So Ive just seen the final episode (No 24) in the final series (No 11) of the Walking Dead. Ive been following this since it started in 2010 but don’t know anyone else who watches the show – certainly none of my family or friends do and it feels a bit like a weird hobby like extreme ironing or duck herding.
To be honest at times its been a bit of a chore – there have been as many, in fact probably more, downs than ups and on occasion when a new series has been released I’ve uttered an audible groan – a bit like when your relatives announce they coming round for the annual Christmas get together (really? couldn’t just maybe just fuck off instead?). However at it’s best It was terrific – the Negan era in particular was spectacular TV – surely one off the best ever badass villains.
This final series was pretty good to be fair but they’ve left it open for a follow up and there are already multiple spin-off series being planned, but personally I’m now going to quietly put my coat on and walk away and hope nobody notices.
However I will just broadcast this final transmission in the hope that maybe there is someone else out there in Deadland…….?
Jaygee says
Got pissed off with the fact thatevery season was exactly the same, gave up after season 4.
Useless fact: Andrew Lincoln is Ian Anderson’s Son-in-Law
Gatz says
Useless fact follow up – Andrew Lincoln was born with the surname Clutterbuck, which is the surname passed on to his children with Gael Anderson, daughter of Ian.
Jaygee says
Can’t flaut your spelling there, G
Vulpes Vulpes says
Useless fact follow up follow up:
Andrew Lincon used to live just up the road from Foxy Towers.
Kid Dynamite says
Only ever watched the first episode of the TV show, but I enjoyed the comic. What was interesting about the end of the comic story was that no one, apart from the creative team, knew it was coming. An issue just turned up one day that finished with ‘The End’. No hype, no advance warning, just an old fashioned surprise. It was very pleasing.
Everygoodboydeservesfruita says
At its best I thought it was one of the best TV as literature examples with powerful complexity. Its interesting that commercial interests perpetuated the story beyond its capacity and like others, it simply exhausted my interest. I thought the Negan story line interesting but actually thought of it as the last gasp though I can’t really know. Its first four seasons were magnificent.
Interesting that some folks love to watch shows twice but even in the best example ( Boardwalk Empire/Mad Men) I have felt no inclination to go through it all again. I think this is partly due to with the stories’ existential despair. In contrast, West Wing is for me quite rewatchable even though its manipulative orchestral sound track wears thin. I found ‘Justified’ to be very rewatchable and extremely moving in its finale.
In terms of the TV as literature argument over the last twenty years, I am mindful that Dickens and others published novels in installments – this was the 19th century commercial imperative too – keep it coming and pad it out. It certainly seems now that the feature film is the short story – taut and resolved. The long form TV ( by the way anybody recall The Pallisers – a mere 26 episodes) seems to be the 19th century novel. I often recall that Polonius and Hamlet differed in their reaction to the player’s speech with Polonius declaring that “this is too long.” I like to think that it was for this reason that Hamlet killed him.
Moose the Mooche says
Duck herding is a weird hobby now? Woah. Judged.
retropath2 says
I struggled on manfully to about series 8; the Whisperers, were they? A bald Samantha somebody. Then they started messing with time schedules, fast forwarding and all that. Enough. Likewise Fear tha Walking Dead. Got to series 4 and, for a while, it was better than its parent. But I never bothered keeping up, as it moved channels or something.
MUCH more to the point, whatever happened to 28 Months Later, eh? Or years, come to that?
Sniffity says
(anybody recall The Pallisers – a mere 26 episodes)
I’ve quite often been taken aback when reading about legendary old UK TV shows, and discovering how few episodes were made.
Moose the Mooche says
Repeated on BBC2 a while back. Very creaky, but I have a high tolerance for that kind of old crap
Ainsley says
Like you , Feedback, I rarely come across ANYONE who’s watched it although they are clearly out there. Certainly in the US it was huge at one time but tailed off.
I’ve stuck with it, even through those seasons which didn’t seem to be much more than people walking along train tracks talking to each other. The highs have been great but too many “meh” moments, unfortunately, even before the sainted Rick left. It’s JUST done enough to keep me interested at times, although it definitely picked back up for final couple of seasons. Negan was a great character.
