Three Ways I Would Save The Walking Dead

If you've read my past reviews of the series, you already know I'm not a big fan of the growing ensemble cast. With the addition of Hilltop, The Kingdom and holdovers from the Saviors and other groups, there are just too many people to keep track of. And, to make matters worse, the show is bringing in even more people by the wagon load.

We already saw a negative result of this during the mid-season finale, when Jesus (Tom Payne) was killed off before he even had a chance to really reach his potential. 

Other characters, like Rosita (Christian Serratos) still hang around even though their importance to the series has already passed them by.

The first thing I would do is wipe the board clean and kill off everyone except Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), Judith (Cailey Fleming), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). This would allow the show to start fresh with a main cast that is large enough to support multiple individual storylines but small enough to give them meaningful air time.

This can tie in with the massive wave of death that thins the cast down. Maybe the zombie herds grow to the point they are able to stampede the communities (with help from the Whisperers). Or, maybe someone catches the flu, dies and, after turning, kills everyone else. Regardless of the methods, Hilltop, Alexandria and the Kingdom must go.

When this show first aired, one of the things that made it exciting was the survivors had to contend with their various problems while also trying to find food, shelter, medicine, etc. without accidentally stumbling into a town run by cannibals or worse. And, even when they did find a place of refuge, like the prison, it seemed like a temporary arrangement.

Now, the series really doesn't have that going for it. Things like zombie herds and bad guys like the Whisperers really don't have the same impact when the survivors can simply hide behind a wall and sleep in a comfortable bed at night.

On top of it, the show is starting to get bogged down with community-related details, such as trade agreements and bridge building (both literal and figurative) that make me yawn just talking about them and take time away from action scenes.

Let's get the survivors back out in the wilderness. The show will have new scenery, there will be additional threats and the series can even examine their individual reactions to being back to square one after being able to live in a civilized manner for so long.

At one point, this show was, among other things, edgy. Best friends were feuding over a woman, brothers were trying to kill each other, little girls would wander away and be turned into zombies while other little girls were encouraged to look at the flowers.

That's no longer the case, the show has grown soft. And, a large part of the reason for this, in my opinion, is all the anti-heroes have been killed off.

Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) was a good one. But, I think Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) was even better because you never knew if he would choose to change allegiances or just leave the group. Carol filled this void for a while too and there was a point in the series when I thought maybe the writers would pull the trigger and have Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) finally cross that line.

I've said this before, but the best fit this series has for this role today is Negan. I would love to see him join the survivors (perhaps because of the Whisperers) and serve in that capacity, even if it is just as someone who will cross a line the others won't but is needed even if they can't fully trust him.

Perhaps, as the show finally gets back to killing off stars on occasion, he can even eventually take over as the group's leader. After all, it's the zombie apocalypse. Wouldn't the bad guy be the best choice to call the shots when the world is in anarchy?