The Walking Dead (season 6) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The sixth season of The Walking Dead, an American horrordrama television series on AMC, premiered on October 11, 2015,[1] and concluded on April 3, 2016, comprising 16 episodes. Developed for television by Frank Darabont, the series is based on the eponymous series of comic books by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The executive producers are Kirkman, David Alpert, Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, Tom Luse, and Gale Anne Hurd, with Gimple as showrunner for the third consecutive season.

The first part of the season focuses on Rick and his group leading the Alexandria community through a series of crises including the threat of a large herd of walkers and an attack by dangerous scavengers known as the Wolves. The second half involves Rick and his companions discovering more survivor communities, making allies of the agrarian Hilltop colony and adversaries of the Saviors led by the ruthless Negan. This season adapts material from issues #78100 of the comic and introduces notable comic characters such as Heath, Denise Cloyd, Dwight, Paul "Jesus" Rovia, Gregory, and Negan.

The first half of the sixth season involves the failed execution of a plan initiated by Rick's group to parade a large mass of walkers trapped in a quarry near the walled community of Alexandria to a point twenty miles away as to remove the threat. Though the plan initially works, it is interrupted when the Wolves attack the vulnerable Alexandria, killing several of the residents and the commotion drawing part of the walkers to the community. Carol and Morgan help defend the community, but Morgan is disgusted with her callousness towards human life. Rick's group is split up as they attempt to control the remaining herd, and soon the community is surrounded by walkers pounding on its walls.

One separated group, Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha, have their own encounters, including a meeting with the dubious Dwight who claims to be fleeing from a group called "The Saviors". The three, after finding a fuel truck, are waylaid by several members of the Saviors who claim their property is now owned by Negan, before Daryl blows them up with a rocket-powered grenade. Elsewhere, Glenn and Nicholas are separated from Michonne and Heath while trying to create a diversion for the walkers; the latter pair make it back to Alexandria, while Nicholas commits suicide and traps Glenn while walkers surround him. He is saved by Enid, and the two start their way back.

Walkers eventually break through the weakened wall from the Wolf attack, forcing survivors into the homes. Several Alexandrians dies from this including Deanna and Jessie and her sons, while Carl loses an eye from a stray bullet. Daryl, Abraham and Sasha arrive and ignite the fuel truck to incinerate most of the walkers, while Glenn and Enid arrive in time to save Maggie, who had been trying to leave Alexandria to search for Glenn.

The second half of the season starts two months after the incident, the community re-secured but now starting to run low on supplies. Rick and Daryl meet Jesus, a resident of the nearby Hilltop community, and he takes them to meet their leader, Gregory. Gregory offers to share their supplies if Rick's group can end the extortion that Negan and the Saviors have on them. Rick agrees, and they make several attacks on Savoir strongholds. Carol has a crisis of conscience over her violence and flees; Rick and Morgan go to find her, during which Morgan attempts to sway Rick from killing others. Morgan eventually finds Carol after she had fought off several Saviors and helps to get her to safety and treat her wounds.

The Saviors, including Dwight, respond to the attacks with small scuffles, and Rick puts Alexandria on lockdown. Maggie starts having complications with her pregnancy, and members of Rick's group agree to help protect her to get her to the Hilltop community for help. They find the Saviors have blocked every road to Hilltop, and soon they are captured by the Saviors. Negan meets them, demanding that half of what Alexandria has is now his, and to prove his point, beats up on the head of a random, unrevealed member of Rick's group with a baseball bat.

On October 7, 2014, AMC renewed The Walking Dead for a sixth season.[14]Scott M. Gimple revealed that the sixth season would continue to remix material from the comic and explained that there would be a flashback backstory to some of the characters:

"There are other people that we're going to see throughout the season from the comics, and I'm excited for people to see it, but I don't want to tell them now. I think a few minor remixes, but some direct stuff from the comic as well, as far as these characters go.

