HOLY SPOILERS, BATMAN! THIS ARTICLE IS CHOCK FULL OF THEM. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
When show popped onto my radar, I had never heard of the series. I quickly learned that the show was based on a series of comics by which I have recently had the pleasure to read. And my oh my, does the TV show stray away from what makes the comics gripping. In fact, the TV show downright blows. It's awful. And here's 3 reasons why.
1. THERE ARE TOO MANY USELESS CHARACTERS.
Let's break it down. The main focus on a Walking Dead anything is the characters. There has to be conflict, friendship, love and hate going on constantly to keep us interested in the characters and their stories. While the show certainly does have these themes in Season 2, there's an awful lot of stagnant characters floating around in the air that are never actually used.
Let's look at T-Dog. He's awesome. He manages to avoid the Zombie trope of "the black person dies first" and I think he's cool for it. However, he has 0 interactions with other characters that help develop his character. It's literally a case of "Hey, T-Dog. Go sit over there while Lori and Shane fight." and T-dog's response 9/10 times?
"You go, T-Dog. You go."
Or how about Hershel's daughter, ehhhmmmm.
*GOOGLES HERSHEL'S DAUGHTER*
Or how about Hershel's daughter, Beth Greene? She sings a lot. Sweet. That's an awesome character arc. Oh and she tried to kill herself in Season 2 and then was promoted to being the babyminder in Season 3 after Carl blows his mom's brains out. Serious character progression! WOO!
"Teen Mom Meets Murdering Monsters!"
I'm still baffled as to why these characters are even here in the first place but they are and we know nothing about them. The prison has more characterisation at this stage.
2. LONG PERIODS OF NOTHING HAPPENING
The Walking Dead show can efficiently be broken down into the following :
"Wow, that's fiiiiine entertainment!"
The Walking Dead Season 2 was horrendous for this. I gave up watching it a few times because they were still on the farm for most of the series. And it sucked. The romance plot with Glen and Maggie was a bit weak and the flow of the series came to an absolute stand-still after a very tense and dramatic season opening on the highway. It almost feels like the show takes its viewers for granted. Like it expects us to watch no matter what. And most fans do.
3. DEATH FEELS MEANINGLESS.
Whenever a character dies in the Walking Dead, it doesn't feel significant at all. It feels like the character is undergoing a change from being a character to being a problem to other characters. There's not much time to grieve because the person is going to turn and going to kill everyone else.
Let's compare a death in the Walking Dead to a memorable death you can think ofin a novel/TV show/movie.
All the characters usually weep/cry or an in shock for a novel/TV show/movie. Maybe you yourself get a little teary-eyed because you can relate to what happened?
In the Walking Dead, you get this.
What is that? Daryl, what is wrong with your face? I didn't know people dying is relatable to biting a lemon.
Death in The Walking Dead is handled poorly. We are not given enough incentive to care about the characters, we cannot connect emotionally to most of them and when a zombie chomps on the arm, we feel shocked at the most but certainly not sad. It just feels like "Oh. That sucks." Now compare that to 's ending and talk to me.
Look, I still think this show can be salvaged. The zombies are fantastic and the combat is brutal and satisfying. However, the Walking Dead is not about the zombies but the characters. So when the characters are not engaging, you have a bloody yet flat TV series. Something needs to change and quick. If Telltale can make a Walking Dead videogame that makes people feel more emotion that 3 seasons of the show, there is definitely something wrong.
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