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Post by v on Dec 2, 2016 0:48:44 GMT -5
Hey, don’t put this on Tara and Heath. Though Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead drew the AMC drama’s lowest numbers (10.4 million viewers and a 4.9 demo rating) since “Hounded,” all the way back in Season 3, the supporting characters on whom the installment was centered aren’t to blame. At least not entirely. Our six theories as to why the series has taken a dip?
PHOTOSThe Walking Dead Countdown: Ranking the Show’s Top 20 Villains of All Time
1 | Backlash from the Season 7 premiere
More than half of the viewers who voted in our October polls said that the show had gone too far with its violent depiction of Glenn and Abraham’s murders, and almost 40 percent of respondents swore that they were done with the show. Maybe it just took them a while to realize that, when they’d claimed to be through, they’d actually meant it.
2 | Negan
Perhaps at the moment the audience just isn’t in the mood to watch a totalitarian ruler who thinks he’s hilarious tear apart a nice place like Alexandria while intimidating, demoralizing and/or humiliating every character who challenges him.
3 | Separation anxiety
Our core group of survivors is so scattered at this point that we’ve only seen them together in Episode 1’s bittersweet fantasy sequence. What’s more…
4 | People vanish for what feels like ages
We haven’t seen Carol in a month. Or Morgan. Or, after his eagerly anticipated introduction, King Ezekiel. (And you know there’s a problem when Enid is getting more airtime than Carol.) Meanwhile…
5 | We’re watching strangers
So many new characters have been introduced — and so quickly — that we aren’t getting to know them, much less care about them. And honestly, how many of us could even pick a Richard or a Benjamin out of a lineup?
6 | It’s depressing as hell
We know that we’re headed for an epic showdown. In the meantime, however, it’s a bummer-and-a-half to see Rick so broken and scared, and Daryl, reluctantly playing Negan’s lapdog.
What do you think? Have you stuck with the show? Have you been enjoying it as much as past seasons? What would you do to get it back on track?
From tv line
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Post by Sexual Chocolate on Dec 2, 2016 3:35:35 GMT -5
All six points can be summed up in two words: careless writing. The writing is at the root of all of those problems.
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Post by refia on Dec 2, 2016 4:04:35 GMT -5
Agree with all these points. The GA also didn't know that Glenn's comic death followed the GN's panels so of course they thought it was ott.
I have a cousin who quit after ep 4 because "Rick isn't in charge anymore". SG should learn to write some original content and not try to adapt the GN page for page....um, what OC has he done? Oh.....Grady.
Negan is just too OTT to be taken seriously. If the "ZA was real" then someone like Negan would be over-thrown in days. And Dwights' "we were a mess without him" or whatever excuse, is lame.
I think the biggest points are 3 and 5.
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Post by booksrbetter on Dec 2, 2016 9:13:44 GMT -5
"Enid getting more air time than Carol". Amen I agree with all six points. I could handle Negan being in charge If we saw Carol, Michonne, and Rick actively working to unite other groups to fight him. Daryl being gone (but actively working to undermine Negan) could be dealt with. I would love to have Carol at Alexandria when Daryl came to town (sick of bromances) acting as if she and Daryl were mere acquaintances. Could definitely see Carol pretending to go along with the regime change(Not the over the top performance at the Kingdom). I want to add another point event though I'm going to get arrows shot my way. There is too much Carl right now. The cringeworthy scenes of him pushing back against Negan at Alexandria. Any real Negan would have bashed someone's head in for that. Equally icky was the roller skating scenes. Zombie survival 101: Sooner or later you have to run. Try running through the woods in roller skates. Now the twerp is off in the Sanctuary. And still getting by with shit that he shouldn't. So send the B team back to the bench and bring in the A Team. Rick, Michonne, Carol, Daryl, Maggie, and Sasha. Give some playing time to Rosita and Eugene. More Ezekiel and less Negan. Preferably no Negan.
