Still Gotta Mean Something

Season 8 of 'The Walking Dead' started off really badly and most of the first half was not good at all. It did pick up a little in some of the second half, with some episodes being good and showing signs that the show hadn't completely lost it. Overall though Season 8 is probably 'The Walking Dead's' worst season, with all the flaws of Season 7 present but worse and more flaws along the way. As someone who loved most of Seasons 1-6's episodes, that's disappointing indeed.

"Still Gotta Mean Something" by Season 8 standards is pretty good. It is very flawed and is nowhere near one of the best episodes of 'The Walking Dead', but it is so much better than all of the season's first half and in the high middle category ranking the second half of it and the season overall actually. Can totally see the praise that "Still Gotta Mean Something" has garnered from some here with there being a lot to like, while also understanding the criticisms and agreeing with a few respectfully.

It is a long way from being a perfect episode. It is an unevenly paced episode, with the first quarter with Jadis and Negan being too dragged out and long winded and the ending being on the hasty side.

Like many of the episodes from Season 8, "Still Gotta Mean Something" is a bit too talk heavy, some of the worst of it being with Negan which was in serious need of a trim. Some decision making is mind bogglingly dumb for reasons that are very vague, like with Morgan. Some of it goes round in circles and doesn't really build upon what is already known.

However, a lot is good about "Still Gotta Mean Something". Photography isn't disorganised or self-indulgant in the way that it was in some episodes of Season 8, such as the first three and strictly speaking most of the first half. The lighting has a foreboding atmosphere to it. The music similarly is suitably ominous and while the script is not perfect either it provokes thought, particularly in the more emotional moments. The direction has momentum while having enough breathing space.

The story has a good deal of dark tension with some well staged and often enthralling action in the middle. Conflicts are resolved, ones that were long overdue (both conflicts involving Henry for example), and the more emotional parts (so Rick's anguish and the reading of the letter) are genuinely heartfelt. The death is satisfying, it is not a cop out, abrupt or a cheap way to kill off someone unpopular. The acting is very good, particularly from Andrew Lincoln and Lennie James.

Overall, liked it a good deal while not loving it. 7/10.

Last night I watched another episode of The Walking Dead. That's all that is worth mentioning: unambiguously there are unexpected plot twists (for those who have not read comics), which capture, despite all the intricacies; comparable to the previous thirteen episodes, it is exactly the most saturated in terms of the plot and the characters involved; there are new intrigues, thanks to which you will eagerly wait for the long-awaited finale of the war with the Savior! To my surprise, this is one of the best episodes of the season! All in impatience, Rick the Prick! 9.2 out of 10

For everything that this season hasn't been, I thought this episode made up for a whole lot of mistakes that the show has made, even if there was still some frustrating Rick moments in last night's arc.

The thing I loved about this episode was how well it broke down each focused character in a way we haven't seen in quite some time (or in some cases, ever). In Rick's case, it was him deciding to once again go against Carl's non-violent wishes, before finally sitting down and reading the letter he wrote his father. I'm not sure the last time I was as stunned as I was when Rick turned on the Saviors in the warehouse. The fact that he killed some of them in cold blood after they kept him alive was almost as bad as some of the things that Negan has done to the Alexandrians. It sure seems like they are bringing Rick and Negan's likability to around to the same level, almost as if to throw a wrench into everything we thought we knew about the last few years.

On that note, we finally heard why Negan calls his bat Lucille, which somewhat expectedly, is named after his dead wife. But it's not just that revelation, but the way he said it and the other worse he expressed to Jadis pleading for his life. I'm not saying Negan will ever be a character I can root for on this show, but there's no doubt that they are positioning him as a fully real human being with flaws, rather than a caricature as he sometimes was last year.

Carol and Morgan were also at the center of this episode as Morgan continued to go off the rails and Carol finally opened up a bit about Sophia, something we haven't heard her reference in long time. Both of which were well acted by Lennie James and Carol McBride respectively.

Overall, it wasn't an overly action-packed episode, but it may have been this season's most emotionally draining episode, save for maybe Carl's death episode. But these are the episodes I tend to gravitate towards more so than the tense action filled weeks.

8.6/10

It seems that no one goes into a walking dead episode with a neutral mindset anymore. All of the reviews that I read that rated this episode low, seem to have already made the conclusion about the episode before they've even watched it. True, there were some poor quality episodes in the first half of the season, but this epsiode had a lot of strong points. In the first half of the season people criticised the show for mindless action or really slow-pacing. In this episode there was a nice balance between action and story-telling and it really captured the inner struggle of carol, Rick and Morgan and the difficulty of finding a reason to retain their humanity after so much has been lost. 9/10

Not only did this episode have great 1v1 interactions and development it was also action pack & is starting to set up something mysterious for season 9. If you are going to watch walking dead again come back to Season 8B!! Almost all of the episode feel like the walking dead is back and I don't understand any bad reviews of this episode.