The Walking Dead: 10 Ways To Make The Show Great Again
6. Stop Repeating Storylines
Remember when the Governor led the charge to attack the prison? Of course you do. Because it happened twice. In the season three finale, the Governor led his Woodbury militia on an assault against the prison, which didnt exactly work out the way he planned. His gang infiltrated the prison yard, entered the prison and searched the tombs to find Ricks group. Only they were ambushed, and the vast majority of his supporters fled. This led to the Governor going after his convoy and summarily murdering almost all of them in a fit of rage. What a guy. But perhaps this wasnt enough of an assault for the writing team, because the Governor returned for another onslaught in the midseason finale of season four. This time, however, we pick up the story months after the Governors pasting of his own troops. Hes wandering about aimlessly, despondent, depressed, ready to die. That is until he meets a small family of survivors in Lily, Tara, and Lilys daughter Meghan. Hes instantly drawn to Meghan, and were led to believe this is a direct result of the loss of his own daughter, Penny. The Governors paternal instincts kick in, and suddenly everything is just fine again. They run into his old militia pal Martinez, who has a small group of his own, and everyone tries to play happy family. Yeah, that didnt last long. The Governor kills Martinez, kills the groups temporary leader Pete (who was left in charge after the power vacuum left by Martinezs death), and then convinces Petes brother Mitch to join him in another prison incursion. Allow me the privilege of making this point again. The Governor killed Mitchs brother, and then convinced him to make nice and join him. All of this happened in the span of a couple episodes. I felt insulted. I hope you did too. Characters moving from point A to point B too quickly is a cheap way out, and it doesnt leave enough time for full developmentsomething necessary to get the audience to buy in. But apparently no one on the creative side cared, because the writing team used this to repeat a storyline weve already seen, and in record time. Only it was so wildly implausible that by the time it happened, we were all collectively shrugging our shoulders in disbelief. So heres a wonderful idea The Walking Dead needs to make part of its creative canon: Stop repeating storylines. I dont care if these stories were in the comic book or not. Dont do them. The two need to be separate, because the show was founded under such pretenses. Its a second chance, both for Robert Kirkman and the writers. Dont make the same mistakes made in the comic books. Instead, hash out new storylines, and discard ones that either didnt work in the comic books, or repeated themselves. And please, for the love of God