They promised that the ending would be definitive and certainly backtracked on that and I suppose I’ll try the spin offs but can’t help thinking that they will continue the diminishing returns
Jaygee says
The spin offs (as opposed to prequels such as BCS) that seem to work best are the ones where they take the main character and put them in with a new supporting cast/set of circumstances (eg Frazier Cane).
Bit hard to do when a zombie plague has decimated civilization)
Moose the Mooche says
Yeah, but what about the TV show?
Zanti Misfit says
Me and the girlfriend rewatched the entire series this year before enjoying the final season. It really did become a different show, but although it waxed and waned, we stuck with it to the bitter end and will miss it. Although, like the OP said, there will some spin offs and a movie, so it’s not over until the fat dead lady sings. I think it ‘jumped the shark’ when they brought in that junkyard tribe. It was like watching a young Frances De La Tour in a Toyah wig ruling Fraggle Rock.
It also became more and more implausible. Where are they getting their fuel from? Why are certain characters obese? How do they run generators without attracting walkers? Why don’t they cover themselves with zombie guts everytime they go on a run? Why aren’t they infected by the zombie guts? The whole biting thing to get infected never quite made sense. And as for The Commonwealth’s population being 50,000 strong? Yeah, right. By the piddly amount of extras we ever saw, this would mean Albert Square would also have that many residents.
Still, it was a romp for the most part, but the first three or four seasons were the best. If it wasn’t for Negan and The Whisperers*, I may have bailed.
*Please resist the TMFTL quip.
Feedback_File says
Respect for that amount of concentrated viewing. Yes there were obvious holes in the whole premise – how come nobody got infected by the sheer amount of blood and guts when they were chopping down walkers – I can’t imagine there were loads of anti bacterial gel bottles to hand. I will look back on it fondly especially Negan, the Whisperers and the David Morissey seasons.
Tiggerlion says
Weren’t they all infected but to a lesser degree, so that they only became walkers after dying from other causes?
Feedback_File says
Very early on in Series 1 I think, Rick Grimes was told by a scientist that everyone carried the disease but it was dormant until, as you say, you died.
Vulpes Vulpes says
That was made amply plain when his bestie police buddy grunted and rose from the dead with evil intent on Rick, and Rick’s young whipper-snapper offed the now zombified plod before he could get his gnashers into the back of Rick’s neck.
Tiggerlion says
Precisely. So, you could roll about in as much guts and blood as you liked and it wouldn’t make any difference. Probably best not to have any open wounds at the time and it would be wise to keep your mouth shut. And close your eyes.
chiz says
I got all they way to the end, but it was like running a marathon. The first half was okay, then it became a bit of a chore, then you fucking hated it but you’d come to far to give up, and then the last mile or two was all about the euphoria of actually finishing, even though you knew you would never, ever do it again.
One of its early charms was that they would just arbitrarily kill major characters off now and then. That was clever, it never let you settle. But as the cast and storyline grew – as is inevitable over ten seasons or so – they stopped the cull. And that was a shame, because there were more than enough established characters who you cared very little about (the bloke with the mace for a hand, never did catch his name) to feed them to the walkers once per episode and you’d still end up with Daryl and Caryl riding off on a motorbike together at the end of the last one.
Sour Crout says
I’ve watched it all and Fear the Walking Dead. I’ll watch the up coming spin offs too. A friend sent me all the comics so it was fun comparing them. Overall I’ve enjoyed it. Damn
sight more entertaining than all that reality TV nonsense.
Am just about to start Black Summer,very similar to TWD apparently. Will report back
Feedback_File says
I agree with every word Chiz and also you are right I didn’t really know the names of quite a few. – the mace guy, the priest, the music guy who got munched in the last episode, the woman with the bow and arrow ??
Uncle Wheaty says
I gave up after the series after the one when Rick was killed (series 8?).
It was must watchTV for me for those series then it just got stupid.
Did they ever explain the helicopter taking the women away from the junkyard?
Sewer Robot says
Gah! It’s the curse of “narrative closure”.
TV shows are like albums – our heroes start off with a pile of cool original ideas that have been refined over time. Then some suits offer them a wad of cash to produce more new ideas against a deadline and, at first, they cobble together something good enough to piggyback previous success, until, after a while, all that’s left is the
familiarity of what we liked before and an absence of ideas.
