Hello, I study film. That doesn't give my opinions any particular weight or importance, but it does give them a different perspective that I thought might be interesting, mainly since I've found my opinions on the show's seasons are not shared by the majority of viewers.
So here's my list, with brief explanations, from worst to best.
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Season Seven - This season didn't know what it was supposed to be. It wanted to be grim for our survivors, but it didn't want to commit. It wanted to present new consequences, but ultimately didn't have the guts to follow through (e.g. Daryl's temper causing Glenn's death, only to be forgiven by Maggie the next time they see each other. Very lazy writing). This season had a ton of potential, like that Daryl-Maggie conflict, the conflict of freedom vs security under Negan, etc. Ultimately, the writers went for the safest, fanfare resolutions and they just didn't feel real. Also, they really squandered the potential of Negan and Ezekiel with some silly writing. It was a tonal mess, and even the soundtrack and incessant musical overlay was an indicator that Gimple had lost sight of the story's tone and vision.
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Season Eight - Had a lot of S7's flaws, particularly in the first half. Carl's sudden humanitarian commitment came out of nowhere (he gunned down Negan's men just the season prior) with zero development or build. It made his death silly, and it was hard to take his legacy seriously when we didn't know why he was suddenly so peace-loving. The second half made some strides in more grounded character work that was seriously missing previously, and finally nuanced Negan rather than trying to give our protagonists an easy villain to despise. But it was a little too late.
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Season 6 - This season is where you start to see the cracks. Gimple claimed once that he thought of the show as Star Trek - a mass fanfare phenomenon. In my opinion, that is a complete misinterpreted and a affront to the integrity of what was, at one point, a gritty and cinematic drama. But Season 6 is where you see that Star Trek vision take its first steps (though it is not realized until Season 7). There are some great episodes and great moments, but overall it seems to just go through the motions of the comic story with no real goal or message in mind. A thouroughly enjoyable season for the most part, but with some silly decisions. A notably poor choice was using Daryl for Jesus' (fan service) introduction rather than Abraham (narrative) - who only had a few episodes to live and needed to cement an emotional connection to both Rick and the audience.
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Season 9 - A good season, and an almost miraculous rebound from the objectively poor storytelling of Seasons seven and eight. A tight season for sure. The only critiques would be the very poor handling of the Negan-Maggie confrontation, which was rushed due to Lauren Cohan's exit. Another retrospective problem with this season was the decision to sideline much of the veteran cast (Eugene, Gabriel, Tara, etc) for new, relatively superfluous characters like Siddiq and Magna.
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Season 4 - The first half of the season has a rather dull plot that feels like filler, but the character work shines -- Carol's transformation, Rick's struggle to repress his brutality that leads to him exhaling Carol, etc) The second half: The pace slowed down, but this slow burn was utilized to milk some good character work and return to that haunting Southern mythos that made The Walking Dead so entrancing -- a bunch of normal people, wandering the woods of Georgia is search of respite. The Governor episodes were brilliantly done, and while many fans didn't like focusing on him, it added a lot of depth to his character and provided an interesting contrast to following the protagonists' journey. It helped us see WHY people followed the Governor in the first place. One flaw with this season was the fragmentation... instead of jumping between casts like, say, Game of Thrones, Season 4 opted to focus on a single group for most episodes. This ended up making the story feel particularly slow and disconnected, and for some reason, this style would continue for the next few seasons.
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Season 3 - Great season. Some phenomenal character work and complex emotional journeys (Merle-Daryl in particular.) But this season also doubled down on the gritty realism of "no one is safe." Characters with plenty of story left to tell bit the dust cruelly and needlessly, and that's what made this world so immersive and frightening. The show would lose track of this in the Gimple era, when character deaths were calendar-marked for midseason finale's and premieres. But Season 3 really showcased the sort of unexpected realism that the story was capable of. The plot, of course, was fast and engaging, being the first large scale human conflict of the story.
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Season 5 - It's universally acclaimed as a tremendous season. It had a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes for a long time for good reason (cursed post-hype critics who go back to lower the rating). I think people tend to forget the confusing filler that was the the hospital arc. I personally tend to believe its non-canon, because it was just so strange and tonally jarring. Besides that, was a great season with an iconic cast of characters.
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Season 1 - No one would argue that this season isn't a television triumph.
1.Season 2 - Yeah, that's right. I think Season 2 is by leaps and bounds the highest quality storytelling The Walking Dead has ever undertaken, and I think its a triumph. It's a very slow burn, and it stands out as almost a different show from the rest of the series. Season 2 is a slow, post-apocalyptic slice of life and an in-depth character analysis. It delves deep into character psychology in ways many shows have never been able to accomplish. It relishes in a haunting Southern mythos that makes the farm really feel like its square in the middle of purgatory. In particular, the intense emotional bond between Rick-Shane and the gradual road to their lethal conclusion is one of the most gripping and well written character journeys I've seen in storytelling. It sounds hyperbolic, but I think the brilliance of this story is overlooked. Shane Walsh and Rick Grimes were incredibly complex characters in this season, and the former would never truly die, because the story left a deep mark on Rick. Frankly, all of Rick's future storylines are stems from the root of the Rick-Shane dynamic. Furthermore, the cast was at its most realistic and complex at this time. The characters all felt real and had dynamic relationships. Rewatch Season 2, trust me.
Submitted April 30, 2019 at 03:55PM by Impsterr http://bit.ly/2vu6IV5
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