The Bitching Dead Issue #49: The Not So Great ‘Tales of the Walking Dead’

The Bitching Dead issue 49 had Tara and I discuss the entirety of Tales of the Walking Dead season 1. We also shared our thoughts about a lot of TWD-related news.

I guess we weren’t the only ones wondering why a spin-off such as Tales of the Walking Dead was created in the first place. In a sense, it could have worked if it had debuted six or seven years ago when The Walking Dead franchise still had people all excited for new content. Presently, judging by the viewership numbers, no one really cared about the six-episode long Tales of TWD.

The premiere episode, ‘Evie/Joe’, was able to get 0.572 million people to watch it. However, the numbers continued to fall weekly, with episode 6, ‘La Dona’, getting only 0.378 million live viewers. I will be very surprised if Tales of TWD comes back for a second outing.

The biggest reason for the spin-off not garnering a lot of interest might be due to how, except for episode 3 ‘Dee’, it wasn’t connected to the larger TWD lore. Why should we care about one-shot stories with no concrete endings and featuring characters we will likely never see again? Hmmm.

Coming to TWD-related news, there’s a new spin-off in the works starring Rick Grimes and Michonne. It will apparently come out sometime in 2023. Remember those three Rick Grimes movies that were supposed to happen? Well, looks like they have been canceled.

Fear the Walking will thankfully end with an eighth and final season (to premiere in 2023). Remember when Fear the Walking Dead used to be good? Sigh!

The spin-off starring Maggie and Negan has been renamed from TWD: Isle of the Dead to TWD: Dead City.

As for the spin-off starring Daryl (Ugh! I can’t with these spin-offs!), it will have him wake up in Europe with no recollection of how he got there. I have a theory that this particular spin-off will somehow connect to the post-credits scene from TWD: World Beyond. So, be prepared for more aggressive and faster zombies, I guess.

Anyway, here’s The Bitching Dead Issue 49 webcast!

Here are the highlights in no particular order:

• Episode 2, ‘Blair/Gina’, was hands down the best. Parker Posey and Jillian Bell were ACTING! The unfortunate thing was that the interesting premise of mashing Groundhog Day with a zombie apocalypse was wasted due to it being part of the TWD franchise. Someone over at Netflix should get on reworking this story, while keeping Posey and Bell, into a horror/comedy movie.
• If two ladies with the ability to reset the clock every time they die can exist in TWD, then I guess the curse that was featured in ‘La Dona’ can exist, too.
• ‘Evie/Joe’ was kind of okay, but mostly because of the characters that Terry Crews and Olivia Munn played. We would be okay with either or both of them making cameos in the upcoming TWD spin-offs.
• Why is Alpha still a thing? No one cares about Alpha’s backstory. It would have been so much better to get an episode exploring how The Whisperers were created in the first place.
• The philosophical weight of the narrative presented in episode 4, ‘Amy/Dr. Everett’, fell flat because of what happened to Amy.
• The French film horror vibe in Episode 5, ‘Davon’, was just… stop trying to be artsy, TWD!
• Toe Tags. Dead Eyes. Chompers. HomoMortis. Sleepwalkers. Ugh! The TWD writers seem to spend more time coming up with terms other than ‘zombie’ instead of focusing on writing good stories.
• Where was an episode showing a group of people freeing animals locked up in zoos? Where was an episode following a bunch of “gamers” being all excited about surviving a zombie apocalypse? If only the creatives behind Tales of the Walking Dead had consulted us. We would have given them much better ideas.
• As for recommendations, I’m looking forward to the upcoming Interview with the Vampire TV series set to premiere on October 2, 2022. You can watch my reaction to the very queer trailer here. Tara recommended watching House of the Dragon and checking out her HotD Takes podcast where she covers the show.

What did you think of Tales of the Walking Dead season 1? Are you excited about the return of The Walking Dead with the final batch of episodes in Part 3 this October?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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