|
Post by v on Sept 18, 2016 18:10:19 GMT -5
www.hitfix.com/harpy/if-you-love-carol-from-the-walking-dead-this-quote-from-melissa-mcbride-should-worry-youWe’ve got a little over a month before AMC’s The Walking Dead returns. After a divisive Season 6 finale that left our own Alan Sepinwall throwing in the towel, it’ll be interesting to see if fans return to the show in the same droves it has enjoyed in the past. As a huge fan of Melissa McBride’s portrayal of Carol, I too was a less than pleased with choices The Walking Dead made in the back half of their sixth season. Leery as I am, my plan is still to give it a shot come the October premiere. But after reading what McBride has to say about the future of Carol, I’m more concerned than ever. The taint of ‘executive meddling’ has followed The Walking Dead since showrunner and creator Frank Darabont was removed in 2011. In my mind, Carol’s abrupt about-face in the latter half of the last season also smacks of executive notes. As Alan Sepinwall said, “t’s such a sharp right turn for the show's best, most complicated character — and one whose journey from house mouse to predator was chronicled step by careful step over multiple seasons — that I feel like we needed some kind of transition from the one to the other, rather than having the questioning begin while Carol was off-screen.” No one here is opposed to Carol becoming more introspective about mass murder, but shoe-horning in a heel-turn that turns McBride into a weepy mouse of a woman with the snap of the proverbial finger is not a good look.
Now, couple the uneven writing and tone of the last season of The Walking Dead with the known issues of executive meddling and knowledge of Comic Carol’s fate, and you can see why McBride stating her character might be suicidal is cause for alarm. If AMC manages to take one woman’s rise as a phoenix from the ashes of abuse and trauma only to have her revert back, based on some misguided notion of staying true to the source material, I will scream. Read more at www.hitfix.com/harpy/if-you-love-carol-from-the-walking-dead-this-quote-from-melissa-mcbride-should-worry-you#CXMt6lrVZlU7WI0B.99
|
|
|
Post by v on Sept 18, 2016 18:14:11 GMT -5
While I do not think Carol would share her comic counterparts fate, I wanted to highlight that shoe horning a character into a plot is becoming very apparent to everyone.
|
|
|
Post by Ripley on Sept 18, 2016 18:38:48 GMT -5
While the comic arc and bad writing are true, this reads a bit clickbaitish to me simply because if Carol were going to suicide, I think she would have done it long ago. Right after Sophia's death, her banishment, The Grove or in s 6. Each time though, she has chosen to fight to live. To have her make that choice now would negate all the character development which came between seasons 1-7, plus fans would be outraged IMO. What would be the point of the fighting & suffering? Again though, this is prime Clickbait material, though the comic info & the shoehorning bit have merit and resonate IMO.
|
|
|
Post by deadhead on Sept 18, 2016 19:06:28 GMT -5
Definitely clickbait, but this line...this line is everything: "If AMC manages to take one woman’s rise as a phoenix from the ashes of abuse and trauma only to have her revert back... "It's the most painful reality about what those fuckers brainiacs have done with her character.
|
|
Meggo358
Retired Moderator
Aspiring Furiosa
Posts: 1,749
|
Post by Meggo358 on Sept 18, 2016 19:10:43 GMT -5
I think this click bait is actually speaking more to the terrible writing than anything else. I feel 95% sure Carol will survive to the end of this show (or exit the story in a non-death way), but I think last seasons arc felt so forced, so unearned, that I don't feel anything could be put past gimple and co. The writing was just that bad.
