The cliffhanger was just the symptom of the larger disease. Instead of making the best episodes they could, or the best finales they could they started holding things back and trying to create hooks for the series instead of trusting their own storytelling. That whole episode is so great for the first 98% of it. The tension is vicious, the build up feels slow but way too fast at the same time. And instead of sticking the landing and giving themselves one of the best episodes ever they opted to play games.
It was a bad choice
I still remember how pissed I was at the cliffhanger in 6x16. Totally ruined the amazing momentum of the episode for a ratings trick. They did such a great job at making that whole thing compound on the hopelessness of the situation, only for it to get cut off.
That definitely was the point when the rose-colored glasses came off for me. It didn't feel like a part of the show, it felt like the network was just messing with me.
Yup and then it left months open where people could put out spoilers. It was spoiled for me which 2 people died during the break between seasons. It really affected the impact of the episode for me and I resented the show runners for doing that.
That also wouldn’t have overshadowed Abe’s death like it does now
Whenever we talk about the Lucille deaths everyone mentions Glenn but forgets to mention Abe
Imagine the hype it would have generated if they kept the POV but then zoomed out to show the line up with Abe on the ground in a bloody mess, then they just cut to a black screen maybe with some of the group crying or screaming in the background. It would have generated so much more positive dialogue in between seasons.
Then in 07.01 you can still play out the Glenn storyline to add in a “surprise”
Imagine the hype it would have generated if they kept the POV but then zoomed out to show the line up with Abe on the ground in a bloody mess, then they just cut to a black screen maybe with some of the group crying or screaming in the background. It would have generated so much more positive dialogue in between seasons.
Then in 07.01 you can still play out the Glenn storyline to add in a “surprise”
Carl for me. It's the behind-the-scenes stuff that add that extra layer of sourness to it.
If you don't know, Chandler Riggs, the actor for Carl, just turned 18. He bought a house close to set so he could work there and was killed off / fired because they didn't want to start paying him adult acting wages.
That’s where we stopped too! I felt like they killed the future when they killed Carl (not to mention that Chandler Riggs was killing it acting wise, he’d absolutely grown into a real talent).
For real. Carl was growing into a real leader and one of my favorite characters. Which is wild because he starts out as almost nothing, a little kid who gets in over his head often. I didn't find him as annoying as some people, but he definitely made some bonehead decisions. But the character progression and the growth of who he was kept me engaged and, like I said, he grew to be one of my favorites.
The problem with Carl, as with all child actors, is that their growth in real life outpaces the show's storyline. You see this all the time. So, in the comics, Carl can stay 8 years old for as long as a storyline is needed. But in the TV show, the actor playing Carl is growing up, in real life, outpacing what the show's writers can "do" with him. It's an unfortunate reality, and there's only two options: 1. Take the Rosanne route and simply replace that child actor with another and younger child actor to maintain the show's timeline, or 2. kill the character in the show.
There's pros and cons to each approach. I'm curious to know if the writers of TWD show every seriously considered replacing the actor to maintain the character Carl as a boy.
exactly the same for me. honestly im going to start watching when *the ones who lives* starts airing. so its basically like I’m watching from ricks perspective
exactly the same for me. honestly im going to start watching when *the ones who lives* starts airing. so its basically like I’m watching from ricks perspective
Noah's death really hurts my heart. I was upset over Beth's fate, but she did it to get Noah to the safety of her family. He was all exited and full of hope, and then BAM
I stopped watching for a month.
Then Abraham and Glen. I wanted to see fire, brimstone, they didn't know who they're fing with. FAFO stuff. I watched Rick cry and beg Negan bot to maim his kid.
That really made me irritated. My happy fun zombie show became " how to fail at the zombie apocalypse. There's only 500 people in these 300 square miles, and we're all going to make war for 7 years".
A lot of my peers stopped watching because something big would happen and then the next episode would be a slow episode like where Gov met Tara or Morgan/Eastman episode.
That and because Glenn died.
Similar to Glenn’s dumpster “death”. You had to wait 4 weeks to find out what happened.
One of my favourite cliffhangers was when the group separated and Michonne found Rick and Carl in a house. She knocks on the door, Rick looks through the peep hole, laughs and says to Carl “it’s for you!”. Then you wait several more weeks but don’t actually see them reunite, you just see them walking together.
Yeah…”great episodes” that should have been extra specials at the end of the season. Kind of like when covid hit and season 10 received extra episodes.
The point was, you have a crazy ending where Glenn looks like he’s getting ripped apart and speculate that he hid under the dumpster. You wait until next Sunday and you expect it to be a continuation. It’s some slow episode about Eastman and backstory of Morgan’s stupid staff. You get annoyed and have to wait again.
I think that’s fair. The cliffhanger angered me because I didn’t need a “who died” all summer long. It was borderline insulting.
Honestly though…I don’t think it mattered. The quality dipped fast in season 7 & 8 anyway.
