Drama as Marketing Ploy

In October last year, during New York Comic Con, I watched the season six première of “The Walking Dead” at Madison Square Garden.

It was the highlight of my convention experience. The venue was filled with props from the show. The cast was on the stage for a question-and-answer session. Norman Reedus (aka Daryl Dixon) rode through the stadium on a motorcycle. That’s how you make an entrance.

And the episode was good, too — especially because I watched it on that ridiculously huge screen. The rest of the season had its high and low points, but sadly they were all overshadowed by a gimmicky mess of a cliffhanger during the season finale.

Fair warning: Spoilers for “The Walking Dead” comic book and television show follow. 

Still here? Good. As a reader of the comic book, I knew that this season was building up to the introduction of Negan, a foul-mouthed, charismatic villain who first appeared in comic form in issue 100.

To fully convey how powerful Negan’s arrival is in the comics, I almost stopped reading “The Walking Dead” when that issue was released in July 2012. As I flipped to the final pages, I felt angry. I felt heartbroken. I felt disgusted.

What does Negan do to elicit such a reaction? He gathers our beloved zombie-fighting group together and makes them watch as he violently bashes in one of their skulls with Lucille — a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. It’s an incredibly graphic scene that leaves the group — as well as the readers — shaken to the core.

I’ve never reread that issue. I don’t need to, since that panel has been burned into my memory for the past four years.

Season six was building up to that scene. I knew it at Madison Square Garden. As we crept closer to the finale, I was looking forward to Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s portrayal of Negan, even though it meant watching as a character is beaten to death. I had an odd mix of excitement and dread all season.

The season finale, “Last Day on Earth,” was incredibly tense leading up to those final moments. The main storyline follows Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his group in an RV as they try to move a pregnant Maggie (Lauren Cohan) from Alexandria to the Hilltop for medical attention. At every turn, their passage is blocked by the Saviors — a group led by Negan that our crew has been at odds with all season.

Ultimately, during the episode’s remaining few minutes, they’re captured and brought before Negan, who chooses to punish them by killing a member of Rick’s group. As all of the fan favorites — including Rick, Carl, Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, Maggie, Rosita, Aaron, Sasha, Abraham and Eugene — kneel before Negan, he plays a game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and proceeds to bash in one of their skulls.

Except we don’t know who he picked. The scene was shot in first-person; we watched through the murdered character’s eyes.

All of that tension built up to a cliffhanger that felt like a marketing ploy. “Tune in next season to see which of your favorite characters was killed! Same ‘Walking Dead’ time, same ‘Walking Dead’ channel!”

While I can’t forget that gruesome panel from the comics, the death of a character lost all of its emotional power by turning it into a guessing game. This was supposed to be the show’s Red Wedding moment from “Game of Thrones.” Instead, they decided to emulate “Dallas” and turn it into “Who shot J.R.?” (or, for you younger readers, “Who shot Mr. Burns?” from “The Simpsons”).

It also doesn’t help that “The Walking Dead” writers pulled a similar stunt earlier in season six, when it appeared that Glenn (Steven Yeun) had been ripped apart by zombies, and they waited multiple episodes to address his fate.

It’s a shame, because the actors really gave it their all in the season finale. Lincoln is particularly great — Rick starts off as his usually cocky self, and at each Savior roadblock his tough demeanor cracks a bit, until he looks like a caged wild animal on his knees in front of Negan.

Morgan is perfect as Negan. With his charismatic grin and his leather jacket, it’s like the villain was lifted directly from the pages of the comic. I’m looking forward to seeing more of him in season seven.

And that’s the whole point. I didn’t need a ridiculous cliffhanger and months-long guessing game (complete with  #WhoIsIt hashtag on social media) to entice me to tune in next time. The story should be all the reason I need to watch.