Whatever story about Carl growing up in the zombie apocalypse and learning to be a leader in a harsh world has been cut short for no reason whatsoever beyond scoring cheap points and a ratings boost. Just inserting his death randomly into the middle of that story is certainly shocking, but it's incredibly unsatisfying as far as Carl's story goes. Carl's story was that he was the one who would "beat this world." That's why his story mattered. The fact is, we're following these characters because they have a story to tell us. But as a narrative device, "shocking" deaths are, well, just plain lazy. In a grim, post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world like The Walking Dead, you certainly need character deaths to happen or it would feel incredibly unrealistic. I'm not against killing off characters in a television show, by any means. Other characters, like Beth and Hershel or Tyreese and Sasha, may not be quite as tragic in the big scheme of things, but all these deaths create a larger problem that the show hasn't been able to solve: We're running out of characters we actually care about. Glenn's death-tucked in as a "surprise" after Abraham was bludgeoned to death by Negan-was just as fatal an error. Credit: AMCĬarl is just the latest in a long line of character deaths that serve little purpose and ultimately weaken The Walking Dead 's story. What a lovely way to send off one of the show's best characters. While I do agree that Carl's death is different from the others simply because he's essentially the most important character in the comics, I think that his death, in terms of story and narrative structure, is not so different at all. Sure, Rick is the star, but Carl is a character we have literally seen grow up in the zombie apocalypse, both in terms of the timeline of the show, but also in real life, as we’ve seen Chandler Riggs age from a tiny ten year-old to a much more compelling young adult. The issue is that The Walking Dead is, and has always been, Carl’s story to some extent. My colleague Paul Tassi thinks that Carl's death is a tragedy that the show itself won't be able to survive, writing:Ĭarl’s death is different than Glenn, Abraham, Sasha, Andrea, Tyreese, Beth or anyone else from the lengthy kill list the show has been building for eight years. Killing off Carl to shock us, to bump ratings momentarily, to give us an 'emotional episode' like last night's-this is a mistake. I'm thinking about just how many characters this show has killed off, and I've come to the conclusion that killing main characters that audiences have come to love should only be done incredibly sparingly.
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I’m firmly committed to the idea of watching as many episodes of season 9 as I did of season 8.This morning I'm left more annoyed than sad.
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That said, I have no feelings about Rick’s death at this point. Lead characters can always be killed off and AMC shouldn’t be afraid to do it. Then again, in a harsh environment like the post-apocalyptic world of Walking Dead, nobody is safe. Norman Reedus is supposedly getting a substantial raise to take over the show’s lead role. Entertainment Weekly confirmed from a source that Lincoln is indeed going to exit the show.ĪMC, meanwhile, has not commented on the matter and it’s likely they’ll want to hang on to the news for as long as possible. That’s right, it looks like his death is coming sooner than you’d think. It was Collider that first broke the news that Lincoln is leaving the show, revealing that he’s only in six episodes in season 9. But I do think Lincoln has been on the show for far too long, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him try his hand at other things.