The new start of Walking Dead looks like a big step backwards

Caution: Spoilers for The dead who walk season 9, episode 6 below.

Last week, The dead who walk was too smart for his own good. After months of pretending that Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes would be eliminated from the series, the series aired a final that seemed to do exactly that, before revealing in the last moments that Rick had been blown away by helicopter, but alive. . Adding insult to injury, AMC then pulled out another rabbit from his crumpled hat: not only was Rick alive, but the character would be the lead role in a trilogy of Walking Dead movies on the network.

This season has been promoted as the final episodes of Rick Grimes in The dead who walk, but the episodes are not the same as those on television movies, you see. Or something.

The one-two troll-punch was about as cheap as possible, but there remained a glimmer of hope: as part of the reinvention of the series under the new star Angela Kang, The dead who walk would make a six – year – old jump, featuring Rick 's daughter, Judith (now played by Cailey Fleming). The sixth episode of the season, "Who are you now?", Offered the audience a first glimpse of this new beginning, but it was unfortunately too obvious that The dead who walk turned the clock forward, it took a giant step back.

Photo by Gene Page / AMC

Let's talk hair

Bryan: OK, it will sound like noise, but there is a point. Stay with me.

As the trailers for this week's episode show, The dead who walk ages the established characters. They are not really look No matter who, older, notice, and no one shows any real significant behavioral change, with the exception of Michonne who sometimes speaks aloud with Rick or Carl. Walkers are still walkers and, for the most part, nothing has progressed significantly from the point of view of infrastructure, apart from the survivors who build a windmill.

Instead, everyone has a different hairstyle.

Carol, always practical, dropped her short hair for a witch mane. Daryl's hair still has not been washed, but it has enough length to allow him to be admitted free to an Iron Maiden concert. Michonne abandoned her iconic bandana and even Negan entered the game with a well cut beard and cut to fashion. In a single flash-forward, I have no problem with that, but it's the personal grooming changes that really are the only signs of the passage of time that The dead who walk has to offer? Have there been no calamitous altercations leaving wounded or marked characters? Nothing happened that changed the fundamental dynamic between this small group of survivors?

The idea that six full years could run in this issue – nearly two-thirds of the period covered – and leave no significant mark reflects the very problem that the show faced in recent years. All that is happening is either superficial and aesthetic, or a huge overplayed history beating that takes on disproportionate proportions. I'm always ready to see what's going on this season, but it seems like a caricatural start.

Notch: I am ready to give The dead who walk the benefit of the doubt here – to a certain extent. I understand that you can not artificially age your six year cast and that the only significant change to the screen is the introduction of the old Judith. But it's downright ridiculous that the series spends the first 20 minutes of the episode alternating between a monologue to Michonne's heaviness and a generous presentation of Carol's locks and Eugene's new ponytail. (Thank God he threw the mullet.)

It's not as if the series ignored how to show the gradual and subtle changes that had occurred, instead of telling us plainly. The scene where Gabriel heads Alexandria during a council session to decide the plight of newcomers illustrates in a remarkable way how they managed to rebuild a form of government. We know that Michonne's role is now "Chief of Security", indicating that everyone has more codified roles now.

But we do not really know if these last six years have been spent on anything other than farming and training new couples. (Gabriel and Rosita are the group's most unlikely new match.) It is briefly mentioned that Eugene is trying to establish a radio network, but overall, the episode relies heavily on the time that passes through the eyes of the four Judith saves new characters. Really, the viewers want to know what Daryl is preparing, where Maggie has gone and why, after six years, everyone else looks the same.

Photo by Gene Page / AMC

The endless series

Bryan: I was wrong last week when I assumed that The dead who walk would not turn into Judith Grimes Hour. That said, as the previous episode teased him, the jump in time brings a new group of characters who are supposed to turn things into interesting directions.

The problem? After the episode last night, I can hardly tell you anything meaningful about them. It was the woman who was in prison who did not return her knife to Michonne (otherwise known as Magna, played by Nadia Hilker). There is The Guy who was a music teacher (Dan Fogler's Luke), The Journalist (Connie, played by Lauren Ridloff) and The Journalists' Sister (Angel Theory's Kelly). Connie is deaf, which definitely adds a new approach to the zombie apocalypse, but other than that, everything about the group sounds familiar.

The citizens of Alexandria meet a new group. They give this group the benefit of the doubt. Someone from this new group (Magna, in this case), is not quite in the future, resulting in conflict. This group is then mixed with another community because it's not as bad as leaving them all in the desert. Sounds familiar? This is the case because it is essentially the same scenario that occurs each season on The dead who walk.

I do not neglect these new characters. They participated in the series during a single episode and at least some of them will probably have time to evolve and qualify. But I am frustrated that, despite the passage of time and the promise of a new vision, we have returned to the same age. Walking Dead model. What do you think, Nick? Am I becoming too cynical?

Notch: It seems convenient to tell a lazy story by using four new characters who are quite unable to be saved by a 10 year old girl to do a lot of heavy work during the time jump. The dead who walk tends to introduce new characters that are steep enough and deep enough to be used primarily as intriguing devices, then reject them quickly. (Anyone remembers the short-lived return of the character from Season 1, Morales, last year – it lasts one episode before Daryl has it.)

