The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere: 4 Ups & 6 Downs From 'The Day Will Come When You Won't Be'

1. Shock And Awe Over Characters And Narrative

What is the point of this episode?

For a 45-minute episode, there is startlingly little plot here. The whole point was to show who died, something the writers brought on themselves because of that cliffhanger. They tried to present it as being about Negan breaking down Rick, which, yeah, sure, but that mostly filled in time so they could delay showing us who died for as long as possible.

Even the Carl fake-out, making us think Rick was gonna cut his hand off, was an extension of this. It's all very reminiscent of the big Glenn death fake-out from last year - not least because Glenn dies here - and shows that the series hasn't learned from that mistake, but instead is all set to keep on repeating it. With the exception of Rick and Maggie, there's nothing here to service the characters nor the plot.

It's intent is to shock, to scare, to disgust; torture porn trying to be something more prestigious. Characterisation and plot have never exactly been the show's strength's anyway, but now it's like they're doing away with the pretence of even trying.

What did you think of the Season 7 premiere? Share your thoughts down in the comments.