SPOILERS!!!!!
This goes under some anti tags, not because I hate the show or the characters, but because I am going to say some things which are critical of certain events which transpired during a certain episode of the show.
I just got around to starting Season 7 of The Walking Dead, and I won’t be watching again for a while.
I am one of those people who thinks that the show went too far with the level of violence depicted in this episode.
Some people argue that the level of violence was necessary to show what a shitty, horrible, evil person Negan is, and that part of what happened to Glenn was shown in the comic so they simply translated that to the screen.
I think that it would be possible to show that Negan is a brutal psychopath without showing every blow as his victim’s head is turned into an unrecognizable paste.
Some people counter assertions such as mine with the old “but REALISM!!!111!!!” chestnut.
Dude or dudette, it is a show about zombies taking over the world. Zombies aren’t real. I watch shows like The Walking Dead because I want to escape from reality, not to see Horrible Shit That Actually Could Happen shoved in my face.
I’m not squeamish when it comes to gore, but I am a bit picky about my gore.
I’m not bothered by hyperviolence, such as is shown in video games. Everyone should watch Jim Sterling’s explanation of the ways in which video game violence is unrealistic.
I don’t mind having human aggressors brought into the mix in a show such as The Walking Dead. It does give a certain necessary element of realism to prevent the program from becoming a 45 minute long dramatized version of a video game. There have been human villains on the Walking Dead prior to Negan.
I’m not someone who is easily unsettled by blood. I’m a nurse who was also previously trained as an EMT. I probably have a higher tolerance for dealing with actual blood than the majority of people. When I was attending EMT training classes, my schedule tended to go a little bit something like this: Rush out of work, hurry down the highway about 20 miles, grab something through the drive through window, eat it in class while watching gruesome footage from accidents.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the victims of said accidents. However, I had developed a certain level of stoicism regarding such footage, because there was a possibility that one day I might have to deal with incidents of this nature up close and in person.
Thus, I am not easily fazed by gore.
I don’t enjoy movies such as “Saw.” I dislike splatter films and torture porn. I like my violence with a touch of unreality. I enjoy seeing characters going up against monsters, i.e. Xenomorphs and zombies. There is usually a human (or humanoid) antagonist in such stories. I’m fine with that as well.
An element of hyperviolence with a character such as Negan is fitting. To say that Negan is not a nice guy is the understatement of the ages. I’m fine with that. Yes, Negan should be nasty--really nasty. That being said, the creators of The Walking Dead went too far during Episode 1 of Season 7.
It was not necessary to show blow after blow of the barb-wire wrapped bat striking the head of the victim.
Yes, I’m aware that no-one was actually harmed during the filming of these scenes and that the gore was all special effects. I nonetheless feel that it went too far.
I would never have watched The Walking Dead again had there been such a scene during the first episode. To reiterate, I don’t like torture porn or splatter movies.
There are real serial killers and psychopaths who devastate the lives of not only their victims but their victims’ families. I saw the footage filmed by Leonard Lake and Charles Ng psychologically torturing their victims before killing them. This is not entertainment.
There are real warlords who brutally torture and murder their victims. I read that during the Rwanda genocide, the skin from victims’ genitals was sometimes nailed to trees. Family members were sometimes tortured in view of one another by despots such as Pol Pot.
This shit happens in real life. So, yes, you can establish that Negan is that kind of evil bastard. Nevertheless, it is not necessary to have a graphic, gory, blow by blow depiction of his slaying of a victim to establish the nefarious nature of his character.
To recap: I am someone who is generally not bothered by hyperviolence or fantasy gore in fiction and who is trained to deal with medical emergencies, including medical emergencies involving blood and possibly bones or viscera emerging where they shouldn’t be, and I feel that the torture/murder scene in Season 7 Episode 1 of The Walking Dead was too much.
I won’t be watching The Walking Dead again for a while. At this point, I honestly wish that Glenn had been killed by walkers instead.
As a counterpoint, I do think that Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a fantastic actor. His ability to switch from a hero role such as John Winchester to a villain role such as Negan seamlessly is testament to his mastery of the craft, and he deserves an award.
Personal Never Will Be Canon headcanon:
I want to see John Winchester take Negan down.
~The Cheese Hath Grated It~
Another post regarding my thoughts on fantasy violence:
