The Historic Downfall of The Walking Dead

[@thicccheese4007]

I think the show fell apart when fans realized the loop the story was in. Find new settlement, deal with some walkers, introduce new bad guy, kill at least one beloved character to really hammer in the fact the bad guy is the bad guy, drag on the war with the bad guy, kill at least one more beloved character, final battle with the bad guy, move on to find new territory because walkers just decided to show up out of nowhere, repeat process.

[@elhache7160]

This 💯

[@paulbourguignon3632]

Exactly this.

[@joshuaanderson9938]

Called it!

[@PepperHand]

All in the woods or in small towns…

[@dk260]

I realized this by S3, and I didn’t understand how people got so hooked into this show.

[@kkaugustine1958]

Killing off Carl for shock value was beyond stupid. Especially since he is the ENTIRE reason Rick has for living, and also in the comics he survived.

[@latima123ify]

Didn't the actor not want to do the show anymore? If that's true then it wasn't really for shock value

[@kkaugustine1958]

@@latima123ify Actually the actor Chandler Riggs bought a house close to the set to continue the show when he was abruptly fired. He apparently paid a pretty penny for it too. His dad was pissed abt it on social media.

[@kkaugustine1958]

Also (allegedly) Scott Gimple was behind the idea of killing Carl off. I remember at the time ppl were so mad, there was even a petition to get Gimple removed from the TWD.

[@MrAnybody04]

@@kkaugustine1958 Mind you, the entire comic run carl survived and was the one who end off the entire series. idk why gimple still runs the show after firing Chandler over giving him a pay rise bc he turned 18...

[@mandolyn]

​@rob This is what I'm sure they wanted people to think, but no, they blind sided Chandler Riggs.

[@kevinmarrett9532]

The most important thing that people needed and didn’t get, causing them to quit, is HOPE. People watch apocalyptic shows because they want to see people dragging civilization back from the pit. They don’t want to just watch a never ending treadmill of character introductions and deaths while the setting stays the same.

[@RogersGirl88]

Yes! I was praying that at some point a season would become like a good settlement building game. The survivors would get a foothold, start to beat back all the bad guys and walkers. They would grow the colony. Then they could explore plots like how they are going to industrialize or write a new constitution of rights for the survivors in the camps or create a mini democratic government. There could be cool discovery channel-style shows where clever ingenuity shows the audience how ore is mined to create new items from scratch. There could be problems with a draught where they have to build an aqueduct. There could be scouting runs going further out to other states make contact with other colonies. Like if they sent some of the cast up to Massachusetts where “the modern minute men” have fortified an old revolutionary war era fort and created a new republic but there is some plot twist where they are bad. But instead the show tried to mill their tried and true formula. New colony , things are good for 5 minutes, mean mean bad guy does extra mean thing, colony destroyed, rinse and repeat. I was thoroughly done with this show by season 7.

[@JeremyRobbins1996]

This is actually why The Last Ship is one of my favorite apocalypse show

[@leahbelieva]

Yesssss I describe seasons 6 and beyond as a constant kick in the nads with no sign of relief.

[@truecolors51]

No, I didn't care if they found a cure or not I was so hooked on the characters that all I wanted is them to stay alive. And not only did they all turn into badasses and leaders, they also started to rebuild civilizations in terms of maintaining the old values and morals and making the world safer. They made a new world and that is much more interesting than finding a cure and kill all the zombies of the world 😂. They went against all odds and took a doomed world and constructed it from the beginning. They went from scared nomads to leaders and world makers. HOPE is all the show is about along with values such as family, trust, love, humanity.thats the biggest plot twist for me. But ok😊

[@hopoff9968]

Yes that's exactly what I was thinking, at some point the viewer stops giving a shit. I capped out in season 4, by then it became very clear to me that if they don't find a cure to transition the story, there was no reason to keep watching because it would be just more of the same. By that point you already see cults, cannibals, betrayals, and all manner of walkers. So a tactic a lot of formulaic shows like this resort to is killing off characters to raise the tension. But the problem with that is its a short lived win, and now you have to introduce a new character that will hopefully connect with the audience and take the last one's place, and that only gets harder and harder with each subsequent death.

[@toddwilliams8911]

It started out as a show about surviving a zombie apocalypse. It ended as a soap opera with zombies as nothing more than set pieces.

[@DerekHarrison-d5d]

Completely agree.I found the CDC episodes fascinating.Dr Jenner explaining the Zombie virus to Rick and his people,how it worked,how the French had come close to finding a cure,but all contact had been lost,seeing him shoot his wife on the MRI scan,telling Rick there was no cure as everyone carried the virus.The Walkers just became incidental afterwards,a hinderance.The danger wasn’t about the Zombies,it was about other survivors,other groups,crazy leaders,Warlords.And every major settlement seemed to be corrupt.I always liked the build up to a Zombie apocalypse.What happens,the horror of what’s happening,how people survive,the fall of government,scientists trying to find some kind of cure.There was an episode,at the start,when there was a traffic jam at night on one of the main roads outside Atlanta,and Shane and Laurie stand on the bank with other people,and watch helicopters going into the city,and Shane says they’re dropping Napalm in the streets.That was the frightening realisation that this apocalypse was taking control and even the army were powerless,as we saw when Shane goes to the hospital to try to get Rick who’s still in a coma,and they’re killing the doctors and medical staff.What should have been a classic Zombie story lost it’s way.I remember the Walking dead conventions,the monthly magazine,the podcasts,the merchandise,the show was huge,but it just became predictable and it went on far too long.I’ve tried to get into Dead City & the Daryl Dixon spinoffs,but it’s just more of the same.There needed to be hope for humanity,like Rick and Michonne’s THE ONES WHO LIVE.Instead we still have the same depressing formats.

[@afckingmess]

This!!!!!

[@GarWeyn]

This comment is so underrated. The issue is that they at some point (probably from a marketing perspective) decided to give the most popular characters plot armor. Negan, Daryl, Michonne, Maggie... They'll never die. You just know that their brand value to the series is too high for them to ever be in real danger. I think the reason that Glenn had to die is because they wanted to test the waters with fakeout deaths and how viewers would perceive them. With all the backlash they viewed him as a living proof of the series problems ("He shouldn't be alive.") and that's why he had to die despite being popular. The poor reception to Carls death was probably the final nail in the coffin for popular character deaths.

[@sanahlis5322]

This is my issue with it! You are exactly right!

[@artemis-haze]

I'm one of the people who bailed on TWD shortly after Glenn was killed off (which I felt created a huge charisma void in the show tbh), but the first death that set off bad writing alarm bells in my head was Beth's. I know that a lot of people didn't like her and probably didn't care, but I did, and the fact that the writers gave her some strong character growth just to immediately kill her off was a HUGE red flag for me. It felt really cheap and unnecessary.

[@angelaholmes8888]

Yeah after beth died I stopped really caring about the show

[@AJ-pu9jq]

Same, Beth’s death was a big “oh actual narrative payoff isn’t a priority anymore” moment for me lol

[@nope19568]

honestly i feel like they couldve done so much if they found a way to work with the hospital or something but noooo, they just kill her and it sucks, totally agree with the caring less after

[@robertlind186]

Beth basically committed suicide, it was absolutely idiotic and devoid of her arc and character

[@5i.260]

yeah, her arc in the hospital was literally pointless, because....she dies. And Noah literally dies five episodes later. Like??

[@samuelault4723]

I think it’s fitting that a zombie show lived longer than it should’ve

[@MzCheecharella]

😛😂🤣🤣🤣

[@JonHuhnMedical]

Under rated comment!!

[@ryman1933]

I've long told people "The walking dead franchise is a shambling corpse of it's former self." there is some sort of poetic irony in that lol

[@MaileyMcAslan]

LOL

[@dylanmonstrum1538]

LMAO that's just clever

[@prathikdevaruppala]

I’m so glad that Steven Yeun, danai gurira, and Jon Bernthal found so much success apart from the show

[@muvaofpearl]

...and Sonequa Martin-Green.

[@prathikdevaruppala]

@@muvaofpearl I gotta be honest, I don’t really see her in much stuff anymore. Steven Yeun got nominated for a Freaking Oscar! Danai Gurirai is in Black Panther and Jon Bernthal is everywhere.

[@mackielunkey2205]

@@prathikdevaruppala She's in Star Trek Discovery, and Norman Reedus was on Death Stranding and Helluva Boss.

[@prathikdevaruppala]

@@mackielunkey2205 Yeah Norman Reedus is probably gonna be in a lot of stuff goin forward, but I don’t really know a lot of people who watch discovery so I’m still in question with Sonequa Martin Green

[@dzas_cave]

Invincible, Okoye, and Punisher

[@LipstickDoll]

For me it lost it's spark when the actual survival aspect was completely ignored. No more finding food, shelter, exploring the area, maybe driving around in a car or so. It became a fight between a very bad person and the rest. And every season the bad person had to become more cruel and evil. It became so violent that I didn't enjoy it anymore.

[@tonyamartin1425]

notice that because the people in Hollywood are evil people they write when a disaster happens humans just kill each other for nothing but in real life people that don't know each other reach out to help Katrina earth quakes in Japan floods fires in Cali they are so evil they project it into the art

[@TheLocalEccentric]

I really liked how in the beginning of the show it tried to keep a firm grasp on reality, for a science fiction horror, of course. What I mean is that in the beginning the story was told as if it was a hypothetical of what would/could happen if such a disease existed. It felt so real, so plausible. Then, it started to feel cartoonish. It lost that feeling of immersion and became ridiculous.

[@chinii_eej]

I feel like zombie movies struggle so much because we mostly have a good idea of what we’d do in such a situation. TWD from what I remember, has no cultural concept of zombies or undead, so there’s already a massive bridge we need to cross to actually cause viewers to stick around.

[@johnmv1140]

The moment i saw a tv spot witha dude sitting on a throne with a fake af looking tiger on a leash, i knew i was right in quitting at the start of season 7

[@NeedMoreCoffeeOG]

I heard that argument a lot around season 7 and though I had my own issues with the show, I never agreed with that - with all due respect for the fact that that's just how it felt to you, and that's fine. As a reader of the comics, the things that other viewers found "too much" (Ezekiel and his tiger, etc.) were always going to be part of the storyline for me. That was just always going to be the story because that's the source material so it didn't catch me off guard as much, I guess.

[@redsixx669]

The early seasons had that creep factor for that exact reason, it felt like it COULD actually be possible

[@chopperchuck]

what you are describing is called the realm of believability

[@samuelriley1]

I'd argue there was an additional fatal mistake - announcing the Maggie & Negan and Daryl spinoffs before the show actually finished. Once they announced them, any scene where these characters were in danger had zero tension because we knew they were going to be fine because they're needed for the spinoffs! Totally destroyed the idea that no-one is safe and could be killed off at any moment

[@jasonadersonwedion9874]

Agreed

[@valmiro4164]

The show was pretty dead by that point

[@whodatnation1222]

While I would agree, those characters already had super heavy plot armor by that point so their scenes were always inconsequential

[@ramseyabdul1873]

Great point

[@ricardojaye305]

I saw an article where JDM actually publicly complained about that.

[@theflyingdutchman1301]

Cant remember who, but someone once said "The art of making a show/serie is knowing when to stop" Crazy how many shows dont learn from this.

[@sanye4k]

that so true 🤣🤣

[@unsubme2157]

What do you think should have been a natural end point? When rick blows up the bridge?

[@theflyingdutchman1301]

@@unsubme2157 They should never have made so many off those weird decisions, pretty sure dropping from 14 million viewers plus onto less than a million had a big part in Andrew Lincol leaving or atleast made the choice far more easy. Think they should have stopped strong to maybe pick it up later instead of ruining the show lmao.

[@Bingo_the_Pug]

I love pizza, but if I eat pizza every day eventually I’ll get sick of it

[@lukelocks9083]

There's an old saying in showbiz, "Leave them wanting more". Ricky Garvais knows & practises this so well, as he if anything, stops his shows short.

[@morganplisken7271]

Excellent analysis and I agree. The thing that bothered me was there was no explanation how the “ dead” were still around and walking when decomposition was not effecting the dead, After 2 years the dead would have rotted away, but some how there is an endless supply that are unaffected by decomposition. Legs still working , teeth no falling out ETC.

[@linwill7923]

So true! They supposed to be "dead" and still got strong legs and mouth full of teeth. They still got plenty of strength to tear open flesh and match strength with the living!

[@jomolhari]

Also, there are a lot of walkers, everywhere. There's no reason for everyone in a highway to be dead inside their cars. There's no reason a random warehouse is packed with 700 zombies. It happened constantly in the first seasons and it made no sense.

[@tonyamartin1425]

but the zombie part was believable for you?

[@morganplisken7271]

@ it’s science Fiction, but at least have a fictional scientific reason the why they do not decompose after 6 months. I would have written in that all bacteria mysteriously disappeared in season 1 episode 5

[@blasttyrant3228]

​@@morganplisken7271"All bacteria mysteriously disappearing" is so much more insane than no explanation

[@Ramblinrabbit24]

I always liked the “living off the land” aspect of the show in the first maybe 3 seasons. After that, they’d find a small settlement with running water and electricity, stay there with the people, everything goes good, something happens, they fight, they leave, find another settlement, and do it all over again. Over and over and over again. It’s just lazy writing to me.

[@Casuallyclappin]

Probably about how it be in real life are they just supposed to stop and live happily ever after

[@Ramblinrabbit24]

@ well ya…? If that happened in real you’d want to find a place to permanently live as soon as possible. Right?

[@EvilAnomaly]

Pretty much how I saw the show after S3...fell off in S4 because it seemed to be on repeat, just in a different location and a different antagonist with a bunch of boring filler in between. Was shocked that it dragged on for so long after S3 but remembered that $$$ moves the world.

[@jemazondo9331]

​@Casuallyclappin maybe introduce a cure or something.

[@Casuallyclappin]

@ Ong they needed an end imo as well but I never disliked the show at any point fr maybe I’m just weird

[@dicarpio2177]

They spent far too much of the show forgetting that: 1) you can cover yourself in zombie guts and they’ll ignore you 2) if you michonne it and remove a walkers arms and jaw so they can’t attack you, you can keen them as pets on a chain and other walkers will leave you alone And then they killed Carl…

[@Bayard1503]

But that can't be a long lasting solution, always covering yourself in rotting guts...

[@LiberPater777]

​@@Bayard1503 If 2 girls can share 1 cup, you can tolerate some zombie guts.

[@Bayard1503]

@@LiberPater777 Funny. But it's not about that, it's about germs, bacteria that could kill you, especially in a world left without antibiotics. Anyway, later seasons went beyond that, as in simple zombies aren't really an issue anymore. There was a moment where their city is completely overrun by a horde and they just stood there and fought them and won. Most of the zombies are already pretty rotted, decaying a lot, as in mushy and easier to stab :)). Anyway, after plenty of weak seasons I think the one with the whisperers was actually very good. Haven't watched the final season yet.

[@3takoyakis]

@Asimpnamednutsack only once and in the end it isnt about mindless titan story anymore its about flesh gundam

[@sam-psonsmith9951]

@@Bayard1503 The whisperers was definitely better than season 8 which was mostly a bore. But still not worth going on for another 2-3 seasons after that. They should have ended the story with alexandria. Also, you don't even need guts. Michonne got a little walker blood on her in season 3 or 4 and they immediately ignored her. At this point you just need a jacket with some blood on it. They also forgot that Walkers can't bite through duct tape which we saw in season 3 as well. So you could easily make bite proof clothing. Especially around the usual weak points, arms, legs, neck.

[@philippeh3904]

The handling of that season 6 finale is what killed the show. Teasing us to wait for months for the payoff. You noticed how much the viewership dropped after the opening episode of season 7. They should’ve showed Abraham being killed as the final scene of season 6, that way the audience thinks it’s safe. And then late into episode 1 of season 7 Glenn dies and shocks us all. Much better way to handle it

[@after-hours]

I was supporting The walking Dead all the way up until season 6 that's when I said enough

[@misterkite]

It was obvious the show was going nowhere in season 4.

[@gabrielacanette5485]

I hated season 5, they separated the characters into too many plot lines, for such a LONG time, and part of what makes a show entertaining is that! seeing the characters interact with each other. And the end was just nonsense, Beth had such a potential as a character, and they killed her way too early and in the most dumb way possible.

[@MrAnybody04]

I thought people who stopped watching at this point were being ridiculous considering people who read the comics already saw it coming but I think building up sm hype for months for that episode was a bit much which put people off.

[@caitlinirelan5641]

I stopped watching at the end of season 6. Glenn was my favorite character and when I heard that he died in season 7 it encouraged me even more not to continue. I stopped because I realized how BADLY repetitive it was getting. There's not many shows I actively go, hm I'm gonna stop watching this. The walking dead was one.

[@stacyejohnson6618]

My granddaughter was obsessed with Chandler Riggs (Carl) so i drove her 4 hours to a Walker Con to meet him. They were very nice, his mother chatted with us. Later on I talked to someone who knows the family & he was fired because he, or rather his father demanded a raise. He was making much less than the others for years & since he had become a big star, a fan fave & an important part of the show storyline they thought he should get more than what he was getting. We would gather at my house to watch every Sunday night where we'd all cry, we'd scream at the tv, then rewind & watch again...but after Carl died all the young people, including my granddaughter, stopped coming. They lost the young people, especially the girls & we lost our huge fun family nights too.😔 It absolutely ruined it for us. They should've gave that boy a raise. And the cast should've demanded it. They had the power to do so. I lost respect for them after that. 😠 And THAT'S when the show died in my opinion. Glen dies in the comic, so it's expected, not Carl. Dumba$$ move on their part.

[@teeahtate]

I hope your family found another movie to enjoy together.

[@Dave-zw4tu]

Daryl put it perfectly "That small group we had back in the beginning, could do anything." - That small group was broken up to complex individual character stories, rather than group stories. The break up of this small group resulted in the downfall of TWD.

[@Theshadow12i]

Well, keeping this Group would eventually become boring. I know it might be controversial, but I loved the negan arc, the larger scale... i loved it

[@ThatBlueSkull]

i think going on either full scale group stories or going all in on individual character stories is a bad a idea the key to both would be moderation in both areas sometimes there character stories other times with the group this would keep it interesting for longer

[@dynamite215]

They spread it way too thin smh

[@teeahtate]

I agree. We liked the group stories, but the series still lasted a long time.

[@justgivenofox9543]

Dude once it started branching out from the original group it got to be enough. If they kept the same rinse and repeat but kept the group small, not necessarily the same just small, I think it wouldn’t have come off as tedious. They played it out too long so there couldn’t be coordination between the legions that actually made it through and became established

[@HJ-ek6hn]

Crazy to think how TWD and GOT were the two biggest things in television for almost a decade, and because of how bad they messed both of those shows up, absolutely nobody talks about them anymore.

[@user-wi9hv2pb2q]

yes, what they are missing is the people who are fans decades later.

[@YouTubeIsTwitter2.0]

And compare those 2 with breaking bad, which was a consistently good show from 1st to last season

[@CallMeSlade]

@@KZbinIsTwitter2.0 I wouldn’t say all of the episodes were good, season 1 was boring as fuck, a lot of filler episodes in season 3-4. Only when Gus and Jesse become a duo it gets good

[@kayanarede]

The only way HBO will be able to redeem itself from the character assassination of Daenerys Targaryen is to bring her back on that Jon Snow spin off nobody asked for. As for the hype, they pulled a surprising feat with the first season of House of the Dragon. It was actually preety good and made me remind of GoT first seasons.

[@phattjohnson]

@@user-wi9hv2pb2q It hasn't been decades yet dawg, and both shows already have a pretty low remaining fanbase :P

[@DrkLrdK]

My biggest problem was when the group would do something that was extremely effective and helpful, but then several episodes later would completely discard the idea. "Hey this is a really effective way to kill zombies without putting us in danger." "I know! Lets not do that ever again." "Agreed!"

[@kman1893]

@@TackJorrance project zomboid fellas know

[@pauldickhoff3594]

I was really expecting the series to show people getting to grips with the new reality of zombification, rebuilding the world with a lot of innovating ideas and power struggles between opposing ideologies on how to rebuild the world. There's was so much they could have done with the series, if they had the balls to phase out the so called "main plot" of menacing zombies. IRL Human civilisation would probably recover from a zombie apocalypse WAY faster than the runtime of the original series.

[@flossordie2256]

​@@kman1893 hahah pz boys represent

[@bluenote4727]

@@pauldickhoff3594 "IRL Human civilisation would probably recover from a zombie apocalypse WAY faster than the runtime of the original series." Have you seen how people, medias and governments acted with covid, that wasn't a dangerous virus ?

[@littleman787]

Do you have an example? Can't think of any

[@snarkcast483]

Something I distinctly remember about Glenn's fake-out death, most fans speculated that he crawled under the dumpster, and the fans who don't understand dumb TV writing said that was too stupid to happen. Imagine how they felt the following week.

[@Demsky83]

Terminus is when I realized the show was on a loop. Travel, find a group, get overwhelmed, regroup, conquer opposition, settle down, encounter another group. Start loop again.

[@HotelMari0Maker]

Funny, I lost interest right after Terminus when they were in Alexandria. I stopped watching somewhere in-between the Glenn fake-out death and the reveal that it was fake, so I spent years being confused cuz I thought he died but was still seeing Glenn merch in stores 😂

[@ogge9296]

agreed. weird that he didn't mention it in the video. the show being so formulaic and repetitive is why many i know quit watching it

[@JohnSmith-bw6pv]

I have never heard a dude complain this much.. over something so mundane too :|

[@tennoo160]

Isn’t it what would happen in real life?

[@Correxis]

​​@@tennoo160That's exactly what would happen in real life

[@christamist]

The fact that carl survived 2 bullets yet randomly gets bitten and dies. That irritated me so much. At least give him a better death than that.

[@rafaelarcas942]

If only Scott Gimple thought about that.

