Some have suggested killing off the entire cast and turning Fear
into stand-alone episodes featuring a new cast each week.
Good idea.

What, exactly, is Kim Dickens "talent"?

Thanks for the review.
It means I don't need to watch this debacle to find out what's going on,
which is nothing much.
FTWD started off with some promise in Season 1,
but after the first couple episodes of Season 2, sank quicker than the Abigail.
A lurching non-plot, poor dialogue and uninteresting characters sealed the…

Fire Gimple.
Rehire Darabont and Mazzara.

Right.
Negan was just slopped on us,
while The Governor was slowly peeled away.

Actually, he was written with extreme and funny profanity in the comic book.
That has been nixed by the FCC and AMC,
so we have a PG-Rated Negan.
Which sucks for the character.
Watch the 4 minute clip of the premier episode with profanities left in,
now on YouTube.
Much, much, better.

In theory, yes.
But in practice here, with Jeffrey's persona, no.
In fact, it's so out of place and hard to believe,
it detracts from the character.
Also, unnecessary for the story.

Negan is supposed to be larger than life and very funny,
funny in a stupid, vulgar way, like your cretinous high school gym teacher.
The flip side of King Ezekiel.
Thus far, Ezekiel has been rendered perfectly.
Negan, not so much.
Would be good if Jeffrey Dean made some over the top ridiculous self aggrandizing speech to…

I believe you are correct on that.
Perhaps the first TV show whose casting is controlled
by Government bureaucrats.

Jeffrey Dean also has no butt or hips.
Neither does Negan in the Comics, if you look closely.

My vote was for Jon Hamm.

Negan is belligerent, like a high school bully,
but not frightening like The Governor.
The Gov was seductive, intelligent, manipulative,
but actually a such a good leader the people of Woodbury stayed voluntarily.
The dichotomy that he had secret psychopathic and megalomaniac tendencies
was what made him a great…

I'm afraid that story vein,
existing in the comics, does not work on TV.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is too handsome, physically fit
and charming to need to glom off some other guy for women.
It's just ridiculous.
Read the tabloids:
Gorgeous chicks throw themselves at the guy.
An example of something that should NOT have been…

Yeah.
Dwight is ripe for the picking.

Darryl and Beth was not really an isolated episode,
although it featured only the two of them.
It was embedded in both the main story arc and timeline
and offered no closure at the end,
but a manipulative cliffhanger.

I do love the stand alone episodes.
The Grove and Here's Not Here being the two most memorable.
That's because the main story arcs have become predictable and presented with much filler.
When they can focus on filling just one hour one time
with one idea, and bring it full circle,
it is much more successful.
Come to think…

Too many cliche's in this episode
-Darryl's escape was predictable, even laughable.
No explanation how Negan and all those Saviors showed up at just the right moment.

Looks like only 12 episodes with Andrew Lincoln this Season.
He has plenty of time to go back to England, do a play or movie or whatever.
Maybe that's not a bad thing, as the showrunners
have reduced Rick to like 2 expressions.

Want to improve the show?
Get rid of Scott Gimple.
Darabont and Mazzara were light years better than him.

"It’s continually impressive to me how a show this popular can still
manage to hire some of the worst minor character actors I’ve ever seen
on television."