"The Walking Dead" - Season 9

Hey, you know I'm going to say it. "I told you so!"

For quite a while now, I've been saying that TWD has been on a decline both creatively & in quality. The season 9 premier was awful, the second episode was no better. It all boils down to the lack of sympathetic characters, characters that continually act in contrast to their established personas & redundant story lines.

There were many mistakes made during it's run, the first in my opinion being the firing of Frank Darabont. He set the tone for the fantastic first season. He should have remained onboard to guide the show but instead we got that abysmal second season.

The third season was great. After that, predictability set in. It seemed that the zombie gags were the only refreshing thing each episode!

The handling of Negans character was awful. At no time did I find him believable or even threatening. The murder of Glenn, even though it was an eventuality, seemed anticlimactic & it turned off a lot of regular viewers. Killing Carl was just plain stupid. Now, with the main star leaving, I don't see it really progressing in a positive direction for the fans.

Daryl Dixon is the one character who has grown, developed but yet retained his core and is the single exception to the entire show. If there is to be a future for TWD, they need to focus on him.

This is going to sound rude but I noticed in the first two episodes that six of the main characters are in an interracial relationship. Nothing wrong with that but it seems a bit forced within the story. I mean, the writers think of everything before it gets filmed don't they? So, no one thought it as redundant to have all these people in interracial relationships? It was a conscious decision to have that many up front in the story. Every lifestyle gets a representative in Hollywood.

The story is just...without substance at this point. It's "Interpersonal Relationships 101" for the zombie apocalypse. Romero said that TWD was a soap opera. Romero was right.

I will watch TWD until it dies a slow, boring death.

For what it's worth, I watch "Z-Nation" on SyFy Channel & enjoy it! It's got a comical side that makes it actually fun to watch! They keep reinventing the zombies in new, strange ways.

Maybe if TWD wasn't such an emotionally pummeling experience in depressing hopelessness every single second of every episode, they might have made it.