And yet "I'm quitting this show" has been a meme for as long as this community has existed. Season 2 on the farm is considered an interminable slog. The Governor arc was as tedious and needlessly protracted as Negan, slogging on for a season and a half......and The Governor story even strangely mirrors the Negan arc in a lot of ways (someone from Rick's group defects to the opposition, a charismatic lunatic magically escapes death again and again). The back half of S4 is probably the best the show ever got, when they were only focusing on 1-2 characters per episode in mostly self-contained stories as everyone finds their way to Terminus. I loved it but even that storytelling format had people crying about filler and go-nowhere episodes. S5 basically marks the beginning of Rick's group as the Incredible Badasses That Can Do Anything.....except not act like lunatics in Alexandria. S6 is probably their strongest effort at telling a cogent season-long story, but even that has plenty of weird low-points (Pacifist Morgan's origin story, Glenn's dumpster dive).
I don't think contemporary reviews tell the whole story -- the problems with TWD have been apparent since the beginning, but people were simply willing to forgive those weaknesses because the show was unique, novel, and full of likable characters in interesting situations. And there was excitement about where the show might be headed, where the group's adventures would take them. What you see now just seems like franchise fatigue. It's clear that the show isn't really going to go anywhere. They haven't introduced any new likable characters in years (not since Eugene/Abraham, by my calculus), and the likable characters they had are either dead or endlessly circling the same themes and character arcs.
I wouldn't say the show has fallen off a cliff so much as it has been slowly rolling down the same bumpy hill they've always been on.
This is an
incredible dismissal of the obvious drop in quality from S7 and onward.
You know, not everything can just be excused away as "franchise fatigue". The comic, which has been in production for years and years, has never hit a quality level this low. In fact, I would argue that the worst it's ever been is
average. It's current state is incredible and I just read through some of my favorite issues of all time, as of late. Game of Thrones is at it's peak, issues and all, after 7 seasons and still reviews incredibly high and is praised among critics and fans alike.
It's disingenuous, IMO, to classify what we're seeing as fatigue, simply because the show has been in existence for eight seasons.
The biggest problem here is, above all else, the
characters. In previous seasons, yeah, while not perfect, we watched to see character development and how everybody interacts with each other.
You call S2 a slog, and in some ways it definitely was (on paper, the plot itself was pretty much at a standstill), but some of the best and most incredible character moments came from that season. Shane and Rick alone justify tuning in every week. Their dynamic and ultimate conclusion felt both natural and earned. S2 also raised a ton of interesting philosophical questions that resonate with viewers. Also, each character
reacts in ways that are consistent with their characteristics. Now, if the plot calls for it, we'll conveniently make Rick, the main lead, act like a fucking idiot and surrender himself for no apparent reason. For drama.. I guess?
Characters used to drive this show. But.. for the past two seasons or so, they've been driven by the
plot. Of course, I could go on and on about all the shows painfully obvious problems in comparison to what it used to be, but I could write a damn essay about it.
The heart, soul and grounded consistency of the characters' behaviors and motivations have simply vanished.