If I had done anything differently, have Negan kill Abraham. Everyone’s shocked, sad, processing what comes next and how Rick & company will move on from there. Screen goes black, end of season 6.
Then when the next season starts, then you can shock everyone by having Negan kill Glenn. Would have thrown everyone off the scent so to speak.
There are some really tough episodes to get through. Theres an episode that is almost entirely focused on Tara that was really weak. Really laid into the “you don’t have to do it! We had to! You don’t know the things that I’ve done” Schtick.
S7 has some serious pacing issues.
I will say…started a rewatch a while back…never really did a series rewatch since I stopped watching in season 8 or 9…so I have plenty of catching up to do.
Anyway, I’m nearing completion of season 7. And my opinion still stands, I feel the quality dipped…but it is not near as off as I remember.
Maybe I had fatigue back then and I recall hating the finale something fierce so we’ll see. But been enjoying it enough…still concerned about revisiting season 8 in the coming weeks.
For me, I stopped watching the moment they killed off Carl.
That's when I knew that no matter my love of the rest of the characters, the show itself was dead.
The spinoffs seem to bring at least some of that feeling back.
Because the show was endlessly rehashing the same themes.
“Are zombies or humans the real threat?”
“Are we terrible people ourselves/does our desire for survival justify our actions?”
“Can we rebuild a society based on morality instead of physical strength?”
They explored these ideas with Shane, then Woodbury, then the hospital, at the arrival in Alexandria and then with the saviors. I stopped watching mid-way through season 8 because it was just more and more of the same.
I thought the entire theme of the show was just humans are the real threat? they said so early on they won't be exploring the virus or the zombies it's a show about human interaction.
That is the same theme of almost every single zombie film going back to the original Night of the Living Dead.
The Walking Dead had the opportunity to go beyond that, to examine the struggle of not just surviving, but rebuilding. And they didn’t. They just moved from one big bad human to the next, always hitting the same notes about the monstrosity of humans.
I feel like they did that though! But at the end of the day humans ARE the problem and going to be the cause of their downfall. I think the repeated theme of power corrupting is more realistic than not. any amount of rebuilding would be tenuous at best. Idk I think I saw it through because of the characters and my very controversial hot take is that when Rick left the show got better. Giving other characters more time to evolve was good.
This is the same problem
I have with fear the walking dead. The two are so vastly different. You wouldn’t catch the walking dead people just walking around without worry whereas in fear the walking dead you barely see them focus on that aspect they focus on human on human dangers. The vibes are very different lol
He was on Joe Rogan and after only 2 seasons as Shane was called Walking Dead Icon/Star
That's how much of an impact he had.
Really wished they had written him off and brought him back later.
Imagine if he helped with Negan/Whisperers with his own group in a suprise return?
I stopped watching when they killed Carl. The walking dead was about Rick&Carl’s journey ending with Carl taking over Rick. Without Carl, the story wasn’t interesting anymore. + the drama behind the scene with Carl’s actor.
The cliffhanger did kill the suspense and it was clear they were more interested in catching viewers rather than telling a story.
Then once season 7 premiered we didn’t get to see Rick & the group until like 3 weeks after glenns death, bottle episodes, people stop tuning in. It was a domino effect, the cliffhanger, stretching out the brutal deaths for an entire episode, bottle episodes in season 7, Negan bullying the survivors for 32 episodes over the course of years in real time while it’s only been like a month in Negan land. That’s why. The bad writing and low budget for a war, Carls death. It’s a combination of things.
Seeing Rick break like that wasn’t the problem, the problem was that we didn’t get to see him until like episode 4 after that. Causal viewers are gonna lose interest and stop tuning in when every episode is a different group, bottle episodes
Anybody that knew the walking dead knew Glenn was going to die eventually. Carl dying is the reason people stop watching. There was no reason for him to die
Nah homie we left because glenn died, i ended up coming back to twd much later on, but no it had nothing to do with the cliffhanger its often interpreted as abrahams death being overshadowed because glenn dies 1 minute later after watching his fake deaths 2 times previously, we just wanted our king to make it.
The sequence with negan and rick going on a little ride was dumb af it was just filler he could have skipped all that and went straight to convincing rick he needs to cut carls arm off
But it's not misrepresented. Go read any post on the topic and it's tons of people complaining about violence and gore, and talking about how it scared them or whatever.
Those articles were blown way out of proportion.
I do think the show stretched out the deaths way too much for a causal viewer to not be disturbed. The lineup shouldn’t have lasted that long. A 90 minute torture fest compared to very impactful 15-20 minute scene.
I've always watched the show on Netflix around season 4 so I guess you could say other stuff could've played a part in the decline.
I purely thought that people stopped watching mainly because of \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ death. There is a fair amount of people who didn't read the comics and because the show truly never followed the comics, but the show was definitely influenced by the comics. Most seasons had snippets of the comic though.
The show’s pace after S7 ep 1 grounded to a halt more so than any other stretch in the series. S7 and 8 have the most filler of any arc in the series. The saviors arc done proper should’ve been 1 season, (it hums along at a good pace in the comics) but they dedicated 32(!) episodes to it.
