Fans are bashing The Walking Dead calling it “misery porn”

AMC’s The Walking Dead delivered a shocking episode on Valentine’s day, during which three minor characters were brutally killed off and another major character had his eye shot out.

The episode feature Jessie, as well as her two young sons, killed off during the group’s attempt to make it out of Alexandria alive during the massive zombie invasion. Clearly not everything went according to plan, as Jessie’s young son Sam freaked out after seeing a boy his age having been turned into one of the zombies.

His inexperience with walkers got him bitten, which in turn led to his mother also being attacked by zombies. Eldest son Ron quickly attempted to kill the people he thought were responsible for his family’s death and turned a gun on Rick and his son Carl. That’s when Michonne immediately kills the kid by stabbing him in the stomach. However, Ron’s stray bullet hits Carl in the eye, bring a shocking scene from the comic books to live television.

This ended up pissing off a lot of people and people took to Twitter to bash The Walking Dead for violence.

Moms reaction to watching the walking dead “thats really violent”

— Al (@allison28miller) February 15, 2016

The walking dead is so violent…. Id be traumatized every week if I watched it

— cheyenne ?? (@cparks_4) February 15, 2016

One writer bashed The Walking Dead. iO9 writer Rob Bricken said the show was essentially traumatizing because it showed a kid getting killed.

I did not care to see zombies rip chunks of flesh off a 10-year-old, nor did I need to watch the blood spurt from the child’s wounds as he’s eaten alive.

This is very much what upset me upon my first viewing, and apparently I need to explain why to some people: This is the first child we’ve seen actually get murdered on screen. Yes, TWD has a long history of killing kids—Rick offs a little girl in the first episode, as well as Sofia, and of course there’s Lizzie—but most of them have been dead, and more importantly the show has always cut away so the violence is not directly witnessed.

This is the first time where we saw a kid die, horribly, and I will fully admit that I did not care to see zombies rip chunks of flesh off a 10-year-old, nor did I need to watch the blood spurt from the child’s wounds as he’s eaten alive.

The author adds that the killing served no purpose. “Sam’s storyarc, if one exists, is as follows: his life is horrible and then he’s murdered. If this is the meaning I thought TWD truly meant to ascribe to the scene, then the show would have truly earned the title of “misery porn.””

Well, the producers of The Walking Dead spoke with The Hollywood Reporter defending the violence on The Walking Dead. And as the producers have pointed out, fans love to see violence and character deaths.

“As shocking and as startling as it was in the comic, seeing the motion of it and the way we were able to pull that off makes it even more startling of a moment. These are the things that make our viewers invested in the show. The fact that anything can happen and the fact that these startling things do happen to these characters we love.”

The Walking Dead producers are right. According to a recent study, rating always increase after major characters get killed off.

What do you think? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below!

The Walking Dead’s Chandler Riggs recently opened up last Sunday night’s episode.

Walking Dead Spoiler Alert: This article features spoilers from episode 609.

AMC’s The Walking Dead accomplished one of the biggest and craziest episodes in recent TV history. In fact, many are calling the latest episode as one of the best due to the fact that producers featured one of the most shocking and graphic moments from the comic book series.

In the episode, Chandler Riggs’ Carl loses his eye in the middle of zombie chaos. And, The Hollywood Reporter had the chance to talk with Chandler about the scene and The Walking Dead and it’s pretty intense.

Reporter Lesley Goldberg asked Chandler about his experience on The Walking Dead, when he found out his character was going to lose an eye and what’s going to happen next.

Chandler revealed he figured out he was going to lose an eye during season two when he started reading the comics with his father.

“We were worried for a while because in the comics, that panel (below) looks like he would definitely die from that. We were freaking out over it. We had kept up with the comics for a while and had been slacking with it until my character was in grave danger of being killed off (laughs). It was very scary.”

Chandler also touched on the night the scene took place.

It was a night shoot and it was really late. That whole sequence is really dark and brutal. The whole thing with Jessie and Sam was crazy. With her hand getting chopped off everything was crazy. The fun part was the whole turning around and revealing that my eye was gone.

Chandler also touched on how the shooting will impact Carl in the remaining episodes of season 6.

The transition from a boy into a man was more in season four when Rick mentioned that Carl was a man at that point. His childhood ended there but hopefully the cool Carl will emerge from losing his eye and be really exciting. It makes him a lot harder and ruthless. My character is always so much more fun to play when that happens.

Chandler Riggs also explained how The Walking Dead scene was actually edited differently than how it was described on the script.

It’s a big thing for him, especially since originally in the scripts it wasn’t just a stray shot from Ron. It was very quick when we shot it; it was Ron aiming the gun at Rick and Carl standing up and taking the bullet for Rick and essentially saving Rick’s life. They edited it in a different and more innocent way, which is really cool. It’ll be cool to see how it ends up turning out.

You can read the full “Hollywood Reporter” interview with Chandler Riggs here.

A new study shows that the ratings for The Walking Dead increase when a major character gets killed off.

Like other violence filled shows with high body counts, The Walking Dead consistently reminds us that there is a fine line between character building moments and character destroying scenes filled with violence. However, according to a new study, character deaths is what keeps the show interesting and the ratings HIGH.

Just like the number of walkers that walk through the woods of Georgia on The Walking Dead, the show’s viewership numbers thrive on the death of major characters, with millions of Walking Dead fans returning every week following any character death.

However this trend, applies to everyone except Tyreese WIlliams, the strong and fan-favorite character who met his death in the show’s fith season.

In fact, two episodes are tied for the highest increase in viewers following a main character’s death. The sacrifice of Andrea in the third season finale posted an increase of nearly 4 million viewers from that episode to the fourth season’s premiere, and the eighth episode of the fourth season, which featured the death of Hershel and the Governor.

Tyreese’s death is the only exception, with nearly a 4 million fewer viewers returning the following week to watch what happens next.

With the second half of The Walking Dead’s sixth season returning this Sunday, is another character going to get killed off? Judging by recent rumors and Walking Dead spoilers, there is a strong possibility.

What do you think? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below!