[@Julian-hw7eg]

That was their biggest mistake. Carl’s comic storyline hadn’t even started and they killed him off half a season before he would have been the main character, his absence was felt 10x more when Rick left

[@natansoto3673]

To add insult to injury, Siddiq, the very person Carl died for gets taken out by an undercover Whisper rendering Carl's sacrifice as pointless.

[@Biusmenoi]

@@Julian-hw7egthey killed him off before chandler turned 18 bc they didnt want to pay him adult salary

[@grumpymonkeyenterprises6413]

so true, I logged off after this

[@Dm34421]

Hollywoods obsession with franchises and spin-offs is what killed the walking dead. The writers focused their time on the spin-offs instead of the OG walking dead

[@angelaholmes8888]

Yes exactly

[@RaptorJesus]

Something-something, Walking Dead became a zombie franchise, something-something.

[@softjytsu]

hollywood thinks everything needs to be some cinematic universe and it's pissing me off

[@cameronjosephvideos5942]

I''m not sure why anyone believed The Walking Dead has an interesting enough premise to justify all these spin offs. This isn't Marvel where the universe is so flexible in the stories it can tell. And even Marvel now feels dull and too much to keep up with, The Walking Dead is just people surviving zombies. There aren't a lot of new and exciting things you can do with such a premise. Even one show struggled to keep that interesting for 11 seasons straight, now they expect us to be interested enough to watch several spin offs just to understand what's going on.

[@SW23252]

The overall lesson we can take from this insistence on extending franchises past their expiration date and franchise fatigue is quite simply: "Know when to fold 'em". It's a comedy, but I think _The Golden Girls_ managed to end right when the show felt it was nearing its "Jumping the Shark" moment. The show was still entertaining, but you could kind of see where the writers began putting more wacky premises into the plots, and they left on a high note with Season 7. I notice that for long running shows, about the sixth or seventh season is right when it hits its zenith. Then it gets kind of hit or miss from there if it goes on. Season 10 and beyond seems excessive, many shows either going through the motions or jumping the shark and straying from what made much of the shows successful. Just an interesting pattern to note.

[@glassjuice4771]

glen dying was one of the most painful experience ive ever had in my life

[@LoveValentineXO]

I watched the show until they killed Glen. Never picked it up again. Only heard about it again when 1) Carl died, 2) Rick left, and 3) "The Walking Dead is ending?......I didn't know it was still going."

[@witchykittyy]

Same, I dipped when Glen died.

[@KKingTy03]

Me too and it's so unfortunate. I've gone back and watched the first 4 or 5 seasons a couple times out of nostalgia but I never know when exactly I should stop watching to give myself a satisfying enough ending before the once great show turns into a stinking pile of poo.

[@tresama6993]

Crazy part is I didn’t even hear ab Carl dying I found out from this vid

[@barrioscorona215]

Same

[@ocorley3124]

Me too!

[@Kreia.]

It’s all started falling apart when they designed characters to talk like philosophers instead of real people. Simple a couple of words long dialogues turned into pages long essays. Zombies became from extremely threatening to just background props.

[@TuckFwitter]

Well said

[@mayfalltribe4747]

Gods the writing was good then.

[@Ringthane_Unbeliever]

Agreed. The writing becomes tiring and annoying. Then it becomes unbearable.

[@larsvegas1505]

Its just very repetitive.. look a zombie is coming at me at 3 miles per hour, better grab my stuff and start moving within the next hour.. zombies were boring af.. like i wouldve gotten rid of the zombies in a week it it was me.. and then the show wouldve been over.

[@mayfalltribe4747]

@@larsvegas1505 lol you sound like the type if you could you'd suck your own deek.

[@swgerman]

Here is the downfall…Negan fight went on too long and when people became bigger threat than zombies…show over. People loved TWD because of the quiet, standing fear of death and simplicity of simply trying to stay alive with bare essentials, not starving to death, and protect those you love from Walkers.

[@cindys2995]

YES!!! Being in the elements and having to survive weather, food issues, sickness, etc., was appealing. After a while it became battles with neighbors, lol!

[@swgerman]

@ agreed!

[@tomcruze7898]

The negan saga was actually watered down af compared to the novel. Huge disappointment.

[@flyingstratobanez713]

I remember some character says “we are the walking dead”, clarifying everything.

[@alkminipap]

I hated the people fighting people part…!

[@Shaylahrsm]

Thank you for making this video, this is my first time watching TWD . I binged S1 through S6. I realized very quickly there was a change and barely watch S7. I’m currently on S8E9. This video validates everything I was feeling.

[@rachels.8051]

The Maggie and Negan spinoff is an insane ask of the audience. I’m aware they did some redemption arc for Negan, but why, just why, would Maggie team up with NEGAN, the man who beat her husband to death with a baseball bat?

[@ohshoot3009]

the "redemption arc" was good in my opinion and she still hates him throughout the spinoff spoiler: the only reason she asks for his help is cause she has no other choice and she tries to save her son

[@lindsay7823]

They really did this? Wtf.

[@Glubtubis_Wepal69]

You should maybe watch both shows

[@ohshoot3009]

@@lindsay7823 spoiler: her son was kidnapped by the former Savior so she had no other choice but to track Negan down and use him as a "bait"

[@D-Fens_1632]

Because money.

[@bigbrothertiger4370]

the first four seasons were so immersive, my favorite part of it is how all the characters became a family even though they were all from completely different backgrounds.

[@thebugaboo]

Yeah... and it isn't ever really something that the show SUPER harps on, you just really get the vibe that all of these people REALLY care for each other and they will show it. I wish things could've gone better for the show.

[@cjerp]

i stopped watching during season 4 and never got back into it. then i had 2 coworkers talking about it non stop with spoilers so why bother xD

[@vgm_central]

yes. i discovered the series after i played the first episode of walking dead game on my phone. and all of a sudden i saw an episode on my tv of the tv show and i fell immeadiately in love with it. i loved the first 4 seasons so much.

[@dusteedawg2915]

My favorite was merl fuckin Dixon. Such a rounded unique character.

[@thebugaboo]

@@dusteedawg2915 he reminds me too much of literally every man in my state. He was an ok character, mostly just a racist who got a cool hand and had a redemption arc before dying.

[@Krelion1]

Carol: We have killed people and I feel bad about it. Daryl: Dont, we had no choice, was us or them (followed by 5 minutes of somber silence with them staring into the horizon) I feel like they had this same conversation about 20 times in the last few seasons. It is the definition of filler, that I think is the main reason most people left. Not the deaths for shock value, but the sheer repetition of everything again and again and again.

[@imadone]

When they kill off all the people you root for, there is not reason to watch. I was on the fence by the time S5 E10, and fully stopped watching when Glenn died. There’s no purpose with shock & awe. And there were so many plot holes from season to season that are left unexplained that there was no purpose in watching. Clearly that’s not entertainment.

[@reginaphalange9417]

@@imadone glenn death was faithful to the comics though (in opposition to Carl’s ridiculous death)

[@wad316]

This and they're on the run, they find a new base, it gets ruined, repeat.

[@panter8895]

​@@wad316 It only happend 2 times

[@cashel5232]

Carl's death ruined the show period. His development is the entire drive of the story until the end(in the comics), and should've stayed that way imo.

[@DoomMate2]

Not only Rick imagined talking to someone on the phone, he talked with Jim, Jacqui and Amy, people who were in Rick's group before they died

[@catsrambling]

as someone who only watched the first 2 or 3 seasons, I wonder: where do they think a show like this would end? Because I always saw it as a doomed thing, but now I'm seeing a character going to... Paris? How? Is he swimming? By boat by himself?

[@spoons250]

Dont worry. It will time jump and he will wake up with amnesia, unsure how he got there. There will be vague clues and hints without ever having any real debunkable detail said. Im not even kidding, that's what leaks say

[@TsubasaAnimations]

Helicopters and planes become a thing in the universe in season 8 and the awful season 5 of FTWD 😂

[@JohnSmith-XYZ]

@@spoons250 lmao peak writing degeneracy.

[@マリー-v4p]

That’s a good point. Even the comic book had a kind of weak ending from my understanding.

[@guccifer764]

@@マリー-v4p Yeah, from how it was described to me, it sounds like Rick dies, theres a huge time jump, then society is restored. Its really fuckin weird.

[@Lowgem]

Glenn's fake out and continous closer brushes with death was definitely frustrating because they dragged it out all season but what really made me question the competency of the writing was Beth's pointless shock value death. It felt like they couldn't find a use for her in the next season so they killed her off but it was in such a wasteful and disrespectful way

[@tsubion8820]

The writing for that death was clunky as hell! Oooops my gun went off by accident after being stabbed in the shoulder with a tiny pair of nail scissors. I mean, seriously... they couldn't come up with anything better than that?

[@DrDolan2000]

I think it was at that point that the show started to feel "weird". It was a death that came out of nowhere and made me upset Of course, one might argue "just because it made you mad doesn't mean it's bad writing" or something along those lines. Which I would agree In fact, if you get upset about a character dying - or even leaving on other terms, the story must be doing something But nope; Beth's death was just plain stupid

[@BigballsTerrence]

The whole hospital story was terrible, but. I never cared for Beth's character so meh. Carls death on the other hand 😐

[@shadokat]

I agree! It actually felt like Beth and Daryl were going to form a close relationship, and I don't mean a romantic one because she had grown up in front of him. Then they killed her, sending an already unstable character spiraling even further out of control. As Negan so often loved to say, not cool!

[@tsubion8820]

@@shadokat Their "relationship" was poorly written and very confusing! I couldn't tell what they were going for at any given time. The writers were obviously conflicted and it was a difficult "sell" what with character and actor ages being all over the place! Daryl and Beth were supposed to be very young in seasons 1 and 2 and not much time had gone by in the story but Reedus was already looking too old for that particular "ship" no matter how much they messed about with his hair! They got it right later on with Daryl's uncle and surrogate father roles cuz the age gap was there.

[@BigDaddy_Geoff]

It’s so insane to me and a testament to the talent of Frank Darabont that he managed to make such a good show with only 6 episodes that managed to fly that high for 10 more seasons and half a dozen more shows before it slowly rolled to a stop.

[@jonathanlee5314]

You're absolutely right.

[@jdgaf2058]

Never should have gotten rid of frank

[@p0p7art]

@@jdgaf2058 no thanks Michael kandal was better

[@riseofazrael]

@@p0p7art Naw, season 1 is the peak of the show. It just kept getting worse and worse the longer it went on.

[@eliaspickering6470]

@@p0p7art not a fucking chance lmao

[@johanbarnard3435]

"Lost" did boomerang story telling and it worked brilliantly for them.

[@MrDoboz]

the reason is, they had a story to tell. lol

[@NobleBoss]

@@MrDoboz twd had source material but ignored or messed it up especially later on. I think Darabont would have mapped the series out better.

[@teeahtate]

I think with TWD, people cared more about the characters. Boomerang storytelling doesn't work for all shows.