I'm not saying that I think Carol will follow her characters comic arc, but I don't feel I can rely on the need to tell a story that's true to the characters development as an argument as to why not. Gimple is going to do what he wants regardless of how it conflicts with the characters progress.
|
|
|
Post by Sexual Chocolate on Sept 18, 2016 23:53:56 GMT -5
It is clickbait but during season 6 the author had been vocal about her disappointment in what the writers had done to Carol's character. I think in a past video she said Carol was being "ruined" because she's acting so OOC.
|
|
|
Post by v on Sept 19, 2016 0:51:13 GMT -5
One of the people she mentions in this article (Alan) gave up on the show after the finale and was very critical of what they had done to Carol. Both have praised Mel's acting saying she was doing the best she could with substandard writing.
|
|
|
Post by Starlight on Sept 19, 2016 5:30:23 GMT -5
Carol won't be dying this season. But I think having her character forced in arcs / comics arcs is a fate worse than death.
|
|
|
Post by walkingdeadrules on Sept 19, 2016 10:12:18 GMT -5
I love MMB, she has made Carol easily my favorite character, and I too would like a different storyline for her. But I do have to say I am a pretty firm believer if Darabont were the showrunner we would never have seen the character of Carol progress to where she is today. I am pretty sure she would have been killed in the prison just like in the comics. I don't see Carol dying quite yet, after Glenn and Abe dying earlier this season I don't see any other long term characters going this season as they have a a limited number of them and Carol's popularity. But next season I'm sure we will see someone else go, the show's getting a little formulaic. I really hope Carol rebounds in 7b and we start to see a new, improved more balanced Carol. BUt that's just a hope
|
|
|
Post by Sexual Chocolate on Sept 19, 2016 13:37:50 GMT -5
I love MMB, she has made Carol easily my favorite character, and I too would like a different storyline for her. But I do have to say I am a pretty firm believer if Darabont were the showrunner we would never have seen the character of Carol progress to where she is today. I am pretty sure she would have been killed in the prison just like in the comics. I don't see Carol dying quite yet, after Glenn and Abe dying earlier this season I don't see any other long term characters going this season as they have a a limited number of them and Carol's popularity. But next season I'm sure we will see someone else go, the show's getting a little formulaic. I really hope Carol rebounds in 7b and we start to see a new, improved more balanced Carol. BUt that's just a hope I do agree the chances of Carol still being alive under Darabont are slim but I would love to see what he would have come up with in an alternate universe. Who would live, who would die, and which of the comic arcs would have been used or discarded.
|
|
|
Post by Starlight on Sept 19, 2016 15:47:31 GMT -5
I don't know if FD would have killed off Carol. But i'm 100% that GM would have killed her and it would have been for Daryl's man pain.
When it comes to SG writing Carol. I think the success of Carol is more to do with Melissa and her acting ability. SG seems to always get the fans/ GA reaction to Carol's arc wrong.
The banishment was written in favour of Rick.The wolves arc in season 6a was favoured towards Morgan. And the majority of fans / GA sided with Carol on both arcs. Something SG didn't think would happen.
Then the Sam / Cookie stuff could have gone so wrong,if it wasn't for Melissa's abilities. And then 6b was a complete mess for the Carol character. but Melissa always tries to sell the crap as best she can.
When I think of season 7 for Carol, all I see is more BS storytelling for the character.
|
|
|
Post by reckon on Sept 19, 2016 19:47:45 GMT -5
The writing for Carol in season 6 was atrociously ooc. If Carol were to become suicidal, it would have been immediately after finding her only child, Sophia, as a walker in the barn in season 2. At the latest, it would have been after putting down Lizzie in season 4, after Lizzie killed her little sister and wanted to do the same to all of them, including Judith. Instead, she gathered her courage to keep her family alive in season 5's "No Sanctuary" and season 6A"s "JSS".
Morgan harping at her in season 6, after all of Carol's development beforehand, would have elicited anger, or a resigned "he's not going to last long in this new world" response from Carol. Not a snap-of-the-fingers (aptly described) suicidal response. That couldn't have been more obviously "bad plot driving character" if they had flashed those words in neon during 6B.
After season 6, I realize there are worse things these writers can do to characters than kill them off. The writing has become so terrible, so ooc, so forced to fit bad plots, that killing them off is actually preferable to assassinating characters before they have them physically killed off.