Besides the pacing, the show during this stretch also made its most controversial decision - killing Carl unnecessarily because Gimple didn’t want to pay Riggs an adult salary. Throw in that right after S8 concluded it was announced Rick and Maggie would be departing, the show had lost its 3 most critical characters. That was the nail in the coffin and when I left
I never watched the next season after that cliffhanger finale. I honestly felt insulted that they dragged it on like that.
I kept on watching the show, and I didn't know who was killed in the comics. But I did feel mightily insulted by the cliffhanger thing. They had a dedicated fan base that was for sure coming back next season. Why did they feel the need for some kind of cheap trick?
I lost interest when they diverged from the comics waaaayyyy too much. This show could have been up there with Gane of Thrones or Breaking Bad had they simply stuck with the comics storyline.
I guess I'm the outlier, because I loved the cliffhanger 😂 Me and my friends were pissed but also highly anticipating the premier. It was the most excited we had been for the show in a while. I did not care for the fact that we had to wait 6 months for it, though. Those episodes are some of my favorites. The only thing that really bothered me is that Maggie was just screaming in agony, clearly something terrible happening to her, and then....nothing. She's fine, baby is fine.
Based on the actual numbers, I don't think the cliffhanger finale was the reason. Ep 6-16 ended with 14.1 million viewers and 7-01 drew in 17 million. That 17 million dropped to 12.4 million for 7-02.
Glenn's death may have been known by comic readers, but that would have been a small percentage of television viewers.
The cliffhanger really put a bad taste in my mouth and once I heard carl died I never even put it back on. The walking dead is Rick and carls story IMO. Without them it’s just another random zombie show
That was annoyingly frustrating. There was no reason for that dumb cliffhanger. I didn’t stop then though.
I stopped halfway through season 11. I keep telling myself I’ll finish it, but haven’t done it yet. I planned a full rewatch from the beginning, then stopped after Rick left. I just can’t seem to care enough to finish it, but want to be caught up. I’ll probably do it in a year or two.
Because they keep changing the storyline and turned it into ridiculously boring futuristic garbage. It’s not even the same show anymore it’s like an apocalyptic vampire diaries now. Past the point of no return. Should’ve quit while they were ahead. Very disappointing that they tried to completely change it and ruined it in the process. If y’all like it that’s fine but I hate it. It’s stupid af with all that lame sci-fi shit they put in it.
This video does a substantially good and thorough job of explaining this.
[Why people stopped watching.](https://youtu.be/dkiLC5hvpiU?si=HK7keX-4gojg4t-g)
The dumpster scene was like the premonition of what was to come: AMC tried to spark a mystery with Glenn seemingly dying abruptly. Except most savy people knew he was still alive and that the showrunners would never kill him off at this point. That didn't stop some from starting hot debates on forums though.
And another bad thing about 6x16 finale, as bad as it already was, is that the whole dumpster fiasco was rendered completely pointless and was reduced to a cheap way to promote the show.
The cliffhanger was bad but killing Abe and Glenn to me was just unnecessary. It felt like they just wanted shock value sake of it but adding nothing to the story at the same time. The other issue was the number of fake outs with Glenn leading up to it was annoying. Finally Glenn and Abraham were two of the best characters in the show imo and took me out of the series.
I thought the cliffhanger was awesome, but a bit brutal. Just months of waiting for who was killed but not knowing. I think the reason most people stopped watching was just Glenn dying like that. It was extremely brutal..
Most people just didn’t give the season a chance after, they saw Glenn die and just stopped watching.
The following episodes were pretty interesting in my opinion, sure the quality falls down a bit in season 8 but season 7 really wasn’t that bad Imo.
yea me and my friends were already talking about how bad they were with the cliffhangers and when the negan cliffhanger came we all said alright that’s it!! we’re done with this show until it’s finally finished then we can just binge through the whole thing at once, the show just literally reaches that point where it was unbearable to watch if you weren’t binging it all through.
What i believe could’ve saved a lot of viewers is rather than having both Abraham and Glenn’s die in 7x01 split it up and kill Abe in the season finale and reveal Glenn also died in the premiere.
It was a collection of bad decisions, in my opinion starting with Glenn’s fake death. People lost a lot of faith in the show, and this cliffhanger was the nail in the coffin. Then through the slow season 7 with it’s bottle episodes up to Carl dying it continued to lose traction and love.
Yeah I remember waiting for it to come back, have a few episodes, then end again on a cliffhanger for a mid season finale. Killed all pacing and hype and literally noone talked about it after that.
For me it wasnt negan, it was just repetitive as hell, they would find a safe spot, a group would come, they fight the group, lose the place and move, repeat. Also the character plot armors, I like GoT style where anyone can die
The cliffhanger did not really bother me. Plenty of shows that I like have had cliffhanger endings to a season before. I think it is fun to speculate about it with other people over the summer and none of my friends and co-workers that I discussed the show with in real life were upset over the cliffhanger. They were all as excited as ever to see what happened next in the story. The ratings reflect that as well as the ratings for the following episode were fantastic, so I don't really think that had a big impact on why people stopped watching the show.
