9 Problems With The Walking Dead Nobody Wants To Admit

1. It Needs An Ending

One day The Walking Dead is going to have to end. The series has broken new ground by being the first mainstream attempt at telling a zombie story that actually runs for more than ninety minutes, with the usual end point being when everybody is finally consumed by the overwhelming enemy without. The Walking Dead, meanwhile, deals with the long-term repercussions of living in a world where death is awaiting around every corner €“ from either your fellow man, or those ghouls wanting to nibble on you. It's a lot longer than your average zombie story, to be sure, but it's got to end sometime.

That aforementioned ticking time bomb has to go off at some point, but besides that one reference to the virus thing there hasn't been any indication that the series is building to any sort of endgame. The three-act structure is mostly non-existent when you've got a serialised drama like this, but it's definitely not gonna go on forever, even if AMC seemingly want it to.

How will it end, though? A huge dip in the ratings (even more than the recent slide), a sudden disinterest by the viewership at large could see the show cancelled pretty much overnight. If that happened, how on Earth would The Walking Dead end? Everyone killed off? Rick and the rest walking off into the sunset, facing an uncertain future? Both of those would be inherently dissatisfying. At some point The Walking Dead will reach some sort of finale. Right now, though, it doesn't seem like they're planning for that one bit. Which means that it probably isn't going to end well.