If the writers want to kill Carol off without fan backlash, they're going about it in the exact opposite way they should. Ruining the character before killing her off will only earn the writers condemnation. But after season 6, I don't expect coherent, much less good, writing for TWD. Such a shame, considering the acting talent they have.
|
|
|
Post by v on Sept 19, 2016 23:19:30 GMT -5
The writing for Carol in season 6 was atrociously ooc. If Carol were to become suicidal, it would have been immediately after finding her only child, Sophia, as a walker in the barn in season 2. At the latest, it would have been after putting down Lizzie in season 4, after Lizzie killed her little sister and wanted to do the same to all of them, including Judith. Instead, she gathered her courage to keep her family alive in season 5's "No Sanctuary" and season 6A"s "JSS". Morgan harping at her in season 6, after all of Carol's development beforehand, would have elicited anger, or a resigned "he's not going to last long in this new world" response from Carol. Not a snap-of-the-fingers (aptly described) suicidal response. That couldn't have been more obviously "bad plot driving character" if they had flashed those words in neon during 6B. After season 6, I realize there are worse things these writers can do to characters than kill them off. The writing has become so terrible, so ooc, so forced to fit bad plots, that killing them off is actually preferable to assassinating characters before they have them physically killed off. If the writers want to kill Carol off without fan backlash, they're going about it in the exact opposite way they should. Ruining the character before killing her off will only earn the writers condemnation. But after season 6, I don't expect coherent, much less good, writing for TWD. Such a shame, considering the acting talent they have. GM had the same problem with Andrea's character. he never counted on the GA viewing Andrea in anything other than a positive light. While I like LH a great deal, she doesn't quite have MMB's talent. It didn't help that instead of approaching the questions about Andrea, LH came out saying "you are just not seeing it right" and she got very defensive. With the way they did Carol, I am actually glad she has limited screen time this coming season for two reasons: one I don;t have to watch the show and two because that gives that much less chance of SG trying to force Carol into more bad plots.
|
|
|
Post by v on Sept 19, 2016 23:24:59 GMT -5
I don't know if FD would have killed off Carol. But i'm 100% that GM would have killed her and it would have been for Daryl's man pain. When it comes to SG writing Carol. I think the success of Carol is more to do with Melissa and her acting ability. SG seems to always get the fans/ GA reaction to Carol's arc wrong. The banishment was written in favour of Rick.The wolves arc in season 6a was favoured towards Morgan. And the majority of fans / GA sided with Carol on both arcs. Something SG didn't think would happen. Then the Sam / Cookie stuff could have gone so wrong,if it wasn't for Melissa's abilities. And then 6b was a complete mess for the Carol character. but Melissa always tries to sell the crap as best she can. When I think of season 7 for Carol, all I see is more BS storytelling for the character. I agree, many of the plot points SG tried to hit did not go over well with the GA because so many sided with Carol. He really thought there would be a more even split or more fans siding with Rick over Carol and Morgan over Carol. Problem is, Mel makes fans care about Carol. and the way the arcs were done there was no way anyone but people that really have an issue with Carol (mostly because of shipping) would have been ok with what Rick said to her and the way he dumped her. The wolves... how was anyone going to be go with Morgan when the wolves attacked and killed several ASZ folks and Alpha was totally unrepentant, hell he said "you should have killed me" and if he got away he would kill everyone if given the chance.
|
|
|
Post by reckon on Dec 31, 2016 17:17:49 GMT -5
Bumping this thread because critics and fans are complaining about the writers continuing this wtf storyline through 7A. Ignoring all of Carol's canon development and history because they wanted to use her to introduce the kingdom is one of the most utterly stupid decisions the writers have ever made.
|
|
|
Post by v on Dec 31, 2016 19:25:53 GMT -5
Bumping this thread because critics and fans are complaining about the writers continuing this wtf storyline through 7A. Ignoring all of Carol's canon development and history because they wanted to use her to introduce the kingdom is one of the most utterly stupid decisions the writers have ever made. There is a lot of dissappointment right now about Carol's arc. Several have mentioned that its obvious that SG Can't balance the cast and that Carol is basically ignored because they are wasting time showing what a big bad Negan is.
|
|