I stopped watching The Walking Dead this season a few episodes in and I missed the introductions to the two new communities which are presumably going to join our merry band of heroes in fighting the Saviors. Earlier this week I did catch the latest episode on demand though and was reminded why I stopped watching it. It’s bleak, it’s frustrating, there’s too much emotional abuse and torture porn and beloved characters can die at any time. With a better plot that might be ok, but I just end up feeling manipulated when I watch it and like I’m being jerked around by the producers. They know this, they’re unapologetic about it and they’re also seemingly unconcerned that viewership has dropped. In a panel at Paleyfest, showrunner Scott M. Gimple said that they’re hoping to get twenty seasons out of it. He cited The Simpsons as an example of a show to emulate. The Walking Dead is in the seventh season and still has very high ratings compared to other shows, just not as high as they’re used to seeing.
Some fans fear the gory AMC series may be nearing an end, given sagging ratings and rumors that some of the stars and executives want to move on.
But show runner Scott M. Gimple is singing a decidedly different tune, saying his show will roll on until 2030 or longer — and many of the show’s stars say they’re not going anywhere.
“We are trying to do twenty years. The (“Walking Dead”) comic has certainly done it, and I look forward to every issue,” said Gimple. Speaking at the Paley Center for Media’s annual PaleyFest in LA, he said he envisions a run to rival the Fox juggernaut “The Simpsons.”
“‘The Simpsons’ has been on 26, 27 years, so that’s a challenge — so OK, challenge accepted. Done,” he said.
The show is currently in its seventh season, with another confirmed. Gimple said he has no concerns about things growing stale.
“We try to reinvent the show every eight episodes. We have this story that is a fidelity to the comic book, but we’re also exploring original stuff, and those things help us go on every year.
“We want to try do it better, do things we haven’t done, take risks. It’s scary as hell, but as long as we keep doing that the show can go on and on.”
Writing about the show’s steep ratings decline, Daily News TV columnist Don Kaplan speculated that maybe viewers were “just getting a little tired of it.”
As for rumors that Andrew Lincoln wants off the show, producer Greg Nicotero said that it’s not true and that Lincoln loves his job. I’ve heard from some of you that you’ve quit the show but most of the people I know in my personal life (ok the two people I know who watch it) are annoyed with some of the plot twists but continue to watch it. As long as the ratings are there, you know they’re going to squeeze it for as long as they can.
photos credit: AMC
20 years? No way. It’s not that interesting anymore.
My husband asked me to stop watching it with him bc i laughed at nearly every character and storyline back in s04. He said it was a good show….but he hasnt watched the last 2.5 seasons, so it can’t be that good.
20 years of what TWD has become IS the apocalypse. I’d rather face the zombies.
i agree! its a snooze fest now. its so predictable its not worth watching.
Even the actor with the gun to her head looks like she’s over it.
haha I was just about to type that. Tara’s face sums it up really.
Mr Lindy informs me that based on the comic book this series is setting up for this all out war thing which was huge. Honestly I’ve liked the show from the start but this season has been one of the worst, they need to quit it with the stand alone, focusing on 1/2 groups per episode thing. You go weeks without seeing people and it’s ruined the tempo of the show completely.
Ha!! That’s exactly what I was thinking. Both of them have an I’m Just Thrilled expression.
I think Scott is just banking on going on for 20 more years because the graphic novel shows no end in site. I don’t think in no way shape or form this thing will last for 20 more years even though with ratings dropping it still remains the number one rated show on TV.
I know most people were upset that Glenn was killed but that’s exactly how he met his end in the comics. Abe should have been dead long before Negan entered the picture but Tara’s gf got Abe’s death with the arrow.
And yes more main characters will meet their end, one is coming up soon but he/she takes another chatacter’s death.
I only start watching once Negan arrived because of the comics but I’m already bored. I can’t stand that Rosita character and just hoping I hold out until she meets her end if they stick to the comics (come on Whispers). I also which that they would call the Scavengers The Grabage Pail Kids like in the comics. Unfortunately I already know how All Out War ends due to an insider spilling the beans . I will still watch the beginning of season 8 just to see how it plays out.
I like TWD but it has too many filler episodes, it’s really annoying.
I still watch every week but it has been slow lately. 20 seasons though? I’m guessung there will be a lot of slowness to the next 13 seasons :/
I know I’m freaked out that game of thrones has its end in sight but going out in style is a good thing not dragging it on.
But Game of Thrones has been working towards several of their plot lines, there’s an actual end game.. This show so far doesn’t have that.
They film in my little town, and the production and cast are beloved here. However, not sure I would want a huge part of my town closed off for 20 years for filming! Also, when would they say what caused the zombie outbreak?
