The crucial and heartbreaking new season of The Walking Dead begins

This is the # 1 television show. The ratings have plunged last season, but here's the truth, courtesy of Variety's specialty magazine:The dead who walk remains the number one television show in adults aged 18 to 49 for the sixth consecutive season. "

The ninth season of The dead who walk (Sunday, AMC, 9:00 pm ET) will be crucial if its popularity is to be maintained. Even though the lines of information were shaking and the character of Negan was beginning to dominate over the last two seasons, it was television not to be missed for a large audience. Now, as all fans need to know, Rick Grimes will be out. Will he die? Will he disappear to eventually come back later? You can bet on death. That's what this series does. Rick's young son, Carl, is already dead.

What will happen to Rick will undoubtedly be heartbreaking. He is now the father of a little girl and is firmly attached to Michonne (Danai Gurira), forming a family unit in the midst of the horrible world in which narration exists.

From the beginning, the small group of survivors in the series simply moved from one temporary refuge to another. The faint hope that elements of the ancient civilization can be saved from the post-apocalypse collapse still evaporates. And the faint hope only causes sorrow, since one enemy group after the other, a terrifying threat after the other, weakens security. Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln, who was incredibly strong) was the reliable leader, sometimes stubborn at heart but always benign. Its release will be the most difficult of all for fans of the series.

What I can tell you about this season is limited, but there is enough to look for clues. First, the season begins about a year after the end of the brutal war with the group of saviors. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) lives as a prisoner held in solitary confinement. The central group lives a peaceful and mainly agrarian life. Over the years following the apocalypse of zombies, it is increasingly difficult to find and reuse old technology. Solar energy is exploited. The characters use horses to travel now. Nature is restoring the world and that poses its own problems.

The tension between the different surviving communities is more worrying. Some were once at war with each other. Now, under Rick, we're talking about different groups getting along and helping each other. It's certainly what he says to Negan, with a certain taste. It can not last, of course. The urge to fight, to fight to dominate, is always there.

What is also here, of course, are the Walkers, the incessant parade of these endless armies of predatory zombies. There are more deaths to come, more danger and narrower escapes.

There are also new characters and the most fascinating is probably that of this British actor, Samantha Morton. She plays Alpha, leader of Whisperers. Whisperers are survivors of the apocalypse who have chosen to blend into the skin of the undead by wearing costumes in human flesh. They also have their own philosophy of life and to call this philosophy of "primal customs", as some covers do, is a euphemism.

Viewers will also see a new sequence of titles, created in macabre animation and anchored in the colors black and red. In the sequence, crows are ubiquitous, horse-mounted ghosts move in the fields, a human skull is pointed by a garden fork and the barbed wire bat named Lucille, previously used by Negan, lies in a breakage. There are also helicopters in the air.

What does all this mean? It will become clear. But a narrative thread is likely to emerge: female leadership. The series has a new star, Angela Kang, who is a writer since the second season. She said women will now play more important and complex roles. Maggie, actress Lauren Cohan, is about to play in a new AMC series. Its release, which may not be as final as Rick's, will also upset viewers.

There has always been so much to extrapolate The dead who walk. Above all, we, the public is seduced by the terrible possibility of a world without order, without communication or modern technology. And we fantasize about the likelihood of helping to recreate society and culture from the ruins of destruction. And, most importantly, we watch with horror the hope freeze. Expect more despair.

Also aired this weekend – the new season of Doctor Who (Sunday, Space, 1:45 pm ET) airs at a weird hour, which coincides with the much-anticipated world premiere. He has the 13th doctor to be introduced and the first woman in the role. It's Jodie Whittaker. Many people are ecstatic about this development and, moreover, Space Channel is currently in free preview. Enjoy.