Strap in, fans of The Walking Dead. The gang is back together and about to get medieval on Negan and his "Saviors."
Well, it'll probably take the rest of Season 7, which kicks off at 8 p.m. today on AMC. Episode 9, "Rock in the Road," is a 73-minute offering, so adjust your DVRs.
It was a rough first half and we had to endure some grim and grisly scenes that began with Negan bludgeoning to death fan favorites Glenn and Abraham -- an episode seen by 21.5 million viewers anxious to learn who would be killed.
In an AMC interview, the cast and crew acknowledged how tough the journey has been so far.
Executive producer Scott Gimple says, "The first half of Season 7 was very much about the audience and these characters finding their way forward from an incredible trauma."
"It was really about an adjustment to who you are in the wake of it," adds Danai Gurira (Michonne), "and how you piece yourself together -- and can you?"
Andrew Lincoln (Rick) notes, "It begins with a man being obedient and risking his life for Negan in order to preserve life in Alexandria. Throughout there are a succession of moments that change his mind and make him realize this is an untenable situation."
In the 90-minute midseason finale, we saw most of our heroes reunited.
"There is this moment of rare optimism," Lincoln says, "that we're rebuilding. We're together again. Or at least it's the beginning of the resistance. You see we're in a place of strategizing, but against tremendous odds."
"You see that hope," Gurira adds, "that maybe we just might can."
"It's been an interesting journey," notes Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan), "and it's only going to get more crazy. What the series is building toward the rest of the season is Rick trying to re-emerge and find himself again. And Negan is still out there with a big smile on his face waiting. So we're getting to a breaking point."
Gimple adds, "By the end [of the first half] we see that all these characters that have been in different places wind up on the same page. They weren't ready. They weren't in a place to fight. They are now."
Perhaps the most heart-warming moment in the last episode was the best bro, hug-it-out reunion between Rick and Daryl (Norman Reedus).
Daryl and Jesus (Tom Payne) had escaped Negan's compound by killing Fat Joey (Joshua Hoover) and recovering Rick's signature 6-inch, stainless-steel, .357 magnum Colt Python.
Our last sight of the reunited crew (minus hostage Eugene) is of them striding toward the Hilltop Colony mansion to confer with leader Gregory (Xander Berkeley).
There are eight episodes remaining in Season 7, with the first big adventure expected when Jesus takes Rick and the gang to meet King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and his pet Bengal tiger, Shiva, over at The Kingdom. Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol (Melissa McBride) are also at The Kingdom.
Gimple tells Entertainment Weekly, "The midseason premiere is a movie unto itself. Before the end of that episode, you will see Rick Grimes smile."
That alone is worth the price of admission.
My initial question before tonight's episode: What is Negan going to do when he discovers Daryl has escaped and Fat Joey is dead? Surely he knows there's only one place to which Daryl will run.
If I were Eugene, I'd be very worried.
One final thing -- just who is the mysterious stalker with the boots who has been watching things from afar?
• The Weapon Hunter. Season 2 kicks off at 8 p.m. today on the Smithsonian channel. In the first episode, easily excitable history buff/host Paul Shull is on a mission to help rebuild a rare Vietnam War gun truck that once escorted convoys through Viet Cong country.
In future episodes, Shull fires World War II rifles, tries to restore a WWII-era Quad 50 machine gun, and attempts to find and fire a flamethrower.
• Sharknado 5. Love it or loathe it, the Sharknado franchise will be back for a fifth movie. There's no air date (production just began), but Ian Ziering and Tara Reid will reprise their roles, this time to save the world.
With much of North America in ruins, the rest of the world braces for a global crisis of shark-infested storms bombarding cities around the world.
Too much? Remember at the end of Sharknado: The 4th Awakens, the Eiffel Tower ripped away from Paris and crashed down on Niagara Falls.
For the record, I thought Sharknado jumped the shark after No. 3. I think it was the Wayne Newton cameo in No. 4 that put me over the top. His disturbingly bad face lift (he's 74 these days) looks like a Halloween mask. Seriously.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 02/12/2017