Total opinion piece. I (like many that haven't already bailed on the show) anxiously awaited the big reveal on Sunday night. I watched the first head get bashed in... and then the second head get bashed in.... And then... Meh. I turned it off and I don't plan to watch it any more.
During the ridiculously long wait for this cliffhanger to resolve, I realized that I REALLY don't like where the writers are taking the show. I'll admit I'm not a comic reader (in general or of TWD) so perhaps the writers of the comic are the one's to blame. However, the experiences I've had with the show (while many positive) have been overshadowed by the hopelessness that the writers only continue to exaggerate. I get the whole "life sux and then you die theme," but to be honest it's oversold in this series. A storyline that interests people needs some hope in it, even if you're ultimately going to end that hope with a brainy splat.
Glen, in my mind, maintained the last vestige of hope out of all of the characters. He still seemed to have a vision of a positive future, where the rest seem to have gone numb and just continue to walk around, from here to there, killing zombies and "bad guys" along the way. The viewers issued as strong a warning as they could have ever given last season with the under-the-dumpster fiasco, but apparently the writers are either dense or just plain stubborn. In either case this episode proved to me that there's no hope for this crew and collapsed any logic persisting in my mind that they will do anything other than continue to lose. Who wants to watch otherwise strong and adept characters continue to flop around (like fish out of water) in a wasteland season after season with no hope of ever doing anything bigger?
Where is the story telling in that? Where is a sub-plot that continues to explain the virus, where it originated, and ANY effort there might be to create a vaccine or an antidote? For me to watch the show, I need some sort of equitable reward for emotionally investing in the characters and the writers of the show just effectively dispatched any idea that that reward will ever exist.
TWD has lost its way. In exchange for good story telling we've been given a perpetual downward spiral marked with predictable cyclical kill-offs. If humans were as nihilistic and hopeless as the characters left on TWD, we would have NEVER developed into a society and that reality flies in the face of the show's premise. At this point I'll chalk this show up to a bold adventure into a new domain on TV and remove it from my favorites/DVR scheduling. It was kinda cool there for awhile at least...