[@111horror]

It worked for lost because the side storylines were important to main story and interesting and first most weren't filler. Walking dead seasons 4-11 when they did that were just filler to make 16 episodes not important to the main story, boring and did nothing to the over all story gimple sucked period and that's why seasons 1-3 are amazing frank and glen as show runners know how to write a show

[@jackandrews7878]

They can make 20 different spin-offs and none of them will ever come close to inducing the amount of anxiety that season 1 gave. Darabont is a one of a kind director who knows how to cast versatile actors and make them act in a realistic way that reflects the situation of the characters that they’re playing.

[@Noahloveless1]

You seem to have missed the group that kept track of and manipulated the paths of massive hoards across the whole country in the one with the kids.

[@jackandrews7878]

@@Noahloveless1 that one was dogshit too. no one wants to watch a tv show about a bunch of dumbass teenagers in a zombie apocalypse

[@3RAN7ON]

After Glenn's fake death, it was a huge shocker at the beginning of season 7 when he got it after Abraham. The fans were led to believe there would be only 1 death and I remember how shocked I was. It was so brutal

[@LeechWife]

Honestly, even the second season was absolutely horrible in my opinion. I remember watching it and waiting for SOMETHING that would remind me of season 1 and I did not get it. The difference to season 7 when I stopped watching altogether being that I understood the series being in the beginning of it's story and forgave the senseless bs at the farm. I would endure Lori being the absolute worst of any tv show character because I couldn't give up. At season 7 I was like "No, not this time, I cannot for give this".

[@Noahloveless1]

​@@LeechWife​I didn't see anything wrong with Lori. At least she was 1 an actual unedited character from the comics and 2 actual character from the comics. The trash characters were the wokified girl boss version of Carol, the killing of Carl so they can replace him with a female character that died at birth in the comics then theirs them replacing the awsome redneck character Merl and replaced him with a woke version of a redneck that never exists in the comics. If they just stuck with the comics the show would have been 999x more awsome.

[@chadhenderson2922]

Michael Rooker’s Merle Dixon doesn’t get ennough love when we reminisce on this show. He was so good at capturing desperation, vitriol, rage, humiliation, and so many other emotions.

[@EstradaDuran-sg6co]

you're gay aren't you?

[@shanellecarlson9499]

The Daryl Dixon spinoff starts tonight.

[@Boguardis]

You need a hug?@@EstradaDuran-sg6co

[@hearthatbird]

He killed the GOAT Gargulio tho.

[@jackalexande]

@@EstradaDuran-sg6co 💀

[@hannahtaylor8386]

Also, in the Glenn fakeout storyline, the next episode on, they took out Steven Yeun’s name from the opening credits. I remember since it was the boomerang storyline I was searching for any breadcrumbs about Glenn and when his name was removed for the title credits I just thought it was weird, which only further pissed me off about the cheap tricks the writers were playing.

[@ejl1221]

It's a distant memory now but I think it went like this - a big fight coming up against Negan. As they are traveling there someone says "we only need to kill one guy to end this". They get 50 meters from that guy with all their rifles. They shoot the glass above him so it rains down on him instead of just shooting the one guy that could end it.

[@niebo3179]

I remember how hype I was about the idea of searching for a cure. Something that lasted a few episodes. There was a goal. When they revealed that this cure was bullshit, I felt there was no hope at all, no goal to reach, just "Kill the new bad guy" every season. And I got bored with Negan very quick after his shocking introduction.

[@Drak976]

I don't mind the actor guy but too much hype can kill someone. Maybe comic him was great but all I saw was a fat biker that the red haired guy could have easily just bum rushed and curb stomped.

[@chris00nj]

Same. I stopped after Season 6. There's no overarching story progression.

[@LanceB3322]

I stopped watching when they didn't kill negan at the end of the season they introduced him.

[@BillKillerz]

Same, pretty much spot on where it started to crack before i stopped watching

[@sverrebjrbk6965]

I may sound like some purist right now, but I immediately saw the "gangsta-elderly-care"-plot line in the first season as a major red flag of things to come. It was a toneally insane decision to include it in the series, and had nothing to do with the original plot line. At that point I'd read all the comics that had been published. I quit watching after season 2 as I didn't certain directions of the TV show as believable or engaging as the comic. Especially the character of Lori, who was testing my patience from her very first scene

[@swkrissie]

I am the only member of my family who watched TWD until it ended. It began with my entire family loving it, and me saying goodbye alone.

[@jamesbell1613]

Sounds like me pretty much. 😂

[@SonOfExcess]

Vast majority of people dropped off after season 6.

[@stephencarlsbad]

So the question is... Whats the appeal for being a glutton for punishment? 🤣

[@spodergibbs5088]

Your family stopped watching because it turned to shit. It actually turned into a terrible show.

[@norahorphzinger6721]

Damn, your family experience with TWD was more accurate in the end to a zombie apocalypse than TWD was XD

[@crod9905]

Andrew Lincoln is such an underrated actor. He gave the performance of a lifetime!

[@cherryblossom7120]

He's my top favorite with Tom Welling.

[@Em-ih5du]

One day I'll scroll down the comment section of a youtube video without someone misusing the term "underrated". One day... there's still hope... One day...

[@crod9905]

@Em Not sure how I'm misusing it though? It's just the truth that Andrew Lincoln didn't get much critical acclaim for this role compared to other actors from popular shows at the time. And he doesn't have the level of fame he should've had from a role like this.

[@jim191185]

@@crod9905 very true. was was in a sitcom my sister watched in the 90's and nothing else as far as I know lol

[@DarthRushy]

@@cherryblossom7120 Welling really needs another hit show. But if not, I hope that animated Smallville he's been talking about gets made.

[@travisjackson982]

I just got tired of being lost and having more Questions than Answers. Like what started the apocalypse? I wanted the ending should of having them finding a cure

[@Courier_Seven]

My grandmother was absolutely enthralled by this world's story and characters when it started airing in 2010. Sadly we lost her around the time season 4 started. Beautiful woman inside and out and we miss her terribly but I'm thankful she didn't get to see how they ruined one of the most popular and groundbreaking television series of all time.

[@afierymess2307]

I'm sorry to hear that, but hey. At least she didn't have to put up with this horrendous, CW-tier writing.

[@Courier_Seven]

I'm almost certain she would've dropped the show after they killed off Carl. That's when I stopped. Rick eventually leaving I believe we all could've handled if done right, but Carl was supposed to be the one spirit that carried on in the story.

[@Chadius_Thundercock]

Then thank god she passed before she saw the last season

[@Courier_Seven]

@@Chadius_Thundercock even if she did end up seeing the last few seasons, the horrible writing and dialogue alone probably would've taken her out.

[@sarawael8993]

@@Courier_Seven BRUHHH I CANT- stop ill be going straight to hell if u keep saying that

[@persona2grata]

I also HATED the boomerang storytelling, although I didn't have a name to put to the idea. Eventually I found myself just collecting months of episodes on DVR so I could binge over a weekend instead of feeling frustrated by the mini-cliffhangers. Actually, I think it might be an interesting project to chop up the episodes and re-edit them to pull the episode-long storylines into a mix for each edited episode, making it a friendlier storytelling experience.

[@aeonphotoco]

The Governor half-season was such a fucking waste of time.

[@cyb3rstalker]

i dont like it either especially bc when shows do that i just focus on the episode my favorite characters are on and ignore everything i else 🥲

[@feage7]

If by that you mean when they would do a really interesting episode about storyline X, end it off on a cliffhanger, then the next episode was about storyline Y, then the episode after was a random placement episode about character A, then maybe 4 whole episodes later, so essential 20% of a season later they would go back to storyline X, losing all momentum and anticpation of what was happening and also as a result making you disinterested in storyline Y or character Z because you wanted the cliffhanger episode

[@persona2grata]

@@feage7 Yup, that more or less describes it. It was a super annoying technique, and as far as I could tell nobody really enjoyed it so I have no idea why they committed so hard to it for multiple seasons.

[@lai6551]

I wonder if it was cheaper or easier to film them like that and that’s why they committed so hard to it

[@SymbiSpidey]

The most egregious thing about the Glenn fake out death is that the way he fell and the circumstances behind the situation would have made it IMPOSSIBLE for the following events to play out as we see them. For me, it was the first major example of the show prioritizing shock value and cliffhangers over anything else

[@DSVlad]

It was infuriating that he survived it, and then infuriating again when they just knock him off anyways

[@JDUBB2399]

I remember watching that episode with my family, and I guessed exactly what was going to happen.

[@blakegriffith1835]

He died in the comics. If they stuck to the outline of the comics and didn’t fill the latter half of the show with poorly shot, never ending gunfights that looked like updated footage from Miami Vice, it could have been awesome.

[@OllieBlazin]

The most infuriating part for me was that when a death normally happens, they show up on talking dead, or the producers say something “heartfelt”. This was the first time they broke the 4th wall and said that Glenn’s story is yet to be finished……meaning if anyone rage quit, they’d be incentivised to return and the ratings got a boost

[@liwojenkins]

@@blakegriffith1835 Exactly, they forced that due to "it happened in the comics", then ignored other awesome and important stuff in the comics. Ugh.

[@NewRogueRedhead]

Alexandria had no idea how good they had it til Rick and co showed up. They'd been shielded from the start.

[@reddit.storiees-f7x]

Imo,what made show good,was the eerie vibe to the whole show,the empty cities,the empty cars,the post apocalyptic aroma that it had, towards the end,it just became your typical drama/action movie.

[@oskarfunes2505]

Frank Darabonts exit had that lowering quality effect

[@Jumpman-cb9hw]

Which was boring af

[@salvest3rr]

it started getting bad during the prison arc the whole atmosphere of the show changed and became a drama as you say

[@Sassykitten84]

Exactly. The same reason I hated season 11

[@IamCree]

This

[@moonie2687]

it's not even fair to the actors what the writers did to this show. they carried it so hard for as long as they could. i am so proud of everyone who blew up because of the walking dead. michonne went from zombie slayer to wakanda warrior, and thats exactly what she deserves. total fucking badass that she is.

[@MikeyDoe]

Grateful she returned for the new show

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

The Walking Dead became a parody of itself. The show about zombies became a zombie show that would not die. Pretty funny actually. It was really just a cash cow that AMC refused to let go because it kept making money no matter how bad it got.

[@terryrichmond4723]

Season 1 & 2 were the best, only show that stayed good from start to finish was SOA.

[@trishlangford5773]

What went wrong was what is wrong with all Hollywood failures these days. The writing. The writing just went downhill towards the end. Yeah that same mob who are striking for more money and holding Hollywood to ransom. Where did the inspired writers go? The early episodes were great. About halfway through the run it really went off the boil. For me it was taking the focus off the zombies and instead humans fighting each other. The worst villain was Jeffery Dean Morgan's character. Now I love JDM. I think he's sexy but his villain was such an unremittingly evil and brutal person. That's when it went off the boil for me. Surely if the world was really in such a dire place the humans would have to be united in the face of a common enemy. This brutal infighting, human against human was a total turn off. It became your typical humdrum goodies against baddies. The show lost it's feel of the strange, the threatening the unknown.