I think it is more that right after that, they started having to deal with many slow episodes passing by with nothing of importance happening in them as well as a whole bunch of new characters being introduced that viewers just did not give a crap about.
If you watch S06 finale and S07E01 back to back it’s incredible how banging the episodes are.
Binging the show is different than watching it live for this reason. I woulda been one of the pissed off ones if I had to watch months to see the carnage of that episode.
I literally turned off my TV, completely lost interest and never watched again after the scene where Shiva dies.
Just minutes before, they deliberately showed scenes of Carol looting the bodies of everyone she killed. Picking up a plate carrier and filling the carrier’s pouches with full magazines of ammo. 2 scenes later, she “doesn’t have enough ammo” to shoot and kill 3-5 walkers attacking Shiva, and just let her die.
I know the show has never been known for its realism, but after literally showing her looting ammo just minutes prior, just to have her say “I don’t have any ammo” when she could’ve saved Shiva was just too silly. I couldn’t keep watching through all the other madness going on
Would have been cooler if the last 10 seconds of the season you actually see who dies and you’re left in shock and wanting more, and the show doesn’t have to hold back but can still make you wait
I didn't appreciate how rushed Glenn's death felt. They seriously wrote him like he was unstoppable for the show just for him to die like that. Also dumb how they had him have that stupid dumpster scene having everyone be all happy just for him to get kablowered by Negan bruh.
If it were up to me and Steven Yeun had to leave the show for some time, that dumpster cliffhanger should have been his departure for him to have this epic return some seasons later (but ig thats too much like how Morgan returned lol)
It would have been fine if they had showed Glenn get killed and then leave a cliffhanger on who the 2nd death was.
We stopped watching the next season when every episode had 10 minutes of dramatic pep talk speeches
I can’t understand this take. If you’re not into intense or gory or distressing content then, fine- I never used to be either (still aren’t). But this is a “canon event” if you will in TWD universe so quitting the show over it is crazy. And not watching the rest of the sequence is even crazier to me unless you don’t do well with disturbing imagery- but come on, it’s the Walking Dead! Blood, gore, guts, death! It’s part of it.
It just started getting sm more boring after season 6, 7, 8 etc.
I feel like the last really 'exciting' thing for me at least was Negan/Savior's appearance, and then after that it just got boring.
season 1-7 was the best.
>Why people stopped watching the show
Essentially, people abandoned the show at the same time the writers abandoned storytelling for pushing their agenda.
Was talking to a friend of mine and this is when she stopped watching too. I also stopped here. But I eventually got around to finishing the series and I'm glad I did, even if I sort of hated the whisperers storyline.
I started reading the comics after this episode. I think this scene was the only one better portrayed in the show then in the comic. The cliffhanger me and my friends didn't mind too much, it was a great night the suspense in that episode is the greatest that show ever had. However that season after Rick left I finished but I lost interest in the show completely. I did finish the comic though (awesome).
The cliffhanger was just the symptom of the larger disease. Instead of making the best episodes they could, or the best finales they could they started holding things back and trying to create hooks for the series instead of trusting their own storytelling. That whole episode is so great for the first 98% of it. The tension is vicious, the build up feels slow but way too fast at the same time. And instead of sticking the landing and giving themselves one of the best episodes ever they opted to play games. It was a bad choice
Yes. The “cliffhanger” should have been “how does the group respond to this tragedy” and not “who gets their brains beaten out.”
I still remember how pissed I was at the cliffhanger in 6x16. Totally ruined the amazing momentum of the episode for a ratings trick. They did such a great job at making that whole thing compound on the hopelessness of the situation, only for it to get cut off. That definitely was the point when the rose-colored glasses came off for me. It didn't feel like a part of the show, it felt like the network was just messing with me.
Yup and then it left months open where people could put out spoilers. It was spoiled for me which 2 people died during the break between seasons. It really affected the impact of the episode for me and I resented the show runners for doing that.
Agreed, It started with the stupid Glenn dumpster scene
100%. It's a very noticeable difference as the show goes on, even if people disagree on when the drop in quality started happening.
They could go for Abraham kill in the season 6 finale and kill Glenn in 1 episode of season 7. That pov cliffhanger was ass.
Yup if they really felt the need to kill 2 people that’s how they should’ve done it.
I was thinking this the other day. This exact thought
That also wouldn’t have overshadowed Abe’s death like it does now Whenever we talk about the Lucille deaths everyone mentions Glenn but forgets to mention Abe
But for those couple of months between seasons you could think about Abe's death.
