The Walking Dead - Season 10: Part One
By the time the first half of The Walking Dead's season 10 ends, it makes clear of the utter cluelessness of what it wants to accomplish. Gone are its rough style and edgy charm that made it famous in the first place, replaced with melodramatic cringe-fest that would give The CW shows a run for their money.
Following the 'No Turning Back' section of the Alpha Arc from the comics, the show has finally revealed its age after more than just a few seasons of stumbling around in quality, with the most significant factor that has led this season’s downfall being the simple fact that nothing is new. This criticism has been thrown around for The Walking Dead ever since its initial inception but the storylines and character interactions were interesting enough that even weak storylines lines like Season 2's Farm and season 7's What Comes After were interesting to swim through and digest.
Ever since Season 9, it is clear that The Walking Dead wants to focus more on its human elements rather than action or horror. Not the gravest of direction but this inclination is ruined by a weird combination of the Negan and Governor arc mixed with some of the worst camera work and acting the show has ever seen. Before long, it is clear that The Walking Dead is not only 'Dead' — it is just a rotting corpse that is waiting for its funeral.
Talking about the cinematography would be like beating a zombie horse. It has been uninspired and annoying since the end of the All Out War storyline in season 8. Moreover, what is left makes the cinematography of shows like Arrow and The Flash a work by Roger Deakins and it can be only wished that this statement was an exaggeration.
This season has some of the worst focus on what character needs more screentime. The audience starves to see more of the only four the remaining genuine characters that the show has to offer. Dania Gurira's Michonne is passive for most of the first half as she fails to get any scenes that can reinstate the badass woman the audience met back in Season 3. Norman Reedus's Daryl has substantial screentime and role to perform in this season but it is clear the show does not want to explore him further than a simplistic sidekick and a protagonist for what seems like The Walking Dead's version of A Silent Voice.
Melissa McBride's Carol is much more interesting than she has been for the past few seasons but, once again like her co-stars, it is clear that she is nothing more than a stand-in character for Andrew Lincoln's Rick, devoiding her character of any individual personality. It is only Jeffery Dean Morgan's Negan who is the saving grace of the season. It is easy to spot the improvisation and fun that the actor brings to this character; he’s endlessly watchable, which inadvertently makes his basic and predictable storyline charmful and exciting.
Nevertheless, these are the only actors/characters that can be considered as 'reliable' elements due to the show stumbling its pacing with the aforementioned character focus. Useless and annoying characters like Eugene and Luke are given unnecessarily long screen-time, making the show even more stressful to watch as even the most patient of viewers will throw a shoe at the screen in order to escape the nightmarishly frustrating scenes featuring the characters that have been rightfully dubbed as "the ultimates of the ultimate morons".
Other characters that could have been interesting — like that of Gabriel, Lydiaband Siddiq — are either not given enough screen-time or, in case of Siddiq, a storyline. Made ridiculous is with the fact that this storyline concludes with the most moronic twist that will give Game Of Thrones Daenerys Targaryen's sudden madness a run for its money. No breadcrumbs, no hints and no establishment, the laughability of this twist is directly proportional to the showrunner's idiotic belief that it would work for an audience of older than 13.
It is the show's obliviousness of what it thinks it is doing to the fact of what it is actually doing — showing that its villains are smart by making its main characters dumber. It is so desperate to scream and shout that its antagonists are effective that it fails to present any logical or unique strategies to make them intelligent. It is the fundamental principles of a smart villain that this show fails to achieve and it’s not helped by the fact that Samantha Morton as Alpha clearly looks to be holding back her laughter from the stagnant poetic dialogue that is straight out of an elementary school book, inadvertently making her the worst of the cast members alongside her partner-in-crime Ryan Hurst's Beta, a duo which would have been perfectly cast if this was 'Wayne's World 3'.
It is sad to see one of TV's juggernaut series being reduced to nothing but a zombie version of itself with no legs, waiting tragically beside a broken cycle for a cowboy to walk-by and put end to its misery.
The Walking Dead Season 10 is available to watch on FOX and AMC