I don't understand these reviews. They're all so glowing. Are people just that happy to finally have Rick back? Because that much is excellent, absolutely. Lincoln's performance is as strong as ever. But the writing is mortifying. It's one colossal info dump after another, just scene after scene of awkward exposition, huge amounts of information crammed into monologues and narration. I've genuinely never seen anything less natural. The actual story is interesting, and I hope it goes somewhere... Maybe all this dense backstory was established in the World Beyond spinoff and it's just being recapped here, but I don't get that impression, and even if it's true it's no excuse. World Beyond was a barely-watched experiment and this is supposed to be the grand return of the whole franchise's long-lost protagonist. Why was it not taken more seriously? The actors seem lost and confused, like they're weren't given the time to internalize anything they had to say.
I honestly don't know what else to say. It *looks* fantastic, but every word out of every character's mouth is forced, stilted, and implausible to the point of ridiculousness. The first half hour of this show should have been spread out over two episodes. Maybe they realized that if they gave the story more time it would feel too much like the Commonwealth in the final season of The Walking Dead, so they wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. Certainly the characters are cast from the same stock mold. Again, they might have worked given time to develop, but it's impossible to take either the military commander with a heart of gold and a secret mission or the super tough former South African naval officer with a chip on her shoulder seriously when they essentially just show up and say, "Hi, I'm a military commander with a heart of gold and a secret mission and I want to make the world a better place," and "Hi, I'm a super tough former South African naval officer with a chip on my shoulder and I will shoot you if you annoy me," each followed by a five minute speech about who they are, where they come from, and what their goals are. It's so odd. It's all just so very odd.
I honestly don't know what else to say. It *looks* fantastic, but every word out of every character's mouth is forced, stilted, and implausible to the point of ridiculousness. The first half hour of this show should have been spread out over two episodes. Maybe they realized that if they gave the story more time it would feel too much like the Commonwealth in the final season of The Walking Dead, so they wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. Certainly the characters are cast from the same stock mold. Again, they might have worked given time to develop, but it's impossible to take either the military commander with a heart of gold and a secret mission or the super tough former South African naval officer with a chip on her shoulder seriously when they essentially just show up and say, "Hi, I'm a military commander with a heart of gold and a secret mission and I want to make the world a better place," and "Hi, I'm a super tough former South African naval officer with a chip on my shoulder and I will shoot you if you annoy me," each followed by a five minute speech about who they are, where they come from, and what their goals are. It's so odd. It's all just so very odd.
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