“The Walking Dead” came roaring back in the most horrific way possible with the seventh season premiere “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” Last season’s cliffhanger ending finally got its resolution, but the premiere suggested the show is heading in a darker, gorier and more violent direction than ever before, with little hope for a more compelling season in terms of the plot.
Viewers finally saw the results of the group’s showdown with the sinister Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and it was as intense as anything the show has produced so far. Negan proved to be a truly terrifying nemesis, albeit a seemingly one-dimensional one, with the sole purpose of psychologically and physically breaking down Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and the entire group. So far, Negan seems to be succeeding.
Lincoln and the rest of the cast delivered emotionally powerful performances, displaying unimaginable grief as they faced the show’s most vicious villain yet. The emotional intensity of this episode was beyond anything “The Walking Dead” has produced in recent seasons.
But the problem with the premiere wasn’t a lack of intensity. It was a lack of a compelling plot. The level of violence and torture on display in “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” was tolerable for 47 minutes, but is hardly sustainable for an entire season. “The Walking Dead” seems to think it can up the stakes by killing off characters like flies or forcing them into ever more horrific danger.
To a certain point that strategy may work, but this episode of the “The Walking Dead” seems to have reached a breaking point. The show is now at a crossroads — will it devolve into torture porn with a season’s worth of Rick and the rest being abused at the hands of Negan? Or will there be some new development launching the group into a new adventure?
Hopefully, the writers will take the second path. The show has for too long been stuck in a repetitive, unsustainable cycle. The group finds what seems to be a peaceful home, then runs into conflict with a new villain, fights that villain off and repeats the pattern with an even more horrible villain to fight.
“The Walking Dead” needs some variety. With any luck, this season will bring something new to the table, but the premiere doesn’t seem promising in that regard. Here’s hoping season seven is full of something more than just the gore and torture which defined its premiere.
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