10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About The Walking Dead

3. "Standalone Episodes Are Garbage"

The Walking Dead Morgan
Gene Page/AMC

One of the most contentious decisions Scott Gimple made when he took over as showrunner in season 4 was to break away from trying to cram each major player into every episode. While a good chunk would still feature the ensemble cast, the writer wasn't afraid to split people up, focusing solely on the stories of specific characters.

Done sparingly, this approach actually resulted in some of the series' greatest episodes. The back half of season 4 is generally considered one of the best - featuring all-time favourite episodes like The Grove - and that split up the whole group for eight episodes.

Obviously there have been a few stinkers here and there (the Tara-centric ones can get in the bin forever), and the show arguably started to rely on these standalone episodes much more in later seasons, but small missteps are more than worth it if fans continue to receive great hours of television on the level of Here's Not Here.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.