Is it worth it?

kylith

I trailed off around the start of S08. Is it worth my while getting back into it?

briany

I did the same around 7, or whenever it was that guy with the baseball bat showed up. It was just the same cycle again and again of the survivors facing an antagonist, killing the antagonist, upping sticks, settle down, things seem grand, things get less grand, new antagonist shows up. All while killing off good characters and replacing them with less good ones.

The Walking Dead started off as a Frank Darabont production, featuring a fair few players from Darabont movies. As time has gone on, it has become decidedly not a Darabont vehicle. Not a surprise given he walked away around season 1, and his departure was less than amicable. But what I mean is, the show was never able to live up to the high watermark of quality established under Darabont's short time in charge. Since then it has just been repeating itself.

Loads of people still watch it, though, but then again loads of people still watch the Simpsons despite it being comparatively shíte for the last 20 years.

B.A._Baracus

Dropped out of watching it myself after season 4.
Strange to hear over the years people keep dropping out. I think it's that type of show where it is just more of the same as time goes by.

Rick and co come up against a group.
Then Rick and co come up against another group.
Didn't the writers come out and say they will never show how the virus started?

johng906

I dropped off a few seasons ago. Had been an avid follower, but the formula and season arcs are pretty predictable as stated above.

Very difficult to keep it fresh. Interested in what keeps folks on the hook season after season.

frash

kylith wrote: »

Is it worth my while getting back into it?

Don't do it
I dropped it half way through season 10, episode 2

Wolverine359

In my opinion, it’s still well worth watching, I’ve been following it since the year it started and I’m enjoying the direction that the story has been taking along with the newer characters as well as the surviving long-timers. Honestly I find this forum to be full of toxic negative sarcy complainy comments about the show, so I barely ever bother checking boards.ie anymore, today’s the first time in about a year since I’ve had a quick look ha (tuned back in for the return of season 10). I find the main fan group on Facebook much more enjoyable for episode discussions etc.

machiavellianme

It has been garbage for the last few seasons. Every episode is drawn out and the story barely moves.

Wailin

Wolverine359 wrote: »

In my opinion, it’s still well worth watching, I’ve been following it since the year it started and I’m enjoying the direction that the story has been taking along with the newer characters as well as the surviving long-timers. Honestly I find this forum to be full of toxic negative sarcy complainy comments about the show, so I barely ever bother checking boards.ie anymore, today’s the first time in about a year since I’ve had a quick look ha (tuned back in for the return of season 10). I find the main fan group on Facebook much more enjoyable for episode discussions etc.

So, because a lot of people think the show has become rubbish the last few seasons (good few seasons actually) you label them as toxic?

The J Stands for Jay

I've never watched an episode, but this is the type of show I like. If I start at season 1, when should I stop watching?

Rock Lesnar

Watched from season 1 til somewhere in season 8, just couldnt watch anymore, series link still records it and i have often taught of watching again, but i just dont have the interest

Wolverine359

Wailin wrote: »

So, because a lot of people think the show has become rubbish the last few seasons (good few seasons actually) you label them as toxic?

Not the people, just the comments, they are overly-miserable and needlessly negative. I believe if you’re not enjoying the show, just stop watching, or hate-watching as many seem to do. :pac:

ebbsy

How they got 2 seasons out of the Negan storyline I will never know.

It's getting bad again.

At least Criminal Minds knew when to call it a day.

Thargor

I get infinitely more pleasure out of reading the AV Clubs teardowns of the stupidity in every ep plus the comments underneath the article the day after it airs. Plus I can do that at work and it doesn't waste an hour of my life.

People bitch about the end of Game of Thrones but when I think back to how much I used to love The Walking Dead and how faithful it was to a great comic compared to the disaster it is now I think it suffered an even worse hatchet job...

Effects

It's been garbage since the story line with the one eyed guy who attacked them in the prison.
I'm sure it entertains people who are easily entertained and have time on their hands to watch shít television.

Thargor

Its so annoying because the budget/actors/viewership is there, its just the writers are complete morons, they dont seem to be able to write a single scene without immersion breaking stupidity in it.

Wolverine359

Everyone can give out all they want, but I can’t understand why they keep watching it if they don’t enjoy it anymore, there’s countless other shows out there to watch and criticise. I still find it entertaining, but I don’t consider myself “easily-entertained”, I just like the escapism of it all and just want to know “what happens next”. I like to focus on the positives and if they are outweighed by the negatives as many here believe, that’s fine, but the show still has enough enjoyable aspects for me to continue watching and seeing where the story goes.

Effects

Wolverine359 wrote: »

Everyone can give out all they want, but I can’t understand why they keep watching it if they don’t enjoy it anymore.

