The Walking Dead: 10 Things Season 7 Got Horribly Wrong

3. Using Death And Violence As A Narrative Crutch

Death has always been a major part of The Walking Dead - clue is kinda in the name - and over the years we have, for one reason or another, said goodbye to a number of beloved heroes and hated villains (and a lot of cannon fodder too).

Season 7 didn't shake things up too much in terms of the number of deaths, with the biggest ones being the two in the season premiere, and then Sasha in the finale.

What it did do, though, was further the show's reliance on these individual moments, using death and violence as a crutch to prop the show up rather than focusing on telling a good story or developing its characters.

Glenn's death should've been a major catalyst for people's actions over the course of the season, especially Maggie, who should've been at the heart of the show after this event. Instead, she didn't appear for a few episodes, and it's only in the last few weeks Glenn's death has really even been mentioned. Abraham's death paved the way for Sasha's death. Olivia and Spencer... well, no one really cared about anyway. Benjamin's death led to Richard's death, and the pair of them were characters who only lived to die.

Hardly any of this told any meaningful kind of story. This goes back to the Glenn fakeout in Season 6, and then the cliffhanger. This season, the premiere deaths were further dragged out by around 15 minutes or so, then we had the show act like Heath was a walker, or that Rick might've been eaten. And then you get to the finale, and have the flashback scenes with Abraham used to setup Sasha's death, even though they were together for five minutes.

The show continually relies on trying to trick viewers, either with shocks or emotional manipulation, and forgets about the little things like, say, story and character.