i liked the black and white, but the jumping back and forth felt needlessly complex for this relatively simple story. if there had been some surprise in the juxtapositions or bigger payoff at the end, it might have worked, but if you unravel the whole and set it sequentially, it's the same exact story.

i feel strongly that if the writers are going to get creative with the narrative structure, there needs to be a stronger purpose for it.

 

Definitely helped. The opening episode of the 3rd season of The West Wing (Manchester, not Isaac and Ishmael) had a similar back-and-forth structure that was hard to follow.

Even with the black-and-white to indicate the time jump, this episode requires a couple or three viewings to understand all the callbacks.

I would say that the opening episode to the 2nd season of The West Wing (In The Shadow of Two Gunmen), which also had numerous flashbacks, was better executed. The flashbacks were longer and were there to provide backstory to the characters, not backstory to the plot.

 

I think it probably helped the average viewer understand what was happening.

That being said, hopefully when it's on Netflix/dvd/Xbox video they give us the option to turn it off.

 

I agree that the time jumping was kind of pointless. I get what they were trying to do but it probably wasn't necessary. It would have been just as exciting to build up to the herd in the first hour and then had the last half hour be them preparing and the last scene could have been the same.

That being said, since they decided to do the time jump thing, I think the black and white worked well. Since not a lot of time passed between the end of last season and the herd (a few weeks?), it was important to distinguish between flashbacks and real time and I think the B&W served that purpose well. I preferred that than to written words saying what was past and what was present each time. I was jarred by it at first but got used to it and was liking it by the end.

 

The Black and White was BRILLIANT......reminded me of season 1

 

In my personal opinion, it definitely hurt the final product. I've rewatched the episode already, and sadly my hopes of a second viewing improving my opinion of the premiere were crushed into fine powder.

Unlike the other users in this thread who seem to believe that it was nostalgic and reminded them of earlier seasons in the show or felt the need to compare it to a completely different program once again that ended years ago and has no relevancy here; TWD is not a complex show, It is not a stylish show and it is not a particularly well-thought out one either.

The cutting to and fro over the course of the episode was choppy at best and the ridiculous black and white filter that was added in post just made the constant charge between past and present all the more jarring. There was zero benefit gained from this and the episode's overall 'story' was simply not complex or nuanced enough to warrant something so pretentious. This isn't a Nolan film, it's a zombie show that so far has made a point of being fairly linear with it's episode layouts. The only notable exceptions to that rule being A, 18 Miles Out, What's Happened And What's Going On and Consumed. All of which were either written by Gimple or we made under his run as showrunner.

If you ask me, it felt like Nicotero and Gimple were just stretching their legs and trying to see if they could pull off an artsy kind of episode, similar to their collaboration with What's Happened And What's Going On. It was just silly and didn't fit with the overall tone of the show at all. Which, while we're on the subject; our dearest showrunner promised back in 2013 that we would see the show reinvent itself every half season. If this is how S6A will be set out, then we're in for one of the show's most questionable arcs in the filler-tainted story.

Lastly, anyone who believes that it helped with the storytelling of the episode is as simple as the fools who believe Beth is returning to the show. It doesn't take a half-wit to put one and two together, and this episode really is a prime example of that. It's not a puzzle that needs to be figured out like Gimple has so boldly claimed, it's a basic story that he's attempting to over-complicate and gussy up by taking something simple and solid and breaking it apart into tiny pieces to be glued back together in a sloppy manner. The episode would have worked much more coherently if it had been less unorganised and more grounded.

If Gimple wants to play ping-pong that badly, he should take it up as a hobby and not cram it into the most popular cable show currently airing. The entire purpose of telling a story in that format is to have a payoff and this episode had none.

 

I totally Disagree with your Entire post....with all due respect.. The cinematography was completely Awesome.. B&W made it fell like Zombie Noir... It was like watching a feature film.

 

I don't really think the black and white added much to the experience. Were people really that confused about the time jumps? They seemed like they would have been pretty straight forward, even without the black and white. I have to watch it a second time to form a better opinion regarding whether I thought it was a good tactic or not.

 

Ricks band aids on his face were a way to figure out time jumps as well...but it would have taken people out of the scene trying to think about what time period it was til Rick showed up... I thought it was brilliant..

 

It actually took me out of the scene a little bit because it was black and white.

 

I thought the black and white aspect was cool, but I didn't need it to figure out that something was a flashback.

 

I know, I don't see the confusion there. During the current scenes they were executing the plan, and during the flashbacks they were disscussing/building the plan.

 

Disagree all you wish, it matters not. However, it would be appreciated if you would supply a reasonable and thoughtful argument as opposed to once again stating "It was BRILLIANT! " and bluntly disagreeing with users who actually provide a valid discussion point in this debate.

For the record, I also don't find your earlier statement true in the slightest. This premiere offered nothing remotely similar to anything we have seen far back in S1.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep and will reply to any responses when I wake up.

 

They could have had the scenes 'from the past' in color, but added a slight yellow tinge to it.

The black and white didn't bother me too much but it did make up a huge percentage of the programme.

 

I'll have to watch again but I don't think every flashback scene had to do with discussing/building the plan. There were a lot of just interpersonal interactions. I think most people could have figured it out but there are a lot of deeply stupid viewers. I think the black and white was a way to quickly distinguish. I thought it worked fine.

 

Everything I might have said has already been sort of covered here. Put me with the "I didn't really care for it" crowd.

 

I wonder if someone could cut-and-splice the episode so that it runs in the proper order in time. Would be interesting to see if it would be more appealing.

 

You are right, not all of them dealt with the direct planning, but I think just about all of the ones that didn't deal with that showed the characters back at Alexandria during a time of relative calm, instead of out executing the plan. I'll be able to say more on my second viewing, but I just don't remember a scene that wasn't fairly obvious chronologically. For me personally, the black and white kind of threw me out of the realism.

It was odd that they spoon fed us here, but didn't spoon feed us during 410, when the chronology actually was a bit confusing.