I have a friend who finally gave in and quit watching The Walking Dead. Just two episodes into this season he came to the realization that it was too depressing. That the little slivers of hope that the show flashed from time to time were gone. To sum up his thoughts using my own words, everybody on the show is Walking Dead and we're just sitting around waiting for those that are "alive" to finally crossover.
All of his points are absolutely valid. But I still disagree with him. I'd argue that everything he's complaining about are actually good things. That in an actual zombie apocalypse/infestation, there is no pot of gold waiting for you at the end of the rainbow. There is no happy ending to that story. You do what you can to survive, try to build some sense of community and safety, and then do what those of us not surrounded by zombies do: make the best of your days until you die.
That's it.
There's no government facility stocked with the "cure". And if there was, it's certainly not just waiting for some roving band of survivors to knock on its door, saving humanity.
While this is awesome from an originality standpoint, it's a bit of a problem for the folks that make The Walking Dead. The show doesn't seem to be building towards anything. We're just floating. Or, and this is probably a more accurate description: free falling. We have to assume that there is a destination; that they're not just writing episodes until they get canceled. But it hasn't been made clear in anything they've done up to this point that the end exists.
Because of this, there's no overarching plot holding viewers' attention. The draw is the characters. And this has become a problem. It's grown tiresome. Two years ago it felt as though we've gotten everything we're going to get out of these characters. Yet they still go on.
No matter how many different locales the characters are shifted to, or whether they're separated somehow, Rick is still Rick. Michonne is Michonne. Darrell is Darrell. Carl is awful. These people have no arcs. They've been static for years. Even if the writers wanted to change them now, I don't think it's an option.
It's a shame that they've written themselves into this corner. Take Rick for example. There have been ample opportunities for Rick's character to morph into all sorts of different people. And maybe he has for brief moments (or for weeks-long bouts with insanity), but when the dust settles, he's right back to being Rick. If The Walking Dead were a two hour movie, you could applaud his resolve. You'd walk out of the theater saying, "No matter how bad the world got, or what horrible things he had to do to survive, Rick stayed true to himself." But it's not a two hour movie. We're on like year five of Rick being Rick. I get it: Rick is still the small town, do good sheriff. I simply don't care anymore.
Back on Feb 16, @AG_Conservative tweeted, "Dear #WalkingDead, please feel free to kill all these characters as soon as possible." That's about the best advice anyone could give the writers of this show.
We don't need new villains to pit these guys against. We don't need new characters to pair them with. We don't need to see how they fare in a city, or a boat. We need to wipe the slate clean and start over with new people, with new personalities, who may have actual story arcs that will keep us interested.
Making The Walking Dead good again should be easy. Kill everybody (starting with Carl please), and get yourself a new cast. But instead of dragging these folks along for years, give them a single season story arc. Then bring in a new cast, and do the same. Each season follows a different group of survivors. Maybe the plotlines overlap somehow, maybe not. The show should be building towards something, and each season gets us a step or two closer to that end. But it allows us to keep this zombie infestation interesting and fresh, which it hasn't been for ages. It's simple, but a needed change.
Because I'm about to join my buddy in the 'used to watch The Walking Dead' category. Not out of hopelessness, but boredom.
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