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Post by dark sister on Dec 2, 2016 9:28:44 GMT -5
I disagree with the gorey premiere being a reason. The premiere itself has plenty of issues, but being "too gorey" wasn't one of them. This is a zombie show, people wouldn't be watching if they couldn't take a little blood and guts. I wish they'd point out the obviously manipulation and long drawn out reveal as a reason people are sick of it, not because they saw some blood.
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Post by deadhead on Dec 2, 2016 9:54:34 GMT -5
Got to say I'm enjoying the negative reviews that keep rolling in.
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Post by murph on Dec 2, 2016 10:01:29 GMT -5
Definitely a good sum up.
The comments on the article are interesting. Lots of 'Negan is annoying.' "Negan didn't kill just Abraham and Glenn, he killed the show.", I like that one. Some blame towards attention being split with Fear, and a lot just finding it very depressing. There's a few that show people think this is a one off, that it was just a single-badly rated episode instead of part of a pattern; comments about how it was Thanksgiving and that maybe it was Tara and Health. Makes me wish there was a line in the article explaining that ratings have been steadily falling all season.
Also, this comment made me lol. "I stopped watching because I got sick of looking at Norman Reedus’ hair. "
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Post by murph on Dec 2, 2016 10:06:07 GMT -5
I disagree with the gorey premiere being a reason. The premiere itself has plenty of issues, but being "too gorey" wasn't one of them. This is a zombie show, people wouldn't be watching if they couldn't take a little blood and guts. I wish they'd point out the obviously manipulation and long drawn out reveal as a reason people are sick of it, not because they saw some blood. I gotta disagree with you on that one. Sorry Review after review picked up that it was too brutal, poll after poll showed people thought it was too brutal. I thought it was too brutal. Also, I agree that people wouldn't be watching still if they couldn't take the blood and guts, but Walking Dead has always transcended the genre. It's not as big as it is because it's a zombie, gory show, it's often in-spite of that factor. It's because the characters and the writing was something special. I'm not a zombie fan, I'm not a horror fan, but I am a Walking Dead fan.
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Post by dark sister on Dec 2, 2016 11:54:34 GMT -5
I disagree with the gorey premiere being a reason. The premiere itself has plenty of issues, but being "too gorey" wasn't one of them. This is a zombie show, people wouldn't be watching if they couldn't take a little blood and guts. I wish they'd point out the obviously manipulation and long drawn out reveal as a reason people are sick of it, not because they saw some blood. I gotta disagree with you on that one. Sorry Review after review picked up that it was too brutal, poll after poll showed people thought it was too brutal. I thought it was too brutal. Also, I agree that people wouldn't be watching still if they couldn't take the blood and guts, but Walking Dead has always transcended the genre. It's not as big as it is because it's a zombie, gory show, it's often in-spite of that factor. It's because the characters and the writing was something special. I'm not a zombie fan, I'm not a horror fan, but I am a Walking Dead fan. Is this the part where I get all huffy and go "pussy." I'm probably desensitized to it as a horror fan, but the gore was the least of that episode's problems, IMO.
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Post by Starlight on Dec 2, 2016 12:27:22 GMT -5
I agree with this list...
Personally I didn’t find the deaths in the premiere all that gory. I have seen worse in movies. But I understand alot of fans thought the deaths were to graphic. In the UK they cut some of the worse parts of the death scene.
Also it's a huge problem if you have two main actresses LC & MMB. who have been there since season 1 & 2. Being completely backburned, so red-shirts and secondary characters can been pushed to the front. Even though these red shirts / secondary characters are very limited with there acting abilities.
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Post by murph on Dec 2, 2016 15:06:23 GMT -5
I gotta disagree with you on that one. Sorry Review after review picked up that it was too brutal, poll after poll showed people thought it was too brutal. I thought it was too brutal. Also, I agree that people wouldn't be watching still if they couldn't take the blood and guts, but Walking Dead has always transcended the genre. It's not as big as it is because it's a zombie, gory show, it's often in-spite of that factor. It's because the characters and the writing was something special. I'm not a zombie fan, I'm not a horror fan, but I am a Walking Dead fan. Is this the part where I get all huffy and go "pussy." I'm probably desensitized to it as a horror fan, but the gore was the least of that episode's problems, IMO. But it actually taps into one of the main problems: it's too depressing. Too much brutality for nothing but a pay off of more misery. Personally, I don't judge anyone for reacting negatively to seeing a character they care about graphically getting their head bashed in.
