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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@Hazeljv3]

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??

[@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.

[@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.

[@KillerKingTy23]

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!

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@Beach_flower]

I am one of those people who stopped the minute they smashed Glenn’s head in. And I was a giant fan before then. Thanks so much for this video, I loved hearing your analysis and also learning what else happened!

[@ericfletcher8671]

Well I mean why it's what happened in the comics...What I get from walking dead fans is a fan base of whining ass babies because the story line don't fit your imagination...Look it's probably the most real in the fact people requardless of who they are die in a world like this...Damn what a bunch of babies...lol

[@Beach_flower]

@@ericfletcher8671 totally get this and you’re right! I guess I should have said, it wasn’t just that he got killed because I did know that’s what was in the comics. It was more what he described in this video about how they faked out the audience first with his death, kept stringing us along forever, and then there wasn’t some kind of twist or payoff. It was just exactly what happened in the comic and we already knew that!! I think this video does a fear job explaining why some us stopped watching.

[@svrsl7819]

​@@ericfletcher8671That's the problems with series (TWD, GoT etc.) and movie sagas (Star Wars, og Spiderman, etc.) people get so invested in this stuff that they have their own headcanon and after a certain point, won't accept what the fellas who actually come up with the stories want to show them. Prequels and TWD is a very good example for this; obviously the creators aren't perfect, but it's either worshipped or completely trashed, there is very little in between. I liked the idea for a couple of TWD spin-offs, if only for a chance that there might be some great stuff in a world which I have enjoyed up to that point.

[@IamCree]

​@@ericfletcher8671Why are you throwing a fit at a stranger online? It sounds like you're the only one acting like a baby

[@YiYi-e3y]

Glenn’s dumpster dive was the worst

[@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

[@GoblinsAreAGirlsBestFriend]

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.

[@JoshMightymouse]

Read the comics

[@redsixx669]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@zarcon42]

I quit watching a couple episodes into season 7, my reason was I was sick to death of all the ninja zombies. I remember the exact zombie. One of the characters walked by a tree they just approached from a distance, so could see all around the tree as they approached said tree. But as soon as they pass the tree a zombie comes out from what is now behind the tree. Was the final ninja zombies straw.

[@joecantina7580]

Lmfao I know exactly what scene you're talking about. I was excited to get to the whisperers from the comics, which is after Negan. Like, I get we all have off days, but the fact that anyone who survived years in that setting would ever be caught off guard like that is just wild to me.

[@divyaa4459]

You're so right! I always found it annoying when a zombie would just suddenly pop up from behind a tree or just behind a person...like they're slow af & make zombie noises, they can't just sneak up on you like that, you would notice them way before they're suddenly in your face

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@TexasTOMB]

The moment they refused to kill Negan when they had him dead to rights... that's when it went completely downhill.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@stephaniewozny3852]

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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@peterblood50]

The show crashed at the start of season 7. The brutal 'bat' deaths changed many peoples minds, including mine, about the show. Gratuitous violence isn't a valid story-telling technique to me so I turned it off and never went back. I didn't even talk about the show ever again. If people talked about it, I dropped out of the conversation as quickly as possible. I completely abandoned it during the beat-down in the first episode of season 7.

[@witchykittyy]

Exactly!! At that point there was no reason to watch anymore. We were watching violence and cruelty for no other reason than shock value, with no real story being told behind it. At that point I knew I couldn’t justify wasting my time on that show anymore waiting for it to miraculously pick itself up and become good and worth watching 7 seasons of it.

[@BAM5636]

Same. Death of characters, most of which were graphic, was part of the show. However, that was just lame torture porn. Season 7 open was the end for me and I was fully onboard from season 1 to that point.

[@WOLFYusernametaken]

I fell in love with negan right there, i loved glenn but man, the saviors were cool to me

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@danielsilva-ds2u]

For me it was season 2. I remember the trailers.... "Shes having my baby shayne" "I love her rick" You dont love her shayne" Some zombie in the background. Narrorator, "The Walking Dead" The first season was fun. Very much survival horror. After that it just became a soap opera with zombies as a secondary antagonist...all the time.

