The Walking DeaD Season Seven

Bat’s Entertainment?

released 25 september 2016-2017 | 18 | blu-ray/dVd

Showrunner scott m Gimple Cast andrew lincoln, lauren Cohan, danai Gurira, melissa mcbride

There has been much discussion on the net about why viewing figures for The Walking Dead season seven took a nose dive. Too grim? Too much fat-shaming? (About the only gag they don’t use is “they’re a larger target”). Too much spot-thezombie? (One episode has no zombie kills at all.) Is the resolution to season six’s cliffhanger cruelly manipulative? (Phew, Glenn didn’t cop it – oh, hang on…)

Maybe the real reason is more mundane. Season seven is a bit boring.

Not the most incisive criticism, but sadly true. Granted, The Walking Dead shouldn’t be wall-to-wall zombie carnage; it’s a show that has always succeeded through its gripping character drama. And with new bad guy Negan in the mix swinging his barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat at anyone who takes his fancy, season seven should have been edgy, exciting stuff.

Instead, despite the usual brilliant acting and direction, some really meaty themes and a few great set-pieces, too much of the season is over-indulgent navel gazing that keeps making the same points over again in a plot that doesn’t arc so much as sag. And let’s not get into so many blue collar characters spouting dialogue like wannabe romantic poets.

The Walking Dead seriously needs some life injected back into it.

Extras Commentaries on six key episodes from an impressive range of cast and crew, deleted/alternate scenes, and seven featurettes (totalling about 46 minutes). Plus: all the season seven instalments of webisode series Inside The Walking Dead and The Making Of The Walking Dead. Dave Golder

In “Hostiles And Calamities”, Eugene says that he’s neither lawful, neutral or chaotic – all terms used in Dungeons & Dragons.