a soft spot for characters like them, even though I know Jerry wasn’t given much depth or any backstory, the number of times I said out loud to an empty room “I swear to god, if Jerry dies this episode…*shakes fist threateningly*.” I will note that the show did an exceptional job of making me care about nearly every ‘good’ character, with only a few exceptions. There were some characters I started out hating who I later loved. Gabriel? Who would have thought he would become one of the most badass MF’s around. Him and Rosita? Never would have seen that coming, but they worked so well. Massive shout out to the complexity that is Carol. What a character. The last season was wild, in not the best way, with the walkers actually evolving (lol) and Pamela (lol). There’s so much more I want to say, but I won’t for fear of making this post even longer than it already is.
Now, On to FTWD. Oh boy. So I was prepared to not like this show- I was warned by all the reddit posts and articles saying it’s the weakest entry in the universe. I will say that it’s not as terrible as everyone warned me it would be, at least not yet. It’s not great either. Nick and Daniel are two excellent characters, performed exceptionally. Most of the rest of the characters suffer from simply being uninteresting and their arcs feeling unearned/underwhelming. Yes, I despised Chris, though he helped me recognize that the show had some semblance of long-term writing efforts. For example, when I began the show and witnessed him at that violent protest, I thought he was a more radical teen SJW. The slow reveal that he actually had violent, sociopathic tendencies was actually very compelling, and while his two episode arc before his death was so angering, I also enjoyed the process of this realization of who he is and seeing his past actions through an entirely different lens. I enjoy that kind of writing, even if the execution needed a bit of work.
I wanted to like Madison. She starts the show by being fiercely loyal to her kids, including those not of blood (like that prepper kid at her school) and you can’t help but like her. I came to the realization today, halfway through S3, that I /hate/ her. If she was a DnD character, her wisdom score would be in the negative. She’s literally the last person you want on your team because she sabotages everything she lays her hand on in the most thoughtless way possible. People trust her and she played off as badass, characters acquiescing “Madison’s right,” BUT SHE’S NOT. At least with Carol, when she runs off after Alpha and gets everyone trapped in the cave, the show KNOWS she made the wrong choice, and there’s emotional karma for her, not to mention she has a massive history of trauma that puts her actions in context. With Madison, too many characters are agreeing with her, or not holding her accountable when she goes off on these thoughtless actions; Her lighting up the hotel, her killing people to get Alicia back from the Hopi Tribe. I’m rooting for the tribe, guys.
Alicia is the most boring, flat, YA character of the show- speaking as someone who loves a /good/ YA. I haven’t enjoyed anything her character has done so far, and that’s sad, because a teenage girl in the apocalypse could be interesting, if they weren’t so invested in making her a bad trope, played off as (unearned) tough/badass. Also, she didn’t seem to give a shit about Travis until he died, and now she’s throwing that death in Walker’s face saying “you don’t know how I feel,” in response to him and his people’s hundreds of years of senseless suffering at the hands of non-native people? Yeah, no. Way to make me /not/ root for you even more. Also, I don’t know if anyone else was bothered by this, but the first three character deaths in the first couple episodes of FTWD were all black men, two of whom were killed brutally by our white MC’s, and I just found that to be a huge oversight. Alnd I was so excited to see another queer romance on this show…but man, queer couples have it so rough in this universe.
Looking forward, if FTWD gets really bad, and I suspect it will considering the show icon on Prime only shows Alica and Strand remaining, I will be moving on to the other spin offs. I’m really hoping the Daryl Dixon spinoff doesn’t feel like those standalone episodes in S11 of TWD with Leah and the cabin. Those were my least favourite episodes of the entire series, because they felt so try-hard and cliched and the camera lense/ lighting was overly filtered to make it seem edgy. It didn’t have the rawness and humanity that made earlier seasons so special. I /just/ found out that there’s a Rick and Michonne show and I’m HYPED. My fingers are crossed that I enjoy the rest of the spinoffs more than FTWD, but I have faith given what little I’ve read about them.
I don’t currently know anyone IRL who’s watched the show, so if anyone has any questions or wants to share their thoughts, feel free! If anyone made it this far, thanks for reading!
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