It is difficult to invest in these new characters, knowing that they are used as direct tools to show the new attitude of Michonne and the careless and empathetic mind of Judith. I also find it hard to believe the stories of these characters, at least out of the breadcrumbs that gives us the series in this episode. The writers try at least to try: at one point, Luke and Magna exchange the names of the communities and destinations they survived and fled, as if Carol or Daryl mentioned Woodbury or Terminus in a casual comment. Except we do not recognize the names of the places where these new foreigners came from, and we are not supposed to do it. They have an implicit history behind them.

But considering how vulnerable and inexperienced they are, it's really hard to believe that they've survived so long or have gone through so many hardships. A flashback scene, or something that would highlight what these characters ran and what their true nature was, would have been very helpful.

There might be some skeletons in their collective closet that the show reveals over time. Maybe the stay at Magna Prison will come back in an interesting narrative way. I found that Connie and Kelly's dynamics with the use of sign language was a turning point in post-apocalyptic survival mechanics. But like you, Bryan, I have a hard time worrying about a new group of new characters, and even more difficult to believe that they will stay long after being used to show the tenuous relationship between Alexandria and the Hilltop.

Bryan: There was a big cathartic moment we probably should be turning to: Carol decided to end her years of pacifism by eliminating a group of Saviors. And not only in the genre "Oh, civilization will be better if we execute them humanly" of the genre. She literally extinguishes them with gasoline and burns them alive. It's cruel, brutal, vicious and avenger. After all the frustration created by the slow interpretation of Negan and the Saviors in the series, there is something that frees the fact that someone gets rid of a large part of them in one visceral blow.

But even there, it's like a repetition. Carol being a cold-hearted killer is not new; going to this place, then slowly returning to Rick's more moderate point of view, was an important part of his character arc during the series' life. Thus, although the brutal murders are satisfactory, they also feel that the series returns to what it does best. Maybe Carol will adopt a new gray moral philosophy previously explored, but the way she arranges the saviors seems The dead who walk She just wants to play ping pong between the only two nuances of morality that she knows.

Photo by Gene Page / AMC

Hey, look – a bad direction!

Notch: If you do not read comics, the end of "Who are you now?" May surprise you. The zombies that can talk – not just talk, but apparently have a form of intelligence – are as big as the bomb. The dead who walk could have fallen in his first post-Rick episode. In general, everything is well managed: there is a short and frightening scene in which Eugene and Rosita avoid a herd of undead, only to discover that they are really targeted. "Where are they?" Seems to ask one of the walkers before the show goes to black.

It is effective, of course, but it is also unfair. The dead who walk Here is his next big bow, and without spoiling us too much, it's a chapter from Robert Kirkman's sources. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense that the series turns to comics, as it has done throughout the series, for its next narrative inspiration. On the other hand, it sounds like a huge missed opportunity and a shallow wrong direction to get involved in the story after Rick's departure, essentially misleading the public of the nature of the new threat.

The dead who walk has always done a decent job by threading the needle and staying true to its source, while giving the show a new and unique look, at least until the introduction of Negan. That's what we did using exclusive characters on a show, exchanging stories and taking artistic freedom where appropriate. With the talking walkers, however, it seems that the series misses out on the possibility of really telling interesting stories with its new cast of characters and the time jump, which is not in the comics. And this encourages viewers to think that they finally get answers about the nature of the virus, or perhaps a form of evolution on behalf of the undead. I think the big unveiling will disappoint a lot of people, especially if the show betrays it before the mid-season finale, which, I'm afraid, will not happen.

Bryan: Out of everything in this episode, this latest teasing has left me the most discouraged. Why? Because for a brief moment, it appeared that the show would do something different. The public saw these characters dancing the Boogie of a new community, year after year. They met potential allies, only to discover that they are actually enemies. And they had to deal with the loss of their loved ones along the way. The first thing the series has never dared to do – even for an ephemeral moment – is to tackle the nature of the zombie outbreak, including its origin, its long-term impact and what could happen to those who returned. .

I understood. This is not a show about zombies; it's a show about how society breaks down and then rebuilds itself. The problem is that the series has played this cycle so often that I find it incredibly difficult to occupy myself with it. When I thought the zombies could actually talk, I was knocked on my heels. Take things in new directions? New exciting approaches? Sign me up!

Of course, the first thing I did was to ping Nick, who informed me of the next major arc of villain in the comic book – and it quickly became obvious that the talking zombie is probably creating another disappointing treatment error. In all fairness, the last moment of the episode itself works. The frustration comes from reading between the lines and paying attention to some characters who have been chosen for this season. But that does not take away anything. This is the first episode of The dead who walk this is actually an opportunity to do something new and new, and instead, it is almost certain that it will fall back on old models and that it will then add hair extensions.

I'm up until the end of this season, but with all the talk of new takes and reinvention, I'm really starting to wonder: how is this vision developing? The dead who walk different from the one we have already watched? And if not, then why all this fanfare?