Service

Many here complain about the pace of episode 7:4 being "stagnant". I don't have a problem with slow pacing. There needn't be a ton of action if the dialogue is good...the tension is real..the build-up necessary, etc. So I'm fine with the pace.

The main reason this episode is so bad is that they ruin the great Neegan character through overexposure. A character this deliciously good should be used seldom and wisely. Make the audience want more of him. But the writers wear out his welcome to the point that Neegan becomes a clownish bore. The guest who won't leave.

The writers can't even put truly witty words in his mouth. What a disaster. What a waste of acting talent.

And to top it off, Chandler Riggs (the kid) is as annoying as he was the first couple of seasons.

The death of Andrea in episode 3/16 featured some of the worst moments in the history of TWD. Andrea had to act very stupid for a tediously long time to get herself killed. Strangely enough this didn't turn out to be suspenseful, but extremely annoying.

Since the finale of season 6 TWD has reentered this territory of inept screen writing. It's all too obvious what they are trying to achieve, but the path they've chosen is insultingly long-winded and ridiculous.

A guy with a stick, surrounding himself with heavily armed men who all have a very good reason to hate him is a dead man walking, especially in the world of TWD, where everybody is severely traumatized and so many people haven't got anything left to lose.

In this episode the Alexandrians complain that the Saviors didn't give them the full week they promised before raiding their place and stealing their stuff. Therefore they didn't even hide their most important things. It hadn't even entered their minds (yet) that they had enough firepower to easily kill off Negan and his posse several times. Due to the Saviors' discourtesy they just had to behave like dumb cattle. Such ostentatious stupidity doesn't make a show more exiting. Ask Andrea.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a great actor, probably nobody could have been a better Negan. But every time he childishly talks about his stick "Lucille", this show dies a little bit more.

The Service of the episode "Service": It makes it crystal clear that it's about time to skip this show relying on comic book ideas like "king with a pet tiger" and "allmighty guy with a stick" - it's a dead end street. Even the inevitable revenge episodes can't make up for all those dull hours like this one. Just feed Negan to the tiger and try a very different road.

What's funny when reading some of the reviews here and it also really shows the inconsistence in the viewers and also hypocrisy. People complain about the rinse and repeat storyline but then when TWD gives them a new storyline, one that is not immediately rinse and repeat they complain. It's quite funny. They're also complaining why they didn't just shoot Negan at the gate, well obviously they want that iconic villain from the comics to be alive for much much longer so taking him out in the first few episodes wouldn't really make sense! They've been building up this character for a long time ffs! You think they're just gonna have our protagonists beat him right of the bat??! I can promise you if that had been the case the fans would've been complaining that it was "too easy" for our heroes, while of course now they claim it's "too hard, Negan is too powerful" blah blah blah. If they had taken out Negan in the first 4 episodes of the show, a villain that had been anticipated and built up for so long, people would've been furious!! This is supposed to be a different kind of villain than what they have ever dealt with, of course it's not going to be as easy as just "shooting him at the gate" dumbass sh**.. There really is no pleasing people, and a show is never going to please everyone. Now believe me I understand the criticism of the episode, and the whole season, in general! It's a boring drag and character decisions are frustrating. What I don't agree with are the juvenile complaints from fans who are clearly all in their teens still, given their specific complaints. What the first episode was trying to show was Negan completely breaking Rick down to nothing, and obviously since the people writing these reviews have never experienced true earth shattering trauma they have no idea how they'd deal with it emotionally and mentally. I will also agree that Negan is a very boring character, and his condescending, childish speeches and behavior is not intimidating nor scary, and it certainly doesn't establish anything other than he's just a one dimensional bad guy, it's just annoying. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a great actor at times but I don't see what's so "amazing" about him as this character. He's just acting like a 15 year old in a position of power and loving it. His attitude and behavior becomes very boring, repetitive and overly cartoony. No shade on the actor himself as I said, just the way he's portraying the character, which was probably very much influenced by how he was told by the director to behave.

I was literally on the edge of my seat the whole time

Absurd Negan is not popped right there and then. Especially at the gate. A such move would cause confusion, loss of the "head" and encourage the rest make a move.The band collecting is vastly outnumbered and we still do not see the last two RPG's that is available or some real fortification or on the scouting towers. It is just numb, deaf and silly. Too silly. The episode lack a lot of plain logic!