My 10 Years at io9 Recapping The Walking Dead

When io9 co-founders Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders employed me as a Senior Editor again in 2012, I by no means anticipated to nonetheless be on the web site a decade later. I actually by no means anticipated to recap The Walking Dead the total time, and now that the present is over, I do not know easy methods to really feel about it. But I’m fairly positive it’s not good.

And after I say a decade, I imply 10 years nearly precisely. Annalee and CJ made it very clear that certainly one of my duties upon being employed can be taking over recaps of the then-incredibly well-liked zombie sequence. So on my very first day at io9, November 19, 2012, I wrote concerning the earlier night time’s installment, “Hounded,” the sixth episode of season three and the twenty fifth episode of The Walking Dead general. If you bear in mind it, and I do know you don’t, you possibly can learn my historic recap right here or take my phrase it’s the one the place ghosts maintain calling an more and more unstable Rick on the telephone. It was a fairly good episode!

Sunday night time, November 20, at some point after my tenth io9 anniversary, the ultimate episode of The Walking Dead aired, titled “Rest in Peace.” AMC didn’t ship out a screener till Monday, however I bought sick so I wrote it Tuesday. The present ended on 177, which suggests 153 Walking Dead episodes have aired since I began right here and I’ve written about nearly all of them, minus a couple of Germain Lussier needed to cowl after I was sick or on trip. I really feel assured I’ve recapped 148 of them over the course of a decade and three days.

If you’ve caught with io9’s Walking Dead recaps via my tenure, I’m obnoxiously verbose. I’ve utter confidence that the overwhelming majority of those recaps clocked in not less than 1,000 phrases, and plenty of of them hit 1,500. At an estimated 1200 phrases per recap general, I’d say I’ve written over 177,000 phrases about particular person episodes of The Walking Dead. That’s not counting TWD information articles or trailer write-ups, which I’ve additionally performed the overwhelming majority of, as a result of I’m io9’s Walking Dead man.

This staggers me. I’m 45 years previous, which suggests I’ve spent 2/9ths of my life on this Earth not simply watching however professionally writing about The Walking Dead, a present that has sometimes been nice however rather more typically been terrible. I imply, horrible. This is a unprecedented period of time watching a present I incessantly disliked.

I imply, after I started recapping the sequence, it was getting into its heyday. The Walking Dead was by no means extra constantly good than the second half of season three via season 5, together with the sequence’ excessive level, “Clear,” and the heartbreaking “The Grove.” Even the season 5 finale, “Conquer,” the place Rick (Andrew Lincoln) appeared to have misplaced his thoughts and uttered the well-known/notorious line “I’m wondering, how many of you do I gotta kill to save your lives?” was wonderful, displaying the protagonist as a person who had been pushed too far by a brutal world and had misplaced his manner. The Walking Dead gave the impression to be Rick utilizing to ask if survival is extra essential than humanity, an interesting query that the present was uniquely positioned to discover.

And then… it didn’t. In season six, it turned out Rick’s brutality was apparently the proper reply. Well, let me make clear—Rick’s manner wasn’t essentially the appropriate strategy to go, as a result of there have been normally penalties for his violent actions, it’s simply that maddeningly, nobody on the present ever talked about this or confronted him about his actions. The present gave tacit approval to issues like Rick’s pre-emptive assault in opposition to the Saviors’ outpost, despite the fact that it made Negan and the Saviors conscious there was a brand new colony ripe for the choosing, which led to repercussions not only for the protagonists, however the present itself.

It was March 2015—greater than seven lengthy years in the past—when The Walking Dead, in an astounding act of hubris, determined to finish season six with a cliffhanger after promising for months that the finale would characteristic probably the most surprising, brutal second of the whole sequence. Like his introduction within the comics, the villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) ought to have instantly murdered somebody upon his arrival—besides as an alternative of displaying which character died, the episode ended with a point-of-view shot from the sufferer of Negan’s bat.

It was infuriating then, nevertheless it additionally gave the present’s then 14 million viewers (nonetheless an astonishing quantity) greater than six months to invest who died, thereby guaranteeing regardless of the consequence, it will be anticipated to a point.

More than 17 million individuals watched the season seven premiere to find who the sufferer can be, solely to find it was Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), a second-tier character who wouldn’t be missed a lot. Still, followers gave a collective sigh of aid that Glenn (Steven Yeun), the beloved character who Negan killed within the comics and was the center of the soul of the present, had been spared. And then Rick shot his mouth off and Negan beat Glenn to loss of life as properly. It could have been shocking, nevertheless it was additionally infuriating—and greater than something, none of it value ready half a yr for.

Since then, The Walking Dead has hemorrhaged viewers (to the purpose that lower than 1.5 million individuals watched the present’s penultimate episode). Sure, it didn’t assist that star Andrew Lincoln left the sequence early in season 9, nevertheless it additionally didn’t assist that the “war” with Negan and his Saviors was drawn out to a few excruciating seasons. I spent so most of the center years of The Walking Dead livid on the lack of character improvement, livid at how padded out the episodes had been, and the way there was nearly nobody to root for as a result of the protagonists stored murdering individuals in chilly blood. Then, my associate Loree advised me one thing that has caught with me ever since: “It must be as exhausting for people to read your angry recaps as it is exhausting for you to write them.”

She was completely right, and I modified my outlook instantly. I attempted to seek out the positives in every episode. I attempted to merely level out issues as an alternative of ranting about them. Mostly, although, I simply tried to not care about what the present did or didn’t do. That sounds harsh, however what I actually imply is that I attempted to not let the present have an effect on me or my temper, and to satisfy it by itself phrases. The Walking Dead was gonna Walking Dead it doesn’t matter what I wrote, I figured, so why ought to I get labored up over the seemingly everlasting actuality that the present wasn’t pretty much as good because it was once? Hilariously and predictably, I’ve had commenters mad at me for each being too good and nonetheless too imply to TWD, however I’ve additionally slept so much higher on Sunday nights.

But I’ll sleep even higher this coming Sunday night time, figuring out that I’ll by no means need to recap an episode of The Walking Dead once more… properly, not less than till the Rick and Michonne miniseries comes out, if it ever does. (I’ve already advised my io9 compatriots that I received’t be recapping the Dead City or Daryl Dixon spin-offs, it doesn’t matter what they pay me or threaten me with.) Having spent 10 lengthy years watching this damned present, I really feel chained to it sufficient that I want to seek out out what occurred to Rick after he was airlifted by helicopter with Jadis (Polly Walker), the chief of the late Garbage Dump Performance Art Troupe.

Looking again at a full decade of recapping The Walking Dead, I can’t assist however really feel oh my god how did a spend a decade of my life watching this present that general I don’t suppose I loved. The indisputable fact that it overlaps nearly precisely with my tenure at io9 complicates issues immensely for me, since general I’ve loved my time right here, minus a real-life supervillain or two. The two experiences are inextricably linked for me, and will probably be for some time, I think. But proper now, I’ve no capacity to actually perceive what I’ve performed or has been performed to me. I’m insensate. Numb. Listless. Lifeless. After 10 lengthy years, I’m the strolling useless. But if nothing else, The Walking Dead has given me one piece of recommendation to assist information me via this tough transition in my life, all the best way again within the very first episode that aired on October 31, 2010:

Don’t useless. Open inside.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and all the pieces it’s essential learn about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.