[@alexanderthedisturbing3809]

HATED the second season. Thank you

[@yeetmama]

Frank Darabont had his own show stolen from him

[@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.

[@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

[@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?

[@gplgs4640]

At over 5 million views, this video has likely informed more people that TWD ended than TWD’s ending did.

[@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

[@YtCondonesAnimalAbuse]

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]

​@@YtCondonesAnimalAbuse​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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@FflawedMetalhead]

I remember having watch parties with my friends for the first and last episodes of each season - I'd make up my living room to look like a bunker and everything - Then S7 happened. I was the last one in my group watching the show by that point, and any of them that tried to catch up just quit after a couple episodes. It felt like the show wasn't going anywhere, so I stopped too. Great vid!

[@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 💀

[@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.

[@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??"

[@the_dark_soul_of_man]

The zombie virus came from an Olympic athlete who got sick after swimming in the river Seine.

[@technobladeleakedclips1827]

Its that dude who beat up a bunch of woman

[@shayanahmed7132]

​@@technobladeleakedclips1827Fake news bro. She's actually a woman. The federation that accused ber is shady and corrupt

[@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 😂

[@aweigh1010]

@@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Diogo_7237]

@@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.

[@joeychicago6436]

Another problem is the picture DIDN'T EVOLVE. Any story, the viewer wants to see movement towards a conclusion

[@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.

[@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).

[@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

[@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!

[@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

[@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.

[@edmundduke1296]

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

[@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.

[@wisdomax2891]

lost potential always makes me so sad. and scared aswell. what if i end up creating something that could have been something incredible and now ive just wasted a good idea? what a depressing thought.

[@joecantina7580]

Don't let that stop you though! Even if it's taken in a direction others do not appreciate, don't stop yourself from creating!

[@wisdomax2891]

@@joecantina7580 thank you, i wont.

[@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.

[@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

[@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).

[@ThrobbGoblin]

Walking Dead is what would've happened to Breaking Bad if Gus secretly survived the explosion. And Mike secretly survived on the shoreline. And Hank secretly survived in the desert. And for some reason Gomez, Skylar and Ted are ousted instead. Y'know, because we need the audience to *think* that there are real stakes.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@Megacliff]

When you mentioned having to wait 7 months to get the cliffhanger answered, I had to mentally stop myself from skipping ahead in your video so as not to have to wait so long XD

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@sherede1442]

It took me months to finished the last 2 seasons. Not only were they 22 episodes a piece, I had to take a break every now and then because of how much it was pissing me off 😤 and knowing that S11 was the finale, I was so ANNOYED at how they kept creating small story lines, knowing the season had a few episodes left. Had me sitting there like, “well how are they gonna wrap this one up?!” Like having the walkers develop cognitive abilities like learning to open doors and climb gates and use rocks to break glass doors/ windows. And the constant reusing of the idiotic tropes, like being in the forest or a city and BOOM, being surrounded in mere seconds. The finale gave me a headache from the amount of times I hard eye-rolled 😒

[@WOLFYusernametaken]

I love the whole show, but the last season was indeed not as good as i hoped for and there really wasnt an ending to it

[@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)

[@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+.

[@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!

[@josephquery8752]

I was quite fond of TWD in the beginning. I was done with it after season 3. It's quite interesting to hear postmortem how things played out. This video was a great overview of TWD's decay into a shambling mess.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Kopaka-ep7ug]

A while ago I came up with a perfect ending for the show. The main cast find themselves huddled together on a dark street in the middle of a suburb. One by one, the characters are taken out by zombies until only Rick and Carl remain. Suddenly, Carl looks up and sees Rick is now a zombie too. Wearing a red jacket. The zombies break into the Thriller dance. We see zombified versions of all our favorite characters from previous seasons all together dancing as Carl looks on in horror/amusement.