[@randomguy4781]

@@terryrichmond4723 Breaking Bad stayed good from start to finish too, along with SOA the big difference between those two shows versus other shows like TWD or Dexter is they knew when to end it. shows like TWD/Dexter and many more go on way too long that it kind of ruins it

[@shadowslayer205]

38:34 If someone told younger me that the walking dead's later seasons would have survivors cosplaying as stormtroopers while riding on horseback, I would've called them crazy.

[@Ridiculousman3]

I stopped watching way before that came into play. When I saw images of it I laughed my head off. It looked so cheap and plastic

[@Spore9996]

I mean, that was in the comics too, lol. They were meant to be pure white and the design is basically identical between the two.

[@Ridiculousman3]

@@Spore9996 yeah they should have changed the colour since they took liberties with everything else

[@chuuwars]

That comes from the comics thought and it isn't a bad idea by itself when viewed in context, and it definitely wasn't what made the show or the seasons bad.

[@lapplandkun9273]

For real, when I first saw an episode of it, I actually thought they were stormtroopers, no joke.

[@BigDW9762]

Shane didn't even decend into madness, he just became the way everyone did in the end, he was prepared to kill people instead of just zombies, it could be said, he didn't decend into madness, he just woke up first, before the rest were willing too.

[@Amymyhie]

Chandler Riggs didn’t find out he was going to die until the episode he gets bit. It said in his script that Carl was frightened, which confused chandler because this is CARL, he wouldn’t be shaken up by a walker, I think he had to go to a director or something to even be told

[@yashdwivedi9450]

Ikr and they suddenly made Carl pacifist who wanted to stop fighting and wanted his dad to create some imaginary community where no one fights. I think they used Carl’s as an excuse to keep negan that is keepinh JDM on the show, bcoz in no universe he should’ve been spared. And then the rest of story just about how negan is good guy who had to do things and he is the only badass who can take down whisperers.

[@taketinnn33]

Just shows how cheap the people running this were

[@cooperbridge7929]

I believe it also came out that Chandler bought a house out near the predominant shooting location before he found out, which then led to people assuming that AMC just didn't want to pay him the same wage as the other adults

[@VastoFlo13]

The Walking Dead directors and writers did Chandler dirty in order to keep Negan alive. Watching the show Carl went from badass to a peaceful dude. A complete 360 from his character. The writers went woke, which is why people hate woke stuff. Like many have said it’s okay to create stuff that includes woke ness but they freaking drowned the show with it. They kept ass actors like the girl that played Tara, and Denise. I felt like they did it perfect with Rick and Michonne cause you feel both actors chemistry and also Aaron was great, but then they took it to woke level 50000.

[@Zoomer-Philosophy]

​@@VastoFlo13Bro what 'wokeness' are you talking about. What part about Negan not killing people is woke but Rick having an interracial relationship isn't??

[@ayydavis94]

I’m glad you made the point about TWD going from being a show everyone you know was watching to a show that nobody you knew was still watching. Same exact thing happened to me

[@tedeitel8060]

I stomached Rick's unbelievable fake accent for 5 seasons just to see Karl get killed off and the best villain the show had turned into a good guy?

[@amferny]

In a way, the walking dead is a metaphor on how the writers killed off their entire fanbase only leaving a few soul survivors/viewers

[@kevinhibbard320]

Went from "did you see" to "that is still going??"

[@crazycloud718]

The ending wasn’t an ending. It was a prologue for the spinoffs. It was basically the pilot episode for these shows, just using known characters.

[@paureh9573]

Negan and Maggie spin-off FFS!

[@Jayg2420]

What went wrong was trying to give EVERYONES back story

[@Scarylyn14]

As someone who’s never seen this show, I actually thought it ended ages ago, because after the Negan reveal, I quit hearing about it online. I assumed the Negan season was the final, or something 😂

[@codenamerishi]

same wow, I quit around when negan was being introduced. Thought it ended with it.

[@carly7522]

Same. Was Shocked when I saw a video in KZbin 2 years later talking about the post Negan years. Why was this recommended and why was this show still on the air? Haunting questions

[@cedoniapeterson9239]

Same, except I didn't know anyone's names - I just hadn't heard anyone talk about this show for like five years. When this video came up in my auto-play queue I actually checked its upload date, because I assumed it must be a few years old.

[@borissand3891]

What I was surprised by is that people dropped it because it got bad. It was always bad lol

[@planescaped]

@@borissand3891 It started out amazing and had a slow, gradual decline, that turned into a swift rocketing plummet.

[@machodgdon]

Killing Carl off will go down as one of the worst choices ever made in the history of television. But what made it worse was immediately next season they killed off Henry, the character they gave Carl’s Whisperer storyline to, making his death even worse

[@gavina4241]

nah that was a cool ass death

[@chazchoo99]

This!! Exactly this!! Killing off Carl was bad (read the worst possible choice ever), but killing off Henry? Really?? The "border marking" scene in the comics still strikes me as one of the most devastating twists ever, and the way handled it in the show was like Negan's introduction on steroids: subverting expectations solely for the sake of subverting expectations instead of just adapting amazing source material.

[@III_Ed_B_III]

They killed off Siddiq relatively fast too, who Carl had risked his life for.

[@gavina4241]

@@III_Ed_B_III i find that such a silly complaint because people be saying “carl died for nothing” when his sacrifice got the community a doctor who help rebuild this community even bringing in new life for the future

[@III_Ed_B_III]

@@gavina4241 Was that sacrifice mentioned, linked, or developed, in later episodes? I'm talking about character development, and writers having an understanding for their characters and audience, and bringing that to the screen explicitly as well as implicitly (a skill which declined in this show over a period of years, to a laughable point in the latter seasons).

[@TheAnxiousOpossum]

Carl was literally the very soul of The Walking Dead, killing him off like that was the last straw imo. He had so much potential, I wanted him to become the eventual protagonist of the show after Rick's hypothetic death, but off course we can't have nice things.

[@firstlast9846]

In the comics he grows old and becomes Negan’s caretaker / a gunslinger.. for Robert Kirkman’s sporadic writing quality he stuck the landing in the comics.

[@onmoron4175]

he didn't had any potential, carl was a forgotten and missed used character since the start, killing him off didn't do more than giving a refreshed start to TWD, reason why season 9 n 10 are so good

[@NoBodyNoCrime758]

dude who played him was really a good actor and it started to really show

[@darkwoods1954]

I never got this. The soul of the show? He was an annoying character played by a bad actor. Killing him off was clearing out the dead wood.

[@sjbrooksy45]

@@darkwoods1954 🤣🤣 I hated that freaking kid. Then the right when I started to like him they killed him. Carl in the comics was awesome.

[@AndreRay1127]

You will take back your dig at Lost this instant sir! Aside from a couple of mysteries that people really wanted answers to, that wasn't gonna really matter when it came to the ending they had planned, everything else was so emotionally satisfying for every character, Jack especially. I loved every minute and still watch the finale like it's a movie every now and then.

[@edwinaannor]

the writers killing off Carl was the last straw for me, Rick without Carl just doesn’t make any sense to me

[@angelaholmes8888]

It was really stupid to kill carl off 😠

[@imnotusingmyrealname.stopa6235]

The only episode I watched after that was Rick's last. Even that was mainly because of the cameos.

[@michonnewalker4246]

Same

[@katiemartin6991]

It feels even stupider since they gave him a son with Michonne like one season later (a son that didn't exist in the novels).

[@mackielunkey2205]

Carl living through the whole comic book series made this tv series worse in retrospect.

[@MajesticAngel13]

I was one of those millions that quit after Carl’s death. Not because I was upset, but because watching it felt like a massive chore!

[@unknownyoutuber3422]

For me, it was watching it in season 10. IMO I think seasons 7 and 8 were bad but I felt like the last 2 seasons of the show were worse. It felt like there was just constant buildup to absolutely nothing coming out of it and each episode just kept on getting less and less interesting going through. At that point, I just resorted to looking up spoilers since they decided to air episodes on amc+ a week early just to see if the episodes were worth watching so I wouldn’t have to get my hopes up that something good was going to happen.

[@kasia2750]

I watched until Rick was taken off from the story, but truly, Carl's death almost done it for me. Especially since it wasn't written for the story sake, but because some behind the scene bs (they didn't want to Pay the actor more, after his original contract was coming to the end - freaking capitalisn for ya).

[@lucymay3129]

I quit out a few episodes after Glenn died, and then when I heard Carl died it kinda cemented that I wasn’t going to go back. Used to be my favorite show of all time

[@Bertminator]

I was happy to finally see Carl die! He was pretty useless during the entire series, and was responsible for Dale's death in the early seasons. Everyone in my family hated Carl. Even when he did himself in, the gun sounded like a child's pop gun, instead of Rick's massive revolver his death was as lame as his character.

[@Tier1GearEDCReviews]

When one of your main characters holds their “own” weapons backwards on promo poster, it’s kinda hard to take things seriously…

[@KingVampRickGrimes]

Which one are you talking about? Lol

[@Lylslet]

Killing Carl off literally ruins the whole purpose of Rick’s story and the entire show. Carl was literally hyped up to be the fruition of Rick’s immense effort in surviving and raising a son during everyone’s worst nightmare.

[@ShadowSonic2]

They gave Rick a new son to replace Carl's role in the story

[@rafaelarcas942]

@@ShadowSonic2but it was still a bad idea and apparently, it didn’t work.

[@MLink7]

@@ShadowSonic2 Yeah and that worked really well, right? The Ones Who Live is sooooooo gooooood LMAO

[@rosaevee274]

I think earlier in the show there were other things to cling to for hope -- Glenn and Maggie's relationship, Beth's self-improvement, Hershel's general kindness, to name a few-- but by the time Carl died those were all gone and the writers had failed to replace them. So at that point it's like, what's left to care about lol. Everyone left is either undeveloped or just a variation of "rugged survivor with no real bonds". The stakes are nonexistent.

[@rafaelarcas942]

@@rosaevee274 Honnestly, I am not even sure that those stakes with what's left of the story would be worth it again as the writing doesn't have any creativity.

[@uberboomer8670]

Wow I had no idea the viewership took THAT much of a nosedive! Unsurprisingly, I was in the drove of people who quit shortly after Carl's death. That plus the glacial pace of the show, the fact that Neegan just amassed this enormous army without anyone noticing, and the lion king guy just made me realize this was no longer the show I once loved. Great video tho!

[@prizethought]

Yeah man, this is the saddest Friendly Space Ninja video I've ever watched, all TV writers, producers, all show creators should take a lesson from the absolute catastrophe and downfall of the walking dead, I feel so bad for all the walking dead fans, ugh its so disheartening something special could be absolutely destroyed like that, nothing good last forever I suppose but they can at least give beloved shows great couple final seasons.

[@eomoran]

To be fair, the timing also just lines up with when most of the viewers would have been going to college. This was a cable show if I remember correctly. People got used to the Netflix binges. Filler episodes used to work for much longer, but by then they couldn’t work. I honestly think this is one of the weakest FSN videos. He spends half of it going over fan outrage. I couldn’t care less about fan outrage, tell me specifically about where the show went wrong and why it didn’t work, not this melodrama of “oMg cAn YoU iMagIne, people had to wait a whole SEVEN months 😮😮😮”

[@zerovalon6243]

The Glen fake out was mine. Didn't care after that.

