The Walking Dead

‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7 Premiere: Negan’s Victim Is Revealed

Season 7, Episode 1, ‘The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be’

Source : nytimes.com

So now we know: Jeffrey Dean Morgan should make a terrific Negan.

In his first extended action on “The Walking Dead,” Mr. Morgan shifted seamlessly between malevolence and mercurial charm, reveling in the character’s overblown mannerisms while keeping him grounded in a calculating intelligence. He is arguably the most electric presence the show has ever had.

Six seasons in, “The Walking Dead” had become repetitive in its cycles: This place looks safe … but wait! Rick is a hero! No, Rick is crazy! And so on. Mr. Morgan’s Negan has the potential to rejuvenate it. As the man himself noted: “It’s a brand new day, Rick.”

Also, he killed Glenn and Abraham.

As promised, the Season 7 premiere of “The Walking Dead” picked up where it left off in April, with Negan bashing an unfortunate member of Rick’s band of survivors. You’ll recall that a suspenseful eeny-meeny routine preceded the execution, which was shown from the victim’s perspective as VFX blood “dripped” down the screen. (In case you didn’t recall it, the season premiere spent the first 20 minutes rehashing it from different angles, the better to cram in a dozen or so ads before the reveal.)

The creators, including Robert Kirkman, the “Walking Dead” mastermind, and Scott M. Gimple, the showrunner, have spent the past few months insisting the cliffhanger move was absolutely not a cheesy bit of audience manipulation and instead served as crucial demarcation between two phases of the story.