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Monday, April 3, 2017

The Walking Dead: Season 7 Overview

So another season has come and gone, and another lapse in reviews posted.  Sorry about not keeping on top of the back half, but now we'll make it up to you with an overview!

Season 7 saw the loss of three primary characters that have been around since before Alexandria, including one of the "Atlanta Five".  Glenn, Abraham, and Sasha have all gone to that big zombie-free community in the sky, and with them they have taken two Alexandrians... Spencer (which to be honest, no one will miss) and poor, fan favorite Olivia.  It's been a while since we suffered this many major casualties so it was a particularly harsh season (especially with that super-brutal season opener), and ending with the official start of "All Out War", Season 8 promises to be even worse... or better, depending on your point of view.

The quickest way to sum up Season 7 is to look at it's two halves.  The first half had everyone beaten into sad, sad submission by the Saviors.  From episode one, they intentionally took us to a very dark and hopeless place, the likes of which we have never seen before no matter how dire the situation seemed... even while The Governor was beheading Herschel.  The second half saw a resurgence and preparation for war.  Thankfully the finale was not a cliff-hanger and was an exciting conclusion to a few loose ends while providing the basis for the war we all knew was coming.  We needed to see our crew have a decisive victory over the Saviors to wrap up a terribly emotionally frustrating season, and that's what we got.

The finale wasn't without it's problems, but overall was a very satisfying experience.  Problem 1:  The fact that Shiva, the Kingdom's resident tiger, only attacked Saviors... with as much rage going on in that scene it would've been difficult for even the most intuitive human to walk in mid-stream and figure out who the bad guys were much less a tiger.  Speaking of, that was quite the fray so it's fairly unbelievable that no one fell to friendly fire.  That leads us to Problem 2:  While there were certainly "Team Family" injuries, not one major character was killed in what was a massive gun fight between five separate factions (Hilltop, Alexandria, The Kingdom, The Scavengers, and The Saviors).  Instead, only "red shirts" were sacrificed and we were treated to a minor bait-n-switch thinking Michonne was dead for half a second.  Problem 3:  Too perfect timing.  Just as Negan is mid-swing to clock Carl with Lucille, Shiva pounces on the guy behind him... Just as when Carol rode in to save the day in Terminus just as our heroes were about to be bled out, it can cause a bit of interruption to that old suspension of disbelief when everything is too spot on perfectly timed... but you know what?  Who cares?  It was a riveting finale that had most fans cheering with hope for the first time in a very, very long time.

As a side note, Negan's surprise that there was a tiger on the scene was just a big, giant cherry on top of this beat-down Sundae.  Although you would think more than one gunman would aim for a tiger ripping people's faces off, Shiva lives to chomp another day!

As we reflect on those we've lost this season, we look forward toward Season 8 with hope springing eternal.  The only thing we know for sure is that we will lose more beloved characters in the coming conflicts... and that, God willing, the show will give us the hard-won victory we see in the comic.  Being 8 seasons deep in a television show isn't terribly comforting since even the best shows don't typically last this long, so all we're going to be doing between now and the fall is praying we don't get notice that the AMC Gods have decided 8 will be the last.  After all, we could follow this band of survivors until the very last one is gone.


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