The Walking Dead Season 9, Episode 1 Review

 

Fresh out of New York Comic Con, the latest episode of The Walking Dead just aired and this one was a massive episode. Not only because it’s the season premiere, but also because it’s the first episode for a new arc after the massive All Out War arc we had which was great in my opinion. I was so excited to see what Season 9 of The Walking Dead would bring us and how things with Negan no longer in charge would go for Rick and his group.

The name of this episode is called “A New Beginning” which also takes the name of volume 22 of the comic series, and the subtitle of Issue #127. The episode started off quite strongly with all of our core main characters working together to pull an old wagon out of an old museum. It was nice to see Rick, Daryl, Rosita, The King, Carol, Maggie and everyone else from the core character set share a single scene with one another. It does seem a long time since we’ve seen them all work together on something as they’re often separated and in different locations. They all went to a museum in Washington, D.C to retrieve supplies, such as plows, canoes, seed samples, and a covered wagon. I loved the dialogue that was exchanged between the characters. I also wondered if anyone noticed the bloody handprint on the “Civil War” part of the large artwork Michonne was looking at. The group almost lost Ezekiel as he fell through the glass floor while there were walkers under beneath but the group saved him just in time.

But as the episode progressed we could see that our once close group of friends who we know work together well, are actually having a lot of issues.

For the most part, the struggle for our group at the moment post Negan is with leadership and the limited resources available. There just isn’t enough to go around and people living under Rick’s leadership are getting annoyed.

Further tensions occur on Maggie’s side of the group which she now leads after winning an election. Gregory is still alive and is stirring dissent among the ranks and gets quite a bit done after ken dies on the wagon mission. This gives Gregory a chance to build up an assassination attempt on Maggie during a brief period of severe unpopularity. Gregory fails though and Maggie ends up having him hanged. It’s quite brutal really, but it represents a shift in Maggie’s character to a more ruthless side, which I think might develop further if her character doesn’t have anyone to counter balance what she’s doing. This moment on the show also happened on issue #141.

We see a conversation in this episode between Maggie and Rick where they talk about building a broken bridge and the resources involved. Between the two groups, it’s tough to organize and Maggie’s unpopularity at the moment makes it tough for her to commit strong resources to help Rick. I feel that going forward, we will probably see some tensions between the groups for resources and it might strain the Rick and Maggie friendship quite a bit, but it’s just a theory.

The thing I’m most sad about at the moment is that if you’ve been reading up on Andrew Lincoln news lately you’ll know it’s his last season. I really don’t want him to go and the actor, particularly in this episode had so much screen presence that it’s hard to imagine the show without him in it. It’s going to be a tough season to watch but I’m happy with this premiere episode. I’m looking forward to seeing how both Rick and Maggie develop as season 9 progresses and how they handle leading both their groups Also interesting is where some of the other characters are heading right now such as Daryl and Carol who both had a few interesting moments in today’s episode and I’m keen to see both those characters develop.

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AMC’s “The Walking Dead” season 9 will have a “new look and feel” according to the new showrunner

 

“The Walking Dead” TV series has a new showrunner for season 9. In a recent interview, the new showrunner Angela Kang talked about the changes in the “look and feel” of the show, and other aspects of the story.

Kang is no stranger to the show, and has been a part of the TV series since the second season. Her role has been expanding gradually, and now she is the showrunner. In an interview with Variety, Kang teased that they are “playing with the style of the show a little bit.”

“I think fans will enjoy the new look and feel that we have,” Kang said. The long running show has a typical look and feel, something that Kang is aware of, but they do want to keep the show “fresh.” Apart from the look of the show they have apparently experimented with the sound too.

There will be a time jump in the next season similar to the comic series where there was a time jump in the comic series after All Out War ended. After using cars and jeeps on the streets, the heroes appear to have finally run out of gas for their vehicles. The next season will show them on horses and carts. “The world is starting to break down and nature is taking over,” Kang teased.

Apart from the changes in the transport the heroes will use, their weapons will also change. They will gradually move away from guns and bullets to more of hand weapons. The close-up shots of people slashing and stabbing zombies should make for some exciting action sequences, especially when they face a big horde. “It’s a fun evolution we’re playing with,” Kang said.

The show has had shocking exits of some of the main characters in Season 8, which is expected to continue in season 9.

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