Life of Bry

The Walking Dead has been my favorite show since I began watching way back in 2012 when the series was in the middle of Season 3.

I sobbed as Daryl carried Beth’s lifeless body out of the creepy hospital, I hid my eyes when a ruthless Negan smashed Glenn’s head in with his trusty Lucille and I held my heart in pain as Carl gave his final wishes for the future from a kid who had to grow up in a world ruled by the dead.

It’s obvious that past show runners *cough* Scott M. Gimple *cough*  have taken some bold turns in the series by dragging out a long, seemingly pointless war with Negan; heartbreakingly killing off Carl (who is a major character and plot device in the comics); sending Rick Grimes off into a helicopter with the garbage lady never to be seen again (until those money-grabbing movies hit the small screen); and the mysterious (yet unmentioned) absence of Maggie and baby Hershel.

But even after all those twists and turns, The Walking Dead is still good.

Season 9 has been a rebirthing of the series, with Angela Kang taking over for Gimple to recreate TWD world that we know and love, but without Rick and Carl Grimes to lead the way. However, the season premiere in October 2019 drew only 6.08 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings.

While that may seem like a massive number, it’s catastrophically low for TWD.

To put it into perspective, Season 8’s premiere received 11.44 million viewers and Season 7 got a whopping 17-plus million people watching to see who Negan’s victim(s) would be. The 6.08 million who watched Season 9’s premiere, is just a fraction more than the 5.35 million who tuned in to see the very first episode of the series on Halloween in 2010.

In fact, according to Forbes, the Season 9 premiere was the lowest-rated episode since  a lone episode in Season 2 in 2011, and it had lower ratings than every single episode in Season 8.

Despite the drop in viewership, the story line is still compelling to me. I read the comic books, so I saw some of the biggest plot twists coming miles away. I knew Glenn would fall victim to Lucille and that the Whisperers would stumble in with their hauntingly cruel leader Alpha.

But that’s the beauty of The Walking Dead. These iconic scenes from Robert Kirkman’s brilliant comic, aren’t guaranteed to happen. The show often deviates from the source material, keeping the story fresh for comic fans like me. If the show followed the comic, Carol would have been dead at the prison and Sophia would be alive and well at Hill Top.

So what has made nearly half of viewers leave TWD, well, for dead?

After scrolling through Facebook comments, browsing Twitter and simply talking to friends who have abandoned the show, it seems to be a combination of issues. Some ex-fans thought that Glenn and Abraham’s gory goodbyes were too gruesome for TV, while others felt that the story began to drag during the Negan-era. Various comic fans were upset that the show didn’t follow the source material perfectly, while some wanted the show to follow it less.

But the most common reason I found was that these past viewers were upset that their favorite character died.

It’s no secret that The Walking Dead fans are passionate. Who hasn’t seen the T-shirts claiming “If Daryl dies we riot”? It’s why the series has had so much success to begin with. Fans fell in love with the original group of survivors in Atlanta and the various misfit apocalypse fighters they gathered on their journey to rebuild society.

However, nobody is safe in TWD universe. Any character can be brutally murdered at any given moment no matter their age, race or importance to the group. Only two of the original Atlanta survivors are currently alive in the show — Daryl and Carol.

Rick, who seemed to be the series main character, is presumed dead. His teenage son Carl, is most definitely dead. As previously mentioned, Glenn got Lucilled, and, aside from our two survivors, the remainder of the Atlanta group have been gone for seasons.

It doesn’t matter how long or how short a character has been on the show — anybody can be next.  

Remember when Carol shot Lizzie, a demented little girl who played with walkers and then stabbed her sister, in the middle of the woods in Season 4 Episode 14, “The Grove”? Good times.

And, honestly, I understand why fans are quick to give up on the series once their fav has bit the dust. I felt the same way when Carl revealed his walker bite in Episode 7 of Season 8.

Carl’s comic story line is one of the best of the series, if you ask me. His relationship with Negan is something I’ve looked forward to seeing in the show since I first read it. Even Jeffrey Dean Morgan claimed he was disappointed that he wouldn’t see that story line brought to the small screen in his goodbye post to actor Chandler Riggs after Carl’s demise.

However, I also loved the way the show executed Carl’s exit. I believe that Carl stood for morality and reality. He wanted to rebuild society, not just survive.

This teenage boy died bringing a doctor — a hot commodity in the apocalypse — back to Alexandria, before he even had a clue that Siddiq knew anything about medicine. He simply wanted to help a stranger because that’s what he felt was right, even in a world where the dead walk.

Despite Carl’s death, I still followed the show. However, I have to admit, it was more as a curiosity as to how they could continue the story without one of its most prominent members, rather than a genuine adoration for the show.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The show still stands on its own, even without Carl, Rick and Maggie. Season 9, especially this second half, has been electric. The world is getting bigger as we’re introduced to a diverse new cast of characters, including a deaf character who’s impairment shows a frightful new look at an apocalypse survivor.

And while TWD has never been a true “zombie show”, but a tale of humans surviving the worst of the worst, the series has shifted to the most terrifying plot yet — the Whisperers, a group of survivors who walk among the dead by veiling themselves with walker masks.

The entrance of the Whisperers is dynamic, because Alpha isn’t a villain in the same way Negan was a villain.

Negan was over-the-top, making a show out of his brutal punishments that had the undertones of what needed to be done was being done for the betterment of his people. He may’ve beat people’s skulls in with a bat, but he also took care of his own. He was actually affected by the death of Carl, and now has an absurd bond with little Judith.

He’s a villain, but he’s one that often made you sit back and wonder, “is Rick really any better than Negan?”.

Alpha on the other hand, is cruel and irrational. As she said in Season 9 Episode 11, “we’re animals.” And the Whisperers are animals. In that episode, Alpha nods to a Whisperer mother holding a crying infant, which leads to the woman setting the baby down in the dirt and left for the impending walker herd.

The Whisperers walk among the dead, they don’t have the kind hearts or hope for society like those from Alexandria, Hill Top or the Kingdom. Instead, they walk. Even Lydia is surprised that her abusive mother came back for her.

It’s a stark contrast between these two groups of people who have somehow managed to survive so long into the apocalypse. While the Hill Top ponders the morality of sending Lydia back to her abusive mother, the Whisperers don’t flinch at the thought of leaving a baby to be torn to pieces by a walker herd.

It proves that this group is not like any our ragtag group of survivors have encountered before. While they tried to rebuild a world despite the dead, the Whisperers handed over the world to the dead.

And if that isn’t enough to bring you back to the show, maybe you should stick to watching This is us.

The Walking Dead is still good, ya’ll just mad.