Honestly, this is pretty important to me. It's one thing if Kirkman decides that he wants to tell his story a different way between the comic and the show. It's quite another if Gimple decides that he is smarter than Kirkman.

That said, I still don't see how the having the reveal occur in 701 will be able to match the intensity of the season 6 finale.

 

I am probably going to be in the minority here but I don't think Kirkman's letter was so bad. I mean, I can appreciate what he is saying and if he really did write it then that is how he really feels. Who am I to argue with his feelings? Don't get me wrong, I am as pissed as anyone that they did a cliff hanger, but I am not so enraged that I can't envision his perspective or rationale for doing it.

I also thought it was interesting that he said that every minute of season 6 finale was setting up something that we probably won't see coming. Is he just teasing us or are they actually planing to do something in the season 7 premier that is a major deviation from the comic? Hmmm...??

 

I got as far as the beginning of the fourth paragraph then I just got a headache and was like .. "I dont feel like reading this I honestly dont care whats in this letter"

I dont care for the reasons why they did it .. or what the show writers wanted out of it.. I just hate cliffhangers..

cliffhangers are ancient literary devices used to get people to buy the next issue of nickel or dime comics back in the day (1800s)..

This Cliffhanger may have caused an uproar on the net which may attract non watchers to see what all the hub hub is about and check out the show.. but I think there are less cheap or tacky ways to do that, without selling out your current loyal audience...

cliffhangers just suck .. no one's life should be about wondering who Negan killed for 6 months.. people's lives should be their own .. its not cool to entrap people's minds for any reason, in any fashion

dont even get me started on the crap they are doing these days in commercials .. to get people wondering/thinking about the commercial long after its passed

 

Personally, I am cool with it (his letter) I am going to choose to take his shared thoughts as sincere. I dealt with my initial disappointment and have accepted the cliffhanger. The season finale episode as a whole I rather enjoyed. Thought it was intense, my heart was ripped over and over again watching Rick come unraveled at his realization that he was in no longer in control and that the cat and mouse game was a prelude to something more horrific.

At the same time, I also understand and accept without judgment that there are a number of fans who are angry and not ready to forgive. I hope in time that anger will fade.

 

I think Kirkman's letter is, for the most part, genuine. I'm willing to believe that this was the general sentiment going into the finale. I don't agree with the decision, and I think it largely backfired [at least from a creative perspective], but I think this letter probably accurately expresses what they intended. I can't say that I'm angry over the cliffhanger, but I do think it was the wrong approach. Dollars to doughnuts, I think if they had a redo on this, they'd be making some changes.

 

My thoughts/feelings pretty much mirror this. I don't think the letter was all that bad either and I have made peace with the cliffhanger that initially left me screaming "no freakin' way!" at the TV. I enjoyed the episode and even had a fun time talking with the students I teach about it the first few minutes of class. And I admit I am now having fun guessing but slightly stressed to not know who is going. Good times my friends! Time will mend these wounds.

 

My dispute is not with the cliffhanger per se, but with the fact that the cliffhanger was a departure from the comic.

Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger. But the fanbase didn't erupt with complaints because people realized that cliffhangers are a part of TV.

But the comic for Last Day ended with Glenn being killed. The readers were given a certain amount of time to process and grieve over that plot development. Viewers were expecting to have that same experience, and to have the summer break to go through it.

As I said before, if Kirkman really decided that it would be better to have the viewers go through a different experience, I can live with that. But I just don't see how having a major character (the Atlanta 5, plus Michonne and Maggie) get killed will be better if we only have a week to process it.

 

Well that's just it, they can't ease the anger of the fans, that's something only the fans are capable of. Better for them just to accept they ****ed up in terms of trying to give us something to talk about. We wanted to talk about the show, not bitch about it till the Season 7 premiere, but it seems that's what they've accomplished.

As I've mentioned before I am indifferent to the whole thing. Do I look forward to Season 7? Yes, but am I as excited as I would be had the cliffhanger not ****ing existed? Not in the least.
Gimpy and the others can say what they want and make up whatever bullshit excuse they seem fit, but it doesn't change the fact their decision ultimately bit them in the ass.

