Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
That is entirely the point. In order for this to have the weight it needed to have, it needed to overcome completely your desensitization to brutal violence, especially in the context of this show. Showing Glenn with his head caved in saying his last words to his wife before having his skull turned into paste, with his scalp hanging off of Lucille while Negan makes a joke about it being a vampire bat?
Gah.
I was disturbed by it too, and that was the intent. Incredibly well executed piece of television. Negan has had just over an episode's worth of screen time and the audience probably has stronger feelings about him than almost any character the series has ever trotted out. He's already up there with the most horrifying villains of any series ever. Seriously, anyone who says that's "empty violence" is missing the boat by a mile. It moved the show and characters not so much forward but sideways ninety degrees.
I think he just had his brains rearranged by a barbed wire baseball bat and could barely form words; whatever he said had no reason behind it at all. Which just makes the scene much more disturbing.
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Bang on, and I was going to say the same. Yes the episode was ridiculously violent, but that's the threshold they had to cross in a show already filled with endless violence, to convince the viewer that Negan is more sinister than your average bad guy and is to be feared more than your average roaming hoard of zombies. Fans already had an expectation going in to this episode that there was going to be bloodshed, so the writers likely realized that in a world of viewers already largely desensitized to violence, that the point needed to be hammered home with brute force.
That being said, full credit to the actor in this case as well. The violence was bad, but his portrayal of the jolly sadist made it all the more vile and it's a role I could see being easily fouled up by crappy acting.