THE WALKING DEAD
News and Views of the Living

9/28/2020

Norman Reedus | © AMC Networks

A Walking Dead director sharing how much heart she sees in Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus—specifically, the rest of the cast implied—which is something we all know already, but never tire of hearing. Lamentations over the continual overlooking of Melissa McBride for Emmy consideration. The excitement surrounding Lauren Cohan's return for season 11. These are the kinds of things you'll find in this continually updated collection of the latest news, interviews, and random thoughts about The Walking Dead. I'll add to this page until there's nothing left to say about TWD. I don't think that will ever be a possibility, though, with new series coming and so many fans with so many opinions. We'll be talking about it decades after it ends.



FINALLY!!! It's been so long, yet I never found the time to finish all my posts in draft from this season, not to mention seasons past. Even my farewell and tribute to Andy is still waiting for me to go back to it. Some day, probably when the Rick movies roll around and I have to change it to a "farewell and hello again" post. And some day I'll write about "A Certain Doom," too. Hopefully, soon rather than later. I have a goal and I'm working to make it happen, so I can go back to blogging as much as I used to.



I wish so much for this. I've been over this scenario countless times since it was spoiled that Andy was leaving, long before Season 9 started. After "What Comes After" made me fall more in love with the show than ever (again), leaving Rick incredibly, amazingly, outstandingly not dead, I imagined he could return in the series finale.

Soon after, they revealed the plan for the movie(s) and that Andrew just couldn't cut Rick out of his life completely. I've seen his story being a harrowing journey to get back home—the way it's always been—the end of it showing Alexandria in the middle distance, like in "Beside the Dying Fire" with that shot of the prison. The end of The Walking Dead would be Michonne and Judith running to him, a long-awaited embrace between them mirroring the first season's "Tell It to the Frogs," when Rick found Lori and Carl. Two endings full of heart and hope.

Since Danai has left the series, too, and Michonne is out looking for Rick, the scenario has changed a bit. Now I see them finding each other outside of the main series. Now I see them both coming home for the last episode, which is no longer a "some day" but a certainty. Whatever way Angela Kang and Scott Gimple decide to go, I will embrace it. I always have. I'm here to be taken on this journey, not to be the guide. I only hope for the best for all these wonderful, wonderfully-portrayed characters.



"I'm curious what the similarities will be and what the differences will be."

I read that it was going to be a road trip series for Daryl and Carol days before this tweet, but it looks like I neglected to both retweet and favorite it.

This lastest spinoff sounds fantastic, but I was expecting nothing less. The last two originals. Coming across new people, new communities, helping out, never sticking around long. Would they point anyone toward Alexandria or gather a new group? I would hope it would be just the two of them for a while but, but I also want people I like to stick around. Either way, TWD never fails to do something new to keep me interested and I can't wait to see where it goes.

I'm just not actually as excited for the monster of the week format as Norman. I hope it gets a little more serialized as time goes on and as the story permits. They have to be really on their toes in casting, because far too many episodic shows drop the ball on guest stars and lose my interest when what's supposed to be dramatic has me rolling my eyes or giggling because of how bad the acting is. In the end, though, it's about Daryl and Carol, their deep love for each other, their heart-to-hearts, and whatever shenanigans they'll be getting up to. I'm there for all of it...as long as they survive the original series and this one won't be merely covering the 6-year gap of Rick's absence.



They certainly do deserve to be recognized and always have. I've said it time and time again. But if the brilliant performances Andrew Lincoln gave consistently for more than eight years never even got a mention, there's little hope for anyone else being recognized this late in the game, no matter how great they are. If every single actor on The Walking Dead gave masterful, career-high, never to be topped performances all at once in every single scene of every single episode of the final season, they still wouldn't be a whisper in the Emmy wind.

Game of Thrones was rightly showered with Emmys. Why so much love for the fast-moving, cold-loving zombies show and so much contempt for this one? One is gradiose and epic, the other intimate and lonely at the end of the world. Both can be truly brutal in their depictions of human cruelty and the will to survive. But, besides a few key performers in GoT, I've always felt more heart and hope in TWD, so the Emmy snubs are particularly idiotic and annoying. I can see being nominated and losing to more popular choices, but to only be nominated a handful of times in the early years (with only two wins) for nothing more than makeup just perpetuates the assumption by others who don't watch the show that it's not worth watching.

To simplify, I mostly watched GoT for Peter Dinklage, dragons, and to see the truly evil eventually get what was coming to them. I watch TWD for Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Danai Gurira and all those who breathe (or breathed) life into that decaying world; for the despair and struggle that each character has been through and the all too rare moments of triumph; and for complicated villains—some with a spark of humanity and others too far gone—all having backstories that explain them. I love both shows, but GoT isn't 29.5 times better (according to Emmy wins) than TWD. Not to say that Game of Thrones didn't deserve everything it ever won, but they would have had a much more difficult time if the nominations had fairly included the myriad of moving, captivating, powerhouse performances from The Walking Dead.



"All I heard was, 'Come back, Rick.' It was so moving."

I was going to comment on this days ago, but I must have been called away from my iPad. It completely slipped my mind until just now. I remember I was going to say something like, "Of course they're still working on it. They have to be! We can't just have Rick fly off into the horizon never to be seen again!! That's not how it was supposed to happen!!!" But I was going to save the fake panic until after I actually read the article.


