March 28, 2024

There’s something about the wait for the season premiere of “The Walking Dead” in October of every year that has fans anxiously counting down the days. However, season eight has yet to prove anything other than that AMC is running out of realistic ideas for the show to proceed.
The season premiere is perhaps the only episode that brought fans joy, with Rick and his gang blowing out the windows of the Sanctuary, nearly ending Negan’s life and leading a Walker herd to surround the factory.
Although it’s still hard to understand how Rick missed killing Negan in the near-minute scene with Rick going berserk with his gun, it wouldn’t be season eight with Negan getting killed immediately in the opening episode.
With Nov. 5th’s episode bringing viewers three deep into season eight, the lack of action, and lack of real progress, have fans confused and trudging along without any real sense of direction.
Like the prior two episodes, Rick and his gang, split into three or four major groups, are on the prowl, taking out all of the Saviors’ posts. Following the destruction of the front of the Sanctuary, this seems a little out of place, as it would have been more believable to take out the posts first.
However, the gang has met little resistance from the Saviors, with Eric’s death happening in episode three, and Shiva’s death occurring in episode four.
These four episodes have been occurring all within the same day of Rick’s attempt to cover the factory with Walkers. The only sense of trouble lied with Gabriel’s entrapment with Negan in a box trailer outside the factory, and a group of Ezekiel’s men being slaughtered after taking out a group of Saviors at a chemical plant.
Honestly, Negan should have been killed in season seven’s finale. However, because of the 100th episode of “The Walking Dead” coincidentally fitting with season eight’s premiere episode, Negan survived. Which, with Ezekiel’s tiger showing up to the fight, the likelihood of Negan surviving both season seven’s fight and season eight’s opening fight are getting harder and harder to believe as a fan of the show.
To fans of the comics, the turn that “The Walking Dead” has taken over the past few years has been a little startling. Some things are the same, i.e. Glenn’s death with Lucille by Negan, but others, including Abraham’s death that same night, are very different modes of death for fan-favorite characters.
Negan’s storyline in the comics is a little fuzzy, so it will be intriguing to see whether Negan will make a miraculous survival in the TV show like he did in the comics.
Many are disappointed as well in the lack of Walkers. The storyline with Negan now takes up most of the premise for this post-apocalyptic world, leaving the Walkers as an annoying side piece. No longer do the Walkers pose a serious threat, although these characters are supposedly living in the zombie apocalypse.
To fans of the show, this season’s premiere has certainly left more to be desired. Negan’s death should have been imminent, or even occurring last season, but instead, AMC is playing the Negan card to its death.
Although “The Walking Dead” is still a beloved icon on AMC and American television, season eight has yet to pack a punch like prior seasons have done. Instead, fans are left trying to comprehend how Negan is still alive, how the Walkers are no longer a major threat and, most importantly, how Rick is going to get his group out of this imminent threat with the Saviors.

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