The Walking Dead's march to mediocrity: My thoughts

The Walking Dead has been around for a while but now seven seasons in, I just can’t follow the series anymore because of its tired, formulaic focus and slow pacing. What was once a gritty, darkly foreboding show has taken a turn for the mundane. Why is the show so vastly disappointing nowadays? I’ll try to elaborate here; be warned as there are some light spoilers for several seasons.

I’ve watched TWD since the beginning and the first season was incredibly well produced; this mostly came down to the show running talents of Frank Darabont (Who also had a hand in The Shawshank Redemption). From season 4 onwards though, things have been on a downward trajectory. We’ve reached the mid-season finale for season 7 and only three of the eight episodes have been genuinely engaging; the pilot for its sheer brutal shock-factor, the exploration of the saviour’s hideout with Daryl as their prisoner and some aspects of the mid-season finale with Negan’s rage being unleashed. However, brutality and gore can only get you so far and these moments can’t make up for why I just don’t find the series all that enjoyable anymore…

1. The momentum the series had has vanished

TWD has some strong moments but the way these are layered together is currently having some problems compared with previous seasons. Season 1 was constantly moving forwards and it had the advantage of being set at the beginning at the outbreak. Seasons 3 and 4 were quite good too, paired up by a great villain at its centre in the form of David Morrissey’s Governor. But once they left the prison at the mid-season finale, the same formula has been used repeatedly; the characters go to a location, it gets destroyed in some way, a new villain comes along and the process repeats. The problems in the painfully dragged out season 2 are now creeping into 7; AMC’s insistence on stretching every season out to sixteen episodes is taking a toll on the series. The new settlements such as the Hilltop and the Kingdom are stretched out across entire episodes, their long dialogue sessions slowing the pace to a crawl. Telltale’s episodic Walking Dead series has done a much better job with pacing; every episode in that game series feels important. With the upcoming season 3, I may well turn to that instead of returning to the TV series when it continues next year.

   

2. The characters aren’t progressing nearly as much as they used to

The performances in TWD are still relatively good, especially from Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus and newcomer Jeffery Dean Morgan, but the material they’re working with has become so by-the-numbers that there’s almost a disconnect with the characters now. We know that Rick is the leader and that he’s being tested but that’s it; there’s no further development to his character, no real changes made to vary up the overall plot. For the most part, the characters stay where they are and when they do move it feels very contrived. Rick's violent outburst towards the end of season 5 was incredibly abrupt but the biggest offender of this is Carol who underwent a nervous breakdown at the end of season 6 for some unexplained reason. Other characters are quickly killed off before they can make a real impact and because they’re grouped under “expendable”, many of the fatalities also seem rushed. If you’re not intrigued by the character arcs, then that really takes a lot of the wind out of the sails; instead you’re just waiting around for the next shocking moment, which come with such irregular abandon.

3. Much of the series is now too reliant on teasers and “fake-out” moments

Much like other popular series, The Walking Dead mixes in a twist or two to keep us guessing, but the impact of these has been drastically reduced over the seasons. The last time I was genuinely shocked by the series was in the episode “Thank you” when Steven Yuen’s Glenn Rhee falls off a dumpster to his presumed death. The series then saw fit to bring him back a couple of episodes later, having crawled under the dumpster to escape the zombie horde. With this cheap move, Glenn’s gruesome demise at the hands of Negan didn’t have the impact it should have for me.

When you cut the audience off with Negan murdering a character just to get people back for the next season, it’s a sure sign that your series is running out of steam. Season 7 has a similar problem in that it’s making the audience sit through many dull, uneventful episodes with the thin promise of all-out war with Negan’s saviours. “It’ll be the most action-packed thing ever, we promise!”; it’s all build-up without substance and the bigger moments are starting to ring hollow. The only thing the series can do to keep things from going completely stale is to keep on introducing more sadistic villains, but where can they go after Negan?

     

4. It’s no longer a cohesive series; instead it’s an endless “money train” for AMC

The biggest reason of all though is the company behind it, one which seems intent on stringing audiences along for a few select moments; combine AMC (who has full ownership of The Walking Dead series) with the continuing comics from Robert Kirkman and you have a series that could go on and on, wearing out its welcome in no time flat. TWD is easily AMC’s most successful series and despite the lowered ratings, they’re sure to keep pushing out season after season with the same formula. The defence of the show being an adaptation won’t work under scrutiny as the show has taken many steps outside of the source material over the years. But rather than having just a few missteps (Looking at you Dorne from Game of Thrones!), The Walking Dead doesn’t manage to weave its own interesting narratives from the original cloth; the same formula just keeps going with little in the way of variation. Despite a limited zombie apocalypse setting, this is by far the biggest reason why I won’t be watching the series anymore. Will they keep the series going the same monotonous way as they have over the past two years? No thanks...

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