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Post by webergal on Dec 3, 2016 8:01:02 GMT -5
I hate Negan for many reasons. I understand those who follow the comics are no doubt thrilled but I'm not one of them, so that puts me on a different scale. I didn't like the Governor either but at least he wasn't this silly comic version of a villain.
As far as the premier episode this season, I can't watch it twice. It wasn't just the violence that turned me off, it was because Negan killed Glenn and Abraham, and the way Negan killed them.
I can't handle what Negan is doing to Daryl and Rick, two of my favorites. I miss Carol, nobody has even bothered to ask about her at the safe zone. So much for all the cookie baking.
Carl, or Enid !! ;-|
What is Enid's purpose anyway? She's either climbing the fence at Alexandria or walking around the woods. She's not even a good fighter yet she survives on every trip outside the safe zone. I guess we can expect her to die soon since everybody who has had position of Hershel's watch has died !!
Carl has been out there long enough to have grown up ten times so why do they keep writing him as though he's just going through another teenage hormone growth period? Rick never notices when Carl is missing.
I can understand why the rating is down. I'm not part of the list as I still watch the show each week but this will be the first time in 6 seasons that I'll be happy about the winter skip between the first half and the second half of season 7.
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Post by Sexual Chocolate on Dec 3, 2016 13:52:06 GMT -5
Gore doesn't bother me; it just doesn't impress me. Going heavy on the torture porn to try to cover up poor writing and storytelling is what really bothers me. After Carol was stabbed by one savior, and shot twice by another as he stood over her and called her bitch, (all in the space of two episodes, mind you) was when I knew torture porn in TWD was here to stay. So finding out the writers were going to take out two characters, in the manner that they did, really wasn't much of a surprise. When it comes to tptb it's now all about upping the ante in terms of how graphic they can get, and how cruel and sadistic their villains can be.
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Post by v on Dec 3, 2016 14:35:34 GMT -5
I'm a horror fan and not much bugs me, but... As bad as Abe and Glenn's death's were ( don't get me started on the waste of Glenn, his death being more of a toss away than anything... oops... still pissed about it), Noah's death was over the top and will forever be the "shocking death" that made me go "too much" for TV. I am a comic fan like Keiran and I am not really happy with the translation of Negan on screen. The Gov was very different than his comic counterpart and that made sense, the comic version would not have worked on tv at all and was actually kind of happy they changed him up a bit for the show. Negan, they are doing an almost direct from the comic translation and while the hammy lines and quips work in the comics, they just don't come across as well on the show. they are almost too cartoonish IMO. JDM is playing Negan straight from the comics and is obviously having fun with the character, but as far as menace goes, he just isn't projecting it. I have to wonder why no one has put a bullet in Negan's head. (I would have). This is the fourth year in a row they have had the group split up, fighting the bad guy and joining up again to defeat said bad guy. It's repeatitive to say the least and piss poor story telling. Kind of reminds me of why I don't watch medical dramas. As others have said, sidelining main characters to give the red shirts more time is a mistake imo. While I will admit to my bias about Carol, there are other characters that have been short changed in the last few seasons as well. Why wait 5 damn eps to give us Maggie and Sasha, the two people that lost the most in the premier? They also spend the time to introduce new characters only to have them back burnered for the rest of the season (for the most part). How long will it be between eps with Eziekle? how many eps between Jesus sightings? they did the same thing with Abe, Eugene and rostia. While they short change some characters they give others WAY too much time. (Dwight and Negan). I've mentioned it before, but one of the things that made characters like Dwight, Negan and Jesus interesting in the comics was finding out bits of information here and there that peaked your interest in the characters. For the show they did an information dump on Dwight and Negan and I think they hurt the characters and the show. I guess my biggest complaint (yes, I do have an overarching complaint about the show) is the writing. All of the above things could have been fixed with decent writing. To me, that lays at SG's feet for not exercising over site, like a show runner should.
