The Walking Dead: Ranking All 9 Seasons From Worst To Best

9. Season 8

Perhaps one of the show's biggest mistakes was dragging the "All Out War" arc out across two seasons. After Glenn and Abraham's deaths in the season seven premiere, viewers needed some sort of catharsis in seeing Negan get what was coming to him by season's end, but it never came, and season eight arrived only to drag the story out for yet another year before finally bringing it to a close.

The season had a few standout episodes along the way, like "Some Guy" and "Worth," but unfortunately one could feel the strain of the arc being stretched out from week to week while watching. Characters had a seemingly endless supply of bullets, all of which always conveniently seemed to miss Negan, and rarely did conversations between characters feel authentic anymore, with actors we'd known for years forced to spout vagaries and never-ending monologues more pretentious than profound.

On the upside, characters like Simon got to shine - actor Steven Ogg truly crushed it - and there were some neat walker kills as usual, but those positives were far too outweighed by negatives. From the mind-boggling decision to kill Carl - and the behind the scenes drama surrounding that - to the overall bloat of the cast forcing many characters to serve as nothing more than wallpaper, season eight was the show at its lowest point, casting a shadow on the show's legacy that future seasons now have to claw their way out from under.