‘The Walking Dead’: In Defense of Season 7

As we head into Sunday’s midseason finale of The Walking Dead, it’s no overstatement to say viewers have strong feelings about the way the season has so far unfolded, going all the way back, really, to how the sixth season ended.

That cliffhanger about who Negan was going to kill was a manipulative way to end the season, some said, and when the cliffhanger was resolved in the Season 7 premiere, TWD writers were accused of everything from being too manipulative again to being too violent (the phrase “torture porn” was bandied about quite a bit). Reaction to the six episodes that followed have sparked complaints that TWD has become repetitive and boring, has fragmented the unity of the core characters while dragging out storylines, focusing too much on peripheral characters, and weakening Andy Lincoln’s apocalyptic leader Rick Grimes. As a results, ratings have taken a notable downturn.

Did I miss any complaints? Oh yeah, that there hasn’t been enough Daryl in the season, but barring a Daryl Dixon spin-off, that’s going to be a perpetual complaint. In the meantime, you might want to check out a little show called Ride with Norman Reedus. Anyway …

It’s certainly true that TWD has shifted after that season premiere, when two fan favorite characters, played by two beloved cast members, were killed off. There have been many other deaths of very endearing characters before, but none like Glenn and Abraham, especially coming so closely together and as violently as they did. But, as showrunner Scott Gimple and the writers and producers had promised, those deaths had impact, and they continue to resonate as the season unfolds with new heft.

Related: Josh McDermitt Previews ‘The Walking Dead’ Midseason Finale

It’s a zombie apocalypse. Things are going to be bleak at times, and people are going to continue to die. Sometimes it will be good people — the best people, even, and sometimes the bad people are going to live on (no matter how much you may wish for one of the good people to take, say, the bad guy’s own prickly bat and whap him repeatedly on the head with it, just as example). Watching Steven Yeun and Michael Cudlitz exit the show was tough, but Glenn and Abraham’s deaths have so far served the stories TWD is telling. This is a journey the characters are on, and those deaths changed that journey dramatically, for the group and the individuals.

It hasn’t been fun to watch Rick Grimes hold himself in check, bowing to Negan’s demands, getting flack and a lack of respect from Carl about his reaction, or lack thereof, and Rick himself acting like he wasn’t even worthy of a proper goodbye kiss from girlfriend Michonne when he and Aaron set off on a supply run in “Go Getters.” He and the group were feeling fearless just weeks ago, after surviving the Wolves, and then thinking they’d pre-emptively taken out the threat of the Saviors at their compound.

But the tragic losses and the aftermath of Negan’s continuing menace have absolutely shown an evolution for Rick and his strength as a leader. Every part of him wants to strike back at Negan for the deaths of two of his family, for brutalizing the rest of them, but it’s the more mature, less hot-headed, and less Ricktatorial leader that knows he has to keep the big picture in mind, and most importantly, simply try to keep his people alive. He feels responsible for them, and he has admitted feeling responsible for some bad decisions as a leader. With the weight of all that on his shoulders, he could have taken Lucille to Negan’s head when the Saviors leader forced him to carry the offensive murder weapon around Alexandria, and he might have even killed Negan. But in that moment, in that circumstance, without a larger plan in place, the vengeance just would have led to more death: maybe Rick’s, maybe Carl’s or Michonne’s, but someone(s) for sure.

Related: Vote For 2016’s Most Painful TV Death

And that brings up another point: the entire run of the first half of Season 7 has taken place across a time span of roughly two weeks, maybe less. We know this because Heath and Tara mention in “Swear” having been on their supply run for that length of time, and the events of the premiere happened after they left on that trip. We’ve been watching for a couple of months, but Rick and his people are just two weeks, at most, past the trauma of those losses — and they’re dealing with the continuing, constant threat of Negan and his demands. So maybe Mr. Grimes hasn’t yet had a chance to mull over the particulars of a long-term goal type scenario vis-a-vis the Negan situation. It’s about the day-to-day of not getting anyone’s noggin bashed in at this point, at least until this Sunday’s “Hearts Still Beating,” promos for which have teased a showdown of some sort in Alexandria.

What else has made this season so compelling? There was the introduction of Ezekiel (the fantastic Khary Payton) and The Kingdom. There was Rick’s bombshell to Michonne about being aware he’s not Judith’s biological father, a topic that might have gone unaddressed forever, but which was extra unexpected, yet perfectly timed, when Rick shared it in “Service.” There is the continuing incredible work by Greg Nicotero and his special effects crew, who’ve made giant-sandbox walkers and a fake-out Heath walker so far this season, and who’ve cut walker faces in half vertically and horizontally. There was “Easy Street,” that song Dwight used to try to break Daryl in “The Cell,” a song so annoying, yet infectious that it’s still randomly popping into my head a month later, and I don’t mind. Much.