[@mythicg1159]

This would be the moviest movie moment. Bravo AMC!

[@Reverse_Cat_Cowgirl]

😂 You had for a minute. I'd totally watch that.

[@chattycatty3336]

I want an ending with Carl poppa being sung 😂 that would be golden

[@LunaMortem91]

For a second I thought you were making a Forest of Hands and Teeth reference, which woulda been amazing, but this: this is the ending we needed XD

[@gRinchY-op5vr]

I now wish this had been an SNL skit, I'd actually consider that show funny for that one skit

[@rosie3408]

I left at Glen's death. I said, if they kill him, I'm out. Never went back.

[@egg4731]

I'm surprised they skipped over the backlash producers got for killing Glenn. I specifically remember everyone watching the show, seeing that Glenn died, and having a huge uproar about it and promising never to watch the show again. My whole family, cousins and all, stopped watching because they killed off Glenn. Maybe it wasn't as big as I thought it was because after briefly scrolling through the comments I see that no one else has really touched on it. I personally stopped watching after that episode because Glenn, in my opinion, was the last really enjoyable and dynamic character they had and I just did not care for the rest of the characters anymore, even the rest of the "Atlanta 5".

[@348tacos7]

I think he skipped over it because a lot of fans get annoyed with the take. But you are correct. Almost everyone in my class back in 2016 went crazy over Glenn’s death(even people who didn’t watch the show) and till this day I see comments about people who quit TWD because of it. Despite the claims that Glenn’s death needed to happen because of the comics, I still think it was handled poorly. TV Glenn was way more prominent of a character than in the comics(similar to TV Carol), and to kill him off 9 episodes after his fake out death really set some fans off. It didn’t help that Glenn’s graphic/disturbing death felt more like a trauma show and came in the premiere of a very depressing and slow season. Only to then focus on the man who killed him. The shift to focus on Negan(which many hated already) also set ppl off.

[@PhilVaive]

Yeah his death was what ruined the show for me. People keep saying "oh it happened in the comics though", but the show strayed from the comics so often that that's not an excuse. Glenn was one of the last OG characters who still resembled his former self, still had hope, and still had his original moral standing. For them to kill him off as grotesquely and brutally as they did was just so over the top that it made me stop watching immediately. And that was after two fakeouts (the one big one, and the "bashing the camera" scene where we didn't know if it was him or not).

[@Soapy-chan_old]

For me I liked it because it made Negan a big menace and Glenn kinda outlived interesting stories for him.

[@JV_535]

Rather kill Daryl.

[@vh4355]

Yup. The episode where Glen died was the last one I watched. For a main character that had survived through so much, it was a wasteful death.

[@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.

[@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.)

[@iudexslade7855]

"I'm Negan, and i fed him spaghetti" killed me. I want more edits like that.

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@jonpeterson242]

When they started wearing cheesy ass paintball armor... And going on quests for projector bulbs.

[@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

[@crod9905]

This show had so much going for it because it did two important things I have rarely seen recreated in other shows. 1. It killed off important characters but also introduced new interesting characters the audience liked. When other shows get rid of beloved characters, they usually fail at replacing them so that's what leads to people rage-quitting. 2. It had a diverse cast of characters that were usually well-written and didn't fall into stereotypes. None of the diversity felt shoehorned it or like it was trying to score brownie points. It felt natural because it reflected the world we live in and would encounter during the apocalypse.

[@darkwoods1954]

By the end it lost all those things. It stopped killing off characters like they all had plot armor and the new characters introduced were dull and boring. The diversity started to feel a lot more forced and token too in the last few seasons.

[@gloobery]

​@@darkwoods1954rosita joins the chat

[@deckzone3000]

@@darkwoods1954 You're telling me characters that have survived a zombie apocalypse for 9 years should die at the same rate apocalypse newbies should?

