I just watched the whole thing and I thought it was absolutely brilliant — it's the kind of thing I generally stay away from, but enough of the fervent recommendations came from guys (whose taste is similar to mine) — saying "I know it looks like something not to go near, but trust me; it's fantastic" — that I decided…

Not every recovered victim of abuse can "wear" her heals

There is nothing wrong with Tarkin in Rogue One. Every single wife-and-girlfriend thought he was a real guy and didn't have any idea why their husbands/boyfriends were going bananas next to them in the theater.

Why did you think she was having sex?

I don't agree with this false "it can't be good because it's bad" logic, ever, because it's ridiculous. You said it's a "cheap trick" — meaning, intrinsically bad, not bad in this case — and I argued that it's exactly the same technique used by all those great writers I mentioned.

It's just a stray sarcastic comment in the middle of a healthy viewing habit; not an ethos for watching a show.

It doesn't "hurt me to admit it," I just think it's a dumb thing to do. (Even with a legitimately bad show, which I don't think this is.)

Of course "I make it a point" to avoid spoilers. Isn't that the default position? Why would you not?

This whole position you're taking baffles me. They did exactly that in the season premiere (faking us out with the double kill), and then did it again last night (with Sasha and Carl, and Michonne, whom I was sure had bought the farm). And all of it was dramatic as hell.

I've been watching this show from the beginning, and I've read every comic book issue, and I had no idea whether Carl was going to get it or not. (And, needless to say, Rick et al. had even less of an idea than I did.)

You're missing my point. If you're watching The Walking Dead and you want Carl to die (not because you think it will make good narrative sense, like wanting Romeo or Juliet to die, but because you'll enjoy seeing it), then you're totally emotionally divorced from the story, and you should be watching something else.

Tell that to Stephen King, Vince Gilligan, Michael Crichton, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Hitchcock. (I mean, specifically that "cut away to a flashback when you don't want to" trick.)

No, because that would have totally ruined the fucking scene, which was all about us really believing they were going to end the season the way they started it, with Negan bashing someone to death.

Ha!

This is the kind of comment that completely perplexes me.

Tigers can move. The tiger could have been sixty feet away, just a second before entering the frame.

It's a tiger. You ever see footage of a tiger attacking anything? I'd like to see you survive a tiger attack because, no big deal, you saw it coming. (Armed or not.)

Right there with you, pal!

"Hilarity"? You really are that disconnected from the story you're watching? Why don't you go do something else, then, like paint a chair or something?

A lot of viewers — including Zack Handlen, and possibly yourself — seem to misunderstand the sensation of "narrative suspense," classifying it as "an unpleasant, tense feeling that means what I'm watching is bad."