 

"SOME PEOPLE LOVE IT"

Looks around for someone to claim this

 

I agree with part of what you said but come on......you choose what you do with your life. If you let a TV show "entrap" your mind, well you LET that happen and that is on you.

As for commercials, the way you described it is basically the EXACT definition of what a commercial is designed to do. Is it fair to be mad at a zebra because it has stripes?

(yes, fine maybe if you really hate zebras)

 

Well said.

I think what I am going to do is watch the Season 6 finale right before the Season 7 premier so that it is SORT OF like watching it unfold in real time. Yeah, it is a kind of a Frankenstein, cobbled together approach, but I am sure with enough beer or other things I should be able to get the general feeling back.

 

I mean, he seems pretty candid in his letter - he didn't have to apologize since he wrote the comics, not the show. I'm sure he probably puts his input in, but i bet he doesn't have all that much say in the final result, and i doubt he could veto such a big decision as how they will end an episode.

I was disappointed in the cliffhanger initially, but once i got over it i thought similarly to what he said. They got us talking, and perhaps television just needs to be handled differently than the comic because we have a 6 month lapse to get over a major character dying (had they shown us who died). Like it or not, TV is all about ratings. I'm sure there are plenty of people (who aren't as hardcore as us) who would have seen that as a place to stop watching...maybe not even purposely, but just because they got over the shock of Glenn's (or whoever's) death and didn't really feel like starting up again in season 7. It happens. I've stopped watching shows before just because i forgot about it.

 

Yeah, I did that with Falling Skies (which I actually really liked, as corny as it was at times).

 

Same here - i try to do that before all of the season premiers since so much time passes in between!

 

Well, now I'm left to wonder if Kirkman is Heydrich, Klopfer, Kritzinger or Stuckart in this particular Conspiracy.


(Conspiracy is a docudrama about Wannsee Conference, wherein the Nazis discussed their plan to bomb Pearl Harbor. In this heavily dramatized portrayal, Heydrich was the leader, Klopfer the eager participant, Kritzinger the reluctant participant, and Stuckart the objector.)

 

Same thing for me, too. I kinda liked it, but I just sorta... didn't care about it between seasons. Plus, it's on at 10:00pm for our time slot and as much as it makes me sound as old as [MENTION=7785]Neuropyramidal[/MENTION], I get real cranky for work on Monday if I'm not in bed by 10 or 10:30, so that was the nail in the coffin for that show for me. And since we hardly watch any TV, we've never been arsed to invest in a DVR or similar thing, so it's either live, on Netflix later, or doesn't happen in our household.

Also partly why I see myself out when Talking Dead starts up. I make exceptions for the 90-minute Walking Dead episodes, though. Because of course. I still pay for it the next morning, though. And as much as I love Archer, we're a season behind on that, too, because we catch it on Netflix rather than watch the new seasons at 10:00pm.

On a more topical note, I know of two people who claim they'd stop watching TWD if it's a particular character they like who got the bat, so I suppose they're both "forced" to watch the season premiere now, at the very least. I just don't get that, though. And maybe their threats are empty. But I care about enough of the characters that I wouldn't ever stop watching just because a favorite died... that seems rather extreme. I'd still want to know how the others carried on and whatnot.

Of course, maybe it's easier for me to say since the show just gave me a brand new boy toy to watch and, since he's the one swinging the bat, I don't have to worry about having no reasons to keep watching. LOL

 

Uhhh...yeah, swinging the "bat"....paging Dr. Freud....paging Dr. Freud..... ;-)

Yeah, I don't really understand those who would stop watching if their favorite character bit the dust. But then again, I am invested in the entire world of TWD, and while I do have favorites who, if they got killed I would be disappointed, I would still keep watching the show (RIP Hershel. Frickin Governor!).
But hey, to each their own, right?

(Archer rocks!)

 

Is it really so wrong to be titillated by a man who introduces himself by swinging around his big, long, hard piece of wood?

I probably don't really want an answer to that, do I? :zombies_lol:

("Phrasing! Wait, are we not doing 'phrasing' anymore? Dammit!")