Why “The Walking Dead” Should Have Walked Away Seasons Ago

"The Walking Dead" started it's 11th and final season last night, but maybe this should have come a little sooner.

First of all, I'm a fan. I've read the majority of the comic book series and I was stoked when I heard they were making the series into a television show.

It's been around so long, I don't know if I really need to give you the back story, so I'll simply say "zombie apocalypse."

Andrew Lincoln starred as the hero, Rick Grimes, which I thought was great casting. He played the main character, surrounded by a great ensemble cast. While the show initially followed the source material pretty closely, it didn't take long for the creators of the television program to start taking creative liberties.

I remember having conversations with other fans of the show regarding "that's not how it happened in the comic." Some characters were killed prematurely, some not at all. Other deaths were passed to less important characters so fan favorites could continue to act on the show.

Needless to say when they announced a spin-off companion series, "Fear the Walking Dead," I had a bad feeling that maybe the show had already worn out it's welcome. From there, producers also made the fatal mistake of taking away a key player at the start of season seven.

Steven Yeun, who played 'Glen' on the television show was brutally beaten to death by 'Negan' (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan). While this followed the source material somewhat correctly, Steven Yeun had become a beloved actor and character on the show... and yet they still killed him off, even though they had made multiple changes to the story arc previously.

That didn't sit well with a lot of fans.

The show seemed to start getting stale, and then Andrew Lincoln announced he was leaving the show. (It was later announced he would do this to produce and star in a three-movie series about his character.)

The show still lost yet a little bit more of it's luster once he left the show.

Last night I was still a little excited to watch the first episode of season 11, but quickly realized I was watching another episode that I feel like I've viewed a million times. The survivors are running short on food. They find a supply and are forced to repel down into a pit to retrieve it where surprise, surprise, there are a bunch of sleeping zombies.

Sure enough, in a tense moment of sneaking, something happens to wake up the horde and our survivors suddenly find themselves in a fight for their lives. It feels like we've seen this scenario play out a hundred times.

I'm sad to see the show go as it's one of my favorite genres, but maybe this zombie show should have been put down a couple of seasons ago.

~Chris Farber