The Walking Dead deserves credit for a bold move that “got us on Sunday”

The Ringer

The midseason twist was a “serious surprise,” a very controversial move that was needed since such surprises had become a rarity on the AMC series, says Ben Lindbergh. “One of the complaints frequently levied against latter-day Dead is the plot armor that protects any person of importance,” says Lindbergh. “If the series’ characters were more deftly drawn, we wouldn’t want them to die; if its events were more logically and painstakingly plotted, we wouldn’t be convinced that they deserve to. As it is, the combination of inconsistent, sporadically likable characters and implausibly close calls creates the sense among self-loathing hate-watchers that we’ve been robbed of blood that was rightfully ours — a hard-earned reward for suffering through seven seasons (and counting), long after learning to stop expecting something else.’

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