Maybe ‘The Walking Dead’ went too far with the gore this time

It happened. In fact, not only did it happen but it happened twice. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) put his barbed wire baseball bat Lucille to work, caving in the heads of two fan-favorite characters on “The Walking Dead.”

It was more than shocking. It was also the goriest and most graphic episode the AMC series has aired thus far and it has us wondering: Did “The Walking Dead” finally go too far?

The show is well-known for how its kills tend to be as creative and shocking as they are disturbing, but Negan crushing a baseball bat into someone’s head repeatedly — until well after they were dead — might be a bit too much. Showing a few of the strikes is one thing. Watching Negan pulverize a brain matter stump that used to be a head over and over while blood flies all over the place is a very different story.

The line between hard to watch and unwatchable is a tough one to walk but, in this instance, the show just might have tipped over to the wrong side. That may have been their ultimate goal, though.

RELATED: 57 brutal ‘The Walking Dead’ deaths in 97 seconds

As executive producer Scott Gimple explained on Sunday night’s “Talking Dead,” “The hardest thing about it was starting the script and thinking about what would break Rick (Andrew Lincoln). It was all in issue 100 but [also] looking for a way to break the audience, too, but not in a way to hurt them but for them to believe that Rick Grimes is under the thumb of Negan.”

In breaking a portion of the audience, Rick has broken as well. The insane level of gore — including a battered Glenn (Steven Yeun) with his eye popped out apologizing to Maggie (Lauren Cohan) — was meant to show just how little control Rick, or any of your favorite survivors, has over this situation.

There comes a point when it goes too far, though. And if creator Robert Kirkman’s words are any indication, this is just the beginning. “We wanted to send a clear message that we are just getting started and there is a lot that we’re going to be getting from this,” he teased on “Talking Dead.”

After seeing the horrific and wildly uncomfortable scene unfold in the episode, it’s hard to imagine just what he’s going to do to top it. Then again, maybe we won’t want to look at it when the time comes.

Of course, it also goes to the point that the show simply cannot follow through with how Negan’s story plays out in the comics.

“The Walking Dead” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.

Source link