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.

Walking Dead

The Walking Dead season 6 finale: "Last Day on Earth" is the worst episode the show has ever done

The Walking Dead has done some dirt-stupid things over the years.

There was that two-parter from the governor's point of view in season four, and the way the show seemed to think viewers just loved Merle, Daryl's racist older brother, in season three. Season five's murder hospital was pretty dumb, and, of course, Herschel's farm was a disaster that nearly tanked the entire second season of the show.

But you know what? The show has never produced an installment as bad as its season six finale, "Last Day on Earth." The extra-long episode spent its first hour dramatizing all the excitement of your GPS insisting that you take a road you already know is closed, and the last half-hour sank some nicely spooky moments with a too-long monologue and a completely botched cliffhanger.