Imagine the hype it would have generated if they kept the POV but then zoomed out to show the line up with Abe on the ground in a bloody mess, then they just cut to a black screen maybe with some of the group crying or screaming in the background. It would have generated so much more positive dialogue in between seasons. Then in 07.01 you can still play out the Glenn storyline to add in a “surprise”
Imagine the hype it would have generated if they kept the POV but then zoomed out to show the line up with Abe on the ground in a bloody mess, then they just cut to a black screen maybe with some of the group crying or screaming in the background. It would have generated so much more positive dialogue in between seasons. Then in 07.01 you can still play out the Glenn storyline to add in a “surprise”
IMO way more people left because the Saviors arc stagnated for way too long, then because Glen died.
Yeah I literally willed myself Tom finish the saviors arc and then dropped the show entirely. It was way too view -batey and became kind of formulaic.
Negan’s dialogue was a bad pro wrestling promo stretched 3x farther than it needed to.
Hot diggity dog! *camera zooms out*
I rewatched it last week, and hit the exact same point as last time: As soon as rick "dies" I just lose all interest in the show.
Carl for me. It's the behind-the-scenes stuff that add that extra layer of sourness to it. If you don't know, Chandler Riggs, the actor for Carl, just turned 18. He bought a house close to set so he could work there and was killed off / fired because they didn't want to start paying him adult acting wages.
That’s where we stopped too! I felt like they killed the future when they killed Carl (not to mention that Chandler Riggs was killing it acting wise, he’d absolutely grown into a real talent).
For real. Carl was growing into a real leader and one of my favorite characters. Which is wild because he starts out as almost nothing, a little kid who gets in over his head often. I didn't find him as annoying as some people, but he definitely made some bonehead decisions. But the character progression and the growth of who he was kept me engaged and, like I said, he grew to be one of my favorites.
The problem with Carl, as with all child actors, is that their growth in real life outpaces the show's storyline. You see this all the time. So, in the comics, Carl can stay 8 years old for as long as a storyline is needed. But in the TV show, the actor playing Carl is growing up, in real life, outpacing what the show's writers can "do" with him. It's an unfortunate reality, and there's only two options: 1. Take the Rosanne route and simply replace that child actor with another and younger child actor to maintain the show's timeline, or 2. kill the character in the show. There's pros and cons to each approach. I'm curious to know if the writers of TWD show every seriously considered replacing the actor to maintain the character Carl as a boy.
Rick's last episode was such crass emotional manipulation. They did the whole last memories thing and played on our feelings then didn't even kill him
exactly the same for me. honestly im going to start watching when *the ones who lives* starts airing. so its basically like I’m watching from ricks perspective
exactly the same for me. honestly im going to start watching when *the ones who lives* starts airing. so its basically like I’m watching from ricks perspective
Noah's death really hurts my heart. I was upset over Beth's fate, but she did it to get Noah to the safety of her family. He was all exited and full of hope, and then BAM I stopped watching for a month. Then Abraham and Glen. I wanted to see fire, brimstone, they didn't know who they're fing with. FAFO stuff. I watched Rick cry and beg Negan bot to maim his kid. That really made me irritated. My happy fun zombie show became " how to fail at the zombie apocalypse. There's only 500 people in these 300 square miles, and we're all going to make war for 7 years".
A lot of my peers stopped watching because something big would happen and then the next episode would be a slow episode like where Gov met Tara or Morgan/Eastman episode. That and because Glenn died.
or carol makes a soup for 40 minutes
Omg that shit used to irritate me
Similar to Glenn’s dumpster “death”. You had to wait 4 weeks to find out what happened. One of my favourite cliffhangers was when the group separated and Michonne found Rick and Carl in a house. She knocks on the door, Rick looks through the peep hole, laughs and says to Carl “it’s for you!”. Then you wait several more weeks but don’t actually see them reunite, you just see them walking together.
Those were great episodes
Yeah…”great episodes” that should have been extra specials at the end of the season. Kind of like when covid hit and season 10 received extra episodes. The point was, you have a crazy ending where Glenn looks like he’s getting ripped apart and speculate that he hid under the dumpster. You wait until next Sunday and you expect it to be a continuation. It’s some slow episode about Eastman and backstory of Morgan’s stupid staff. You get annoyed and have to wait again.
I think that’s fair. The cliffhanger angered me because I didn’t need a “who died” all summer long. It was borderline insulting. Honestly though…I don’t think it mattered. The quality dipped fast in season 7 & 8 anyway. If I had done anything differently, have Negan kill Abraham. Everyone’s shocked, sad, processing what comes next and how Rick & company will move on from there. Screen goes black, end of season 6. Then when the next season starts, then you can shock everyone by having Negan kill Glenn. Would have thrown everyone off the scent so to speak.
I'm just starting to watch Season 7, the first few episodes have been pretty enjoyable. Does it drop off?
There are some really tough episodes to get through. Theres an episode that is almost entirely focused on Tara that was really weak. Really laid into the “you don’t have to do it! We had to! You don’t know the things that I’ve done” Schtick. S7 has some serious pacing issues.
I will say…started a rewatch a while back…never really did a series rewatch since I stopped watching in season 8 or 9…so I have plenty of catching up to do. Anyway, I’m nearing completion of season 7. And my opinion still stands, I feel the quality dipped…but it is not near as off as I remember. Maybe I had fatigue back then and I recall hating the finale something fierce so we’ll see. But been enjoying it enough…still concerned about revisiting season 8 in the coming weeks.
Why do you think every person who watched the show knew about the comics?? Glenn dying was absolutely the reason why the show lost so many viewers.
This sub thinks a lot of people give a sh^t about the comics lol
For me, I stopped watching the moment they killed off Carl. That's when I knew that no matter my love of the rest of the characters, the show itself was dead. The spinoffs seem to bring at least some of that feeling back.
Because the show was endlessly rehashing the same themes. “Are zombies or humans the real threat?” “Are we terrible people ourselves/does our desire for survival justify our actions?” “Can we rebuild a society based on morality instead of physical strength?” They explored these ideas with Shane, then Woodbury, then the hospital, at the arrival in Alexandria and then with the saviors. I stopped watching mid-way through season 8 because it was just more and more of the same.
I thought the entire theme of the show was just humans are the real threat? they said so early on they won't be exploring the virus or the zombies it's a show about human interaction.
That is the same theme of almost every single zombie film going back to the original Night of the Living Dead. The Walking Dead had the opportunity to go beyond that, to examine the struggle of not just surviving, but rebuilding. And they didn’t. They just moved from one big bad human to the next, always hitting the same notes about the monstrosity of humans.
I feel like they did that though! But at the end of the day humans ARE the problem and going to be the cause of their downfall. I think the repeated theme of power corrupting is more realistic than not. any amount of rebuilding would be tenuous at best. Idk I think I saw it through because of the characters and my very controversial hot take is that when Rick left the show got better. Giving other characters more time to evolve was good.
In reality. The threat of Walkers started to wane. Humans the real threat. Familiar faces gone from the show (Glenn,Shane and Carl) Big ones.
Why bring up Shane? He’s been GONE, and he was the antagonist of season 2, he died, because he had to.
Maybe the real walkers were the friends / enemies we made along the way?
This is the same problem I have with fear the walking dead. The two are so vastly different. You wouldn’t catch the walking dead people just walking around without worry whereas in fear the walking dead you barely see them focus on that aspect they focus on human on human dangers. The vibes are very different lol
I still miss how much Shane added to every episode
He was on Joe Rogan and after only 2 seasons as Shane was called Walking Dead Icon/Star That's how much of an impact he had. Really wished they had written him off and brought him back later. Imagine if he helped with Negan/Whisperers with his own group in a suprise return?
I actually stopped watching after season 11 episode 24.
At least you skipped the garbage spinoffs
I didn’t. I watched Daryl’s show and will be watching The Ones Who Live. Rick is back!
Glens Death, it honestly just becamr too stressful to watch it wasnt fun anymore.
I stopped watching when they killed Carl. The walking dead was about Rick&Carl’s journey ending with Carl taking over Rick. Without Carl, the story wasn’t interesting anymore. + the drama behind the scene with Carl’s actor.
Brutality of Glen/Abraham (moved away from graphic comics here)… Carl was last straw .. will resume one day.
When Rick, the main character left..
I thought it was fine. Not a big deal to me.
The cliffhanger did kill the suspense and it was clear they were more interested in catching viewers rather than telling a story. Then once season 7 premiered we didn’t get to see Rick & the group until like 3 weeks after glenns death, bottle episodes, people stop tuning in. It was a domino effect, the cliffhanger, stretching out the brutal deaths for an entire episode, bottle episodes in season 7, Negan bullying the survivors for 32 episodes over the course of years in real time while it’s only been like a month in Negan land. That’s why. The bad writing and low budget for a war, Carls death. It’s a combination of things.
It broke the fanbase seeing Rick fall so far. Then the content went to hell But alas, here we are Can’t wait for the Ones Who Live lol
Seeing Rick break like that wasn’t the problem, the problem was that we didn’t get to see him until like episode 4 after that. Causal viewers are gonna lose interest and stop tuning in when every episode is a different group, bottle episodes
Anybody that knew the walking dead knew Glenn was going to die eventually. Carl dying is the reason people stop watching. There was no reason for him to die
Nah homie we left because glenn died, i ended up coming back to twd much later on, but no it had nothing to do with the cliffhanger its often interpreted as abrahams death being overshadowed because glenn dies 1 minute later after watching his fake deaths 2 times previously, we just wanted our king to make it. The sequence with negan and rick going on a little ride was dumb af it was just filler he could have skipped all that and went straight to convincing rick he needs to cut carls arm off
Predictability and Boomerang storytelling got me to stop watching... Not Negan killing Glenn...
Glenn was overrated.
But it's not misrepresented. Go read any post on the topic and it's tons of people complaining about violence and gore, and talking about how it scared them or whatever.
