 Originally Posted by Moon Knight
The Walking Dead is one of those shows that people love picking on and enjoys when it flubs. No excuses, that deer was terrible. I cringed- laughed- then moved on. They are masters at practical effects but very amateurish when it comes to CGI; always has been.
I do agree on listening to the fans, though, especially after this frustrating season.
It's vital in all respects. There's plenty of bell ends out there with nothing constructive to say, but there's plenty of legitimate complaints/concerns that need to be addressed in Season 8.
They've generally addressed things in the past, so they absolutely need to now. There's certain things that fans will never understand about writing or producing a TV show, but there's no denying that the pacing and structure of the storytelling this season has been all over the shop (sometimes great, sometimes rather disappointing). There's been numerous instances were small details needed to be ironed out to cover up some logic gaps (e.g. Carl not shooting Negan when he had a clear shot - if they'd just have his gun jam there'd be a solid enough reason, as-is it doesn't quite work). On the other hand there's been some details that have made sense as we need them to - e.g. Daryl's escape (the note, the door lock pinned open by a piece of card so he can exit the building). We also needed to have more reason to understand the loyalty of Negan's higher-ups and the general hierarchy of The Sanctuary (we have had it laid out much better in 7x11 and late in Season 7A, but it needed to be explained in 7x03 straight off the *ahem* bat). A good example of introducing a new crowd was 7x02 with The Kingdom - we get the bluster, the confusion, the disorientation and theatricality - but we also got a grounded backstory for Ezekiel and Shiva and a very personal, private bit of access into the heart of The Kingdom. Oceanside or The Scavengers, on the other hand, is how not to do it (too arsey, too smug, that psycho-moppet-by-the-sea is intensely unlikeable, too 'movie-like' in the latter's case with all that parading around in black, and not enough to make us truly empathise with them ... despite Oceanside's backstory ... and Oceanside's biggest problem was it being a THIRD new group & location being fed to the audience inside FIVE episodes!) ... and, that old chestnut, too many "bottle" episodes. 
I think back to the likes of Season 4 and 5, and both flipped the script, to use Eugene's parlance. Season 4 saw the fall of the prison, the end of The Governor, everyone scattered to the wind, and the introduction of Terminus (although the Daryl & Beth wandering around eating mud snakes episode was the weakest of the season, but The Grove is an all-time great episode). Season 5 saw the fall of Terminus, the time in the Gabriel's church, Team Rick on-the-road and desperate, and the introduction of Alexandria was this complete change-up from feral living to civilised society - so there were some really good shifts in tone and direction throughout. Season 6 worked quite well (there were a few bottle episodes dotted around, but a forgiveable amount). The compressed timeline of Season 6A was an interesting way of doing things and kept up the momentum in the first three episodes especially, and 6x04 is how to do a "bottle" episode well. Within the context it was absolutely necessary - we needed to see how Morgan switched from madman to peace lover, and after the relentless 6x01 through 6x03 the chance to breathe was very welcome. We didn't stray too far from well established characters (unlike 7x06, which felt like an iffy episode of Fear The Walking Dead, to be honest), the battle in 6x08 and 6x09 was epic, and the escalation of the fight with The Saviours was plotted out nicely - and the introduction of The Hilltop was concise and it wasn't overbearing. Season 6's main issue was one too many fake-outs. The dumpster gimmick worked, I feel, but Glenn almost getting munched in 6x09 (and saved by Abraham and Sasha) was too much. The season finale cliffhanger is debateable.
CGI on the show is an up and down affair. Some of it works quite well (hordes of walkers stretching as far as the eye can see), and some of it has been excellent - there's a bunch of walkers in the very first episode, for instance, which are composited in to boost numbers on-screen (real actors in zombie make up filmed against green/blue screen and pasted in later on via computer), but none of us had any idea until we saw the VFX reel that was shown online a while afterwards.
Sure, working with animals isn't a piece of piss, but the deer in this episode though? Good grief, it was bad.  
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