I think there's a really cool aspect to the first half of the season that serves almost as a prequel to some direct comic stuff in the second half of the season. I think there's a way that Robert did some of the story that we're reaching that had a real past to it, where people are referring to some things in the past in the comic. And we're able to portray some of that backstory in some ways that you didn't get to see in the comic."[15]

Filming for the season began in Senoia, Georgia, in early May 2015 and concluded on November 17, 2015.[16][17] The season contains three extended episodes, airing in expanded 90-minute time slots, the season premiere, the fourth episode and the season finale.[1][18][19]

Three new actors were cast to portray new characters in the sixth season, including Corey Hawkins as Heath, a prominent and long running comic book character who is a supply runner and loyal friend to Glenn Rhee.[15]Merritt Wever joined the cast in the role of comic book character Dr. Denise Cloyd, while Ethan Embry also joined the cast.[3] In September 2015, Xander Berkeley was announced in an unknown recurring role that would debut during the second half of the season, and Berkeley has an option for series regular for the seventh season.[20] In January 2016, Berkeley's role was confirmed to be Gregory, a character from the comics.[8]Tom Payne joins the cast as Hilltop Colony recruiter, Paul Monroe.[7] On November 10, 2015, it was announced that Jeffrey Dean Morgan had been cast as Negan.[9]

Alanna Masterson who portrays Tara Chambler took maternity leave from the season in the episode "Not Tomorrow Yet" as she was nine months pregnant during the time of filming the episode.[21] She is absent from the final four episodes, and it is explained through her character going on a two-week supply run.[22]

Overall, the season received mixed to positive reviews. On Metacritic, the first few episodes hold a score of 79 out of 100 based on 10 reviews.[39] On Rotten Tomatoes, the first few episodes have a rating of 80% with an average score of 7.4 out of 10 based on 21 reviews, with a critical consensus of, "Six seasons in, The Walking Dead is still finding ways to top itself, despite slow patches that do little to advance the plot."[40] Matt Fowler for IGN gave a 6.8/10 rating for the season as a whole. In summary, he said: "Walking Dead's Season 6 had some big effective moments while also crumbling under an avalanche of fake outs & trickery." He praised the Morgan flashback episode "Here's Not Here", Carol's arc and the "string of great, violent episodes in the [second half of the season]". His major criticisms of the season were "Glenn's 'death' - and other cheap fake outs/unnecessary cliffhangers" and "Characters clumsily steered into making dumb choices".[41]

Glenn's fake death in the third episode "Thank You" was a major source of controversy. The Hollywood Reporter heavily criticized the decision of the writers to create the storyline. Daniel Fienberg felt apathetic about the decision and said, "I'm not sure I care about [...] the way his death would impact the ensemble. If he's dead, the loss will be felt most by Maggie, but Maggie just had her sister die a few episodes ago, so there's no variation anymore to making Lauren Cohan wail, no matter how entirely convincingly she does it. To me, The Walking Dead has lost whatever core of human relationships it ever had, and whether Glenn lives or dies, it just feels mechanical now." Tim Goodman expressed shock over the concept of Glenn potentially being alive saying, "I honestly don't think showrunner Scott M. Gimple is dumb enough to fake this death somehow, not with how implausible it would be for Glenn to survive it."[42]The Hollywood Reporter later declared that the show had "lost its credibility" when Glenn was revealed to be alive in the episode, "Heads Up". Scott Gimple responded to the controversy surrounding this. He said, "We've had instances of people in a very emotional state Tyreese jumping into the middle of a large herd and fighting his way out; a man cut off his own hand and fights his way through a department store full of walkers. These things are part of the world. Glenn had the bad luck of being knocked off that dumpster by Nicholas, ending his own life but [Glenn] had the good luck of Nicholas landing on him. There's a lot of very specific facts about it that I think a lot of people have sort of gotten wrong. But breaking it down shot for shot I think we're past that point. I don't think this is any sort of new instance that broke the rules of our show at all. I think it's very much in line with everything we've done before. I don't think there's a credibility issue."[43] Erik Kain for Forbes felt that the decision ruined Glenn's storyline. He declared season 6 "a mixed bag" and was frustrated with the decision to hold off Glenn's fate for 3 episodes. He said, "...the showrunners spent three more episodes essentially refusing to move the plot forward. We got one good backstory, and then two episodes where almost nothing happened to anyone we cared about. We learned that Maggie was pregnant and that's about all." When speaking of the confirmation of Glenn being alive, Kain felt the decision was "implausible" from the inconsistency of his fall and camera angle tricks. He also felt the decision to "[drag] it out for weeks" had "effectively [killed] off all the tension [...] at the end of episode 3."[44] Brian Moylan of The Guardian was also critical, saying: "Glenn is alive, and The Walking Dead will never be the same.... It would rather kill off a main character than pull a lame switcheroo. Until now."[45]