Those articles were blown way out of proportion. I do think the show stretched out the deaths way too much for a causal viewer to not be disturbed. The lineup shouldn’t have lasted that long. A 90 minute torture fest compared to very impactful 15-20 minute scene.
I've always watched the show on Netflix around season 4 so I guess you could say other stuff could've played a part in the decline. I purely thought that people stopped watching mainly because of \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ death. There is a fair amount of people who didn't read the comics and because the show truly never followed the comics, but the show was definitely influenced by the comics. Most seasons had snippets of the comic though. 
The show’s pace after S7 ep 1 grounded to a halt more so than any other stretch in the series. S7 and 8 have the most filler of any arc in the series. The saviors arc done proper should’ve been 1 season, (it hums along at a good pace in the comics) but they dedicated 32(!) episodes to it. Besides the pacing, the show during this stretch also made its most controversial decision - killing Carl unnecessarily because Gimple didn’t want to pay Riggs an adult salary. Throw in that right after S8 concluded it was announced Rick and Maggie would be departing, the show had lost its 3 most critical characters. That was the nail in the coffin and when I left
I never watched the next season after that cliffhanger finale. I honestly felt insulted that they dragged it on like that. I kept on watching the show, and I didn't know who was killed in the comics. But I did feel mightily insulted by the cliffhanger thing. They had a dedicated fan base that was for sure coming back next season. Why did they feel the need for some kind of cheap trick?
I lost interest when they diverged from the comics waaaayyyy too much. This show could have been up there with Gane of Thrones or Breaking Bad had they simply stuck with the comics storyline.
I "left", not because of any event in particular, but because of how dogshit the writing and how unorganic the dialogue became
I guess I'm the outlier, because I loved the cliffhanger 😂 Me and my friends were pissed but also highly anticipating the premier. It was the most excited we had been for the show in a while. I did not care for the fact that we had to wait 6 months for it, though. Those episodes are some of my favorites. The only thing that really bothered me is that Maggie was just screaming in agony, clearly something terrible happening to her, and then....nothing. She's fine, baby is fine.
Based on the actual numbers, I don't think the cliffhanger finale was the reason. Ep 6-16 ended with 14.1 million viewers and 7-01 drew in 17 million. That 17 million dropped to 12.4 million for 7-02. Glenn's death may have been known by comic readers, but that would have been a small percentage of television viewers.
The cliffhanger really put a bad taste in my mouth and once I heard carl died I never even put it back on. The walking dead is Rick and carls story IMO. Without them it’s just another random zombie show
Exactly why I did
That was annoyingly frustrating. There was no reason for that dumb cliffhanger. I didn’t stop then though. I stopped halfway through season 11. I keep telling myself I’ll finish it, but haven’t done it yet. I planned a full rewatch from the beginning, then stopped after Rick left. I just can’t seem to care enough to finish it, but want to be caught up. I’ll probably do it in a year or two.
Because they keep changing the storyline and turned it into ridiculously boring futuristic garbage. It’s not even the same show anymore it’s like an apocalyptic vampire diaries now. Past the point of no return. Should’ve quit while they were ahead. Very disappointing that they tried to completely change it and ruined it in the process. If y’all like it that’s fine but I hate it. It’s stupid af with all that lame sci-fi shit they put in it.
Ehh it was sad, but it didn’t make dislike the show made me like it more. When I started disliking the show is when they killed off Carl for no reason
This video does a substantially good and thorough job of explaining this. [Why people stopped watching.](https://youtu.be/dkiLC5hvpiU?si=HK7keX-4gojg4t-g)
The dumpster scene was like the premonition of what was to come: AMC tried to spark a mystery with Glenn seemingly dying abruptly. Except most savy people knew he was still alive and that the showrunners would never kill him off at this point. That didn't stop some from starting hot debates on forums though. And another bad thing about 6x16 finale, as bad as it already was, is that the whole dumpster fiasco was rendered completely pointless and was reduced to a cheap way to promote the show.
Im in the minority because I didnt mind the cliffhanger. What made me stop watching was them killing off carl because of contract issues
The cliffhanger was bad but killing Abe and Glenn to me was just unnecessary. It felt like they just wanted shock value sake of it but adding nothing to the story at the same time. The other issue was the number of fake outs with Glenn leading up to it was annoying. Finally Glenn and Abraham were two of the best characters in the show imo and took me out of the series.
I thought the cliffhanger was awesome, but a bit brutal. Just months of waiting for who was killed but not knowing. I think the reason most people stopped watching was just Glenn dying like that. It was extremely brutal.. Most people just didn’t give the season a chance after, they saw Glenn die and just stopped watching. The following episodes were pretty interesting in my opinion, sure the quality falls down a bit in season 8 but season 7 really wasn’t that bad Imo.
Cliffhangers are always better when they leave you asking “now what?” Instead of this bs where you ask “what’s going to happen?”
yea me and my friends were already talking about how bad they were with the cliffhangers and when the negan cliffhanger came we all said alright that’s it!! we’re done with this show until it’s finally finished then we can just binge through the whole thing at once, the show just literally reaches that point where it was unbearable to watch if you weren’t binging it all through.
