'The Walking Dead' Season 8 Episode 3 Review: 'Monsters'




The Walking Dead aired 'Monsters' last night and it was the third episode of season eight. 'Monsters' was the first episode this season to disappoint me and cause a loss of interest.

First off, the cold opening was extremely weak. It was choppy, disorganized, and edited awfully. I'm not sure what the producers were trying to do, but it didn't work. The opening consisted of several fades to black and confusing voiceovers for no apparent reason. I really thought something was wrong with my TV or my network. Audiences were also given more motivational speeches as if we don't know what the characters are fighting for. We already know the impact of the war and what is at stake, so do the characters in the show, so there is no need for constant reminders. This cold opening should have been left out or edited in a completely different way. It was not a good start to a mediocre episode. 

After last week's cliffhanger, I was extremely excited to see what was going to happen with Morales. This was a character that fans have been asking for and his possible return has been highly anticipated by fans of the earlier seasons. Morales starts talking to Rick and gave him a speech on what has happened to them and what is going to happen. I couldn't tell what was worse, Juan Pareja's delivery of lines or the awful writing. The conversation got better and felt more natural as they progressed and it was nice to watch them interact and explain what has happened to them in the past 7 seasons. 

Then, after maybe five minutes of screen time, Morales is killed by Daryl. This felt like a wasted opportunity and keeping Morales alive would have made the prisoner conflict much more interesting because the audience might care about one of the Saviors. Any interest I had left in the episode was immediately lost and I felt the urge to tune out. 

The rest of the episode wasn't anything special either. Scenes between Eric and Aaron were supposed to be heavy and emotional, but it barely had an impact. It is hard to feel connected with the characters when they are barely in the show. 

That is the problem with having mass amounts of characters. Those two barely have screen time and now the show wants us to be heavily impacted by Eric’s injury/death but it just falls short. There is no emotional impact because the audience barely knows the characters. 

Eric was introduced in season 5 and since then has appeared in 17 episodes. However, he has only had lines or brief character development in 9 of those episodes. 

Aaron, on the other hand, was also introduced in season 5 and has appeared in 25 episodes since then and has lines in 23 of those episodes. 

How are audiences supposed to relate to Eric as a character and Aaron/Eric as a couple if one of the characters is severely underdeveloped? There have been 41 episodes since the appearance of Eric and he has only been shortly developed in 9 of those episodes. How are audiences supposed to care about a character dying if he is barely on the show? 

Speaking of character development, the writers are so inconsistent with their characters. Morgan, Rick,  and Daryl are constantly being changed and their actions in this episode felt very unnatural. Morgan has had huge character changes in each season he's appeared in, but he doesn't seem to learn from his past or the writers just don't care. The writers seem to jump around and have the characters act in whatever way will move the plot forward. 

Overall, this episode was pretty weak. I'm glad that the cast and crew of The Walking Dead are finally holding themselves accountable when they say the season is going to be more fast-paced than the last. In previous seasons they failed to deliver, but season 8 is definitely a noticeable change. Hopefully, the writing is changes too because as of now audiences are starting to lose connections to the characters that make the war and the show great. 

I would give this episode 4/10 stars.

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