@browneyedgirl1973 said:

Couldn't have said it better myself. Season six is when it really started going downhill for me and season seven was just horribly boring (in my opinion of course). And here we are three episodes in to season eight and still nothing has happened. I'm so bored of this show. The only reason I hang around and watch is because I'm still kind of hoping the writers will get this show back on track to how it used to be but I feel like I'm in for more disappointment. Oh well..........I thought the first few seasons were great but this show has definitely run its course. Just painful to watch anymore.

I agree its like we know no one of significance will get killed off until either mid season finale or the season finale. its so predictable at this point. so they'll just keep stretching it out until then with filler.

@Kylopod said:

even the most recent death of Sheba wasn't nearly as impactful as it was in the comic

As a non-comic reader, it just felt to me like the silly death of a silly character I didn’t care about. *Back when Carol first meets the “king” in the last season, her baffled reaction, where she scarcely can believe this guy is for real, seemed like she was channeling the feelings of the audience. * LOL yeah when they showed that in the upcoming season trailer I actually thought that was an outake of her

@DRDMovieMusings said:

Thus far, it appears consensus is tending towards all being well in TWD up to end of season 4.

Since then, we've had shots taken at each subsequent season, and most at season 7.

I'm really appreciating all of your contributions to this conversation. I did like this show, I like it less now, and I was trying to put my finger on why.

Now, what baffles me is, if we audience can see/feel the difference, why can't the writers/actors? We seem to know what we like, why don't they?

Let's get Rick, Daryl, Carol, Maggie, Michonne and Carl back together. We know Tara is down with us. Bring along Ezekiel if he'll tone down the grandiose rhetoric; Morgan if he can keep his shit together (because, after all, Morgan was the first one to lend Rick a hand, even before Glenn); Aaron's down with us; and heck, even Jesus, if he can get his head straight. Just get the gang back together to kick some ass, settle things down, and build a life of peace for the group.

All together now... They Down With Us. .

Yeah, I'll go along with that. If only we can get rid of that nasty prick Negan.

A bit of a tangent, but one thing occurred to me as a factor in how we view the different seasons. Speaking personally, Season 2 was one of my favorites. But I seem to be in the minority in this; a lot of fans complain that it suffered from Darabont’s departure, that it was too slow-paced, that it got bogged down in the endless episodes in which the group is searching for Carol’s daughter.

But there’s one thing I ought to mention. I didn’t watch that season during its original run on AMC. I binged it, several years later, on Netflix. So all those subplots that seemed to take forever to those who could only watch one episode per week went fairly rapidly for me.

And now, being caught up with the show and watching the new seasons little by little, my central feeling is one of boredom and frustration. Season 8 thus far is to me just a monotony of endless gunfights without much of anything interesting happening at all, not even character development. I have no doubt the show isn’t what it once was, but I wonder how much my perspective is affected by the way I’ve watched it.

I never watched LOST when it started. My brother had the first 3 seasons on DVD..I binged watch it and loved it. Then I watched the laste few seasons on network. Your right the boredom and frustration quicklt set in. I did the same thing with Dexter and Breaking Bad...When I had to wait a week for the next show was very frustating.

@Kylopod said:

A bit of a tangent, but one thing occurred to me as a factor in how we view the different seasons. Speaking personally, Season 2 was one of my favorites. But I seem to be in the minority in this; a lot of fans complain that it suffered from Darabont’s departure, that it was too slow-paced, that it got bogged down in the endless episodes in which the group is searching for Carol’s daughter.

AMC ripped the guts out of the budget, Darabont fired the writers and hired Glen Mazzara to bring in new ones (he settled on buddies, rather than talent) and then AMC fired Darabont. As a consequence, the series collapsed in the 2nd season as dramatically as a truck-load of pianos going over a cliff. It was rebuilt on the soap melodrama model favored by Mazzara, the zombie apocalypse was written out of the series and the IQ of every element of it took up permanent residence on the lower end of the bell curve. Awful. Although the 3rd was arguably even worse.

But there’s one thing I ought to mention. I didn’t watch that season during its original run on AMC. I binged it, several years later, on Netflix. So all those subplots that seemed to take forever to those who could only watch one episode per week went fairly rapidly for me.

I've long had a theory--one I can obviously never test myself--that watching TWD like this the first time would make season 2 worse, because, among other things, it would really bring out the contradictions, embarrassingly poor "characterization" and mind-numbing repetition--the same scenes, moments, dialogue repeated, repeated, repeated. The monotony, boredom, frustration you're experiencing now is the same as everyone who has watched it in real time has been experiencing for nearly the whole of TWD's run. All along, it has had a large cadre of die-hard fans who would defend it no matter how bad it got. All that's been happening in more recent years is that the show has battered down the audience to the point that they're now starting to be outnumbered by those who are sick of it (something I see everywhere the show is discussed).

