Why did The Walking Dead Deteriorate its Quality?

It is clear that, despite its high and low points , The Walking Dead marked a before and after in the television industry . Released for the first time in 2010, throughout its more than 10 seasons it sought to adapt the successful comic created by Robert Kirkman, generating an apocalyptic world of zombies that captivated viewers.

The truth is that The Walking Dead became a true cultural phenomenon. However, with the passage of time, the original series suffered a wear and tear in quality, which led to the announcement that season number 11 will be the final , although it will later be expanded through spin offs. That is, alternative stories that will complement the base story. Although, this does not mean that the original series does not continue: it is the opposite.

Recently, the teaser for the final season of the zombie series was released. Season 11 will arrive on August 23 and fans are looking forward to a dignified closure , which improves on what has been seen before. Against this panorama, we decided to find out what happened so that The Walking Dead "has lowered the quality" and could never recover as in its first seasons.

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Why did The Walking Dead drop its quality so much?

To speak of The Walking Dead today is to mention its decadence. The drop in the audience seemed to occur almost constantly from the sixth season , although the numbers continued to be favorable to keep it alive.

The story of Rick Grimes and company, to some extent, lost impact after a while. The first seasons portrayed the fear that walkers represented after a zombie apocalypse. Therefore, the plot was focused on the losses that occurred, at the same time that human conflicts for survival occurred.

However, as the characters gained more power, viewers perceived that the threat from the walkers "was not such." In reality, the highest points of the series were in its first 5 seasons . We must remember that this series, although it took its licenses, was based on the comics.

Although many characters, conflicts and stories differed, the first seasons were based on human conflict. In the first stage, the virus seemed to be given context through an interesting laboratory, something that was original and not taken from the comics. For the second, there were some fillers, but they gave rise to the history of the prison of the third, with iconic characters such as Michonne or the Governor, which was very different from the one in the comics , although it achieved a good acceptance.

While the conflict dragged on for longer than was appropriate, the surprise came in season 5: a group of cannibals who were well explored , even more so than in the comics. The problem lay in the wait afterwards, since any reader would know that one of the most iconic villains of the series was about to arrive: Negan.

The problem arose from its inclusion. At the time, the AMC itself blamed Negan for the loss of the audience , because, in the lapse between the cannibals and their appearance, there were many expectations for the character … but they were not met.

However, after that season, it was downhill. The resolution of the problem occurred in an incongruous way , stretching the plot with the group of the Saviors too much. While Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance lived up to expectations, the story and the conflicts seemed to be repetitive and without much rationale.

At one point, it became a series that I didn't know what series it wanted to be. Although the plot was attractive (a post-apocalyptic world where there is a threat in every sector), the producers believed that the story, being immersed in that context, could be told by itself … but it was not.

Precisely, The Walking Dead had to end because the art of stretching the gum was already noticeable. That is, neglecting the plot to lengthen as much as possible and ration the confrontation until the last moment, where the "filling" made us realize that the danger only occurred on certain occasions, until it became repetitive .

Hence, The Walking Dead appeared to be a victim of its own accomplishments , which allowed it to dig its own grave. Having a huge fandom, they neglected the narrative and relaxed, exploiting the success and ending the patience of the viewers. It will be necessary to see if the last season maintains the logic of the first ones, but the truth is that they have lost part of the essence.