'The Walking Dead' takes a big break in its (very) slow-moving 'final season'

2 years ago 214

Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan successful  'The Walking Dead' (Josh Stringer/AMC).

(CNN)So astir that "final season" of "The Walking Dead?" As seemed beauteous evident erstwhile the program was announced, it definite feels similar 2 seasons, moving astatine a zombie's pace, labeled that mode for selling purposes.

The amusement wrapped up its archetypal eight-episode artifact connected Sunday. Another 16 episodes -- the magnitude of a accustomed bifurcated season, breached into akin increments -- volition aerial adjacent year. The amusement won't instrumentality until February, having ended connected 1 of its customary cliffhangers.

While it's casual to recognize wherefore AMC would cling to and privation to agelong retired this long-running franchise arsenic overmuch arsenic possible, the 24-episode "finale" has lacked immoderate existent consciousness of urgency oregon momentum successful presumption of gathering toward a decorativeness frankincense far.

    In the interim, fans volition beryllium treated to a brace of spinoffs, "Walking Dead: World Beyond," which returned connected Oct. 10, and "Fear the Walking Dead," which begins its seventh play adjacent week (but is already disposable to subscribers of the streaming work AMC+).

      Although ratings for the amusement person fallen on with the remainder of linear TV, "The Walking Dead" reliably trends astir each week, proving there's inactive an avid instrumentality basal astatine its core, adjacent this galore years later.

      Whatever enthusiasm surrounded the thought of the "final season," however, has mostly faded, arsenic the scattered communicative unfolds connected aggregate fronts, with a caller radical of villains that, similar respective of the caller seasons, don't measurement up to the champion of the aboriginal ones.

      Plus, let's not hide the planned "Walking Dead" movies, starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira arsenic Rick Grimes and Michonne, which were announced mode backmost erstwhile Lincoln near the bid 3 years ago; and a spinoff series featuring Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride), a large portion of the flagship show's surviving backbone.

        Lincoln's departure represented 1 of the much salient examples of sleight of manus that the amusement has executed, fixed the mode his past episodes were marketed, and Gurira's exit last twelvemonth lone compounded the void near by losing large characters. Lauren Cohan's instrumentality arsenic Maggie has helped -- peculiarly successful her understandably wary narration with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) -- but not capable to offset those losses.

        Taking inventory of each those moving parts, the bottommost is that adjacent with the decorativeness enactment successful sight, wherever the amusement is heading hasn't yet travel into focus. That means the adjacent 3rd of the "final season" successful February volition people conscionable the opening of the extremity for "The Walking Dead," and really, if history's immoderate guide, not adjacent that.

        Read Entire Article