Thank God for Greg Nicotero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Nicotero

His makeup and fx experience in Film and TV has made him the perfect Director for this show's budget and schedule.

The best episodes of the series' past few seasons have been Directed by him.

Having read all the comics I'm up to date on what's going on there, overall where things are going with the show, and the things they're doing differently. The best thing they've changed lately is Negan taking Daryl (not in the comic) hostage. Otherwise Rick would take Negan out when he showed up the next week. Of course Negan bringing Daryl back with him blew that, and again regardless of the consequence someone would have taken Negan out for the greater good. The show is taking one step forward and two steps back.

The problem is while I thought the show would condense the comic storyline, they have not, and the stand alone episodes, while some are good, stop the momentum built up in Alexandria.

MY SOLUTION, and not too late for AMC to fix, is dump that stinking pile of shit called FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, and just give us 2 nights a week of TWD. There are enough characters and story going on where they're at in the comic timeline AND in the future to cover 2 nights a week. There's plenty going on at Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom now to fill that time.

While the TWD world has expanded beyond our core cast members one-set-a-season format, it's time slot has not.

LOL I know that! I think Daryl being a show creation has been a good thing, don't you?

Negan taking their guns does kinda make it hard for them to scavenge though.

Thankfully, there's no comic spoilers in my 2 posts, #1062 or #1064, or in either of jonesjb's posts.
I HATE spoilers, I can't watch movie trailers or 'next week on TWD' etc because I want to be totally surprised when I watch something.
At the beginning of each of the new Battlestar Galactica episodes they'd show quick glimpses of the entire episode! GAH! WTF?

If someone posted comic spoilers here I'd freak out and scream too!

Thankfully, that's not what happened.

They really just need to end it this season, there's no coming back from how bad this television show has gotten. The lack of comments here after tonight's mid-season finale proves it.

Garbage People Leader (Pollyanna McIntosh) is cool and likes pinball! She did a cross promotion vid for me for the first Southern Pinball Festival 6 years ago when her film THE WOMAN came out...

After I saw THE WOMAN I said "Wow! This actress did an awesome job in a tough tole, who IS this?" and connected on FB.
Then she sent the plug and I edited it into the trailer. Later she did the first season of HAP & LEONARD on Sundance Channel before TWD.
She was a model for a while before she started acting 10 years ago, and she's directing her first film now.

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Wow, only two comments about the show.
It is syfy level bad now.

Terrible, terrible show. I fast forward through it every week now.

I can say that NOTHING was satisfying for what viewers have put up with since The Saviors (and soon after, Negan) were introduced mid-way through Season 6. Actually I went back and checked, Season 6 Episode 9 was the last good episode of The Walking Dead. It was the last episode with TRUTH. True intensity of the characters and true caring for the story and direction/production of episodes. Everything after that chipped away at anything that was good until this finale, where we are left with a mangled dry-rotting corpse of what was once one of the best shows on television. One that made ZOMBIES a fully accepted medium for American Television. The show now is not even recognizable compared to what it was just a few seasons ago. It's wild success and turnover of show runners every season created a momentum that all involved could barely keep up with. Negan's killing of two major characters at the beginning of Season 7 DEMANDED a different resolution than we were given, and instead gave us the most watered down version of a 'FINAL FIGHT' imaginable, causing us to now pretty much hate EVERY CHARACTER on the show for their actions or lack thereof. And as bad as it's gotten, the show is just going to get worse.

Well, TWD had gotten SO bad, and some here were saying FTWD had gotten better, so I just jumped in and caught up with this current season of it. I haven't watched FTWD since it's horrible first season, but was able to get up to speed without suffering through the shitshow inbetween.

First off I will say it wasn't absolutely horrible like TWD has become, but the show does not deserve the acting talent of new additions Lennie James, Garret Dillahunt, and Jenna Elfman. James' Morgan was an obvious move to firm up the fan base, but adding Dillahunt as John and Elfman as Laura was fantastic casting (although all 3 of them are likely each getting paid more than any of the regular cast, aside from lead Kim Dickens). Maggie Grace as Damnation-Alley-Tank-Driving Al is less effective, her video documenting annoying and eventually pointless, since half the people she interviewed lied.

