So... It returns this weekend...

[Neil]

Let's hope it picks up the pace a little... :)

[Moon Knight]

Let's hope they cut down on the bottle episodes a little too.

[MinionZombie]

Let's hope they cut down on the bottle episodes a little too.

Yeah, there were too many in Season 7A.

I recently re-watched Season 6 and the pacing was much better there. They had some episodes that kept things at bay while they waited for the walker invasion of Alexandria, but the episodes still felt more a part of the whole story - telling us little pieces of what else was going on at the time - and, importantly, you were with familiar characters. But you have an episode like 6x04 where it's all about Morgan - and an extended length episode at that - and that one worked beautifully. I liked it even more the second time around and is a captivating two-hander for the most part, and is a much-needed breather after the full-on vibe of 6x01-6x03.

Season 7A suffered as a result of needing to introduce us to so many new characters - and locations. The episode for The Kingdom worked very well: we had Carol and Morgan as familiar faces, and King Ezekiel's truth was revealed by the end of the episode - so that one worked really well. The episode for The Saviours' gaff worked slightly less (it felt like it needed something to cut away to more than it did), but we were following one of the biggest characters (and an O.G. cast member) so we had that solid grounding. The episode with Tara (7x06) was the troublesome one - Tara's only been around since Season 4 and had been entirely absent since the middle of Season 6B, so she wasn't firm enough footing on her own. Heath has barely been in it, it feels, so we don't know him all that much - and then we get introduced to yet another new community (so essentially that was three new communities in six episodes!) - it was too much too quickly. I was missing my favourite characters and, to be honest, I didn't care for Oceanside's people all that much (except for the lady who helps out Tara as she was reasonable) ... and, ugh, that bloody kid! That character irked me so much, I gotta say.

Episodes 4, 5, and 6 were probably the most problematic in regards to Season 7A's pacing issues. The first three and the last two were fine and dandy (the premiere episode was phenomenal, too).

Thankfully 7x07 and particularly 7x08 pulled it back up again ... but overall 7A did have too much 'filler' floating around, and crammed too much new stuff in too quickly. I think some people out there didn't like it because they didn't like that Team Rick weren't winning, but that's daft, because that's how it's supposed to be. You can't win all the time, and the arrival of Negan is the big loss that was inevitable ... now though they have something to fight back against. I just hope we don't have too much dilly-dallying, although I wonder if the big battle that's sure to come will end up crossing over from Season 7 into Season 8.

Hopefully the writers have learned from their mistakes a bit, although the lag in writing to airing is sizeable, so perhaps there's not a huge difference in that regard - but I'm hopeful that the pace will quicken in general as we've got the gang re-forming with a clear and common goal in mind.

Pacing is different when you binge watch, but a show does need to properly work pace-wise week-to-week. That was 7A's key flaw - but there was plenty of good stuff in and around the pacing issues.

[katholiday]

It's gonna be okay! No worries mates!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EIsv6QmEHk

[Moon Knight]

Yeah, there were too many in Season 7A.

I recently re-watched Season 6 and the pacing was much better there. They had some episodes that kept things at bay while they waited for the walker invasion of Alexandria, but the episodes still felt more a part of the whole story - telling us little pieces of what else was going on at the time - and, importantly, you were with familiar characters. But you have an episode like 6x04 where it's all about Morgan - and an extended length episode at that - and that one worked beautifully. I liked it even more the second time around and is a captivating two-hander for the most part, and is a much-needed breather after the full-on vibe of 6x01-6x03.

Season 7A suffered as a result of needing to introduce us to so many new characters - and locations. The episode for The Kingdom worked very well: we had Carol and Morgan as familiar faces, and King Ezekiel's truth was revealed by the end of the episode - so that one worked really well. The episode for The Saviours' gaff worked slightly less (it felt like it needed something to cut away to more than it did), but we were following one of the biggest characters (and an O.G. cast member) so we had that solid grounding. The episode with Tara (7x06) was the troublesome one - Tara's only been around since Season 4 and had been entirely absent since the middle of Season 6B, so she wasn't firm enough footing on her own. Heath has barely been in it, it feels, so we don't know him all that much - and then we get introduced to yet another new community (so essentially that was three new communities in six episodes!) - it was too much too quickly. I was missing my favourite characters and, to be honest, I didn't care for Oceanside's people all that much (except for the lady who helps out Tara as she was reasonable) ... and, ugh, that bloody kid! That character irked me so much, I gotta say.

