It’s now been two weeks since The Walking Dead midseason finale, and as we head to the end of 2015, we thought it would be worth discussing the current state of The Walking Dead. How was the first half? What can we look forward to in the second half? Are we in the middle of the best or the worst season of The Walking Dead, so far?
Dariel Figueroa and Dustin Rowles are here to hash it out. There are spoilers for the first half of the sixth season, and speculative spoilers for the back half.
Dustin: After the phenomenal sixth-season premiere of The Walking Dead back in October, I found myself in genuine awe of the series. Coming off its most consistent season, The Walking Dead seemed to find another gear, and when Rick put that gun to Carter’s head (R.I.P.), I legitimately began to wonder why the series hadn’t gotten much by way of awards acknowledgement. The Ricktatorship was back, and Andrew Lincoln had found the perfect line between sympathetic leader and out-of-control tyrant.
What I loved about that premiere is that it illustrated that The Walking Dead can be much more than an zombie show. It can also be an intense character study, and over five seasons, we’ve seen tremendous character growth in many of the characters. Moreover, the season’s second and third episodes picked up where the premiere left off. There was no let on the throttle, and much of the character development came in how the characters were dealing with a threat from the zombie horde. There was no need to take a break from the action to push the narrative because the action itself was propelling it.
Then Nicholas shot himself. Glenn nearly died, and The Walking Dead not only put on the breaks, it switched gears.
Before we even look into the next half of season six, the question I have for you, Dariel, is if you think the first half of season six can be considered an overall success?
Dariel: It’s an interesting question because, as you said, The Walking Dead has varied its tempo this season. What this show does — and sometimes to its detriment — is punctuate many action-heavy narratives with leisurely moments of levity and introspection. It’s a similar tactic to the one Stephen King employed with his entry in zombie fiction, Cell, and it’s a move that made the book suffer. Like the characters in the show, there have been times where I, as the viewer, have felt abandoned, wandering through wreckage and searching for the narrative footing that will set me upon the right path. The first three episodes of this season put me back upon that road where The Walking Dead matters and nothing else in TV-land can pry my teeth away from it.
To call those first episodes anything less than a master class would be criminal. They stand among some of the best of the series, with Morgan and Carol’s standoff against the Wolves among some of the best moments in the show’s history. Starting with “Here’s Not Here,” the Morgan-origin episode, things slowed down a bit, but remained central to the overall structure of the season. What I’m saying is, nothing feels like a throwaway scene or moment in season six, and it’s to the credit of the writers of the show that they’ve matured enough to know when to hit the gas, and when to decelerate.
But, you already touched on it, and I feel like we have to address it further: Is Glenn still being alive a betrayal of the audience? Is it an asterisk on this season?
Dustin: I wouldn’t have had a problem with Glenn’s near-death experience if the writers hadn’t belabored it by inserting four episodes in between the incident and the reveal. If they’d revealed his fate in the next episode, or even in the episode after the Morgan flashback, I wouldn’t have felt betrayed, even if the audience had figured it out within an hour of the third episode airing. That also points to an unfortunate side effect of having a show as popular as The Walking Dead (or Game of Thrones, where it concerns Jon Snow): Thanks to social media, Reddit threads, set paparazzi, camera drones, and even theorists like ourselves, the audience knows too much (contrast that with The Leftovers, where Damon Lindelof pulled off a reveal he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to if his show had been under as much scrutiny). It’s become almost impossible to outsmart the audience.
That’s not the writers’ fault, and all things considered, it was a cool camera gimmick. If everyone on the planet hadn’t known that Glenn had been seen filming a future episode, the reveal could have been terrifically cool and surprising.
However, it also goes to my issues with episodes five through eight this season: We know there’s a big episode coming, but the writers continue to push those big moments off. They attempted to build suspense, but they kept the thread of tension so tight for so long that it began to develop slack. The midseason finale, for instance, was a nightmare in my opinion: There were hundreds of zombies converging on Alexandria, and there was no real sense of urgency from the characters until the end.
Seen in the broader context of a 16-episode season, maybe that midseason finale will ultimately feel like a blip on the way to greatness — but this blip is going to drag on for the next three months.
The Walking Dead, however, rebounds from off episodes better than any other show on television, which points us toward the back half of season six. If you’re of the opinion that season six could be the best season yet, what do you think is in store for us in 2016?
Dariel: With so many strong episodes in the first half of this season, I’m hoping that 2016 brings about some of the best moments and narrative threads that TWD has ever produced. I think that if we learned anything from the first half of season six, it’s that, when it wants to be, The Walking Dead can be one of the most riveting shows on television. The creators have set up several bowling pins that will need to be knocked down before season seven can begin, such as the fate of Alexandria, Glenn’s return to the group, more interaction with the Wolves, and the eventual debut of Negan.
I’m not one to read into a show more than I have to. I like to be surprised when I watch an episode. That said, I know what happens to Glenn in the comics, and I don’t think that will happen with its televised counterpart. Negan is certainly going to make a statement when he arrives, and it will likely be with the demise of one of the main characters. Also, I think we’ll start to see the endgame of the series begin to crystallize. We know that a season seven is definitely happening, but just how much longer can the show continue? TWD was conceived as a prolonged look into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and it’s achieved that already. Realistically, the show can continue for years and years, but at some point all things come to an end, and hopefully the show decides to put one to the brain before it becomes too stale to savor.
Dustin, you’re someone who does look deeper into the machinations of TWD, so what are your expectations with the latter half of this season?
Dustin: I’m inclined to agree with you, Dariel, about the rest of season six. There’s so much coming that it would be hard to mess it up, unless Scott Gimple tries to trickle it out over the course of three seasons. They could also mess it up if they decide to soft-pedal it — the upcoming turn of events in the comics is brutal, and Gimple and co. need to maintain that in the series. It’s a strange thing to say, but they also need to kill off a major character or two to regain our trust after the Glenn shenanigans. It’s also necessary to kill off a few minor characters because the cast has gotten too large, so large in fact that regular cast members like Aaron and Heath disappear for long stretches. I would also argue that, with all the gut punches arriving in the latter half of season six, this show needs Eugene more than ever: He can add a heavy dose of levity with even one or two scenes an episode.
As for the distant future of the series: I think the show will run until there’s nothing left in the ratings tank. I doubt they even start thinking about winding down until season 12 or 13.
On the question of Negan, because it’s so widely known, it’s hardly even a spoiler to say what happens to Glenn in the comics, and I agree with you that it almost certainly won’t be Glenn who succumbs to Lucille in the series. For funsies and before we rap this up, which major character do you think Negan will kill when he’s introduced to the series?
I have a sneaking suspicion they’ll pull the ultimate gut punch by killing off not Glenn, but Maggie. It will devastate me.
Dariel: While murdering a pregnant woman would certainly affix Negan at the head of the villain’s table — as well as shocking the, as you mentioned, Dustin, very smart Walking Dead audience — I think he’s going to take out Michonne. With her existential interactions with Deanna, it feels like we’re coming to the end of Michonne’s story. She’s been a tortured character for quite some time, and I believe she’ll find some peace before she’s taken from the series by way of Lucille. It’ll be a gutsy move (the show has a heavy amount of Michonne merchandise for sale in its online store), but to your point, it’s one that needs to be done to get back on the level with the audience, whether they like it or not.
Dustin: Michonne’s death would be gutting. I’d probably end up wishing they’d find a way to keep her zombified version around, because I couldn’t live in The Walking Dead universe without Danai Gurira.
This has been fun, Dariel, and I look forward to the Valentine’s Day Massacre we have in store for us when The Walking Dead returns on February 14.
