The people responsible for The Walking Dead's weekly frustrations are, just like you and me, massive fans of the HBO classic The Wire. Multiple Wire stars have ended up landing crucial roles on AMC's seemingly waning blockbuster, including Seth Gilliam as the perplexing Father Gabriel Stokes. In a sneak peek of this week's new episode of Dead, the show appears to be making a nod at its Wire fandom with Michonne's choice of whistled song.
The brief glimpse at "Sing Me a Song," the next-to-last episode of Dead due this year, sees Michonne (Danai Gurira) slashing her way through a small pack of inconsiderate walkers while rocking the melody to confirmed banger "The Farmer in the Dell." As Entertainment Weekly noted Sunday night, that's the exact same tune whistled by Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) on The Wire:
The similarities are there, though more hardened TV watchers might currently be screaming "THAT'S A STRETCH!" while arguing that Negan's arrival has improved the Dead formula. That argument is currently a hard one, as the series' ratings aren't exactly doing Dead-sized numbers this year.
Dead ratings recently hit their lowest point since season 3, with Comic Bookreporting last week that the series has been taking a continual dive since the season 7 premiere landed 17 million viewers. The viewership dive between the premiere and last week's "Go Getters," which clocked just under 11 million viewers, now stands as the biggest disparity in the show's history.
So maybe now is the perfect time for that inevitable Walking Dead movie?
