The Walking Dead Season 8: 7 Ways To Win Back The Fans
Fans will come marching back in herds...
The Walking Dead returns to our screens on October 22nd, and it has some making up to do after a seventh series in which it lost almost a third of its viewership.
Over 17 million people (in the U.S.) tuned in to watch the Season 7 premiere of the post-apocalyptic drama, to discover which characters would die at the hands of newly-introduced arch-villain Negan after an internet-breaking Season 6 cliffhanger.
Titled The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be, the episode delivered drama and tension in spades, but the rest of the season suffered under the weight of the dreary aftermath. By the time that the season finale came around, nearly six million Americans had tuned out.
Season 8's trailer promises an all-out war pitting Rick’s alliance of Alexandria, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom against Negan’s Saviors, and also teases a glimpse into a happier, safer future, with the image of a grey-bearded Rick waking up in bed to sunshine and flowers.
Those possibilities might bring the numbers back in droves for the season opener, but TWD showrunners must also deliver the following to ensure those fans are won back for good...
7. Less Misery, More Hope
No production foreshadowing the end of the world is going to be sunshine and rainbows.
But even a show about a zombie apocalypse cannot survive without hope, and Season Seven sucked that out of The Walking Dead fanbase with just how thoroughly miserable it was.
The two leading protagonists were completely broken down by Negan and the Saviors in the first half of the season. Rick was psychologically tortured, and Daryl was physically abused.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has landed the role of his life in Negan, who is terrifying and hilarious in equal measure, but we were exposed to too much of him too soon, and the repetition of his malevolence towards Rick and company made much of the season very depressing.
One of the season highlights was episode 12’s Say Yes, where Rick and Michonne enjoyed an uplifting scavenge for supplies and slew walkers at a carnival site. More mini-victories like this, reminding us of why we are rooting for the Alexandrians, are needed this time around.