The Walking Dead Season 8: 7 Ways To Win Back The Fans
3. Better Episodic Storytelling
A watershed moment for some Walking Dead fans was Glenn’s near-death experience in Season 6's Thank You. Viewers were torn over whether they wanted the Season 1 original to live, or to die to avoid a completely far-fetched escape which would have endangered the realism (as much as TWD can have such a thing) of the programme.
Either way, they were all committed to learning Glenn’s fate, but showrunners decided to ignore him for a whole month and focus instead on other plot points. Although the Morgan-centred Here's Not Here is excellent as a standalone episode, it was hurt by where it appeared in the timeline of the series, as fans were only interested in what had become of Glenn.
This is the most obvious example of the bad story-hopping habit TWD has picked up. Too often, we are not returned to the place in the narrative where we were left at the last. If the viewers are made to wait for too long, they will lose interest, and many already have.
The introduction of The Hilltop and The Kingdom has given us intriguing characters such as Ezekiel and Jesus, but it has caused the story to be spread too thinly and sporadically. The unification of these communities with Alexandria must make for better episodic storytelling.