So I just watched the Season 7 premiere. Needless to say, there are massive spoilers that cannot be avoided in any discussion of it, so click away if you've not seen it yet.
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Anyhow, starting somewhere midway through Season 5 and going through pretty much all of last season, I've found the premise of the show growing stale enough that I became less and less interested in watching. I'd still watch, but it wasn't appointment viewing on Sunday night like it had been previously.
Well, things have certainly changed in the story. They teased us into thinking Abraham was the sole casualty, but then Glen received the same end. Both literally had their brains splattered all over the ground leaving no recognizable trace of their heads. I am not sure what I think about it. I am not squeamish, and I think portrayal of wanton, sadistic violence can be a useful thing, after all in this world of Bataclan theater massacres and ISIS torturing captives to death the Eloi need to be smacked in the face with reminders that the real world has monsters in it who would become real life Negans given the opportunity.
But damn if I can't shake the initial feeling that that episode was violence porn. They definitely twisted the expectations of the viewers (by twisting the expectations of the characters themselves) by showing Rick in the familiar position of being outnumbered and outgunned by the Big Bad but remaining defiant and even telling the Big Bad that he's going to kill him. Yeah, well, Negan was unimpressed by that bit of bravado, and he made sure Rick understood that it would be other people who would pay the price for it.
Part of me thinks the show should end right now, with Rick and his remaining crew subjugated and broken, all hopefulness of the preceding 6 seasons permanently dashed. That's reality for most of human history. The Rule of Law has been squandered for political advantage, so we will be left with the only other law there is, the Law of the Jungle.
"No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." -- Hobbes