[@num1Jaysta]

@@zerovalon6243 Yeah what was the point of that just to kill him off in a worse way later?

[@zerovalon6243]

@@num1Jaysta fully agree. If they had kept him I think Rick could have left and he became the leader, things could have worked. That's just an idea but one I like.

[@cirquedefreak7329]

I think that while Glenn’s death was the catalyst, if fans didn’t leave immediately after he died, Carl dying the next is what did it in being the final straw to break the back. I pushed through s6 after Glenn, but when Carl died I peaced out

[@achuris77]

It turned from being a show that was about surviving the zombie apocalypse to a soap opera that just happens to be in the zombie apocalypse. And that's why I stopped watching a long time before it actually ended.

[@taylorgayhart9497]

I’m sure some people are going to argue that Game of Thrones had a bigger downfall, but the fact that I didn’t even know that the show had ended, I think speaks volumes to how much of a downfall it had. At least Game of Thrones had people talking until the very end. Hell eight years later, and we’re still fucking talking about it! PS I don’t know if it’s actually been eight years, honestly, it feels like twice as long ago thanks to Covid, but I just threw a number out there.

[@empressfreya9872]

And Game of Thrones ended while there was still a giant fandom. The show was trending every week still. The ending actually managed to make people ANGRY. TWD just fizzled out

[@raffy234]

I thought the show had ended years ago. Until KZbin Shorts showed me clips of the finale and Rick Grimes's scene

[@ryandabian2982]

A bit of false comparison though. GoT ended in 2019 before the streaming saturation that came in the 2020s. The content fragmentation in the recent years have made it harder for newer shows to get that blockbuster/watercooler level success you used to see. Though choosing to drag the show to 11 seasons and bleeding viewers at an exponential rate was a decision that the executives took that damaged the brand and health of the show. Unless your audience is mostly seniors that will literally die watching your show like NCIS or Law and Order, it's best not to keep it chugging along with hundreds of episodes of diminishing returns.

[@roseolivas08]

The only other show I can think of that's had a similar downfall is Supernatural or Grey's, but Grey's is STILL going so only time will tell if they'll keep going for ANOTHER ten years

[@greyblueme9711]

@@roseolivas08 hasn't the lead of greys said she's begged for the show to end for the past like 6-10 years?

[@jackback9466]

This is why I love Breaking Bad. This is another show loved by so much people, and unlike TWD, it has a sincere ending. Yes, it did sorta tease a movie for Jesse, but it gave us a proper send off to the main character of the show, as well as giving us a satisfying conclusion to the story it wanted to tell.

[@aguywithcommonsense7503]

And they were able to pull of the spin-off of Better Call Saul very well too

[@mrconroy4672]

AMC needs to fix their content issues and take new risks. New stories and new ips. Brba and Better call Saul aren’t going to be replicated anytime soon unfortunately.

[@fagiolification11]

Breaking Bad was good but it was excruciatingly and unnecessarily slow. And you can count the cool twists and badass moments on the fingers of ONE hand.

[@menoguchi]

​@@fagiolification11 In my personal experience, the exploration of the characters provided by the show was much more enjoyable than the cool twists, though. But I went in already knowing the premise of the show and not expecting fast-paced, action-filled episodes. I wouldn't say Breaking Bad is a flawless story, necessarily, but it sure felt like it when I was watching it for the first time lol

[@okagron]

@@fagiolification11 Do you only have one hand? I have two and that's not enough to count the amount of great moments in Breaking Bad.

[@jamesalfredburchiii4599]

My college had a movie theater on campus that would fill up with students watching this show every Sunday in the early 10s. I made so many friends and had so many memories associated with it. I’m one of those people who had no idea it ended. I also had no idea it was still going. I don’t remember when I stopped watching, either. Such a weird communal phenomenon, I don’t think I’ll ever see replicated in this lifetime. RIP I guess

[@Beauty_Bot]

Same here but with Breaking Bad.

[@TwistedTB]

@@Beauty_Bot Breaking Bad at least had a satisfying ending and 2 good spinoffs, the prequel series Better Call Saul, and the Jesse Pinkman story conclusion movie El Camino.

[@cashel5232]

​@@Beauty_Bot The difference is Vince knew when to end the story, not keep milking it

[@bl8388]

@@cashel5232 I would rather a great 2 seasons of a show that ends well, than 8-12 seasons of perpetual nonsense. Season 1 or 2 when Walking Deadheads decided everyone has the disease, and once you die you zombify, made the rest of all those seasons harder for me to get into.

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

Lol at thinking there will be no more watercooler tv shows after this. Game of Thrones was bigger, Lost, Breaking Bad, Sopranos, the House of the Dragon, and dozens if not hundreds of future shows in the next 50 years+.

[@Vhite]

That boomerang storytelling reminds me reading Stormlight Archives. Chapters ending of cliffhangers, followup of which would only come like 5 - 6 chapters later after you circled trough all the characters, by which time you mostly forgot where you left off.

[@milkbottle4u]

Biggest mistake that led to all the others was firing Frank Darabont. “Yeah, let’s fire the guy that made Shawshank, The Mist, and The Green Mile.” Brilliant

[@jiggycalzone8585]

The biggest "what if" ever is if they had allowed him to run the entire series

[@KingofGermanic]

​@@jiggycalzone8585 I think he would've ended it way sooner. Somewhere around season 3 or 4. Maybe even after 2. As flawed as the show is I'm glad I got to see Negan and Rick's breakdown in Alexandria. Some of my favorite moments in TV

[@jabronisauce6833]

@@KingofGermanicLmfao would never have ended in season 2 you basket case and I’m sorry negan wasn’t worth all the bullcrap that surrounded that character it ended up making his character lame as hell.

[@archerdavidson6066]

Not

[@iefhktddvnu]

If the show wouldve ended after negans death this show wouldve been regarded as one the best, everything wouldve fitted. The flashbacks in that season with old gray rick, god

[@rienjen]

The Walking Dead is a good example of how dystopian universes are great to create easy conflict, but the payoff at the end is almost always nonexistent. Having the entire world burn is a tough problem to solve.

[@lapplandkun9273]

Walking dead is also what not to do when writing a dystopian based fanfiction that isn't zombies or otherwise.

[@joecantina7580]

I think this is why I didn't like The Road too much.

[@Orquet-qj2nf]

Not really. They make it to Cuba. They clear the island of zombies. A few boatfuls of survivors join them. They now have enough for a sustainable gene pool. They form archeologist teams. They rediscover solar and wind power. They rediscover forging steel. Humanity is going to be okay. The end. They had options, they just needed to ditch the ignorant, uncreative, full of themselves writers first.

[@thac0twenty377]

​@@joecantina7580God that movie was bleak

[@Piratequeen010156]

I stopped watching the exact episode they killed Carl off. Him dying wasn't apart of the comics or plan- the producers just didn't like that the actor was wanting to attend college AND act. So, they killed him off. Carl signified hope to me and I wanted to see him become a leader and to see a world where a cure works- to live for his mom and Judith and be a rock for his father. Him dying was the last straw for me, I didn't care about anyone else's survival as much as his. The kid survived so much shit just to have a random and unnecessary death.

[@kjellkleine]

it wasnt unnecessary or random at all, they were in the middle of a war and he died because he helped a person he didnt even know, and that had a huge impact on everybodys views and thinking, i would have loved to have carl still in the show but his death wasnt random

[@Fackunator]

​@@kjellkleineit was unnecessary and random. The where or what of his dumbass death doesn't take away from that. Carl, THE Carl, should know how to handle a couple of walkers.

[@Piratequeen010156]

fair view point, but because he had survived sooo much since being a child, it FELT random to just get bitten the way he did then to take himself out. That death had been done multiple times before. I guess it could be realistic in that no one is safe and not all deaths need to be grand- but his character wasn't supposed to die in the first place, so it felt out of no where and lackluster @@kjellkleine

[@Piratequeen010156]

I agree with this, It's been years since I stopped the show (on the exact episode of his death) but I remember feeling that exact way: "how did carl mess up against a couple of walkers when he has been through so much more" it didn't make any sense. I felt irritated/annoyed and it pulled me out of the show because I was thinking "what idiot wrote this?" I guess it could be debated that people make mistakes and can get taken down by the most simplest of things, but meh, it really was an awful way to end his character@@Fackunator

[@Fackunator]

@@Piratequeen010156 EXACTLY. Carl, who at that point knew how to deal with the living, should not have been ambushed by a couple of walkers. Yes, one could argue that "people make mistakes", but killing walkers at that point in time, should come as easy to Carl as walking. He was raised in the apocalypse. I'm not saying he should've been a ninja or something, but he should've handled the situation with the expertise expected from a child of the apocalypse. The moment he died is when I tuned out as well, and never looked back. The disservice to his character was my last straw

[@scottlewis5090]

Good re-cap, bro. I quit the show, but I came back and watched the last 2 seasons, plus Rick and Michone. Im ready to give Dead City, and Daryl's 2 seasons a try. Ive had time to forgive AMC. Well done again on this video. I liked and subscribed.

[@Greeny83]

I liked when Maggie forgot Beth existed for almost an entire season and then the writers realized it and suddenly Maggie showed a ton of concern for her and was ecstatic when she learned Beth was still alive just to kill her off in the dumbest way possible. Bravo, Vince.

[@Disgruntled_Kinkajou]

Are you referring to Vince Gilligan? You know he had nothing to do with the Walking Dead right?

[@sboyle71177]

Right?

[@mantapjiwa632]

​@@Disgruntled_KinkajouSorry you missed the joke

[@Gannoh]

​@@Disgruntled_Kinkajou it's a joke bruh obviously Vince had nothing to do with this dumpster turd show

[@Greeny83]

@@Disgruntled_Kinkajou HE DIDN'T?! OMG!

[@morningplum1234]

I'm never good at understanding why I stop liking a show so I love it when someone makes a video like this and every point is dead on.

[@shanellecarlson9499]

Ikr. We know the feeling but not really the words to know how to describe it or why. Some people are just good at saying what we all are thinking.

[@Marco-fi6gv]

Wow nailed it, just like he did!😁 Throughout the video I found myself agreeing with him. Like when he said he stopped watching and at some point he just said my brain shut off and I didn't want to see any more pretty much same thing to happen to me. When he also mentioned that he talked to other people and they weren't watching and their friends weren't either. This after it had been so huge and it was all anyone was talking about and people used to get together I used to get together with family and watch it. I really just got tired of it and got bored. As he said, it looked like filler material. And the funniest part was when he said it was and some people didn't know it. I didn't know for sure that it was finished until I watch this video, that's how indifferent I have been😂.

[@jacobherrera8735]

Honestly, Andrew Lincoln made this show what it is. His performance as Rick Grimes will definitely be one of the greatest performances. If only he had a better show runner for a majority of the show, this show could have been peak, but there were just too many internal problems unfortunately.