[@lapatti]

​@@deckzone3000 love the term "apocalypse newbie" lol

[@darkwoods1954]

@@deckzone3000 It would help keep the tension higher and feel like their are actual stakes still.

[@FlowerKnight2]

The show died for me when Carl was killed off, and it was buried in a shallow grave when Rick became absent.

[@LikeARollingStone88]

Blahhhh hahahahhahhhaa........Ikr?

[@margarethmichelina5146]

And in the comic, Carl survived till the end.

[@silentecho92able]

@@margarethmichelina5146 Like why didn't they just replace Carl with an older actor they were planning to do a what a 10 year time skip or something. Carl was still alive in the comic, and the show would still work with him taking on the mantle as leader moving forward.

[@zgama6511]

If that pisses you off you should look into why they did it 😂

[@zgama6511]

​​@@silentecho92able that wasn't the issue they didn't wanna pay Chandler Riggs an adult actors pay bc at the time he had recently turned 18 plus they were obsessed with shock value deaths. I mean Carl's the perfect point bc the guy he fucking dies for gets a shock value death not even 2 seasons later in the dumbest way possible after ruining his character and not having him do anything to make Carl's death feel the tiniest bit worthwhile. The dude doesn't even help in the saviors war he's a medic kind of but we barely see him when a lead since season fucking 1 died saving him it feels so disrespectful to Carl's character. Yeah after years of the apocalypse literally growing up in the worst conditions possible multiple wars and gunfights and he gets bitten fighting 3 walkers saving a dumbass that randomly for the sake of plot gets PTSD (when he's seen far worse things than what supposedly gives him PTSD) and dies not even 2 seasons later without contributing anything to the overall story. Edit: also sadik (idfc how it's spelled) is the only character to have this sort of reaction in the show so it feels so fucking out of place to have him be so deeply traumatized (when he's seen people torn apart and eaten while still alive) even if it is realistic which it's not he's been through worse and never was traumatized from it before so now suddenly why is the deaths of like idk 9 people only one of which he knew on a friendly level affecting him? (I can't fucking remember the show couldn't even bother killing off noteworthy characters for this so I genuinely can't even remember who or how many died here all I know is Ezekiel was supposed to and instead was randomly given cancer and delegated to a useless side character for the final season)

[@shannonmitchell167]

This shows downfall started with the arrival of Negan. Carl's killing was a plot point in order to keep that dude around. Bc hadn't that happened? Rick and/or Maggie woulda killed him at the end of the s8.

[@danielbold6167]

And Negan gets to outlive the most respectable characters after that. Very dumb. If they kill off Carl, which WASN'T faithful to the comics, why let Negan live? The writers were just trolling tf out of us 😂

[@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.

[@mauldin128]

From the 1st episode it felt like we were following the struggles of Rick and what life would be like. So when Rick left so did I.

[@el3ndir97]

Amen bruh Also i didnt like that walkers turned to comical sunday villains

[@mysteryace2129]

I left After 4 episodes of season 2. Came back to give it another chance but left after season 3 when my suspicions were confirmed. This show became rudderless after season 1 and each season exposed how badly it was drifting. Rick's character died and became a hypocrite after season 1 and he became a terrible character in season 2 and 3. Repeating the same mistakes, blaming others, tried to be heartless, then gave some Moral pep hooray talk to try to get the group's trust again while alleviating his guilty conscience. It was unbearable to watch.

[@tempest3927]

​@@mysteryace2129 Rick wasn't a hypocrite

[@tempest3927]

​@@mysteryace2129 he killed those who needed to be to protect himself nothing to lessen his morality he didn't kill those who weren't a threat to him

[@micahrichey6034]

for me as a comic reader the whole story for me was carls tale so when he left i left

[@palladiamorsdeus]

Glenn and Carl's death were two major issues I had and for similar reasons. By the point of Glenn's death they had already deviated from the graphic novel to the point where killing one of the shows most charismatic characters felt more like they were trying to prove a point they shouldn't have. Then they follow it up with CARLS death, which never happened in the novels. The writers couldn't pick a lane and the end result just made me angry.

[@Fackunator]

@palantiri6590 it should've been Daryl. I get that Glenn was "the first offender" but it really should've been Daryl... though Glenn's death really serves a whole lot more to the overall story

[@teo2975]

I still recall one of the producers saying they were upset that the show had so many guns, and they were going to reduced that. Yet the main threats were always other humans and in that case being armed with firearm was the only credible depiction To have people walking around where they could meet and be (and usually were) threatemented by other humans and be just carrying a spear gun, knife or a slingshot was beyond absurd. Oh and there are 550 million guns and one third of a TRILLION rounds of ammunition owned by civilians in the US so they wood not have run out.

[@LuciferMorningstar-zu1ud]

Yup. I literally stopped watching when Glenn died. That was the last episode I watched. I'm NGL Glenn's death hit so hard I was genuinely shocked and hurt. It was insane that a fictional characters death affected me that much, actually at all in real life. Goes to show you the impact the characters, and show overall had on viewers

[@Violaphobia]

It's asinine to argue "it happened in the comics"; nobody cares so long as the show is good, which it wasn't. Carls death was sudden and cheap, and surprised audiences with how little his story added up to. if it was 100% faithful to the source material it would still be shit.

[@justincase4812]

Down fall? The show was milked for all it was worth. Should have been over after 5 seasons.😂

[@Zuranthus]

if you made it past season 3 you got a pretty strong tolerance level

[@powwowken2760]

The problem I've always had with shows "where anyone can die" is that it leads me to simply stop getting invested in any of the characters.

[@Donnerbalken28]

Yes but TWD started to do it at random. Even the latter half of Game of Thrones saw character deaths that at least did make some sense and had their reasons (even if the context of the reasons made no sense). What i mean by that is that all the major deaths at least were plausible because characters had manuerved themselves into situations where death was certain and the common demoninator of the survivors was that they were smart enough to avoid these pitfalls. Stannis is the exception that confirms this rule. TWD just killed its characters for absolutely no reason with no foreshadowing that they might be headed this way. People rooted for Robb Stark because he was the heroic leader of the resistance, but with people like Tyvin (best character ever) and Cersei running the political landscape the Red Wedding was hardly surprising, increasing the impact of his death. GoT Season 8 rubbed a lot of people wrong because D&D made it abundantly clear that they were over this show (why they never handed over showrunning duties to someone else is beyond me though) and rushed the ending, bending the characters around the plot, not the other way around, like it was in Seasons 1 to 4. I myself could not really watch TWD to begin with, as i started noticing the show triggering my anxieties (entirely unrelated to the plot, i just have a generalized anxiety disorder), so i only read the summarizations of the plot and thought to myself how dumb this whole story sounded. Parts of it started to sound like a parody of itself, like a Telenovela with hardcore violence involved.

[@BearlyAwake13]

@@Donnerbalken28 Just curious because it's been a while and I've forgotten a lot from GoT, but how is Stannis the exception?

[@Donnerbalken28]

@@BearlyAwake13 Because Stannis decisions become increasingly illogical from Season 3 onwards. The same guy who defended his disfigured daughter against her delusional mother by any means, the same guy who believed so strongly on the rule of law that He aspired to take a crown He didn't want suddenly devolved into a bumbling Idiot who sacrifices his daughter and alienates his Soldiers? Come on now.

[@BearlyAwake13]

@@Donnerbalken28 oh yeah, that makes sense. Thank you so much for answering!

[@megkrish7568]

@@Donnerbalken28 It made sense tho, we know he was into believing supernatural stuff and whatever the red lady was saying from season 2. When he became desperate to win with little options, his soldiers dying around him, the logic he had from making those stupid decisions based on it flew out the window

[@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😂.

[@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.

