As has been indicated already in my reviews for the previous 'The Walking Dead' episodes, Season 8 was a real disappointment on the whole. Regarding the previous Season 8 episodes, there were a few pleasant surprises in "Some Guy", "The Big Scary U" and especially "The Lost and the Plunderers", but the rest were lacklustre at best and pretty dreadful in the case of half of them. This is not meant in a vitriolic way just to say. So expectations were rather mixed for "The Key".
Luckily, "The Key" is in the hits and pleasant surprises category, easily one of the best of Season 8 and better than most episodes of Season 7. It is not flawless or one of the classics of 'The Walking Dead' (which was a truly great show in its prime, until the hit and miss Season 6 and it's not been same really since), but it has very few of the many big flaws that plagued most of Season 8. And is also even better than "The Lost and the Plunderers", containing all its strengths and executing them even better.
"The Key" isn't perfect. There are a few too many close ups and they are rather self-indulgent and at times unnecessary.
Pacing could have been tighter and Negan's invincibility still is being taken too far.
However, a lot works very well. Everything with Rick and Negan to me did have tension and of the thrilling kind, Negan's invincibility does annoy but Negan has more menace here than he has had in a long time and his dialogue is not as long winded as it usually is. Both Rick and Negan to me advanced as characters as did their stories and conflict. There is more action than there has been in the previous episodes and this time it is action that is actually interesting to watch and had the right amount of intensity, the choreography not being chaotic or too show off-like. The performances are strong, excellent in the case of Andrew Lincoln, Steven Ogg and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Most of the production values are atmospheric and have nice style, in one of the better looking episodes of the season. Music is haunting. The dialogue is this time thought provoking and tighter, nowhere near as many long-winded speeches or rambling self-indulgence. Plenty goes on outside of the Rick and Negan story, the development for Maggie standing out, and it doesn't come over as sprawling or like it was trying to do too much. There isn't the too many characters feel that most of the previous Season 8 episodes suffered from.
After being so underwhelming at best in the first half, signs of improvement was seen with the previous episode and particularly this. Very well done overall. 8/10.
