HERE we go again.

Just two weeks after The Walking Dead essentially became torture porn, it was back in the same dark place again.

It broke up the bleakness with a trip to The Kingdom last week, but this week it more than made up for this brief respite.

Fan favourite Daryl is Negan's prisoner and this week's episode took it on itself to explore the tactics used by the barbed wire bat-wielding maniac and the rest of his gang to attempt to break him.

We have, in no particular order, loud music played continuously into his cell, a dog food diet, Daryl being bashed senseless by a group of men and a photo of his beloved friend, post being bashed to death by Lucille, being placed inside his cell.

Do any of us feel better for having seen all this?

The show won't even allow Daryl some of Carol's cunning.

While Carol would have already assumed position as Negan's right hand mind, while quietly plotting the day she will make his life a living hell, Daryl refuses to bend and ends the episode in a stand off with the brutal bat-swinger.

I know different people react in different ways - and perhaps a part of Daryl wants to die, as he must be blaming himself for Glenn's untimely demise.

But to watch the drawn out episode of Daryl's torture was not how I would want to spend an hour of my time.

I wish the creators of this show would realise it's possible to show what is happening at Alexandria con-currently with The Kingdom and Negan's crew.

These stand-alone episodes, which I suppose are intended to increase anxiety and dread, do nothing to move the plot forward.

They inspire in me a real frustration and anger toward their story-telling tactics - if you could even call this story-telling at this point.

Last week's preview did not even give a hint as to what this episode would contain, pointing instead to the devastation at Alexandria.

This week they trotted out pretty much exactly the same preview, but who knows? We might go back to the Kingdom next week and have another week with no discernible plot advancement.

We do know more about Dwight now - and perhaps we are meant to sympathise with him.

He might be the key to overthrowing Negan at some point, so I understand it's important for us to understand his motivations and his uneasy loyalty to Negan.

But I resent being asked to invest more emotion in a story that seems to be plumbing new, darker depths on a regular basis.