Only true completists, like some of those on here, have the need to own Cut The Crap or Covid Contrarian era Van. For most, it’s easy to accept our favourites have a best before date and it’s just a matter of judging when to stop going to the well. But TV shows have that bloody narrative – we want to know how it all turns out, even when most shows just keep spinning stories because they haven’t been cancelled and these vital narratives will terminate like a game of musical chairs the moment the same suits cut off the cash…
Jaygee says
There’s also the mistaken belief that more is better.
Corrie is a classic example.
Brilliant, must-watch telly when it was on for 30 minutes twice-weekly,
the suits upped it to first three x 30-minute and more recently
six half-hourly eps weekly.
With so much time to fill, scripts became Increasingly outlandish
and the show lost the real-life believability that originally made it so
special.
With FIFA due to increase it from 32 to 48 teams in 2026, the WC is
heading the same way.
Moose the Mooche says
Effects pedals are the exception that proves this rule…
Podicle says
According to my, erm, Excel spreadsheet, I just took possession of my 81st effects pedal yesterday, and there is another incoming that will arrive from the UK in a week or so. In my defence, it was my birthday yesterday. Doesn’t explain the other 80…
Moose the Mooche says
Wow, you must be the greatest guitarist in the world!
….what do you mean, you don’t have a guitar??
Podicle says
I can’t afford one.
Vulpes Vulpes says
I suspect that what you really mean is that you can’t find it.
Sewer Robot says
I got two effects pedals for my bike – now, when I’m going down hills, it sounds like My Bloody Valentine. Saves me ringing the bell..
Moose the Mooche says
I used to have a friend who talked about replacing his clutch pedal
with a wah-wah “In
case of car chases”
I didn’t find out if this ambitious engineering project ever became a reality.
Vulpes Vulpes says
I enjoyed the early few series, sorry, “seasons” FFS. I was quite prepared to forego any explanation for the quandary they found themselves in, and just enjoy the messy zombie-offing and repeated moments of perilous, skin-of-the-teeth jeopardy. Then they all got stuck in a bloody motorhome on a dual carriageway somewhere for what seemed like a dozen episodes, and I thought their end had come; the plot had certainly stopped evolving. Then it got better again until they then got stuck in a bloody concrete jail somewhere or other and good old boy Rick started dribbling and having angsty flashbacks of his ghostly missus, who’d topped herself when on the zombie off-ramp. Then it got better again when Michonne showed up with her two tamed (read; mutilated) walkers, and we got the David Morrissey ‘Governor’ fella. Pretty soon we were in extended base-building mode – the refuge of all FPS video games that have run out of ideas – and I just hung on long enough to see him satisfyingly and ceremoniously dispatched by katana.
Then it all went to shit.
Up until that point I’d bought each boxed set as they came out, and had am impressive shelf footage of the things. But they all went to the chazzah at that point. Disbelief had been profoundly un-suspended. The plot got all dumb and the violence went from comic-strip glory gory to nasty, nasty, video nasty territory with one over-the-top episode involving the dispatch of three long running characters with particularly gruesome head smashing detail. I bailed. Though a mutual friend I discovered that Egg had signed up for another season (the one where he gets abducted by helicopter I think), and then I also found out how much he’d been paid to do so. Can’t say I blamed him.
In retrospect it was naive of me to hope that an American production team would be inclined to find a way to close the story arc to my satisfaction. But it was a shame they just dribbled it away to shit gradually after about, what, six or seven (mostly) interesting and entertaining seasons.
Moose the Mooche says
I enjoyed the episodes where those fellers went down a hill in a tin bath. That’s the same programme, yeah?
Feedback_File says
Nah that was Until Death Do Us Part – loved that bit with the bus, beret and roller skates – no hang on was that actually The Walking Dead?
Moose the Mooche says
And that dude beating up his car with a tree… Really apocalyptic
hubert rawlinson says
And that chap who used to float in doorways.
Vulpes Vulpes says
You’re Worth it.
Jaygee says
People were easily pleased in those days
Jaygee says
People were easily pleased in those days
Feedback_File says
Tbh it all went downhill after Jerry Garcia died