The Walking Dead S08E11 "Dead or Alive Or" (My Review)
If you don't want "Spoilers," scroll down to the "Non-Spoilers" section where I give my broad conclusion and overall thoughts
Spoilers (In-Depth Analysis)
Suspense is already dead.
After the first half, the only story progression is that a faction of Rick's crew with Dwight have to travel through the swamp to get to Hilltop. I was very disappointed at this because we already have two previous episodes with no action. We already know Eugene and the other doctor are escaping Sanctuary but during the first all they show is them talking to each other about faith while traveling by car.The highlight
I like the part that involved Dwight in it. Dwight is about to get shot until he finds other Saviors looking to kill the remaining people from Rick's group. Part of me already knew that he wasn't going to get snitched for his betrayal back in S08E08 "How It's Gotta Be". They could've teased and show some scenes of the Savior Laura from her perspective of the war with how she escaped and her getting back to her group then cut to another scene to make us question if she snitched or not. When Dwight got back to Sanctuary he's still alive. Because of him I want to see what his next strategy is throughout the rest of season 8.Everything else
Tara complaining about Dwight. I already get it but that scene is extended a bit longer than usual.
Scenes between Gabriel and the doctor from Sanctuary is also a bit longer than usual. They keep talking about faith guiding people for the majority part of the side story.
The side story is nothing much and ends with the doctor being dead and Gabriel being close to being blind. I think the writers are going to hard on Gabriel or hopefully they make him a blind shooter who doesn't need sight to be a badass marksman.
Scenes of Hilltop is just a character who is a Savior prisoner complaining about how harsh it is to be imprisoned.
I wanted to see some scenes where they fortify their defenses with spears, arrows, traps, etc. to make it more exciting for the next inevitable battle against the Saviors. Maggie stated that Hilltop is the last defense.Biological warfare
To me this is not really a diabolical ending. Negan suggested to coat their weapons with Walker's blood to infect people on Rick's side. Maybe we will see how ingenious that plan is in the next episode but I think it's just a dramatic way to indicate what is to come. This doesn't really excite me as it has been already done from S08E03 "Monsters". In that episode one of Rick's group with Aaron in it made a first strike against one of the Saviors' outpost gaining the upper hand because several of the dead Saviors turned into Walkers.Unanswered questions
What will Dwight's next move be?
Also Negan finding out about what Simon did to the Scavengers.
We already know Eugene is going to be alive since we saw in that future so how will he betray Negan?
When will Oceanside join Rick's crusade?
Will we see Jadis again?
What is that helicopter that Rick was chasing at the end of S08E05 "The Big Scary U"? This is the question I will never forget
After the long break with three episodes of nothing major happening in the war I am questioning how exciting or how good will the last 5 episodes be?
Non-Spoilers (Overall Thoughts)
After watching "Dead Or Alive Or" I feel as if the writers are spreading the "All Out War" aka the war between Rick & Negan a bit too thin.
I can see the formula for how the writers make their typical episode where the first quarter of it is simply stretched out with no plot progression.
Also when I watched it halfway I felt the story was taking forever to advance. I already understand what is going on like if they condensed it they could easily condense it in less than 10 minutes for sure.
I found one part to be interesting if not amazing but to me that is the only highlight I can remember.
And yes that interesting part is after the first half.
There is a main story and there is a side story where both stories are quite similar and tie with each other in an ADEQUATE but not an EXCELLENT way.
If the parallelism is strong between the main story and side story then you know you are watching a GREAT episode like S08E09 "Honor" with the main story about Carl's death and the side story about Carol/Ezekiel/Morgan fighting against Gavin at Kingdom.
I will write a season review on another post but for now all I will write is that I knew 16 episodes is bit too much for the writers/directors and this episode along with S08E06 "The King, the Widow, and Rick" proves my point.
I know not much goes on but they could at least show how Eugene managed to get rid of the Walkers surrounding Sanctuary before Rick showed up along with the Scavengers.
I'm pretty sure if they did that to put more content then many people would enjoy it even more.
I know I would since it is VERY difficult to not give out too much story.
Also the ending doesn't feel too diabolical for me but it does give me hope that the next episode will FINALLY get into the action.
My Grading Rubric:
This simply means that it is CRAP. It also means that for an amount of time you spend watching a movie/episode is also the amount of time you are never going to get back. I can simply have another picture that is two-thumbs-down to prove that it is dog shit but this picture grade shows that it is horrible and you want to avoid it at all costs.
My Grade For This Episode:
If you guys enjoyed reading this check out my other previous episode reviews of The Walking Dead:
Great to read your review of last Sunday's episode. I was expecting it.
I agree that it was a boring one with little suspense. All I can say that Tara is jerk. Doesn't she remember how she became a member of Rick's group in the first place? Yes, Dwight killed Denise but it wasn't personal. Trying to kill Dwight in the middle of the situation the Alexandrians were in was extremely foolish. It was already established to the whole group that Dwight had no chance of going back to Negan and he had every intention to help them kill Negan. I hope they won't keep Tara around for much longer.
I had a lot of school work lol.
Maybe Tara is a jerk but again I have no feelings for characters unless they do something badass cause the people making these episodes dont do a good job in developing characters. Honestly I dont care about Tara if she is dead or alive. I just hope when she goes out it will be badass like sasha
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