[@paulinegallagher7821]

Exactly. Negan was the WORST character ever, but i stuck around because of Rick. When he left, i was so done.

[@burakucak]

Show made him a front-man. It made people believe that he was invincible and his authority was piling up like a snowball turning into avalanche. Until of course they met Negan. And it is one of major reasons why i like both Rick and Negan. One of them made us believe and the other made us question.

[@alexandermeiering5216]

@@paulinegallagher7821 Negan made me quit the show basically. His character felt so goofy and out of a comic and i was baffled that they didn't kill him at the end of season 8 when I watched the recaps. Like I would understand if he killed Glenn in somewhat of a normal way but he killed him and Abraham and was mocking the whole squad while he was at it. Thats a psychopath not someone who feels regret and changes. I forgot he also "forced" women into sexual relationships with him for favors so also kind of a rapist.

[@paulinegallagher7821]

@@alexandermeiering5216 His introduction was pretty cool, but it went downhill fast once they made him a regular character. And UGH, i forgot about the forced ffed up relationships with women! He was the worst. All they needed to do, we keep him in the shadows a lot more, ditch the stupid jokes and 'i will knock that shit down' talk from him and make him a scary man with a barbed wire bat. But they obviously thought that was too one dimensional and wanted to flesh the character out. The same character that killed Glen and Abraham, teo characters that people cared about, in the most brutal way possible. He should have been Michael Myers, but he was the complete opposite. He NEVER shut up talking, he laughed and made jokes, and then we get to find out he lost his wife and were supposed to give a flying fuck. NOPE!

[@spndusk2362]

The show was never the same without him many have said. I left after the season 7 premiere so didn't watch beyond. But the new characters brought in were stupid, ridiculous and pointless. When I heard about the zoo guy and the garbage people yah I was glad I jumped ship when I did. This show forgot how to be fun, thrilling and scary. It just became an abysmal, dramatic intersectional feminist disaster where all the women were powerful and more invincible than the men who were all c**ked, pathetic and wimpy.

[@jak3brap10]

The walking dead ended for me when Rick blew up the bridge

[@bitter_rice]

I remember when my dad got into this show, he’d watch it religiously and it got him super into zombies. He’d buy books all about them and let my sister and me read them, and even until now, he still lends me comics about zombies because of the impact the show had on him. But I did notice that towards the “middle” seasons, so around 7-8, he’d just mumble about how boring the show was and after that, he stopped watching it altogether. At that point, I thought the show just ended, but when I saw news last year that it was just ending then, I was so confused bc I had no idea it dragged out that long

[@tomatodamashi]

I also dropped out around season 7-8, but not because it was boring. I can't stand plot armour in shows like this. They set up Neegan as this take no prisoners badass villain, and yet every attempt at his life, be it Sasha or Carl or whomever, he would just return them back to Rick&co. What happened to the guy that killed Glen so brutally? What happened to a show where every action has consequences? I just couldn't take it anymore and my wife even remarked, "oh well they aren't going to kill off Carl because it's not the season finale yet and he's a main character." They show got stale, and our interest in watching died.

[@AnxietyAttack.]

The commonwealth arc is honestly better than the Saviors, Whisperers, and the Reapers combined. So if you haven’t gone back I’d check it out. It inspired me to finish “fear the walking dead” which surprised me on how good of a show IT was after its first few seasons.

[@spiffycat4562]

My dad was the same! I would have quit after the Neagan cliffhanger, which made me furious for focusing on the wrong thing (why not show us who was killed so that we could theorize about its impact rather than endless “this split second clip shows why Rick was DEFINITELY the one killed!”??), but I stuck around longer because of my dad. After Carl’s death, though, even he was tired and done. We went from watching Talking Dead together every week to just…quitting due to exhaustion (instead of rage quitting over the Neagan cliffhanger).

[@teethnclaws]

Same. We started watching it less and less after Neegan was introduced, and eventually stopped altogether. My issues with the show had to do mainly with, after a while, you had more commercials than you did the actual show (when we would watch it on standard television). And how the creators toyed with their audience sometimes. You also got more and more episodes with filler and no meat.

[@AnxietyAttack.]

@@teethnclaws that’s what happens when they run out of source material and start making stuff up with the core story just for tv’s sake

[@ashtoncarriveau3880]

It cannot be understated how much community this show had. The after episode talk show "Talking Dead" was getting upwards of 3M views per episode during its height. The widespread watch parties, death betting pools, and post episodes discussions was insane. So much of what made this show great was how it interacted with the fans. Every fan has a number. You ask any fan and they can tell you what Season & Episode they stopped watching. Mine is S7E2.

[@AdviceandAdventures]

Mine was S7E1...I explained why in this 2016 video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZuyg41pnq5rqtU

[@ashtoncarriveau3880]

@@AdviceandAdventures Yeah that's spot on. I agree about Fear TWD too. Characters were constantly making the most nonsensical out of character choices.

[@stamtso]

I have the same number, and after watching this video I'm glad I had the instict to quit the exact moment things went down really bad.

[@wiseguy3675]

I watched until Carl's death. Now I wish I had quit after season 6.

[@ezekielbrockmann114]

s4e2

[@kidspretzellover]

The biggest problem with Fear the Walking Dead was because it was advertised as a prequel that would explain a lot that the original show didn’t get to since it started a month or so into the apocalypse. But literally after like a season or two it had a BIG TIME JUMP to catch up with the show without doing anything that was advertised at all.

[@lance9249]

That really was not it for me I was actually enjoying it more than The Walking Dead but then they killed off my favorite character Troy and then Nick and replaced them with such boring characters that I could not care about if I tried. 2 seasons based on family dynamics and interesting characters and everyone but the boring daughter is instantly gone.

[@ojawall]

and the latest season is crazy, i am not too happy

[@barryhercules6486]

The biggest problem with fear the walking dead for me was that it was boring and unnecessary from day one, Episode 1 and only got worse. These multiple spin offs do nothing but dilute the quality and resource from the man walking dead show..

[@ojawall]

@@barryhercules6486 i love fear, it is a good show, i mean kind of like how the star wars prequels suck but i am intrigued by the characters a little still

[@MoonLiteNite]

Yup that is how i feel too. I was hyped for it, and LOVED season 1. That whole "earth falling apart" type feeling. But by season, it was just like the main story. So i haven't seen since then

[@jofieji5312]

Watched the season 2 finale. Said “damn that was a freaking epic 2 seasons of tv show.” Didn’t have the slightest urge to continue after that. Knew it was dead in the water after that.

[@Nyutamoony]

I think that the only TWD spin-off that was able to capture the vibe of the original show were Telltale games about Clementine. Especially with the first two seasons. No one was safe, even the protagonist, and it was interesting to see how Clem grow up from an innocent child to a brutal survivor. Kind of sad, that the last season wasn’t as good but apparently making a good final is an impossible task for this franchise

[@latima123ify]

Honestly I disagree. The third season was considered the worst out of those games and the final one was more of a return to form , it just sucked that it came out while telltale was shutting down and we almost didn't get it finished because of it.

[@Nyutamoony]

@@latima123ify you’re right, the final season really suffered mostly because of inner circumstances and the overall end of Clementine’s story was satisfying enough, but the season itself could be much better… but they probably did the best they could

[@ceridwenaeradwr8105]

The Telltale games were my introduction to anything related to The Walking Dead, and MAN what an intro they were! I think they negatively affected my perception of the show when I eventually watched it, because Rick and Carl just COULD NOT compete with Lee and Clem for me.

[@user-vv1qf1jk4z]

Honestly, I thought the finale was phenomenal and heartfelt, especially considering the circumstances. The finale of the 1st episode was gripping as all fuck in particular, and I love the aesthetic and character design in the new engine.

[@luiseduardo4748]

Nah, the final season was way better than the second season

[@spikepachita6026]

I stopped watching the show a few episodes into season 7. Glenn and Abraham where the most charismatic, funny and pragmatic characters and they left this gap that did not get filled. Also Darryll, the coolest character, got turned into this boring grey blob. What also annoyed me greatly was the neverending talk about "being strong" and surviving. Also the endless cycle of: They go somewhere safe They get attacked Everything turns to shit because of stupidity They have to leave Repeat

[@missustealie]

Yeah, I was lagging behind by about a season, but when I heard about Glenn's death, and the way they killed him off, I left it where it was.

[@marcusbennett9381]

​@@missustealie I mean, Glenn was killed off in the comic that the series was based upon, so not really down to the TV series screwing things up! Granted, Abraham took the death Glenn should have had and then they killed off Glenn as well after - but in terms of storyline, those deaths were so important as they highlighted how much of a threat our survivors were now under.

[@fastcarsoldandnew]

The fact thay that that cycle got broken after they arrived at Alexandria was part of the reason why I started to enjoy the show again, after it had become predictable. They wanted to stay in Alexandria, but that meant being under Negan's jackboot, so that was a completely different dynamic. And we also got to see the difficulties within the Saviours, even as the oppressing group. Great microcosm of capitalism.

[@madmarduk1936]

My thoughts and xactly.

[@chrisramsden3114]

Yes, im never a fan of unstability. IE, how many times did vinny chase or fiona gallagher need to hit rock bottom before the formula became uninteresting? Then glenn’s death and the fact that u never really get retribution for it(or timely??? I assume bc he has a spin off that never happened)

[@davemieze9021]

I watched from Episode 1 until Rick was gone. I don’t care if they write him back in, but once Ezekiel and Carol got all “Middle Ages” the charm of the show was gone. Seasons 1-5 were epic.

[@PluralArch]

OMG, yes! The season 6 "cliffhanger" had effectively pissed me off enough to rage quit the show (like so many). Soon after that episode, I started seeing clips of what was planned for season 7, and as soon as I got a glimpse in those coming attractions of what appeared to be a weird medieval-looking setting (including, inexplicably, a f**king TIGER), I knew there was no way I was coming back for season 7. (I did finally make the grinding slog through the remaining seasons once the series hit Netflix. I guess I am a masochist.)

[@southernfried19]

The “King” and that fake CGI tiger were dreadful. I hated every second that guy was on screen. Nothing but forced “diversity” there. Horrible, horrible move.

[@LilyMoonWitch]

@@southernfried19 "forced diversity" what on earth are you even talking about, you massive incel?

[@BratzRockAngels]

​@southernfried19 Him being Black has nothing to do with how poorly his character is written, and it's very suspicious that that's the idea you jumped to. Non white characters can be written poorly simply cause they're not written well, just like poorly written white characters can.

[@southernfried19]

@@BratzRockAngels Nearly every character introduced around 7-8 was non-white. ALL forced diversity and ALL shit.

[@vee_del_sol]

Its crazy when you think about it. People got together to watch the walking dead the way people got together to watch football. Insane how powerful it was culturally. Good times

[@RickSanchez_85]

I remember I once bought a negan merch cup. But the image faded away every time I put it in the dishwasher. It's kind of symbolic for how the show lost me with the time until there was just nothing left. Then, when I really quitted watching it around the time Rick went off from the show, the damn cup even broke, no joke. It was almost completely white to that time and than it accidently felt down. So this weird merch cup really was bound in some way to the faith of the series itself.

