10 Best TV Shows Of 2016 (So Far)
9. The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead f**ked up. Massively. The cliffhanger Season 6 ended on was a cheap trick, designed to make viewers desperate to come back for more and spend the off-season speculating about who was on the receiving end.
Instead, it just pissed fans off, ruined the dramatic tension of the moment, and increased the pressure on them to deliver right from the off in Season 7. It's a big shame too, because the second half of Season 6 - from the mid-season premiere right up until the moments before that fade to black - had been the strongest run of the show in years.
The Walking Dead has made far too many narrative and character mistakes to really be considered top-tier TV in the Golden Age, but at its best it is terrifically entertaining, full of action, gore, and suspense that keeps you hooked and on the edge of your seat. Not since Season 3 had the show been delivering with such purpose, building to the arrival of Negan. There was the sheer chaos of No Way Out, the kind of episode you watch with your mouth unintentionally agape as the horror mounts. The show then introduced Jesus, an instant fan-favourite, and expanded its scope beyond Alexandria without resorting to the typical formula of moving on from one place to the next. It made foundations to build upon, and was really getting off the floor with some incredibly tense and action-packed moments.
Even the final scene of the finale was perfect setup, and the show did enough in those episodes to warrant a place on this list. It might've been even higher had it not been for the swing-and-a-miss.