The John & Laura episode was almost perfect (and highest rated season ep on IMDB), but suffered from one or two scenes of what has cursed both Walking Dead shows, BAD/DUMB ACTION SCENES!!! Whether it was John & Laura jumping into a creek with zombies (where loose zombie blood could infect any freakin' small scratch they might have had), or the newest episode where we had an almost exact copy of the TWD shootout at the Saviours HQ where both sides are shooting at each other from 10 Ft away (and can't seem to hit each other). The fact that NO ONE at AMC looks at these shows and says 'Ya Know, those action scenes suck", and forks over the budget for a cinematic military advisor is dumbfounding. Heck, Dale Dye is 73 and still working, he's only done everything from PLATOON to TROPIC THUNDER, hire him! Over the later episodes you could just see logic get dumber and dumber to the level of TWD's action scenes.

The biggest thing I've seen FTWD try to do this season is 'create drama' by jumping around from past to present, showing what's happening out of sequence, and saving what really technically happened at the beginning of the season for the forthcoming mid-season finale. Aside from personally HATING this overused, rarely well done kind of storytelling, it makes the talky scenes SOOOOO slow to watch that I'm fast forwarding through them trying to get to what the F actually happened!. It's a gimmick to make up for bad writing, like the fake-shakey-hand-held-camera crap shows also use to create drama that isn't there.

I'll see how it goes after this weeks episode, but will probably let it pile up again and watch the second half of the season all at once so I can fast forward through the bad stuff.

The mid-season finale had a few good bits between Al and Madison, but overall the episode was terrible. Lots of stupid logic, and lots of the eye-gouging slow motion that made the last season of TWD so bad. Plus an unresolved cliffhanger not quite as bad as Glenn and the dumpster, but as in that situation, no body = no death...

Hey, I'm just going by the show's 'logic'. If the Tank-Car's driver door can be ripped off for 10 minutes with NONE of the 3000 zombies walking up to it until Al's head is hung out of it, and then NONE of those 3000 zombies can rip off her flesh or bite her, then Madison can still be alive. Both WD shows get new show runners every season, if FEAR wants to they can bring her back in a year or two (if not cancelled by then).

"No one's gone until they're gone."
-Kim Dickens (while on the way out the door to film the DEADWOOD movie)

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So Shane's coming back...

http://www.superherohype.com/news/417867-jon-bernthal-returning-to-the-walking-dead

New FTWD ep was terrible terrible terrible terrible for all the reasons stated above.
If a storm is strong enough to blow ONE walker through the air it would blow ALL of them.
Morgan will likely make it back with the Fear peeps right when Rick croaks, then TWD will spend a whole season mourning Rick.
Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z
Since TWD viewership is about to take a BIG nosedive, I can see them folding Fear into WD and just having one show so AMC can save $$$.

This Season 9 opener was honestly the best episode in YEARS.

It actually looked like a real theatrical movie: writing, directing, acting, lighting, and sets were all great.
What also made the show good was it had all of the Original Group in it that are still around, not just the ton of supporting characters we've had nothing invested in, it was all the A-level team.
The change needed for this episode without Carl around was well done, and props to new showrunner Angela Kang who also wrote the script.
I didn't think they'd actually end the episode like they (authentically) did, although Rick being there and ok with it was new, and didn't quite fit with his earlier judgement of keeping Negan alive...

So while I still wouldn't bet money on them pulling off the depatuture of Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan this season, and leaving enough of a logical balance between the major characters left, I'll keep tuning in each week hoping it doesn't slip back into the crapper.

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TWO good episodes of Walking Dead in a row ?!?!?!?!?!
Crazy times...

Yep, after a good start it's slipping again...

If Rick sacrifices himself by blowing up the bridge to take out the horde I'm done... again.

Guess I win the pool!

Wow this thread died. Only came to catch up on FTWD talk since I saw that Kim Dickens had come back as Madison, as I predicted 4 years ago...