[@2them0onandback]

Wow - This video was incredibly fascinating and very well made. This series started airing when I was a kid, and therefore wasn’t allowed to watch it, my parents did though. (I knew I had to leave the room, when they watched ‘the zombie show’). So, when I finally watched this series for the first time in my life, I had thoughts and feelings about it. Just two weeks ago, I finished my 9-month-long binge, of TWD in its entirety. I forget that this show aired on television, weekly, and can’t imagine having to wait through some of those cliffhangers. I was genuinely shocked (and pissed) at the season 6 finale, and I was able to watch the next episode, immediately! This video does a great job at demonstrating how this show had the world in the palm of its hand-coming from someone who wasn’t there for the glory days. A lot of the criticisms presented in the video, (the boomerang pacing, fake-out deaths, the ‘finale’ not being a finale) are ones I can agree with. I believe the only reason why I was able to briefly look past these issues, was because I was binge watching the show rather than a weekly occurrence. TV simply isn’t what it used to be in the early 2000s-2010s, and it’s disheartening to think that ‘the glory days of TWD’ are left in the past; and likely won’t ever be replicated, no matter what the show actually is. People don’t do watch parties, or reaction videos anymore, which seems like a huge part as to why TWD cultivated such a huge fanbase; the community.

[@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

[@3RAN7ON]

After Glenn's fake death it was a huge shocker to me when he died after Abraham at the start of season 7. All the fans were led to believe only 1 person would die by Negan, we waited months and then watched Abraham die there is a bit of a sigh of relief and then out of nowhere Glenn gets it too. I was shook

[@levithirsk5447]

his comic book death was far better. i felt cheap fthem to just kill him the same way as glenn.

[@Meister_Wiku]

Reading the comments before the video. S07 was the last season I watched. I switched back in in season 10 or so, just out of curiosity. I couldn't believe my eyes, when one of the first persons I saw was Neagan. I was like: Why T he F is he still alive? And is he with Michonne? and raising Ricks daughter? o_O I just switched off again, for good. Never saw a second of the show again. Very interested i this video.

[@levithirsk5447]

@@Meister_Wiku yeah in the comics negan does reform, and becomes a big role in the comics sort an anti hero🤷🏼‍♂️ he’s still hated but does things that are necessary despite the hate he gets, the show did him dirty as fuck.

[@Meister_Wiku]

@@levithirsk5447 I also read that they didn't really followed a few of the character stories from the comics. Never read the comics. Somewhat glad about it. I guess I would dislike the show even more. I'm also glad that I stopped after season 7. Wasn't that bad at that point, but totally lost interest in the show. Just finished the video, man oh man, I totally forgot about the boomerang episodes, hated it so much.

[@levithirsk5447]

@@Meister_Wiku comics are still worth a read way more gritty and dark, good the whole way through.

[@DLibera]

You're spot on with the analysis. I did, in fact started zoning out after Glenn died. I vaguely remember watching season 7, but after Carl was killed off, I stopped watching completely. It wasn't even a rage-quit. The show became so boring I couldn't be bother to watch it anymore. Contrast that to my sister and I breaking a bed from jumping on it while screaming during one of the prison episodes.

[@aaliyahcharisse5123]

Season 7 almost lost me too because of how boring it was but it picked back up in season 8 in my opinion

[@yes8807]

Ngl S7 was the only season I considered "boring"

[@charleslindeman2169]

I went from having to give the show my entire attention, to only being able to watch it while multi-tasking, to having it on in a window while at low volume while watching something else and barely knowing it was even still on. I vaguely remember the beta guy dying, and the bike lady, but that's kind of it.

[@OizenX]

There was like some sort of narrative finality to killing Carl that told me "this show isn't going to get good again". I wasn't mad about him dying either, it was just more slow, boring dribble.

[@DLibera]

@@OizenX Exactly this... Carl wasn't my favorite character by any means, by it was narrative bullshit to kill him off.

[@bassybgaming3388]

This video could be a 5-second "Carls death" because after I heard why he was killed off, that's all i can think about going further into the show now