Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Will Walking Dead finale be a bloodbath — or not?
It’s The Walking Dead Season 7 finale at 8 p.m. today on AMC. You just know it’s going to be a bloodbath. Or maybe not. I fully expect we’ll have to wait until next season for the big showdown between Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) coalition and Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) Saviors.
Last season’s finale had the “who died by Negan’s bat” cliffhanger that bedeviled us for six months. It turned out to be a double bashing. But show runner Scott Gimple has promised this season will not end with something similar.
“It is exciting and it’s very emotional and I believe it’s funny in a couple parts,” Gimple said at the 34th annual PaleyFest on March 21 in Los Angeles. “And it builds and builds and builds and it explodes. And though it promises more — because there is a whole lot to get to — there is an ending. It really is just a huge episode inasmuch as it has all of the flavors of this season.”
Flavors? I’ve heard some grumbling from longtime fans about the pacing of Season 7. For some, it was unnecessary to take the entire first half of the season to establish that, yes, Negan is really, really evil and, yes, Rick’s spirit is broken. Then the second half of the season has been drawn out by Rick trying to convince the other communities to join the fight.
What can we expect tonight? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lincoln said he “did a little jig” when he read the finale script.
“There’s a palpable sense of energy and excitement in that final episode,” Lincoln said. “I think that the crew felt it, this sort of brilliancy. And it was weird because it was the end of a long season and yet everybody was sort of champing at the bit to keep going. I’ve never felt that before in the show. Everybody was like, ‘Yeah, darn it, let’s do Season 8 now!’ It was a really unique situation and everybody felt it. So I think if we get it right, it will be an incredibly satisfying ending to Season 7.”
Note from the grammar police: The 43-year old Brit (real name Andrew James Clutterbuck) spoke correctly. “Champing at the bit” is the proper idiom, not the frequently used “chomping at the bit.” While we’re at it, the preferred expression is “my old stamping grounds,” not “my old stomping grounds.”
You’re welcome.
■ ACM Awards. TV sure likes any excuse to showcase music and hand out awards.
We have the Grammys, Latin Grammys, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, iHeartRadio Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, the BET Hip Hop Awards, the Doves and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame show. Have I overlooked anybody?
Yes. Country music. Of all the annual self-indulgent, congratulatory. “I’d-like-to-thank-the-fans” presentations, I enjoy the country programs the most. They have the most fun.
The 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards air live at 7 p.m. today on CBS from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Good ol’ boys and fan favorites Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley co-host.
In addition to the hosts, performers will include Jason Aldean, Brothers Osborne, Florida Georgia Line with the Backstreet Boys, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Maren Morris, Jon Pardi and rising star Kelsea Ballerini.
Others performing will be Carrie Underwood, Sam Hunt, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Reba McEntire, Chris Stapleton, Lauren Daigle, Cole Swindell, Thomas Rhett and Rascal Flatts.
Sound like a lot? Well, they have three hours to kill.
The ACM awards should not be confused with the CMA (Country Music Association) Awards (“country music’s biggest night”) that air in the fall on ABC and seem to be perennially hosted by Brad Paisley and Underwood.
And those two should not be confused with the annual ACAs (American Country Awards) created by Fox (didn’t want to be left out) and airing between 2010 and 2014, when it was replaced by the American Country Countdown Awards, or the CMT Music Awards that air each year on, well, CMT.
■ Call the Midwife. If country music isn’t your thing, Season 6 of Call the Midwife debuts at 7 p.m. today on AETN. In this episode, “the team reunite but is alarmed when there is a change of management at Nonnatus House.”
For those out of the loop, the drama (rated TV-14) is a fascinating look at midwifery (pronounced mid-WIFFuh-ree) and family in late 1950s and early ’60s East End London.
■ Home Fires on Masterpiece. Anglophiles can make an evening of it by staying tuned to AETN at 8 p.m for the Season 2 premiere of this drama set in a Cheshire village during the Second World War. In tonight’s episode, the Battle of Britain looms and “the villagers of Great Paxford live under a cloud of fear.”