There are the recurring themes that humans are always going to prove to be capable of more scariness than walkers, and that things can turn on a dime, like when Tara comes strolling down the road wearing a pair of bright sunnies and carrying a gift for her girlfriend, only to be met with the news that not only is Denise dead, but so are Glenn and Abe, and all at the hands of the same group. Another takeaway of this first half of the season: the female characters have always kicked booty, but never moreso than now, at a time when two of them, Maggie and Sasha, have suffered the biggest losses and still are stepping up and saving a whole community. And there are the great little moments, like Carl’s wave to Jesus after tricking him into jumping out of the truck headed into the Sanctuary, Eugene’s teary greeting of Tara at the Alexandria gates, and the look that passed between Daryl and Dwight during Mark’s face-ironing, as Daryl realized what had happened to Dwight and why he and Sherry had robbed him in Season 6’s “Always Accountable.”

Speaking of callbacks… Walking Dead fans continue to be rewarded for paying close attention, noticing details. Like the fact that Michonne knew which road to block to catch a Savior in “Sing Me a Song” because she had seen the spot where the Saviors had dropped off and burned the Alexandria mattresses they took in “Service.” Spencer’s tribute to his mom, Deanna, in “Sing me a Song,” when he recalled her telling him long ago that the pain of learning Latin would be useful to him someday. And Negan drinking an orange soda in “Service,” the soda Denise had risked her life to find for girlfriend Tara in Season 6’s “Twice as Far,” Denise’s death episode.

And there is what is certainly going to be a future callback with the introduction of the Oceanside community in “Swear.” I know, I know, we were all initially thinking that was an inessential episode, or at least not the best timed story to tell at this point in the season, but it offered a lot, namely the Oceanside women, who are certainly going to pop in again as allies to some other Saviors-hating group (not to mention they have an all-important stash of weapons and an endless supply of seafood dinners). As fun as the run-and-gun action aspect of the show can be, it’s the nuances of TWD storytelling that keep me hooked, like laying down the groundwork for this future Oceanside community payoff, as Gimple and company previously did with storylines like the slow tease of the return of Morgan in Season 5.

The one change I would have made to Season 7A: a bit of personal Negan backstory. The more horrific aspects of the character aside, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has made him awfully — literally, awfully — fun to watch much of the time. In his funnier, irreverent-yet-not-homicidal moments, Negan is like a the apocalyptic villain version of Bugs Bunny; you know the dude’s a tool, but he’s funny, and he’s saying and doing things other people don’t have the psychopathic family jewels to say. Like no one else was wondering what Carl’s eye sitch is under that bandage? C’mon.

But some viewers are clearly tired of Negan’s relentless swagger and motormouth, and I think the character’s development could have been aided by a peppering of some personal history. Think about the series’ previous best villains, The Governor and Gareth. We knew enough about their pasts — that The Governor had been a pretty powerless guy pre-apocalypse, and that Gareth and his family had been brutally abused themselves before they met up with the Grimes gang — to allow us a fuller understanding of why they became who they became. Doing these deep dives even on characters who might only be around a season or so is one of things The Walking Dead does best, and if just a fraction of the stuff that’s being revealed about Negan in his comic book backstory, via the monthly four-page spreads in Image Plus magazine, had been shared in the AMC series already, his presence might be a bit more widely tolerated and even enjoyed. Gimple told Yahoo TV recently that Negan’s backstory is coming to the series, though, so hang on to your death wishes for now.

Especially with last week’s meaty episode setting us up so nicely for “Hearts Still Beating.” Negan has just discovered Judith’s existence and has taken quite a liking to the baby and life in the ‘burbs; Michonne is off trying to scout the Saviors and their lair; Rick and Aaron found a houseboat potentially full of goodies, if they can weave their way through a lake of walkers; Rosita’s just itching to use that one bullet she berated Eugene into making; and in the promos for the episode, we see we also catch up with The Kingdom crew, find out Negan has shaved off his facial fur for some reason, and get a close up of a teary-eyed Rick. Scariest of all, the usually hapless Spencer’s rare win in finding a carload of supplies in “Sing Me a Song” left him confident in some plan that probably involves an attempted coup of the Ricktatorship. That is almost certainly not going to end well for him, but should make for a fine timeout for viewers until February’s Season 7B.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.