The Walking Dead: 10 Ways To Make The Show Great Again
2. Three Cheers For The Good Guys
For the very longest time, this show has been shrouded in metaphorical darkness. The show by definition is dark thematically, but that only seems to get compounded week after week, as we discover new characters who only seem to have insidious motives behind them. So where are all the good guys? I find it difficult to believe that even in an apocalypse, just about everyone we meet would turn toward the dark side. Oh, and not to bring spoilers into the fray, but lets just say theres some more bad people approaching. You know who saw this coming? Everyone. Yes, its a relief to see Abraham be ostensibly good, even if it is early on. And yes, not all the people from Woodbury were inherently evil, but almost all of them are barely supplementary characters. Theyre more fillers and extras, and after the attack on the prison, who knows if well ever catch up with them again. Look, Im not advocating for a world where everyone latches hands and sings songs around a campfire. Thats not happening, and it would make for brutal television (although I wouldnt rule out a Walking Dead: The Musical just yet). Nor am I advocating for placing all characters into silly subgroupings of good or bad. The world isnt made up that way, and neither should the show. But more often than not, new faces fall so squarely into the bad category that we dont even get a chance to realise their motivations, which may help explain why they behave the way they do. I know I said I want more good guys, but in reality, I just want more types of personality other than evil. Im fine with complicated characters who struggle with morality. Im fine with simplistic ones who only want to help. Im fine with any character that has more than one dimension, really. They just cant all be sinister. That gets tiresome. Its time for the writing team to develop multi-layered, multi-dimensional characters. People that have several permutations of the colour grey behind their character, instead of an easy black or white connotation. It just feels like the show is lacking direction in this area. This is hardly surprising, when we consider the final, and most important change that needs to be made.
