SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to try to stay away from spoilers but in the nature of critiquing a show with more than 1 season it's hard to not give up some info so I will try to only spoil minor things.
The Walking Dead is a horror/drama series that begun airing on AMC in 2010, 4 years later and we now await the 5th season coming in October. Firstly, let me just say that I am a fan of the show and though at times it may seem like I'm trashing the show, I do actually enjoy it, I realize every show can't be Breaking Bad.
The Good: Pretty much everything you've heard, the action, the characters, it's all there. The point of this op-ed is more to discuss what I believe is wrong with the show. That being said, the acting, overall, is pretty good, the directing for each episode is top-notch as well. The writing is decent, some episodes are phenomenal and some episodes fall flat. The kills are pretty sweet for the most part too and you can see the evolution of the kills from season 1 onward as the show became more popular. Lastly, season 1 is the best and most complete season of the series.
Best Characters: Michonne, Glenn, The Governor, Hershel and Daryl
The Bad: Season 2 really started the negatives of the show. Season 2 is pretty boring, they find this ranch/farm thing and stay there for the entire season with not much action in between. Season 3 picks it up and even though they spend the majority of it at one location, it has more interest as it bounces between 2 groups of characters that both hold episodes by themselves. Season 4 now is much more like season 2 than 3, The problem with season 4 especially is that they center everything around the midseason and season finale; so much so that outside of those 2 episodes it doesn't ever feel like the main characters are in real danger, even faced with a horde of zombies surrounding them, at most a relatively insignificant recurring character will die at most. The problem with this is that the other 14 episodes of the show become boring.
Character Development: The character development or lack thereof leaves little to be desired. Firstly, the main character, Rick Grimes is the same person he's been since the tragic event of the 3rd season, the only change he's gone through is he's become less insane. Rick's son Carl went from being a likable kid, to a dumbass kid, to a prick, back to a likable teen and currently he's returning to his prickish ways. The most character development we have is from Michonne who oddly enough is the newest main character in the group. To Daryl, I know, if he dies we riot, everyone loves him, me included. Daryl is a badass, straight up, with his crossbow of death and pretty much Superman level invincibility at this point. That being said, Daryl got some much needed character development which for me at least, saved the character from being a run of the mill badass. The Governor, although hated in the show as expected since he's the main villain for about a season and a half, gets a pretty good amount of development in a short time. He's one of the most interesting characters of the show.
The Kills: Not the zombie kills no, I'm talking about a character dying. (SPOILER ALERT, Obviously some information is gonna leak out of this but I'm going to try to keep it as spoiler free as possible.) I'll give the show some credit for killing off some of it's main characters, it's not to the level of Game of Thrones but still, the show has some balls. For those of you who have watched all 4 seasons, how many times has the show actually shocked you with who they've killed? Off the top of my head I can think of 3 times that I truly was like "holy shit, I can't believe that just happened". Outside of that, whoever died was someone who was a reasonably large character but who wasn't essential. It's like the writers polled the audience to find out who the largest character was who wasn't universally loved and they killed that person off. The show gets credit for killing people off but in my opinion it gets just a little too much credit.
Overall: So far we've had a perfect season (season 1), a pretty good season (season 3), 1 solid season (season 4) and 1 pretty boring season (seasons 2), which puts it at 65%. The show isn't a 6.5/10 though, for me it's about a 7/10 though season 5 is looking like a make or break season for me, especially since an interview with the executive producer had him state that they want to keep the show running through season 12. I for one can't imagine bringing these characters and this story arc through another 7 seasons and still being fully enjoyable, very few shows last that long and keep the same level of quality throughout.
How to Fix TWD: The most radical option yet possibly the most effective is to kill Rick. His development has pretty much run out and he's kinda just there now. After that I would return to the more survival aspect of it with Michonne and Daryl at the helm carrying the show. A less radical option is to pull a Breaking Bad and have the creator/writers/producers say before season 6 that the 6th season will be the final season and let all hell break lose for 16 episodes. Pretty much, The Walking Dead should end, it was the first of its kind when it comes to horror-ish shows. It had plenty of violence and got huge which opened the door for a lot of shows, some good (The Strain) and some terrible looking ones that are coming to Syfy this year. The show needs to end so that another network can get together and try to improve on it. That being said, I believe The Walking Dead is probably the best zombie show we'll get on cable television, if we get a better zombie show, it'll come from either HBO or Netflix where they have the ability for more violence, gore and language. They also will have more of an opportunity to be a show like House of Cards or True Detective that is so story driven because it doesn't have to worry about selling ad space during commercials.
In Conclusion: The Walking Dead is as true of an example of a groundbreaking TV show as you can get. I've gone over the seasons one-by-one already and how to possibly fix the show. My hope is that the show doesn't go 12 seasons because the show is getting kind of run into the ground already at season 4, season 12 would be hysterically bad. The best thing for the show would be to end after either season 6 or 7 under its own terms a la Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire and The Newsroom to name a few. It's a good show, you should watch it if you're a fan of the zombie genre and even if you're not there's probably something for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment