Why I Stopped Watching ‘The Walking Dead’ Even Though I Loved It In The Beginning

The Walking Dead was once one of the best shows on television. They had intense storylines, strong characters, compelling villains, and a story with heart.

Even though the show started out with high ratings, it seems like more and more people have given up on the show. I stuck with it for as long as possible, hoping it would change course and surprise me, but I’ve finally given up on a show that used to mean so much to me.

Here are a few reasons why I finally stopped watching The Walking Dead sometime last season:

They strayed too far from the graphic novels.

I realize the television show doesn’t have to follow the same exact course the comics have taken — but the comics are genius. There are some storylines that shouldn’t have been changed. There are some arcs that shouldn’t have been messed with just to make the show its own.

Too many beloved characters were killed off.

I usually love when writers kill off important characters. I love the feeling of no one ever being safe, not even the actors you swore would stay on the show until the finale. But there are certain characters on The Walking Dead who deserved a better story arc. There are certain characters who clearly died for shock value even though it served no purpose to the overall story.

The pace was too slow.

I don’t need zombies tearing apart towns in every episode, but I don’t want to watch virtually nothing happen for three episodes straight either. When it comes to The Walking Dead, the first episode of each season is always amazing. So is the last episode and the episodes bookending a midseason finale. But all of the episodes in between drag. They’re too boring and repetitive. It takes ages for anything interesting to happen.

They valued shocking lies over authenticity.

I don’t mind television shows playing with my emotions when it’s done well, but The Walking Dead insisted on faking deaths over and over again. At some point, it became predictable a character wasn’t dead unless their end was explicitly shown on screen. Even then, sometimes they wouldn’t actually be gone (*ahem* the dumpster scene).

They stretched the series out for too long.

It sucks when your favorite show comes to an end — but it’s even worse when you stop watching your favorite show because it has overstayed its welcome. There are certain shows, like Breaking Bad, with only five seasons because the writers knew what story they were going to tell and wanted to tell it well. They easily could have stretched out the show, but they decided they valued the story over the money they would make with another handful of seasons.

Even though The Walking Dead was a hit in its early days, it might be time to move onto something new. Most of our favorite characters are already written off from the show, so is it really surprising that so many fans have decided to leave as well?