The creators, including Robert Kirkman, the “Walking Dead” mastermind, and Scott M. Gimple, the showrunner, have spent the past few months insisting the cliffhanger move was absolutely not a cheesy bit of audience manipulation and instead served as crucial demarcation between two phases of the story.
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| The Walking Dead |
Six seasons in, “The Walking Dead” had become repetitive in its cycles: This place looks safe … but wait! Rick is a hero! No, Rick is crazy! And so on. Mr. Morgan’s Negan has the potential to rejuvenate it. As the man himself noted: “It’s a brand new day, Rick.”
Whatever. As Sunday’s episode revealed, any number of moments immediately following the bludgeoning would have allowed last season to end on a chilling, suspenseful note after also providing the payoff that had been teased for months. (One idea: Rick says, “I’m gonna kill you,” Negan yanks him into the R.V., door slams, roll credits.) In the final analysis, the story of Season 6 seems to be the show fell a little too in love with gimmickry — see also Glenn’s Dumpster dive, of course, and the Daryl shooting — and viewers got fed up. Hopefully lessons were learned.
Glenn’s murder was intended to be the shocker, and the writers deserve credit for somehow infusing some surprise into a death that was one of the well-known signature events of the comics. Even those who weren’t caught off guard, because they read the comics or internet rumors, or were just ready to see him go after all the Dumpster chicanery last year, had to have been moved to revulsion, at least, by Glenn’s bulging eyeball as he groaned his last words to Maggie. (“I’ll find you,” I think it was.)
Read more on site http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/arts/television/the-walking-dead-season-7-premiere-negan.html?_r=0