@Raymondoz2007 said:

I never watched LOST when it started. My brother had the first 3 seasons on DVD..I binged watch it and loved it. Then I watched the laste few seasons on network. Your right the boredom and frustration quicklt set in. I did the same thing with Dexter and Breaking Bad...When I had to wait a week for the next show was very frustating.

Haven't seen those others but BREAKING BAD was one of the great week-to-week shows. They were great at pacing and great at cliffhangers. It helped that they were great at everything else too. BETTER CALL SAUL is almost as good.

@Kylopod said:

A bit of a tangent, but one thing occurred to me as a factor in how we view the different seasons. Speaking personally, Season 2 was one of my favorites. But I seem to be in the minority in this; a lot of fans complain that it suffered from Darabont’s departure, that it was too slow-paced, that it got bogged down in the endless episodes in which the group is searching for Carol’s daughter.

But there’s one thing I ought to mention. I didn’t watch that season during its original run on AMC. I binged it, several years later, on Netflix. So all those subplots that seemed to take forever to those who could only watch one episode per week went fairly rapidly for me.

And now, being caught up with the show and watching the new seasons little by little, my central feeling is one of boredom and frustration. Season 8 thus far is to me just a monotony of endless gunfights without much of anything interesting happening at all, not even character development. I have no doubt the show isn’t what it once was, but I wonder how much my perspective is affected by the way I’ve watched it.

I binged watched TWD seasons 1-4 then watched the rest when the episodes aired week by week and still loved Seasons 5 and 6. I couldn’t wait for Mondays (UK) and with every episode I was glued. Season 7 changed for me. The first ep was the only good one then went rapidly downhill, I also felt let down that they made us wait to find out who died as if they thought we can get plenty of viewers for the Season 7 opener. We would have still tuned in so that was a slap in the face to us fans. I was still glued but I could feel the show was losing me. Then now with this absolutely terrible Season 8, I’m watching the show while browsing the internet or playing games. For a person to go from watching the show with no interruptions and now to having it just playing in the background, says a lot. Ep 4 S8 was ok but what is with the constant shooting and NOTHING getting hit including the car windows. It’s rediculous.

Well stated, Michelle. WD has been relegated from must see viewing, drop everything, to I'll watch when I get a chance. I just watched the latest episode last night. That would never have happened in any previous season. And then what did we get? More hails of bullets, more trite inspirational speaches and heavy focus on Ezekiel, probably my least favorite character.

I think a lot of people have to die soon. theres way too many characters now to even care.

@jonnieblack said:

WD has been relegated from must see viewing, drop everything, to I'll watch when I get a chance. I just watched the latest episode last night. That would never have happened in any previous season.

I can beat that - I haven't watched any of this season at all! And that's after pretty much religiously following it from the start. Last season was enough - I'm just going to wait until it's finished and binge watch, skipping through the garbage filler episodes...

I do agree with some of the earlier comments re the limited scope this show has to work with though:- Maybe it would have been better served to have a clean break from the comics earlier on and played that CDC storyline out differently - perhaps after a contained number of seasons a cure could have been found and we could have had an interesting finale seeing how the characters adapted to fitting back into "normal" society.

As it is, it seems doomed to just continue playing the same cycle out over and over until it finally gets cancelled with no one left caring, which sems a shame.

I am sad to say this show should come to a end . breaking bad ws as so good because it seemed like a 50 hour movie. It seem like it was 1 good story with a ending, It had the starting story, the middle and then a final ending story. Its time for the writers to start with the ending story. It should start the ending halfway through next season then end it 2 years from now.

Last season the show definitely jumped the shark when Glen died horribly and Negan was introduced.

Glen dumpster hiding then a long break to see if he survives was the moment it turned bad for me. Mostly because I actually thought he died at first I hadn't heard the rumours yet. I actually had an emotional response to his death and because of that I thought it was a great send off. Then to have it be a red herring completely ruined the genuine reaction I had to him dying. That's when I really turned against this show. To me he was dead! it was a huge shock and I began to accept it. The fact I could have an emotional response for a tv character said a lot about that character and the show then. To make it into a fake out was just the worst idea they ever could have had... then to really kill him after all that, well just FU writers, FU! By the time they really killed him I was just frustrated and felt like 'whatever' I don't care. They should have done the dumpster to another character that we never would have thought was supposed to die by Negans hands or just let him die then and there. Or Negan could have killed somebody else other than Glen. If it was Maggie that would have been an interesting twist. They ruined it for me big time. The writers on this don't know how to do pacing, tension or write believable decisions for the characters to make, then they go ahead and mess with the audience because they actually have no idea of what they're doing, it just sucks!!

@Movie Queen41 said:

Last season the show definitely jumped the shark when Glen died horribly and Negan was introduced.

Nah. It was long before that. For me it was around the time of side episode beginnings, a la Tara/Governor, Daryl/Beth solo episodes.