Many fans and critics of the American post-apocalyptic survival horror drama TV series “The Walking Dead” commended its Season 7 premiere that aired on October 23 on AMC, citing that it as the greatest episode in the series’ six-plus years of history.
Aside from being shocked with the gory and nerve-tingling death of Glenn, some fans of the show actually scored “The Walking Dead” for taking the level of violence one step too far, reports Polygon.
A good number of fans of the show on different forums and social media commented that while they have been used to seeing extreme violence on the show, the scenes depicting the sadistic and gory death of Glenn and Abraham in the hands or in the bat of Negan were just too much. Some others describe it as too revolting.
One fan even said on Reddit that TV violence normally does not get to him because he knows it is just a TV show and it’s all fake but for some reason, the Season 7 premiere episode of “The Walking Dead” has gotten to him.
Some others claim that they felt seriously sick watching the scenes of the gory deaths and nearly had a panic attack watching Glenn’s death.
Actor also agrees
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan in “The Walking Dead,” seems to agree with the observations of most fans of the series.
In an interview with USA Today, the actor said that he did not think the show needed to include close-ups of the gore because it just shows a lot of violence.
He said that he thinks the shots were really creepy when the viewers could not exactly see what was going on except for the silhouette of Negan with the bat coming down and the blood flying.
So he just does not see the point of showing the close-up gore of it all because it is just too much for the viewers.
TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz also criticized “The Walking Dead” for relying on an empty use of over-the-top violence in order to shock its fans. He said that the TV series has begun to sacrifice its story for shocking gore, describing the show as a fourth-rate zombie movie stretched out over 83 hours.
Seitz explained that the brutality of “The Walking Dead” was nearly eroticized, with loving inserts of the villain’s bloody weapon, lingering images of hostages’ tearful, terrified faces, and low-angled shots that made Negan loom like a conquering badass hero.
Coming to the defense
But as expected, there were also fans who came to the rescue of the directors and showrunners and claimed that “The Walking Dead” has always been violent.
In fact, one fan on Reddit said that he is still amazed that some people are still getting upset about the episode when the show’s premise has been rooted in violence since it first premiered in 2010.
He explained that the scene was brutal but it amazes him how many people have become crazy about it even after they have all seen literally dozens of zombies getting their skulls smashed in over the course of six seasons.
Director Greg Nicotero explained in a recent interview that they knew it was going to be extremely violent, but that’s what they were going for.
Negan, he argued, is one of the most despicable and vile villains that the group of survivors has come across with and it was important to the team to depict him as such.
Meanwhile, the Season 7 premiere episode of “The Walking Dead” paid off for AMC as the show got its second-highest-rated episode ever, reports Deadline.
In Live+3 numbers, “The Walking Dead” Season 7 debut episode hit it out of the park World Series-style with 20.8 million viewers and 13.2 million among adults 18-49, its second-best delayed viewing results ever.
That’s a 22% jump in the total audience from the near-record Live+Same Day results drawn by the 1-hour and 6-minute “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” episode.
Compared to the figures for the Season 6 opener last year, the Season 7 debut episode was pretty steady, with a 7% rise in total viewers and 3% uptick in the key demo.
Incidentally, there was an obvious trolling by the showrunners of “The Waking Dead” on AMC during the Season 6 finale when they made the identity of Negan’s victim as the show’s main cliffhanger.