Episodes 4, 5, and 6 were probably the most problematic in regards to Season 7A's pacing issues. The first three and the last two were fine and dandy (the premiere episode was phenomenal, too).

Thankfully 7x07 and particularly 7x08 pulled it back up again ... but overall 7A did have too much 'filler' floating around, and crammed too much new stuff in too quickly. I think some people out there didn't like it because they didn't like that Team Rick weren't winning, but that's daft, because that's how it's supposed to be. You can't win all the time, and the arrival of Negan is the big loss that was inevitable ... now though they have something to fight back against. I just hope we don't have too much dilly-dallying, although I wonder if the big battle that's sure to come will end up crossing over from Season 7 into Season 8.

Hopefully the writers have learned from their mistakes a bit, although the lag in writing to airing is sizeable, so perhaps there's not a huge difference in that regard - but I'm hopeful that the pace will quicken in general as we've got the gang re-forming with a clear and common goal in mind.

Pacing is different when you binge watch, but a show does need to properly work pace-wise week-to-week. That was 7A's key flaw - but there was plenty of good stuff in and around the pacing issues.

Spot on. Rick shouldn't be absent for two episodes in a row. Rosita too but that is more of a personal gripe. ;)

[MinionZombie]

Spot on. Rick shouldn't be absent for two episodes in a row. Rosita too but that is more of a personal gripe. ;)

Wellll ... two in a row without Rick is okay, I think, but anything more than that I'm not fond of.

Rick's the leader of the group, but he's also our leader as viewers - we woke up with him in that hospital, so he's essentially our guide, and without him you start feeling adrift.

As long as the episodes without him have big key players at the helm, though, then it's okay.

[Trin]

As long as the episodes without him have big key players at the helm, though, then it's okay.
Like Glenn or maybe Abe....

Sorry, sorry... too soon?

I agree with MZ ... Rick has been our lens from the start and so his exclusion should be well thought out and someone of equal presence should be well featured in those times. We call it Team Rick for a reason.

That said, I'd also point out that there were half seasons where Rick was batshit crazy ... either hallucinating, uber violent, gone pacifist, or our current beaten down collaborator. In those times he is more of an anti-hero and we the viewers stray from him some (intentionally, by the writers). We must pin some of our hopes on the supporting characters. Thus it is absolutely imperative that the supporting characters be strong enough to get us through those times. And for that we need some measure of episodes without Rick so those supporting characters can dominate the spotlight. On this aspect, I think TWD does a very good job.

[MinionZombie]

Well said, Trin.

I think the supporting players are strengthened when they also tag along with the big guns - e.g. I like Tobin a lot as one of the smaller roles in the supporting cast, and could see him gradually becoming more and more a part of the group.

The likes of Aaron and Jesus were both solidified quite quickly as they were introduced as with either the whole gang there, or two of the biggest players - 6x10 (the episode where Rick and Daryl go out to scavenge and run into Jesus) is one of the most entertaining episodes of the show, and is essentially a three-hander with one of those hands being entirely new.

It doesn't always work, as I've said before, the Tara-centric episode didn't really do it for me - but it was a third new group for us viewers to be introduced to within six ruddy episodes, so that was overwhelming, although Tara was by far the best element of that episode. Heath has suffered from not enough screen time, but his scene with Glenn inside the radar installation (killing Saviours in their sleep, getting into a shoot out within the armory) was strong. So while Tara wasn't enough to help hold up the demands of 7x06, her stuff side-by-side with Glenn back in season 4 worked really well.

Sometimes it's nice to see combinations we don't often see - like in season 6 we had an episode with a lot of Maggie and Aaron - or also in season 6 there were bits where Glenn and Enid were teamed up, so particularly in the latter case it helped ground the supporting player and lay groundwork for stories to come (Enid now has a connection with Maggie, and essentially fills a role from the comics that the show couldn't do as they'd killed off the character who would have been in that position).

One of the best stand alone episodes was 6x04 - the Morgan-centric one - the two-hander stuff with 'The Cheese Maker' was excellent and really worked within the overall context.

I would like to see some more of these interesting team-ups. Eugene could use a new buddy, for example ... again, episode 6x10, that scene with Rick and Daryl in the car and Eugene being Eugene was hilarious. :D