The Walking Dead: The Complete Sixth Season
Created by: Frank Darabont Stars: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
The world’s favorite zombie TV show is about to start its newest season after the horrible, craptastic ending of season six. Really, if there is one show with a guaranteed audience that doesn’t need a dumb “who shot JR” cliffhanger, it’s this show. Think I’m being too hard on this season finale? Even the showrunners came out afterwards and apologized for that stunt. So the ending wasn’t that great, how was the rest of the season? Well grab your guns, swords, crossbows, and barbwire-wrapped baseball bats, and let’s find out.
Season six started off very strong with Rick and our band of survivors having to contend with one huge horde of zombies. This threat was so epic that it lasted throughout multiple episodes and provided plenty of tension and good gory moments. When a zombie squeezes through two closely parked together trucks, tearing off most of its rotting flesh in the process, yeah, that’s good television. Then we finally got to meet the mysterious Wolves from last season, and they turned out to be as deadly and psychotic as everyone was guessing them to be. Sadly they weren’t used that long in this season, and I would have liked to have seen more done with them, but what we got during a raid on the town of Alexandria was good. Then there was the infamous “oh my God, they killed (SPOLIER)” moment that seemed to fool some people, for at least a few days. The internet exploded with rumors and rage over this event, both in the he’s really dead, oh no he’s not dead camps. Then the truth was revealed and yeah, that was pretty hilarious. I won’t give it all away here, although I’m sure by now you know all about it, but never in my life have I seen a trash dumpster sit that high off the ground. Moving on. The last half of season six dealt with Rick and his crew coming up against the favorite baddie of the comic book, Negan, and his army of scumbags. This was handled very well, for the most part, with the good guys of the show having to do some morally questionable things in order to survive. Sure they’ve done that before, but here they seemed extra hardcore and I, for one, loved that. In the world of The Walking Dead, nice guys don’t finish last — they get eaten. We have some unexpected romantic hookups, an expected from the comic book – but unlikely to happen in the TV show – gunshot to the face, an unbelievable (not in a good way) character turn in Carol, and more than a few other moments that were far more effectively surprising than eye rolling. And then there was that ending, where the good news was that we finally got to meet Negan and he was played exceptionally well by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, but the bad was that who-did-he-kill? nonsense.
So how is the new Blu-ray boxset from Anchor Bay? Well first, remember that wonderful season finale I keep talking about? Yeah, there is an extended version of that on here. Oh boy! In addition to that, seven of the episodes have commentary tracks, there are four deleted scenes from four different episodes, and there are seven featurettes. One is a collection of making-of and behind-the-scenes segments for all 13 episodes. Another is an in memoriam for all the characters that died this season. There is a special look at the first episode, and another about the death of Nicholas. Don’t know who Nicholas is? Well he’s the one that caused the “oh my God, they killed (SPOLIER)” moment. Yeah, that guy. The featurette “Strength in Bonds” is all about how our heroes rely on each other for safety and support, while “Negan: Someone to Fear” is about, well, you know who. Lastly there is a neat roundup of some of the best Walker kills from the entire season.
All in all season six of The Walking Dead was more than solid. There was a lot of good drama, the story moved along briskly, there was no shortage of action, and the zombie bits were plentiful and gory. It only had two missteps: the fake out death of a fan favorite and, well, you can guess what the other one was by now. If you are a TWD fan then this one is a must get for you. If you are new to The Walking Dead, then what are you doing? You’re going to want to start with season one. Duh. But yeah, when you get here, you’re going to want to get this. So consider The Complete Sixth Season well recommended.
