“That does it, I’m never watching The Walking Dead again.”
That sentiment popped up a lot on Twitter Sunday night. And if you haven’t seen the episode yet, move along. It will get spoiler-y in here. The first episode of the show’s seventh season sparked a lot of emotion in people. It had a big moment. So, SPOILER ALERT LIKE CRAZY.
Now then…
Let’s let The Verge’s Bryan Bishop and Nick Statt say what everyone is thinking:
It was all building up to last night’s season premiere, when Negan and his baseball bat Lucille went after the show’s heroes. Abraham died. Glenn died. The episode added cheap tension by leading the audience to believe that Rick would cut off his son’s arm. It was horrifically violent. It was cruel.
This wasn’t quality television, and it wasn’t suspenseful drama. It was torture-porn masquerading as storytelling, and AMC should be ashamed for airing it.
Yep. The Walking Dead, a show about killer zombies, crossed a line for its fans. So we checked Canvs, the service that monitors Twitter to see how users are feeling. It processes tweets, and figures out the emotions people are showing.
Halfway through the episode, “Crazy” was the emotion that spiked. And it’s not hard to see why. That’s when Negan took his bat and began bashing skulls:
I AM FREAKING OUT HERE #TWD
— ☾ (@METACHIMERAS) October 24, 2016
I said I was done with #TWD and idk why I didn’t hold to that… this show is horrible. Literally awful. I hate it.
— Jordan Belfort (@Jonesin4Jordan) October 24, 2016
I’m just devastated. Obviously the writers hate us #TheWalkingDead
— Karen B (@KissinBlueKaren) October 24, 2016
Still, there were a few fans who thought the graphic scene was part of what they liked about the show:
Walking Dead just got even better
— Andre Bryant (@ALLDay_Dr3) October 24, 2016
Well played #TheWalkingDead. That was just epic. No words.
— Dave Epperson (@leirbriseadh) October 24, 2016
The Walking Dead kept people in suspense all summer, and the payoff wasn’t what many people wanted. It will be very interesting to see if the show has indeed gone too far and will now lose viewers. There were a few times when Game of Thrones saw similar sentiment, but it carried on just fine. People can get caught up in the moment of a show and feel passionate. But often that’s exactly why they love their show. And “Love” was a sentiment we saw in plenty of fans’ tweets, too.