The Bitching Dead Issue #54: “Fear the Walking Dead” Season 8 Finale, “TWD: The Ones Who Live” And More!

The Bitching Dead issue 54 had Bekah, Tara and I discuss a whole lot of stuff. We covered the first seasons of TWD Dead City and Daryl Dixon, FTWD Season 8 Finale, and the premiere episode of TWD: The Ones Who Live.

It’s been a while since we came together to do another installment of The Bitching Dead. Though our previous episode was back in June 2023 and we have had a bunch of new TWD content since then, frankly, said content didn’t give us much to get together and talk about. Even during the latest episode of our webcast, we were able to breeze past most of the storylines because when it came down to it, not a lot happened.

Anyway, let’s begin by talking about the ratings. TWD: Dead City season one, focusing on Negan and Maggie, attracted 0.704 million live views for the premiere on June 18, 2023, and 0.618 million for the finale on July 23, 2023.

TWD: Daryl Dixon season one premiered to 0.631 million live viewers on September 10, 2023, with the finale getting 0.688 live views on October 15, 2023.

Apparently, these numbers were acceptable for AMC to greenlight both spin-offs for another season. The second installment of TWD: Daryl Dixon called The Book of Carol is supposed to bring back Carol in a major role as she continues her search for Daryl.

Our thoughts regarding the two spin-offs were basically about how they could have served better as TV movies instead of being drawn out over six episodes each. Also, what the heck is up with TWD and introducing children for the main adult characters to look after?

TWD: Dead City had a little girl with a dinosaur plushie while TWD: Daryl Dixon had a young boy who can be described as White Savior Jesus, complete with a “possible” zombie-virus immunity origin that was definitely not plucked from The Last of Us at all. No, sir!

Also, with how the titles for the spin-offs continue to be created, Tara brought up a hilarious joke about what might end up happening if the spin-offs continue.

Welcome to the stage, The Walking Dead Fear the World Beyond The Book of Maggie & Negan in Daryl & Carol City That Lives: Judith!

As for Fear The Walking Dead Season 8 Part 2, the premiere episode saw 0.54 live views on October 22, 2023, with the finale getting 0.44 live views on November 19, 2023. Consisting of 6 episodes, Part 2 was much ado about nothing (big surprise there!) and came across as an excuse to pad the episode order until the narrative got to the finale to mark the return of… drumroll… Alicia Clark.

Apparently, she survived the radiation poisoning, found Skidmark the cat along the way, and got to reunite with her mother. Alicia was also able to start a movement inspiring other young women to form a group to help various communities.

With Victor Strand finding a husband and turning over a new leaf and the Madison and Alicia reunion, FTWD Season 8 Part 2 did come across as the fanservice season regardless of certain creative decisions not making narrative sense. But oh well, at least, it’s all over.

Here’s our The Bitching Dead Issue 54 webcast!

Here are some of the highlights in no particular order:

• Are we also a spin-off of The Walking Dead franchise?
• None of us are interested in TWD: Dead City and TWD: Daryl Dixon getting second seasons.
• Why haven’t more people experimented with creating biofuel using zombies?
• Drag Queens exist in TWD: Daryl Dixon.
• We can’t ignore the chemistry between Rick Grimes and Michonne.
• Having Rick dump a whole lot of backstory in the premiere episode was a weird creative choice.
• Michonne leaving Judith and RJ behind to go search for Rick for years still doesn’t make sense to us.
• The higher production value in TWD: The Ones Who Live is obvious.
• Why would the writers cut off Rick’s hand now? Such a monumental moment from the comics was just “meh!” in the live-action series.
• At this point, we only care about Rick’s friend Esteban.
• Of course, Rick and Michonne will team up to take down the CRM. Duh!
• TWD: The Ones Who Live is likely going to end in disappointment.
• Will the TWD characters come together at some point for an Avengers-style reunion? It’s going to be a mess, but a reunion would be nice to see.

As for other stuff we talked about, we are excited to share the launch of Bekah’s new brick-and-mortar store IDOLL Music come March 2, 2024. The shop will house K-Pop, J-Pop, and other goodies! Tell your friends and family!

What did you think of Fear The Walking Dead season 8 part 2, the TWD: Dead City and TWD: Daryl Dixon spin-offs, and TWD: The Ones Who Live premiere episode?

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.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary