Grue-Believers, it’s your favorite time of the week. Time for my weekly review of As the World….I mean The Walking Dead. Hope ya’ll had a great weekend as Spring is trying to get to us. Also another tidbit of good news is that I will be covering the New Jersey Horror Con this weekend in Edison, NJ. If you are near, you should come on down and hang out. Some of my favorite peeps will be there, you know, the ones behind Night of Something Strange, the Straitons. If you haven’t seen that movie go ahead and do yourself a favor and pick up the Blu-ray, pop it in, get your popcorn (assuming you have a strong stomach) and enjoy! Okay, I will get back on task here, my review of this week’s offering of The Walking Dead.
I would like to start out with a little illustration. Suppose you were made to eat hot dogs every day, every meal. Then one day you actually get a cheeseburger. A cheeseburger is good but compared with a filet mignon it pales. Since you are used to hot dogs, this cheeseburger seems like a delicacy from the most amazing chef in the world. That is what The Walking Dead is doing. They are mailing in scripts for the shows and when one comes on that is slightly better some people are like “wow, that was a great show last night.” Better yes, great no but since you are comparing it to the slop they’ve been feeding us as of late, this cheeseburger of a show makes it seem better than it really is. Not on my watch TWD, not on my watch!
Last night’s show was slightly better than most of what we have seen lately. We got Negan which is a good thing, we got Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) one liners like beach ball size lady nuts and rapey Dave (Martinez) which were funny and we got some cool looking barnacle bedazzled zombies. All in all it was not a bad show; it was an OK show.
The writing this week was better and we got to see that they are continuing to follow the arc of the comic for the most part. This was especially seen in the reveal at the end of the episode when we find out that the crossbow bearing silhouette from last week was actually Dwight (Austin Amelio) looking to act as a double agent for Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the gang due to his hatred of Negan. I am also assuming he was the one that killed Carol’s (Melissa McBride) maimed walker the week before.
We did get more splendid acting from Xander Berkeley playing the weasily Gregory. As I have stated on numerous occasions, if you can elicit an emotion from me towards the actor you are playing then kudos to you, you’re doing a great job. Our gardening scene of the week was brought to us by blueberry bushes planted by Maggie (Lauren Cohan); there is an awful lot of gardening scenes going on this season. This one actually did establish some things: Gregory is gutless and barely a man, Gregory has never killed, Maggie is in it for the long hall as gleaned from her gardening tip of blueberry bushes being around for up to 40 years, Maggie will be running Hilltop soon, and the fact that I really like Maggie’s character.
The scene between Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Negan was funny but anti-climactic. I still believe she will be killed off in the finale which is unfortunate. We got a bit more of blubbering Eugene (Josh McDermitt) trying to get Sasha to fall in line like he has. As I mentioned I do like Eugene and I don’t believe he is being vindictive. He is scared for his life and sees this as the safest possible option and if you know anything about his character he is statistically driven and feels that his highest rate of survival is falling in line with the saviors. I’m wondering where his allegiance will fall in All Out War.
The scene at Oceanside was aesthetically pleasing but was lacked in the suspense it was attempting to portray. More guns and possibly more recruits if the community decides to go against Natania’s (Deborah May) wishes. It seems as though Cyndie (Sydney Park) and Beatrice (Briana Venskus) are on board. The thing I didn’t quite get from the scene was Tara (Alanna Masterson) flipping off a 10 year old girl, Rachel (Mimi Kirkland).
This episode was directed by Michael Slovis and written by Corey Reed. It was not a bad episode but if I am being honest, and the Thug likes to be honest; I expected quite a bit more out of a show that is the last one before the season finale. I am hoping next week that we get our filet mignon with a side of truffle mac and cheese and grilled asparagus. What we did find out this week that in the land of hot dogs, the cheeseburger is king.
The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 15 “Something They Need” 
(2.5 / 5) Phillie Franks on the Thug Meter