[@zxyatiywariii8]

That's an eerily accurate metaphor for the show. I got a TWD poster, but it's on a wall that never gets direct sunlight, so it's still bright. I learned never to put up posters where they get the light from my western windows, that'll fade anything FAST.

[@Pan_Z]

Good metaphor. Valuable life lesson. Never put mugs with decals in the dishwasher, unless they specify otherwise.

[@HaloDude321]

Yeah, I was finished when Rick left.

[@molin1310]

​@@HaloDude321Same here

[@daustin8888]

Either an apt metaphor or you were practicing voodoo.

[@c.w.simpsonproductions1230]

Looking back, I have to give huge props to Vince Gilligan for how Breaking Bad was handled. He had a vision, and he told it in five well-paced seasons. Breaking Bad was able to avoid the same pitfall that Walking Dead and so many others fell into by not stretching out the same loop over and over again. So many shows just want to stretch out as much as possible to milk views, and they lose their audience. They go on for so long they don't know how to end.

[@_runtybeatle36_68]

I had wathced TWD before i watched Breaking Bad. I was under the impression it would drag on the same way and milk for views, but it didn't. It knew when to end, and it was GOOD. Now, I am watching Better Call Saul which I believe is on par with its parent show. I just wish TWD learned from Breaking Bad.

[@handpickflick]

@@_runtybeatle36_68 I'd argue that BCS is overall better than BB

[@cheesesteakphilly]

@@handpickflick I personally liked BB better (but they’re both still S-Tier shows).

[@naybur74]

yes, i spoiled it for myself and watched the ending, at the time i really did not care for a druggie tv show catering to all our pot heads out there, i do not do drugs, and i just could not relate, BUT.. it had a good story telling, and i think i'll give it a watch finally.

[@liam2386]

BB was boring

[@Viperspider1]

It's a shame we never got to see Frank Darabont's full vision for this show. S1 was really interesting if a little flawed, Season 2 was a bit gimped by budget constraints and then obviously he left the show. I wonder how it would have gone if he was given a decent budget and the creative freedom he needed? Another what-if story we'll never know.

[@MR.Rexx101]

Some of Frank Darabont's vision is sprinkled throughout the Daryl spinoff.

[@deancalder8799]

Frank darabonts writing was great I though, that's why the actor who played Dale left, he was Frank's friend & did it out of loyal.

[@birdsniffer_]

the reason season 2 was like that was because they said "hey Frank Darabont, great show but let's double the amount of episodes but with half the budget and time. okay good luck!" Profit maxxing was one of the greatest enemies this show ever had.

[@salvararonkolbrunarson7734]

@@MR.Rexx101 The Daryl spinoff is surprisingly very good, best walking dead content since the early seasons

[@Turk_2023]

@@salvararonkolbrunarson7734 Its already started?

[@BigPampinUpInNYC]

I can't believe you lasted so long watching the show. I gave up right around the season 8 premiere where it is revealed who Negan killed. I literally could not find the motivation to watch, as you describe it so well.

[@munenegeorge4507]

It's crazy hearing what a cultural touchstone this show was having never seen an episode of it

[@softjytsu]

same

[@freakyfro99]

My roommate tried to get me into it multiple times and for some reason I was just so bored the entire time. At this point I'm glad I never got into it. I've had enough TV heartbreak lmao

[@katrinamillings3651]

I loved it in the beginning. What made it great is that the zombies were secondary. The real story was the way humans turned on each other when society broke down, so they had to find their group and create a whole new family they could rely on. Shane's story in season two displayed that perfectly, because he was Rick's best friend before the apocalypse. Then Rick went on to get a new best friend in Daryl, who was someone he could rely on in the new world. But in the end they screwed it all up.

[@cookingsauce8274]

It's better now since u can just binge watch it and you don't heavily feel the effects of "boomerang writing" since you don't have to wait weeks for a good episode. Even then though you can still tell the quality of the show progressively gets worse

[@Shockkings0714]

@@freakyfro99 Get a better attention span

[@wigglybacon2250]

If you would have told me halfway through the show that losing Carl was what would make me quit I would not have believed you. He was a source of annoyance for me for so long, but in the Negan arc I really was starting to like him. He was showing signs of who he was going to grow up to be, and I was excited to see him become the badass protagonist that had grown up in this world. They could have killed off Rick, and had Carl slowly emerge as a new leader and I would have watched the fuck out of it, it would have been a smooth transition to the next generation. By killing Carl they killed the future of their world.

[@iijazzy_barb9187]

They did kill Rick off just not yet

[@simonej9252]

NO DUDE FR!!

[@hola_amigas8186]

Carl is overrated he caused a lot of problems for the group multiple times, he was a pretty useless character because there was not a moment i can remember that he helped the group

[@ShadowSonic2]

The actor wasn't very good and he was turning 18 so they'd have to pay him adult rates so they killed him instead They used his sister as his replacement character

[@MzCheecharella]

@wigglybacon2250 I am with you 100%. I could not believe it when, after Carl's "arc" made me care about him again... They killed Carl. "By killing Carl they killed the future of their world." Bang on.

[@JustinHuman1269]

For me, it was over when Carl died. It took the whole point away, IMO. I didn't even like the character much, but he was Rick's motivation for just about everything, and nobody else was going to hold my interest like Rick did. Tried coming back to it, even tried to get into Fear The Walking Dead, but just couldn't find anything to make it feel worthwhile anymore.

[@johnny4830]

I agree if I remember correctly it was episode 8 so the show had a break, I never went back to it

[@MiniMackeroni]

And all because the actor was turning 18 and thus needed a renegotiated contract. Carl's character started as an annoying tag-along, but had became one of the most interesting and proactive one in the whole show, then boom, dead and gone, because of Hollywood crap. The actor had just purchased a house closer to set, too. Only to have his character suddenly killed off.

[@kidmosey]

I think everyone's in denial. The show ended after season one and was only kept alive by the occasional memorable moment, like Rick losing his mind.

[@johnny4830]

@@kidmosey tf you on about 😂

[@gfox9295]

@@kidmosey maybe for some, but Carol's moment of badass on the edge of season 4/5 was enough to make me glad I stuck it out for at least a few more seasons. Beyond around there... yeah, wish I'd stopped sooner.

[@sjl197]

How to deal with massive world changing event was amazing. How to deal with some other obnoxious humans several years after the zombie threat is so mundane was dull as every other drama trying to make chaos out of nothing. All it needed was a repeated series of backstories about how different lives were upended and how they later coincided in unexpected ways, with redemption arcs etc.

[@jimmyleach5047]

I was definitely one of the people who gave up after they “killed off” Rick for such a dumb reason. Killing off Carl was a big red flag for me that the show had lost its direction. Taking the father son duo we’d been following for so long was just a dealbreaker for me.

[@loopooh1632]

My favorite scene ever from the whole show was when Rick and Carl had machine guns and had to hold off the walkers. Rick quickly explaining to Carl how the gun works and giving the line "you shoot, or you run. don't let them get close." then having them mow down the walkers as a duo always makes me have that bone chilling feeling every time I watch it. I lose sleep at night knowing there will never be a seen parallel to that with Carl and Judith fighting off a horde of walkers the same way. Carl's character was so wasted in the show, his story seemed the most interesting to me in the earlier seasons but by season 5 we'd only see things from him like once in a blue moon he was basically the babysitter and it seemed like Rick forgot he was even his son cuz they barely even interacted. Then they killed off Carl which prompted Andrew Lincoln to leave then we literally lost our 2 protagonists like what direction was there for the show from that point?

[@Acolis]

killing off carl, in hindsight, made sense. but the truth is that the walking dead was already hot garbage when chandler left and was beyond repair when andrew left. it is in my opinion that angela kang ruined the walking dead. i guess she didnt have a whole lot of meat left on the bones of the walking dead when she took over, but the direction she took the show completely ruined it, for me at least. she is the worst show runner and her best moments are only comparable to gimples worst.

[@5123Blaze]

And yet for those of us still watching we got B A Judith Grimes and Michonne and Rick having their own season. Morgan having a whole family in Fear TWD. And the CRM tiring it all together.

[@f.b.l.9813]

I quit when the group failed to take down neegan so many times, he was amazing when he was first introduced but he overstayed his welcome imo. previous main antagonists like governor had a good balance of being formidable that they make you fear for the MC group's safety but not too much that you get tired of the antagonist. neegan crossed that line 10 miles ago, and hearing people talk about the future asspulls and cheap shock tactics that happens afterwards makes me glad I quit.

[@weeymm2500]

I never even knew they killed my boy Rick. That’s wild. I quit at season 9 episode 1 when the old guy tried to get Maggie killed… I was sick of the show and I couldn’t figure out why

[@dralgo1646]

As someone who doesn't like the zombie genre, glad to finally get an insight into this phenomenon

[@racheltorres668]

You're definitely not alone. I never thought I would fall for the zombie fever after this show took off, but honestly, I was so wrong about it. What makes TWD so incredible and gripping is that it's less of a generic zombie post apocalyptic story and focuses more on being a HUMAN story. Seeing how far humanity can be pushed one way or another when the chips are down and stakes are high is obviously nothing new, but the characters are what makes that premise work beautifully. If you're drawn to the idea of people struggling to not lose their morality and become monsters worse than the zombies they fight(while certain characters fail miserably), I highly recommend watching the first couple of seasons.

[@NiallSkye]

​@@racheltorres668the way you've described it is exactly why I finally gave it a chance around season 4. I was OBSESSED with the first 4 seasons. I'm not even halfway through the video and it's spot on.

[@iwakeupandboomimarat]

same i hate like 90% of zombie media 😭

[@LuisSierra42]

Watch The Last of Us, it's less about the zombies and rather about how people might deal with the end of civilization

[@gulgulgulgulgu]

​​@@LuisSierra42 As someone who disliked zombie stuff but liked the first game the thing that opposed TLOU from the others was the fact that "zombies" were never called zombies. They weren't the focus of the story tbh. It was more of this found family trope that most people are more receptive to. So I don't really think that TLOU or medias like Train To Busan or All Of Us Are Dead could make someone like the zombies genre imo.

[@youzettasonsofdigits1639]

This is why if youre gonna make a tv series you need to know what happens from start to finish on paper. If you just dont know how to end it youll get a show like this with many seasons that just get more dull the longer it goes on.

[@BratzRockAngels]

Right. It's like show creators want their series to fail by not planning from start to finish.

[@DavidH-d4b]

To be fair the comics weren't finished when the show started

[@KKingTy03]

​​@@DavidH-d4bsame problem that ruined GOT at the end too. Two massive phenomenons in the early-mid 2010s, both gone in a quiet whimper.

[@KikiMeowKitty]

Lost apparently did the exact opposite of that which is wild and it worked out for them lol.

[@BrickBear83]

The first straw was when the killed Glen, my favorite character. The LAST straw when they removed Rick from the series. The show was basically over for me at that point.