I don't watch it anymore. I just watched a few clips and that was enough to judge it's still garbage.
Last full episode I watched was the one where Rick was rescued by the helicopter and went off into the sunset. And I'd only watched two episodes from that series.

Effects

Thargor wrote: »

Its so annoying because the budget/actors/viewership is there, its just the writers are complete morons.

People are still watching it, so no need to make the writing better.

Thargor

Effects wrote: »

People are still watching it, so no need to make the writing better.

Viewership hitting record lows because it's got so bad not reason enough?

Homelander

I haven't watched it since the last season. It drip fed new stuff for so long, they knew you were utterly invested in the characters and that as long as they threw you a bone once in awhile, you'd eventually shuffle back even if you hated yourself for it.

The appearance of Negan and the intial promising improvement of S9 were classic examples of those tidbits that kept me personally coming back in recent times, even though what followed in both cases was largely utter crap.

I'm guilty of being one of those people who moaned about the show for the past few seasons, but like with most good things that go sour, I was only sticking with it out of stubborness and with memories of what the show once was, hoping it might occassionally - even miraclously - reach those heights again or somehow turn a corner.

Didn't happen last season.....apart from maybe the last episode with the heads on a spike thing - but there you go, classic TWD. Here's an entire season of brainless, soap opera crap, with a nice little hook to have you wondering, like a shameless plea.

So no thank you, been through that crap with the likes of Lost, Dexter, Power....there is just too much good TV on these days to waste time watching utter crap that takes the loyal viewership for fools that'll eat up any drivel shovelled their direction.

I think the rapidly dwindling viewer figures speak for themselves, though admittedly the figures are still relatively healthy. Let's be real here - compared to the likes of 99% of other networks that have hit shows, AMC never pumped the resources back into TWD at all.

They milked it like a prize cow, and instead of escalating, raising the stakes, ramping up the production value and the quality of the show - they decided to treat it like it was the zombie edition of Eastenders or Coronation Street. Presumably to fund other shows most likely.

From S1 to S10, there's no real difference in quality or scale at all despite the monumental increase in viewership and revenue, and the last few seasons in particular have been painfully as stagnant as a small pond on a blistering summer day. So yeah...no. No thank you AMC.

Effects

Thargor wrote: »

Viewership hitting record lows because it's got so bad not reason enough?

I didn't know viewership had gotten so bad,
It was just a common defence a few years back, when people claimed it had gone down the toilet, that people were still watching it.

Has the movie with Rick come out yet?

Jimmy Bottlehead

Similar to one poster above, my last check in was Rick's miraculous rescue by helicopter. That was, what, a year or two ago?

The first couple of seasons were very good, although never truly great. The decline in quality has been shocking though. I watched the last few seasons out of commitment to what I'd already invested in the show and characters, but by the end I was browsing my phone and looking up if I heard something dramatic.

It's a real shame, as in more loving hands, it would have remained a very entertaining show.

D13exile

I've watched season 1 over and over. It is head and shoulders above everything that followed. Every episode was pure class, almost an individual movie each week and had you on tenterhooks waiting for the next episode. Then it all went to sh1te. Season 2 and the farm was so bloody drawn out. By the time the last episode of season 2 came, even a massive zombie attack wasn't much relief for what had gone before. While the Walking Dead kept me interested up to the end of season 8 (because there wasn't much else on tv), I gave up after that. Not conciously but just plain forgot there were more seasons coming and going. Surprised it's up to season 10 now?

As for Fear the Walking Dead, oh sweet baby Jesus. How many times did I want Negan to come with his baseball bat and batter them all!!!! Talk about a wasted opportunity to show how the world fell apart and zombies took over. I manged one and half seasons of that before I gave up in disgust.

Yester

I abandoned it after season 9 but now that there are a good few episodes out I'm a bit curious. Is is in any way worth watching season 10?

ebbsy

Next series is the last one.

DangerScouse

Stopped after season 7. Just went to absolute tripe that season. Pity as it was a great show but it needed an ending but producers tried to squeeze longer out of a storyline that was itself dead.

mojesius

Stopped watching when Rick's daughter got older and became a mini Michonne badass. I clung on for a few series longer than I really should have, as I spent most of the time criticising it as opposed to enjoying it.
L

Piehead

I left it with the weird junkyard people nonsense. They’d some weird dialect like they’d been cut off from society for centuries. Something about the ‘up-up-up’ .....

Oranage2

Stopped watching when the baseball player showed up. Everything was too drawn out, first episode good, 2,3,4,5,6,7 look like someone picked it off the editing board floor, episode 8 = amazing, 9 good, 10 okay but always had an infuriating cliffhanger.