Ok so this show was just DOPE when it came out with season 1 years ago. The cast and the onscreen chemistry was fantastic. They spent a lot of time building the relationships between the titular characters, slowly unfolding each ones traits and as a result we as viewer's have grown to love and have our own favorite. Now I get it that a post apocalyptic show having a happily ever after ending is ignorant at the least but having the core characters murdered in such a brutal manner just to shock the audience is a cheap tactic that has very evidently backfired on this show.
It averaged 11 million viewers in its prime, and now apparently viewership has fallen to a mere 4 million.
A minor deviance from the novel series is understandable especially when the author hasn't finished his work (like in GoT), but the script writers of this show decided to take matters into their hands, so much so that the graphic novel and the TV series at its finished product will look nothing alike.
Personally, the show is watchable till midway of season 6. If there's anybody planning to watch this now, heed my advice, as soon as the show starts to mention a character called Negan, that's your signal to quit watching.
From Season 7 starts the downward spiral; be it the declining viewership, an unrecognizable atmosphere, the fractured aimless plot (as the groups get split up), and a plethora of new unwanted characters being introduced in the hopes that the audience will be willing to let go of the show's core characters.
. The show has had a different director for every season. And each one gives their own little idiotic spin on it(especially towards the later seasons). As a result, what was once a comprehensive plot has now dwindled into a purposeless cocktail of irrelevant characters having no tangible objective, heading towards what has to be a bottomless pit of doom. It's simply gone beyond the point of any redemption.
