Over the course of eight seasons, however, the cast of characters around him has expanded so much that this need to tie every element of the story to this character’s personal growth has become an anchor in the worst sense of the word.
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He was the hero in the first episode, and unless something radical happens, he’ll carry on through to the series finale. Look, The Walking Dead‘s always going to be “the Rick Grimes Story,” first and foremost.
The writers – like their characters – have too much faith in Rick. So why have the last two seasons been such a grim slog overall? So what the hell happened? On any given week, The Walking Dead is still capable of delivering episodes that are gripping, emotional and provocative. A once-deafening buzz is now more of a low, exasperated moan. The ratings have dropped steadily from a Season Five peak of around 15 million per episode.
#The walking dead season 8 episode 1 length tv
Several high-profile TV columnists have quit writing about TWD altogether. All that has changed, ever since the grueling, depressing Season Seven premiere – you know, the one where Negan bludgeoned the beloved characters Abraham and Glenn to death. For its first six seasons, The Walking Dead grew its viewership from year to year while critics griped about the pacing or questioned some iffy story-points, they generally regarded the show as a must-see. In fact, even as show-runner Scott Gimple steps aside for his successor Angela Kang, the producers are still talking in terms of five-year plans, not endgames.īut let’s be frank: The series is clearly in decline. There have been no rumors of cancellation. As a business, The Walking Dead‘s doing just fine, thanks. In this day and age, those are hit numbers – especially on basic cable, where dramas like The Americans can run for years and rarely top a million viewers per episode. (Whether his “desserts” are “just,” of course, is a matter of opinion.) will have seen the man with the bat get his just desserts. And if the ratings hold steady with the show’s recent average, by the time repeats and DVRs are factored in, around 10 million people in the U.S. It was a rare moment of triumph, in the middle of an epic saga that’s usually about human beings murdering each other while they’re running away from zombies. Last night, the eighth season of AMC’s The Walking Dead wrapped up its year-long “All Out War” storyline with a finale where our longstanding hero Rick Grimes led his people to victory over Negan & Co.