Picture post: They turned...
Like most TWD addicts, I've watched my favourite episodes so often I could almost act them out myself. Do you agree with some of mine? (Click title for more details)
S1:3 Tell it to the Frogs
S2:7 Pretty Much Dead Already
S2:13 Beside the Dying Fire
S3:4 Killer Within
S3:15 This Sorrowful Life
S4:8 Too Far Gone
S4:14 The Grove
S5:1 No Sanctuary
S5:9 What's Happened and What's Going On
S5:10 Them
S7:8 Hearts Still Beating
S7:13 Bury Me Here
... I haven't worked out which are my favourites of S8 yet, but S8:13 Do Not Send Us Astray is definitely one of them.
One season from which I can't pick my favourites, though, is the fabulous Season 6. Not only is every episode a winner, but they come together as a whole to produce the best of televisual characterisation and slow-build menace. From the quarry to the Wolves, to Morgan and Eastman, Dwight's first appearance, the trade agreement with the Hilltop, and the 'new world'.... 'We have to come for them, before they come for us.'
S6:1 First Time Again is my top TWD episode of all time, with its to-ing and fro-ing in colour then black and white to show what happened between Reg and Pete's death and Operation Quarry. Fabulous Walker action, lots of great character conflict and coming together, a bit of posititivity, and reminders of the past ~ it's got the lot. 'I ask, you answer; it's just common courtesy, right?'
It took me a couple of viewings to realise that the first nine episodes (ending with 9: No Way Out, with the best Walker despatching in TWD history!) actually take place over only three days, in TWD time. Superbly plotted, eps 1-9 hardly contain a scene that isn't totally riveting, and the continuity is masterful. While Rick was running to the RV, Alexandria was getting beseiged by the Wolves, Michonne was tussling with Heath, and Glenn and Nicholas were in a tight spot.... and Daryl was in the burnt forest in 6: Always Accountable, where we first heard word of the Saviors, later to discover on the road what he, Sasha and Abraham think are just a bunch of assholes.
From 10: The Next World to 16: Last Day On Earth - one of the most subtly terrifying TV episodes ever, never mind just in TWD! - the slow reveal of the Saviors storyline is genius. Rick, Daryl and the Hilltoppers' misguided and almost cocky lack of understanding about how huge, resourceful and truly ruthless the Negan army is, makes the sinister unfolding of that last journey, and the final scene when our group is trapped in the forest, tired, scared, and utterly, utterly out of their depth, possibly the best TV climax I've seen.
It's just.... brilliant. Which is why I hope we are going to see something similar with The Whisperers, in Season 9. I know some say that they were first mentioned back in S3, when Rick met the unhinged Morgan back in King County and he talked about people wearing dead men's faces, but that was 9 years ago and several hundred miles away.... I'm not convinced!
Thank you for reading, and I'd love to hear your views on how it might happen, your favourite episodes, etc! Meanwhile, here are some nice bits :)
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