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Post by walkingdeadrules on Dec 4, 2016 11:49:53 GMT -5
So many great comments, and V I agree with everything you said. While I think ultimately it's a matter of personal opinion as to why we think the ratings are down, I think we can all agree it ultimately comes down to the writing. I stick to my guns of what I said before the season began....the premiere, gore fest that it was, was a gimmick to attract a certain portion of the audience to watch(for both the cliffhanger reveal and the gore/intensity). But the very same people that attracted would be very disillusioned by the following 5 episodes relatively slow pace, jumping around and introducing new character after character(many of which not to be seen again for episodes like Ezekiel and Jerry). Bottle episodes with a lot of people the general audience barely knows, without much going on, culminating in an episode with minor characters largely forgotten about. When I read this back to myself I keep wondering what were they thinking? I won't reiterate the points so many have said here, but sidelining so much of TF in the front half, not seeing Sasha and Maggie for multiple episodes after their respective significant others got their heads bashed in, just all piss poor decision making that is bound to rub people the wrong way. Again, I just really hope these become lessons learned. The reality is the premiere, with its huge audience could have and should have been a platform for ratings going UP, not down. That says the audience weren't happy about something and continued to become disillusioned, and even with high ratings, that is not something that can be ignored(I hope lol)
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Post by v on Dec 7, 2016 17:00:27 GMT -5
adding this here instead of starting a new thread:
"The Walking Dead" Season 7 just stopped falling from its high ratings cliff, but around seven million people are still missing. They were last seen watching the Season 7 premiere, helping it reach the near-record high of 17 million viewers. Since that proud moment, TWD has only managed to make headlines for its sharp fall, with everyone and their second cousin espousing theories on why the show is now at 2012 levels. Here are the Sunday night viewer and ratings numbers for Season 7 so far (via TV by the Numbers): Episode 1: 17.03 million, 8.4 rating (18-49) Episode 2: 12.46 million, 6.1 Episode 3: 11.72 million, 5.7 Episode 4: 11.40 million, 5.4 Episode 5: 11 million, 5.2 Episode 6: 10.40 million, 4.9 Episode 7: 10.48 million, 4.9 As you can see, the long drop stopped with the December 4 Episode 7 -- although barely -- and it's possible Episode 6's 10.40 was rock bottom. Since the Episode 8 midseason finale airs this Sunday, December 11, the ratings should tick up a bit; that would be welcome news, since 4.9 is the lowest rating since Season 3 in November 2012. (The ratings are usually high for season premieres, midseason finales, midseason premieres, and season finales, with dips during the middle of each half-season.) TWD still has the kind of viewer and ratings numbers other shows only dream of. But still. Why is TWD struggling to retain its fan base? A few fans, apparently more than a few, quit after the extra bleak premiere. Some viewers initially blamed the World Series and other competition for the ratings drop, but the World Series has been over for weeks now and there has been no rush to return. We wondered if HBO's "Westworld" was taking some viewers, and that may be true -- but "Westworld" Season 1 just ended last Sunday, with its own record high to date, so it won't be a factor in this Sunday's midseason finale ratings. The overall drop seems to be from quality, and even some loyal TWD fans who are still watching every week have voiced complaints about weak sections and pacing issues. But the first half of the season is almost over, and it's possible Season 7B will turn everything around. Season 7, Episode 8, "Hearts Still Beating," airs Sunday, December 11 from 9 to 10:26 p.m. ET on AMC. from Moviefone
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Post by Starlight on Dec 7, 2016 17:12:48 GMT -5
It will be interesting go see how the MSF does. They have no competition this week at all. And usually do get a bump in the ratings...here are the bumps since SG took over in season 4...
Season 4 Dead Weight -11.29 Too Far Gone-12.05
Season 5 Crossed -13.33 Coda -14.81
Season 6 Heads Up - 13.22 Start to Finish - 13.98
Interesting though the bump last year wasn't a great as the previous seasons. And as this season doesn’t seem to be that welcomed by the the GA... they probably would get that extra million bump they need going into 7b.
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