IIRC they’re not planning on ever answering that question. They want us to just accept that it happened and move on.
I’m ready to quit, I was ready to quit when 7:1 happened, but I’ve stuck it out this long. I don’t think I’m invested enough to keep going.
They answered that back in the first season didn’t they? When they all went to the CDC and met the scientist there who had done research on his wife trying to find a cure? From what I remember they said there wouldn’t be a cure because the virus lay dormant in everyone, it’s triggered when a person dies.
I think I stopped after season 5…it just seemed like it was the same thing over and over; band of people exhaust resources, move on to idyllic town, can’t fit in/town not as idyllic as advertised, chaos ensues, band escapes together, exhausts resources, moves to new idyllic town…etc etc….I loved the first two seasons, but then again I love the unrealistic/fantasy horror. Totally understand the shift has been toward the human experience, but with all that’s going on in the country and with what I do for a living I need that suspension of realism (to the degree I caught keeping up with the Kardashians and stayed for a few minutes reminiscing of the days where I thought THEY were our society’s biggest pain in the ass….*sobs quietly*)
The zombies already look like walking skeletons, and it’s what, season 7? How can they continue to fall apart for 13 more years when there’s already nothing left? Although I realize it’s not really about the zombies anymore. I stopped watching for the same reasons named above. Plus, the problem with killing so many main characters off is you have to continue to establish new main characters, and I just can’t warm up to all of them. I never did like that Abe and Rosita group, and I stopped caring about the show in general soon after. Which kind of sucks, because I am a film reporter in Atlanta and people always expect me to be caught up with it because it shoots here.
There’s 2 kinds of people who watch TWD: those who love the gore and torture porn and zombies eating people, and those who love the human characters and want to see what happens as they navigate their new world order.
The people who loved the zombie horror/gore have mostly checked out at this point, IMO.
I loved the show when it was about zombies. It was escapism. When the show stop being about zombies and about men destroying & killing each other, it was no longer fun. I could watch Criminal Minds if I wanted to see torture and men killing each other. It was no longer escapism and became real. There is no light in the darkness. There has to be a ray of light I think the reason so many were upset about Glenn was that his story was the only ray of hope for the future. At some point people have to come together and start to rebuild the world. Food will run out and they need to start to farm and have children.
I personally still watch it for 2 things. The Zombie gore, because now they look like a throwback to Lucio Fulci zombies, which is just super rad, and Negan. I just want to see the following get killed off already: Rosita, Sasha, Tara, Gregory, Morgan. They add these new characters, and give them backstories to make them interesting, but they’re just irritating and whiney mouth breathers. My husband and his friends still watch because they are huge fans of the comic book and love the gore, but are irritated by the backstories, and how long it takes to even get a glimpse of their boyfriend Negan.
The biggest problem with this show is that there is no end game. It’s horrible, annoying people doing horrible, annoying things with zombie attacks mixed in. You can’t rinse/repeat that for 20 years.
Yes-and this is why I gave up on it. I think once Alexandria was overrun I was over it. I never minded the gore before-but it just suddenly got too gross.
I stopped watching the second half last season. The difference between this show & the Simpson’s is that the Simpson’s episodes are (for the most part) independent of each other nor do they need to have an end game. This show needs to have an end game & frankly I wasn’t seeing it. Just because the comics can go on for 20 years doesn’t mean a TV show should. It all has to end at some point.
So in 20 years from now people will still be into zombies? *Yawn*
I haven’t watched an episode since the black dude with the tiger. My understanding is I actually haven’t missed much?
So if everybody stops watching, they’ll wrap it up ? LoL. Even Seinfeld, who’s show was still wildly popular, ended after what, 9? seasons? He knew to go out while still on top, before people tired of his show. Walking Dead needs to put us out of our misery already. That being said, I would have loved for Seinfeld to do 20 seasons. I still watch reruns of that and still laugh my butt off.
F that y’all. I’m ride or die for TWD.
+1 I couldn’t give a rats *ss if it’s considered popular or not. As long as they keep airing shows, I will forever be tuning in.
20?!?!!?? Nope. I still watch it although I quit for a month or so after the season premiere. I’ve caught up. It’s not as good as it was & I’ve said I’ll be with it til the end out of curiosity. But 20 years? That makes me weary.
Intrigue in this show fell off after season 2 or 3. They ground the show to a halt after that. Interminable seasons of nothingness.
How about: “Zombies Win” and we call it a day?
I still tune in every Sunday, but the struggle has been real since Shane’s death.
We still watch every week. People were guessing all summer who Negan killed. That was the most eventful the show has been for me this year, the preseason. I liked them all as a group, and only a few of them remain. During every episode my husband gets all caught up in…that’s not what happened in the comics. Annoying. Still love Daryl though. Rosita can leave anytime she wants to, but alas, she’s still alive in the comics. The end.
