The Walking Dead has died on April 15, 2018 at the age of eight years old. It is survived by Fear the Walking Dead and is preceded in death by all the zombie related media before it.
The Walking Dead started on Halloween in 2010, where viewers were given a promising six episode story arc showcasing a man waking up to a world of the undead hellbent to find his family. With the odds heavily stacked against this man, he eventually finds his family, but learns that he and everyone he loves is infected. When they die, they will also turn to become the undead. This man, his family, and a few other survivors are "The Walking Dead". The end...
...Wait, this isn't a movie where the story ends here, this is a television show and the story can continue on. What will happen to this man and the rest of the survivors? Nothing good.
They found a farm, and then it was destroyed. Friends were lost or separated.
They found a prison, and then it was destroyed. Friends were lost or separated.
They found a town, and then it was destroyed. Friends were lost or separated.
After eight years, the black and white of good and evil has bled into gray. The story of moral ambiguity will continue on, but it will so do minus one viewer.
As a viewer, I was emotionally involved with the characters that I cared - characters that the writers took the time to write well and make us care about. The threat of their passing along with their mission to survive made for interesting television.
The telltale sign finally came to me in season 8 when I realized that I was no longer emotionally involved with the show. This came in the form of the death of a first season character, the son of the man from the very beginning was killed off pointlessly. He was bit. He was bit by a zombie. That's all. In this post apocalyptic world where it's man against man, the threat of the undead is treated as a footnote.
The show has forgotten itself and therefore keeps reinventing itself. It's stuck in a loop, repeating the same themes and similar beats, while the characters take turns either being the fire that leads them to victory, or the reason they fail because of very bad and poor decisions that only serve them and not their survival.
It has been forgotten by most that the characters are already dead so there is no point in fighting. The philosophy of season 8 is that they don't need to fight; they need to work together. That's never going to happen. That's not interesting. Conflict is interesting. Killing off characters the audience hates is interesting. Unfortunately, I've lost interest in the writing, the story, and the characters that I'm supposed to care about.
The time has come to walk away. I finally feel comfortable in doing so and I will invest my time in media where storylines are well written and characters are valued, non hypocritical, and true to their nature from season to season.
