The Walking Dead Season 11 Starts Strong, Minus One Old Trick – Forbes

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead had its official premiere last night, after its AMC+ showing a week ago. Season 11 will be the final season of the main show before it finishes the comic source material and splinters into spin-offs.

Last night saw the group split between the Commonwealth gang and the more interesting crew who is trekking back to Maggies old hideout to take on a new, non-comic group called the Reapers, which appear to be some sort of ex-special forces hunters or something like that.

The problem? Theyre crawling through abandoned subway tunnels full of zombies, and thats not going so well. But whats bad for the group is good for the show, and this is a really, really tense sequence in terms of how it handles both the zombie attacks, and the clear rift between Negan and Maggie.

Maggie has obviously not forgiven Negan for killing Glenn all those years ago, but Negan is sort of done hanging his head in shame, as we figured out by him coming back to the settlement at the end of last season. Hes sort of either waiting for Maggie to kill him, or waiting for her to get over it. But now, we can see he may be taking someproactive action, and has not fully converted to the Good Guy Negan weve seen recently.

This culminates in a moment where the group is climbing to the roof of a train to escape zombies, but Maggie is the last one up, and is losing her grip as zombies claw at her feet. Negan is there, but considering Maggie was just threatening his life minutes earlier, figures that maybe he shouldnt bother going out of his way to save her. She falls, and scrambles under the train, but is swarmed by zombies.

Cliffhanger!

The Walking Dead

Yeah I dont love them trying to pull a variant of the Glenn under the dumpster trick again. I guess in this case, we dont get the full treatment, like the camera angle that was showing us Glenns insides being eaten when instead it was the corpse on top of him, but its a similar situation.

But in this case we know Maggie isnt dead for sure. A) that would be a blisteringly stupid way to kill her after all the work it took to get her back on the show and B) we have seen season previews that show her in other locations later in the season, so its not exactly a spoiler to say she survives. Still, I found it a tad annoying they set it up this way.

I am more curious about this new, new Negan. I sort of appreciate the idea that maybe you cant fully rehabilitate a guy who used to beat people to death in cold blood and kept a harem of unwilling wives as a power flex. I have always thought the redemption of Negan was a little icky in both the comics and the show. I dont know if hes going full villain here, but hes clearly tired of acting like a saint to regain the trust of people who all despise him, and probably always will.

In any case, I thought this was a very solid premiere, and next weeks episode is good too, which Ive already seen. I have concerns about the coming Commonwealth storyline, but I guess well see how it goes. Im more concerned about the Reaper fight, which I think has the potential to be a lot more interesting.

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The Walking Dead Season 11 Starts Strong, Minus One Old Trick - Forbes