Has "The Walking Dead" become "torture porn?"

Sunday's season launch of "The Walking Dead" drew an audience of 17 million - "a very good night as the No. 1 show on broadcast and cable," Deadline observed. The dark and gory opener swiftly trended on Twitter and launched a thousand memes, but one duo of vocal critics is over it.

Earlier this year he and Nick Statt started a column called "The Walking Dead Quitter's Club" at The Verge to vent over the show's direction. But they didn't actually quit. Sunday's episode was finally the bridge too far.

Bishop wasn't amused at the "Lucille" bat emoji that debuted on Twitter as Glenn was getting pummeled to death. He and Statt are no prudes - a show featuring brains-eating zombies is going involve a lot of blood, they get that. But they argue that the show has become more about graphic violence courtesy of its stellar makeup and effects people than storytelling courtesy of its excellent writers.

What's your take?

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