The Walking Dead veered heavily into being about the main characters surviving the threat of any living person/group they encountered. Much more so than the threat of the walkers, who most of the time just came across like they were inconvenience to the main characters rather than a constantly looming fear.

 

I kind of wish that The Walking Dead hadn't totally abandoned the concept of them trying to find a cure. This was touched on in Season 1 (although that was a very different show to what it ended up becoming), and I seem to remember that Eugene's introduction was based on him fooling people into believing he could find a cure? I'm a bit rusty on the details there.

 

So really, each season felt like a rinse and repeat of the previous one. The main characters either came across an immediately hostile group, or across a seemingly friendly group who had sinister things going on that would eventually be discovered (and the leaders would almost always be baddies). The result of these storylines would always be the same too... the main characters would bring about the downfall of that settlement, and then they would have to relocate, or rebuild their lives from scratch. It became very predictable.

 

To be fair there were aspects of the final that did touch me

Rosita's death, mainly!!

or were quite enjoyable

the hospital scenes felt like a callback to the first episode - I kind of wish more of the episode had been dedicated to the hospital becoming increasingly hellish and them finding it difficult to leave it - and probably a couple more character deaths during these scenes to really increase the tension and danger

. There were some great action sequences, however

their plan to blow up the estates and exterminate all the zombies was just too easy as a resolution, I don't think that was particularly feasible. So the walkers were all gathered into that area just as the record ended? How convenient! The explosion looked cool but I feel like it was ultimately cheap writing. Also it felt jarring that after this, the surviving characters were safe in a big house and able to have a feast.

 

 

I've stuck with the show to the very end, and it's certainly been a journey... a rather frustrating one in recent seasons. The show could have been so much more than it ended up being. There were some fantastic episodes (mostly found in the first few seasons), but an incredibly large number of filler episodes too. Honestly I'm kind of relieved it's over, however... in a way it's not really over. That finale wasn't really a finale. There's the unfinished business with Rick and Michonne. I know they have a spinoff, but maybe we should have been left wondering about them for the time being, rather than their circumstances being teased.

 

I'm feeling cautious to commit to the spin offs and might wait to see what the reaction is to them. I think I'll watch the Rick/Michonne spinoff because I want to see how things end for those characters. On paper, the Maggie/Negan spinoff might be fun given that it's set in New York city (I often enjoyed city based episodes in The Walking Dead) however I'm not a particularly big fan of these characters so... the jury's out on that one. Really not sure about bothering with the Daryl spinoff, hmm!

 

Some other things:

 

 

I'm wondering how Lydia could possibly survive having her arm chopped off with no apparent way of cauterising her wound. She would have lost so much blood, but ultimately she just came across like she was a bit under the weather! :lol:

 

The other death in the finale, Luke, who succumbed rather quickly to his injuries - quite a lot of time was spent on this. The thing is, Luke had been missing from the show for a while, and was never really a main character when he was more prominent. So even though I know he had history with Magna, Yumiko, Connie and Kelly, and they'd understandably be distraught, as a viewer I ultimately felt it was a bit hollow, and I felt disconnected from it. If it had been any of those ladies who'd died instead, that would have been something to be upset about!

 

I think the finale suffered from there not being enough deaths actually. Obviously characters such as Daryl, Carol, Maggie and Negan have plot armour on at all times, but there's loads of other characters that I felt could have died in order to really raise the tension of how dire their situation was. For instance Lydia's boyfriend (who was a very undeveloped character anyway) or maybe Jerry for more of an emotional shock death.

 

I’m just rewatching series 2 at the moment and it has some of the finest episodes of the show in ‘Pretty Much Dead Already’ the cinematography is unbelievable in the episodes shocking ending, then the wonderful moral discussion and shocking conclusion to my favourite ever episode ‘Judge Jury Executioner’ and the wonderful show down between Shane & Rick then the finale as the shit hits the fan in ‘Beyond the Dying Fire’. Just brilliant!

I watched the first few series of this and utterly loved it but I agree with Jay it became very much a rinse and repeat thing and I got bored of it. I gave up around the whole Negan bit. My husband has followed it through to the bitter end though bless him.

 

EDIT: Wow just looked it up and Negan came into the show in season 6! Never realised I stuck it out that long! :o

Edited July 28, 2024Jul 28 by spiceboy

Yeh it became very GOT with the NEGAN/Saviours arc but the NEGAN intro was prob its peak!

I met

 

Cailey Fleming (Judith)

David Morrissey (The Governor)

Lennie James (Morgan)

Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha)

Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori)

 

At Comic Con Manchester at the weekend. All (especially Cailey and Sonequa) were absolutely lovely and SO engaging :wub: David remembered my friend from when he met him a couple of years back so that delighted him :lol:

EDIT - Double post.

Edited July 31, 2024Jul 31 by Jαsє

I met

 

Cailey Fleming (Judith)

David Morrissey (The Governor)

Lennie James (Morgan)

Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha)

Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori)

 

At Comic Con Manchester at the weekend. All (especially Cailey and Sonequa) were absolutely lovely and SO engaging :wub: David remembered my friend from when he met him a couple of years back so that delighted him :lol:

 

Didn’t realise they all still did them events for it!!

The spin off series with Daryl Dixon and Dead City are coming or are on Sky Max now.