Spoilers for anyone who gives a damn.
I think Rosita brought the farm in issue 144 courtesy of Alpha. I can’t stand this character. The only death that will ever get to me is Shiva and I’m already tearing
I did stop watching after the premier- I was just so mad at the death and violence. But I watched the last couple. I don’t know- jury is still out on if I will recommit. I agree with your summary exactly: emotionally draining and bleak.
I stopped watching at the beginning of season 4. I really wish that everyone would just get eaten up and we’d be done with these whiny, useless characters already.
I stopped watching2 or 3 quearter half mid season ( whatever cause they stay trying to squeeze seasons too) haven’t looked back, my BF is starting to relate the plots every now and Again when I ask to be nice.. and eyeroling, so pretty soon he’s gonna be off that
I stopped watching after this season first epidsode. There’s so much violence in the world and I don’t want to watch violence porn in my free time because let’s face it: at this point it’s violence porn. I rather watch Santa Clarita Diet. At least I can laugh.
Don’t understand the criticism about beloved characters being killed. GoT has killed off over 100 characters and everyone accepts their deaths. We have accepted to not fall in love with anyone because they will die soon
There seems to be more purpose to GOT killing off characters than TWD. And GOT seems to have recovered from its rough patch while TWD still thinks it’s infallible. It’s still getting excellent ratings, but it’s not infallible.
GoT though set a precedent by whacking Ned Stark season 1. Much more tension. Totally different than TWD.
It’s just boring and badly written. There’s no strategy behind it. They just can’t write well.
It’s just gotten dull and the characters just keep repeating the little spin cycle of plot. BTW, they don’t get points for the 20 minutes of commercials either. I noticed TWD, I noticed.
Well, I’m one of those who’d watch the 20th season, so I hope the show to go on.
Maybe because I’ve read Marvel and DC comics all my life, but I don’t feel the need of an end game. I love the characters in TWD because I have grown to do so.
That’s why I can’t watch Game of Thrones, instead. Watched the first 2 seasons, tried to watch the third but I realized I was bored and it did nothing for me because I couldn’t give a damn about any of those characters, no matter how hard I tried: their deaths, their words, their loves did not touch me, move me, shock me or just engage me in any way.
It’s funny because I read many GoT lovers say the same about TWD characters so, who knows, I guess they might be for different kinds of people.
My husband and I love both shows! GoT has better writing, but we’re really into where the story in TWD is right now and will likely keep watching until it ends.
I watch and still love it!!
Twenty years? I got bored during season 3 and haven’t seen it since.
Yeah 20 seasons I doubt that will happen! Lost, a very similar show which had the survival element with people stranded on an island without access to civilization only got about six seasons before they ran out of steam and was not able to wrap up every dangling storyline. It didn’t have zombies but it had the smoke monster and the “Others” who were the people who arrived on the island before the plane crash survivors got there so similar struggles between factions like in WD.
Also while I’ll never be able to watch the show (work in digital comics and I had to stare at too many WD comic book files which ruined zombies for me forever, a genre I was never too crazy to begin with), how much time has passed on the show vs the comic books? The actors are aging (especially Rick’s son, he has not grown up as fast as the kid actor on the show) and I doubt anyone would want the same role for 20 years unless they got killed off first. There is no resolution to the show’s most obvious question: what caused the zombie outbreak in the first place and is there a way to stop it? Otherwise it’s just more of the same. People are getting bored!
I stopped watching at the beginning of this season. It is SO dull. Like, I don’t even care if they kill all of the characters at this point.
I was a diehard fan until after the season 6 finale. I tried *really* hard to avoid the Spoiler People but somewhere I read that Negan had killed Glenn and Abraham. Abe I sort of liked, but the Glenn/Maggie storyline was the only ray of hope this show had; their love and commitment to each other helped me deal with all the other character losses. I refused to watch season 7 because of that and the commercial I saw about the ridiculous guy and his tiger. That was the point where I had to get off the zombie train. It’s too bad, because I really loved that show; we even had an iron-clad rule of No Talking during the show and never missed an episode. 😕
I loved this show and never missed it. It was the one show I watched faithfully each week. But this year, I lost interest and stopped. I’m not sure why, the gore doesn’t bother me. I think it feels like too much to keep up with at this point. Too many new characters. Too many new setttings. I loved the core characters and loved following their survival stories. I honestly think it just got old and overreaching. I can’t keep up.
gore/horror doesn’t bother me I stopped watching season 5 I got bored and got tired of the boring whiney crap, this wont last 20 seasons amc has another thing coming