The Walking Dead Season 7: 4 Ups & 5 Downs From 'Service'

3. It Needs To Start Weaving Together Different Locations

Save for the brief trips outside the walls, this is the fourth consecutive episode to hone in on just one location. After the woods, Kingdom, and Saviours compound, we get a purely Alexandria episode.

The thinking behind it is understandable, especially in the season premiere, when there was a clear need to focus on the goings-on with Negan and little else. The next two episodes were introducing new locations, so again you could see some logic, even if it did start to become a little wearisome.

In Service, though, it's difficult to understand why they're still doing this. The extra run time allows for more exploration, but instead they just hit the same beats over and over. The show doesn't need to be Game of Thrones, but that's the best example of how to break episodes up across various locations and character pairings.

At this stage there are enough interesting characters disparately spread across the Walking Dead's world that they could successfully manage this: Rick and Michonne at Alexandria; Carol, Morgan, and Ezekiel at the Kingdom; Maggie, Jesus, and Sasha at Hilltop; Daryl and Dwight at the compound. They could mix and match stories, and occasionally bring them together (such as the Saviours visiting any location), building towards it all merging back in towards the climax.