Talking Through A New Beginning!

On this episode 83 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I talk through The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 1, the season premiere, which is titled A New Beginning. It was written by executive producer/showrunner Angela Kang and directed by executive producer Greg Nicotero. Mark loved it, and I liked it a lot. I didn't have any major problems with it, except that it was a bit long and felt like a setup episode. It reminded me a lot of the Season 4 premiere, 30 Days Without an Accident. That said, I enjoyed this episode a lot more than most of what we had on Fear.

What will we do without Gregory? RHETORICAL, OK???

We see Gregory at his most despicable, bringing booze to an alcoholic at his lowest point, and conspiring to kill Maggie, while she is with baby Hershel, then attempt to kill her with a knife. I understand why Maggie executed Gregory, but she pulled a page from Negan by doing it, providing no due process, circumventing the democracy she was just elected to rule.

Ratings are way down...

As you can see from these rating and viewer charts, created by me, you'll see that the ratings and viewers are the worst since Season 1. Is it that people are leaving the show in droves, or are there other factors in play? Yes, viewers may not be returning, but there are several other reasons for a ratings decline. One is that AMC Premiere made the episode available a day early for subscribers of the service. Another is that it premiered a couple of weeks earlier than the last few seasons, so some may not have realized that the show was back. Another is that this trend is not isolated to The Walking Dead. Ratings are down, across the board.

One point I want to clarify...

I commented as one of my weak sauces was how Tammy Rose shifting blame from Maggie, which I can completely sympathize with, to the Saviors and how it felt like the writers were grinding the gears a bit, forcing that conversation to tell the story. I said that my reaction to that was to say "OK..." That might have sounded dismissive, or worse - sexist - but Tammy Rose's reaction to Maggie is completely understandable. I also buy her sentiment about the Saviors. It was that the putting those two things together that felt forced. It wasn't delivery, or emotions that I didn't buy. It was the connecting them together that felt forced to me. If Earl had said the same things, I'd have the same reaction.

Get in your feedback!

Please leave your feedback for The Walking Dead, Season 9 Episode 2, titled "The Bridge", by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, October 16, 2018.

Other Fun Stuff Completely Unrelated to A New Beginning!

If you want to help pay for the editing of this and other podcasts, I mentioned a while back that you can donate credits to my Auphonic account, which I use to make these episodes sound so good! That link is: https://auphonic.com/donate_credits?user=bmeloche. Please remember to subscribe to us in Apple Podcasts. Subscribing to us helps us move up in the rankings, so it'll help us out tremendously! You'll also get new episodes when they're released. And while you’re in there, leave us a rating or review! It only takes a few minutes and it helps others to find us! Have you checked out Amazon lately? That’s one way you can support this network and help keep the lights on!