I really, REALLY need to watch the Blu-rays I have been collecting. I always think I'll have the time, or make the time, but it just never happens. I quit my job in June and still a rewatch is merely on the horizon. Problem is, I quit because I wanted to grow my business, so that's what's taking all my time now. I've been wanting to rewatch my favorite shows—or at least the extras—since Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air. That's how long I've been putting these things off. I always find something else I need to do.



Not that it's a fun time losing any character, especially the dearly beloved ones, so brutally or cruelly. But the opportunity for the actors to give us all a masterclass in acting, and the unexpected and thrilling way it bonds you with the characters even more, is unforgettable and how it should be. Most shows don't have that. They should.



How often do you get to be devastated and elated with the same news? So sad, but such a wonderful surprise. The end of an era...that will continue on with original characters from the first season who were always meant to be together. I'll miss everyone who makes it to the end and won't be moving on to the new series. My fingers are crossed for some familiar guest stars. Hopefully, it will end with hope, with those left behind continuing to build their communities and the world around them, as Daryl and Carol ride off into the sunset and we follow closely behind on the camera truck. ;) Don't know what I'll do with myself if this show gets cancelled before it starts.



Noooooo! Also, woohoo for Norman and Melissa! We all knew it would come sooner or later. Every show ends. Not every show gets to end on their own terms. It will be incredible, as it always has been and I won't regret a moment I spent with The Walking Dead.



I mean, we already knew this from years and years of everyone saying it, but it's still nice to hear it again. Such an incredible cast and there's so much care for the story radiating from the screen—behind the scenes, during interviews, from any Comic-Con, and the whole cast giving their all to make this a complete and ever-changing world.


Tell them nothing about all the tragedy that's about to descend, nothing about how it's unrelenting and horrifying, nothing at all about how they'll sometimes feel sick to their stomach or might think, just for a second, about quitting out of objection to the things they can't control, the hearts they can't unbreak including their own. Just tell them how it will all be worth it for the actors who pour their hearts into the greatest performances they've ever seen, for the quiet moments of character development and wisdom, and for the triumphs that feel so massive when they finally come.



That short tweet doesn't even begin to describe the feelings this show caused at the time, and still does at times. Instead of reiterating it all here, I wrote about "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" back then, so please check it out if you're curious about how much I was both fawning over and completely ruined by that episode. Until that night, I had no idea I could feeel that depth of devastation from any entertainment medium.

Related Reading—The Day Will Come When You Won't Be



I thought I responded to this one, but it looks like I didn't. It's definitely worth the read. We all know what Emmy voters are missing and that's absolutely EVERYTHING. There's no other explanation than that they've never seen a single episode of The Walking Dead, never even heard of it. If they had then Andrew Lincoln and/or Norman Reedus and/or Melissa McBride and/or Danai Gurira (at least) would have won an Emmy every season. Or (at the very least) they would have been nominated.

It is unfathomable that a show with such astonishing work has been completely ignored, as if they're collectively being shunned for whatever reason. I'll never forgive them for not giving Andrew awards at least in Seasons 7, 8, and 9, for his stunning performances full of heart and heartbreak, terror and rage, mercy and hope in "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be," "Hearts Still Beating," "Honor," "Worth," "Wrath," and "What Comes After."

Related Reading—Hearts Still Beating



When I read that, I couldn't believe it had been so long already. I'd seen from "Who Are You Now?," with Michonne at the opening talking about the darkness, years later still holding out hope for Rick, who was her light; all the way until "The Tower," with one of Uncle Daryl's most touching scenes, which I had to use as a banner. Still, it was hard to imagine Andrew Lincoln had left in the first half of Season 9 and we were already months past Season 10. Still waiting on the finale, though. October 4 is coming up quick all of sudden. Less than three weeks!

And so you don't have to refresh the page until that banner I mentioned shows up...



Well, it's been quite some time. She lost her entire family. She became the leader of a post apocalyptic community. She's now raising a child in a new community after leaving everything she knew behind to hopefully find some peace and a way forward. I imagine that would somewhat change a person. They've all been changed by their constant struggle for survival. Can't wait to see her new friends and how they'll help end the Whisperers.


Aww, these two. I'm so happy Norman and Melissa are getting their own show when this epic series ends. Can't imagine the world of The Walking Dead without them. Then again, I couldn't imagine it without Rick either, but since he's still alive, his exit was easier to take. Easier only at the very last minute, though. Most of "What Comes After" was grueling, just knowing he wouldn't survive, but it was also beautiful and haunting in the way Rick's hallucinations and memories of those who'd gone before came together. A heavy episode worthy of a character so important to the show and Andrew Lincoln, who gave so much.



Looks like I saved the article in this tweet for reading later and then never read it later. Apparently, Carol's not done "blow[ing] up a lot of things." I mean, you can't expect a grieving-multiple-times-over wife and mother stuck in a zombie apocalypse where death and destruction reign to suddenly be okay with how things are falling apart again. I've loved Carol from the start and it was so satisfying when she got her revenge on Alpha. The wait is almost over to see where she goes next in her grief and how her deep friendship with Daryl will help her through.



Right? It's never made any sense at all that McBride doesn't have an Emmy. Carol has been through the ringer and come out the other side changed and damaged but still very much fighting. Melissa has profound material to work with and makes the numbness and pain look effortlessly real. Praise from fans is well-deserved and she deserves as many awards as any of her castmates do. The work is deeply-felt by an entire cast and crew who genuinely care about what they're doing and put forth a tremendous effort. The fact that they are consistently ignored when it comes time to recognizing their contribution to television is ridiculous.




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