The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 1 Review
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This The Walking Dead review does NOT contain spoilers.
The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 1
We've been here before: The Walking Dead is back, promising a new beginning and a shift in the condition quo in the backwash of a big disharmonize that left the characters' lives forever altered. Rick Grimes and his cast of friends have settled into their new lives and are rebuilding the communities they worked and then hard to protect from their enemies. The new world, which has been on its way for at to the lowest degree five seasons, has finally arrived and all of its inhabitants are at peace. Right?
It's impossible to escape how painfully pigment-by-the-numbers The Walking Dead season nine opener, "A New Beginning," feels at times, as if going downwardly a checklist of the show'southward most tired tropes. But the premiere commits an fifty-fifty greater sin than that: it'southward kind of irksome. The extended episode (which The Walking Dead should never do) never really builds whatsoever momentum. Only after introducing its version of a redshirt does the episode kind of become going, but fifty-fifty then, the drama feels unearned.
"A New Commencement" is less a fresh start and more a reminder of the problems that have plagued the show for the terminal few years. After nine seasons, how much can The Walking Dead actually modify? Every flavour since at least the sixth has consisted of trickle-downward storytelling, a boring slog until the adjacent major character death. Yep, there have been some highlights forth the way, moments that accept partially redeemed the testify, just The Walking Expressionless always inevitably falls back into the same verbal rhythm as earlier, and the clock begins again.
That clock is louder than ever this season as we set to say goodbye to Rick Grimes and Maggie Rhee, both of whom volition exit the show past midseason. While we don't know that Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan's characters are necessarily doomed to a gruesome fate, nosotros do know that they only have weeks left in their respective roles. That most of the worthwhile drama in the episode revolves around Rick and Maggie doesn't exactly inspire hope. What will be left to lookout man afterwards they're both gone? Why does this show even matter anymore?
At the very least, "A New Beginning" tries to accost the elephant in the room, making the example for Daryl and Ballad equally successors to Rick and Maggie. While the bear witness is up to its usual tricks with broody Daryl, who continues to struggle with his place in a civilized society, the premiere does a fine chore of giving Ballad (still my favorite Walking Dead grapheme) her first interesting bit of material since season six. She's settled back into a life surrounded by her friends and has fifty-fifty taken upwardly a new role within the communities that should excite fans. At i point, Carol finds herself in an unexpected predicament and Melissa McBride plays the scene with dash and surprising comedic timing. Needless to say, Carol is definitely a highlight of the episode.
Danai Gurira, fresh off the Marvel railroad vehicle, gets the most screen time she's had in at least a season, but well-nigh of it involves Michonne supporting Rick and building him upwardly every bit the de facto leader of a pocket-size nation-state of survivors. Michonne acts more than every bit a political advisor to Rick, although it's already clear she's capable of leading. Hopefully, that's the direction the show will take with the character subsequently so much fourth dimension spent on the sideline.
Cohan is improve than ever as Maggie, who has embraced her role as the Hilltop'due south leader. No longer content with being Rick's follower, Maggie is cunning and at one bespeak even challenges Rick'due south controlling. Information technology'southward a tense moment that sets the phase for a potential conflict between the two leaders. We know that problem is already brewing between Alexandria and the Hilltop later Rick spared Negan in the season eight finale and the premiere is happy to stir the pot a bit more.
The Maggie-centric portion of "A New Commencement" likewise delivers the nearly meaning moment of the episode, which doesn't quite pack a dial just at least ties upwardly a loose end from last season. Forth the way, the characters have an all-also-brief chance in Washington D.C., as a postapocalyptic Capitol Building looms in the background, a stark reminder of what'south been lost but could be regained again. The scenes are a nice teaser for potential future zombie shenanigans in the capital, merely it's a real bummer that we don't spend more time in that location.
In general, the interesting moments are few and far between in the season nine premiere, which offered new showrunner Angela Kang, who'south written some of my favorite episodes of the series, a bit of a blank slate but ultimately feels similar more of the same. My simply promise is that "A New Kickoff" is not a sign of things to come.
Source: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-walking-dead-season-9-episode-1-review-a-new-beginning/
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