While the first half of the season received heavy criticism, many of the episodes in the second half were critically acclaimed. The episode "No Way Out", which resolved all previous cliffhangers was widely acclaimed.[46] "The Next World" received highly positive reviews for its lighter tone[47] and the romance between protagonist Rick Grimes and Michonne by fans and critics alike, notably The Guardian[48] and The A.V. Club.[49] Subsequent episodes received praise, notably the episode "Not Tomorrow Yet". "The Same Boat" was lauded for its "strong female focus".[50] Jeremy Egner of The New York Times commented positively on Carol's character development. He adulated the complexity of Carol's division between ruse and real emotion, saying "Like always, Carol did whatever necessary to survive and protect her cohorts, and did so in particularly brutal fashion [...] but she seems increasingly unable to avoid reckoning with the toll. "Are you O.K.?" Daryl asked when he arrived. "No," she responded, and that was before Rick executed the remaining Savior right in front of her. It's going to take more than a few Hail Marys to make that image, among many others, go away."[51]

The finale received largely mixed to negative reviews, with many criticizing the cliffhanger. It sparked backlash on social media from fans and critics alike. While Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance as Negan was praised, the episode was mostly criticized for its cliffhanger ending. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 47% rating with an average score of 6.9 out of 10 with the critical consensus: "Despite Jeffrey Dean Morgan's deliciously evil turn as Negan, the meandering "Last Day on Earth" and its manipulative cliffhanger ending make for a disappointing season finale."[52] Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, the lowest grade given by the site for the show to date, and commented, "The problem is almost everything else. We'll get to Negan and that so-idiotic-it's-actually-kind-of-hilarious cliffhanger in a second, but before we do, let's unpack the many ways 'Last Day On Earth' went wrong. Even the title is badnot on its own."[53] Todd VanDerWerff of Vox gave the episode a negative review, calling it the worst episode of the show so far, and commenting, "The extra-long episode spent its first hour dramatizing all the excitement of your GPS insisting that you take a road you already know is closed, and the last half-hour sank some nicely spooky moments with a too-long monologue and a completely botched cliffhanger." However, he gave a positive review on Negan's introduction.[54]

The Walking Dead's sixth season premiere received 14.63 million viewers in its initial broadcast on AMC in the United States. The viewership slightly declined from the previous season's record breaking premiere, "No Sanctuary" and the fourth season premiere "30 Days Without an Accident", but was the most watched television series of the night.[23] The season finale received a 6.9 rating in the key 18-49 demographic with 14.19 million total viewers.[38] This was a significant increase from the previous episode "East", which received a 5.9 rating and 12.38 million total,[37] but also significantly lower than the ratings for the season 5 finale, which was watched by 15.8 million American viewers with an 1849 rating of 8.2.[55]

For the 42nd Saturn Awards, the series received seven nominations and three wins: the show won for Best Horror Television Series, Danai Gurira won for Best Supporting Actress on Television, and Chandler Riggs won for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series. Nominations included Andrew Lincoln for Best Actor on Television, Tovah Feldshuh and Melissa McBride each for Best Supporting Actress on Television, and John Carroll Lynch for Best Guest Starring Role on Television.[56][57]

The sixth season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 23, 2016.[58]

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The Walking Dead (season 6) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero