I too understand the need to "tame" Rick and to hammer (bash) home the point that people's capacity for evil and brutality know no bounds. But I'm also beginning to feel really, really manipulated as a viewer. I didn't cry my eyes out like I did with previous major deaths. Even when I teared up at the dream scene of a brighter future, I felt manipulated. "Nyah nyah see what could have been? Aren't you sad, viewer?"
A death like Tyreese's, for example, was poignant. The actual death was filmed discreetly and respectfully, not all in your face. Yes, I know, the point is that Negan is just beyond the beyonds evil and now they have to figure it out.
At this point all that's keeping me watching is the acting - I love these cast members (saw some of them at a NY Times Talk) - such class acts, obviously tight-knit and they regularly rise above the writing, which itself is the reason I feel so exploited so unnecessarily. It feels like Negan is just this narrative tool. If his group is so universally far-reaching that they could magically block every road the group tried to take to Hilltop, how come we NEVER heard of them til now - what with Alexandria, the Wolves, and the other groups? How could Jesus not know that the idea of killing what Rick thought was the core of the Saviors at the compound was a very bad idea? It's like Negan and his group just magically appeared and multiplied.
Sorry to rant.
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