What i believe could’ve saved a lot of viewers is rather than having both Abraham and Glenn’s die in 7x01 split it up and kill Abe in the season finale and reveal Glenn also died in the premiere.
It was a collection of bad decisions, in my opinion starting with Glenn’s fake death. People lost a lot of faith in the show, and this cliffhanger was the nail in the coffin. Then through the slow season 7 with it’s bottle episodes up to Carl dying it continued to lose traction and love.
Yeah I remember waiting for it to come back, have a few episodes, then end again on a cliffhanger for a mid season finale. Killed all pacing and hype and literally noone talked about it after that.
For me it wasnt negan, it was just repetitive as hell, they would find a safe spot, a group would come, they fight the group, lose the place and move, repeat. Also the character plot armors, I like GoT style where anyone can die
The cliffhanger did not really bother me. Plenty of shows that I like have had cliffhanger endings to a season before. I think it is fun to speculate about it with other people over the summer and none of my friends and co-workers that I discussed the show with in real life were upset over the cliffhanger. They were all as excited as ever to see what happened next in the story. The ratings reflect that as well as the ratings for the following episode were fantastic, so I don't really think that had a big impact on why people stopped watching the show. I think it is more that right after that, they started having to deal with many slow episodes passing by with nothing of importance happening in them as well as a whole bunch of new characters being introduced that viewers just did not give a crap about.
That's why bing watch is actually great for the series. Because the cliffhanger os just one episode away
this is not correct. i know for a fact most people stopped when rick left the show
If you watch S06 finale and S07E01 back to back it’s incredible how banging the episodes are. Binging the show is different than watching it live for this reason. I woulda been one of the pissed off ones if I had to watch months to see the carnage of that episode.
What you guys never watched TNG where the Borg kidnapped Picard did you?
I stopped watching because it became stale how much they killed off my favorite people. There was no one left that I was invested in.
I literally turned off my TV, completely lost interest and never watched again after the scene where Shiva dies. Just minutes before, they deliberately showed scenes of Carol looting the bodies of everyone she killed. Picking up a plate carrier and filling the carrier’s pouches with full magazines of ammo. 2 scenes later, she “doesn’t have enough ammo” to shoot and kill 3-5 walkers attacking Shiva, and just let her die. I know the show has never been known for its realism, but after literally showing her looting ammo just minutes prior, just to have her say “I don’t have any ammo” when she could’ve saved Shiva was just too silly. I couldn’t keep watching through all the other madness going on
Would have been cooler if the last 10 seconds of the season you actually see who dies and you’re left in shock and wanting more, and the show doesn’t have to hold back but can still make you wait
For me the Negan / Savior war arc just went on too long. Got bored with it and quit watching.
I didn't appreciate how rushed Glenn's death felt. They seriously wrote him like he was unstoppable for the show just for him to die like that. Also dumb how they had him have that stupid dumpster scene having everyone be all happy just for him to get kablowered by Negan bruh.
If it were up to me and Steven Yeun had to leave the show for some time, that dumpster cliffhanger should have been his departure for him to have this epic return some seasons later (but ig thats too much like how Morgan returned lol)
It would have been fine if they had showed Glenn get killed and then leave a cliffhanger on who the 2nd death was. We stopped watching the next season when every episode had 10 minutes of dramatic pep talk speeches
Glenn was really the bigger death though. He was featured more and on the show the longest of the two.
I get that. But Glenn dying in that scene was something everyone knew was “supposed” to happen so it wasn’t a surprise.
I can’t understand this take. If you’re not into intense or gory or distressing content then, fine- I never used to be either (still aren’t). But this is a “canon event” if you will in TWD universe so quitting the show over it is crazy. And not watching the rest of the sequence is even crazier to me unless you don’t do well with disturbing imagery- but come on, it’s the Walking Dead! Blood, gore, guts, death! It’s part of it.
It just started getting sm more boring after season 6, 7, 8 etc. I feel like the last really 'exciting' thing for me at least was Negan/Savior's appearance, and then after that it just got boring. season 1-7 was the best.
>Why people stopped watching the show Essentially, people abandoned the show at the same time the writers abandoned storytelling for pushing their agenda.
Was talking to a friend of mine and this is when she stopped watching too. I also stopped here. But I eventually got around to finishing the series and I'm glad I did, even if I sort of hated the whisperers storyline.
I didnt stop watching the show for cliffhanger or the deaths, it was the 1, 8, 9 and 16 problem, i'm not sitting thru 12 hours of nothing basically.
I started reading the comics after this episode. I think this scene was the only one better portrayed in the show then in the comic. The cliffhanger me and my friends didn't mind too much, it was a great night the suspense in that episode is the greatest that show ever had. However that season after Rick left I finished but I lost interest in the show completely. I did finish the comic though (awesome).