Talking Through Lines We Cross

We have finally made it to episode 100 of The Walking Dead Talk Through! It seems like it took forever… Well, it took us five years! Thank you, listeners, for all of your enthusiasm and support! We did the first time ever first impressions episode earlier this week, and this time, Mark and I talk through a more detailed analysis of The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 1, titled Lines We Cross. This episode was written by showrunner Angela Kang, and directed by executive producer Greg Nicotero. Kyle will not be covering the show this season but may appear from time to time. He is behind the scenes this episode, editing (though you may hear that I was going to edit it).

A final blast from Fear the Walking Dead…

We got a couple of extended pieces of feedback about Fear the Walking Dead’s season finale, S5E16, titled End of the Line from Aaron and Cutter, who also talks about how we have too many characters on both shows and gives us proof! Our more detailed discussion of the season premiere begins 32 minutes and 6 seconds into the episode.

Cards are back…

We get a return to the use of cards in the episode, with white block text on a black screen. AMC Premiere has a video of the table read for the episode. It was interesting to see how the episode changed from the table read and who wasn’t there. We had:

• Training Day – There was no Luke and Jules scene during the table read; Dan Fogler wasn’t there during the table read. My guess is that the decision to add that scene was because of something that happens later in the season, and the decision to lengthen this to six acts instead of five.
• Skin – Called “Stories We Tell” in the table read. Skin is much better, in my opinion. I don’t remember hearing the Highwaymen during the episode? Michonne elaborates on the Rick comment, where she didn’t in the final episode and stops short. Antony Azor wasn’t there during the table read. Callan McAuliffe read RJ’s parts in the table read, and it’s pretty funny.
• Bird Wisdom – Called “Certain Uncertainty” during the table read. This one had no Negan and Gabriel scene during the table read. I think that the Negan and Lydia scene was expanded but I can’t say for sure. Jeffrey Dean Morgan wasn’t at the table read, and his scenes were read by Ryan Hurst.
• Sea Dogs – This was called “Daryl and Carol” in the table read. Angel Theory wasn’t there during the table read; Eleanor Matsuura read her pieces. I got a kick out of Norman Reedus’ reaction to some of the lines.
• New Mexico – There was no card for this one. They split the Daryl and Carol scene into two acts. The original script only had five acts.
• Lines We Cross – This was called “Where There’s Smoke” in the table read. This act was pretty similar to the table read.
• Embers – Luke’s lines were read by Avi Nash. He doesn’t call him “Eugenius” in the table read. That was a great addition to the script and it was a lot funnier in the episode.

So, are we over-enthusiastic?

We are curious about what people who hadn’t been watching Fear think about this season premiere. Did you think it was as good as we thought it was? Mind you, it wasn’t perfect. I still question how Eugene knew so quickly that the satellite would start a forest fire near Oceanside in Whisperer territory. Everyone EXCEPT ME had issues with the deer, in what seems like it is almost an homage to the travesty that was the deer shown in S7E12 Say Yes. I am assuming that I need to watch it again on a larger screen. I did think that Carol saying that 200 people could have been fed by the deer was a big exaggeration.

Send in your feedback!

Please leave your feedback for the next episode, S10E2, titled We Are the End of the World, by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, October 15, 2019. If you have any feedback on this episode, Lines We Cross, send that in, too! One of the best ways to submit feedback is on our Facebook group. You can also send us an email to walkingdead@talkthroughmedia.com or call our new voicemail at 216-232-6146.

Ratings are down…

Ratings for S10E1 Lines We Cross are down to a new all-time low and don’t bode well for this season. It got a 1.44 in the 18-49 demographic, with exactly 4.000 million viewers. This is down from the last season finale, which got a 1.86 in the 18-49, with 5.019 million viewers. It’s also down from the last season premiere, which got a 2.49 and 6.076 million.

Talking Dead got better ratings than last week’s season finale of Fear the Walking Dead, to put it into context. It got a 0.52 in the 18-49 demographic, with 1.620 million viewers. This is up from the last season finale that aired at a later time, which got a 0.29 in the 18-49 with 1.027 million viewers. It is down from the last season premiere‘s Talking Dead, which got a 0.77 and 2.223 million, but is WAY UP from the very late Talking Dead last week for the Fear season finale, which only got a 0.07 and 293,000 viewers.

We could use your help in collecting feedback!

Lately. it’s been difficult collecting the feedback, and we could use your help. The bulk of feedback comes in on Tuesdays; we have limited availability on Tuesdays. We have to grab it from the various sources, including the Facebook group, the feedback form, email, and voice mail; put it into a Google doc; separate it into the appropriate sections of the podcast: Ratings, sauces, and feedback; and then fix things like spelling mistakes, grammar, and format, and then divide it by who will read it. If you are available most Tuesdays that we have an episode to record and want to help the podcast out, please drop us a line, either using the feedback form, the Facebook group, the Talk Through Media Facebook page, or if you are friends with us on Facebook, over Messenger. We’ll work out something if you can, like comping you into the Patreon, assuming we can do that.

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Don’t forget that we have our new Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WalkingDeadTalkThrough! We will be bringing you exclusive content there, such as when Mark attends Walker Stalker Con Atlanta in a few weeks! Please remember to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts or whatever is your podcast client of choice. Subscribing to us helps us move up in the rankings, so it’ll help us out tremendously! You’ll also get new episodes when released. And while you’re in there, leave us a rating or review! It only takes a few minutes and it also helps us out! And join our Facebook group!