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7 Things The Walking Dead Must Do To Get Back To Its Best

It's widely acknowledged that The Walking Dead is far from its heyday right now. After an attention-grabbing - if controversial - premiere, season 7 began to see viewers drop off every week as the show continued to chew the fat and lose steam. Thankfully, things have picked up in the last couple of episodes, and likewise, the viewing figures have also started to increase again. The midseason finale, in particular, might not have been a classic episode of the show, but it did offer hope that things would pick up when the series returns in February for its second half.

4) Stop Overusing Negan

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Negan was so full of promise when he first arrived at the end of season 6 and then bludgeoned his way through two major cast members in the season 7 premiere. His name was on every character’s lips and it seemed like the show had found someone to replace The Governor asĀ The Walking Dead‘s greatest villain.

Since then, however, the character has lost a lot of his spark. To be clear, this is no fault of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who’s given a great larger-than-life performance that perfectly channels the character from the original comics. Rather, it’s because he featured more in the first half of season 7 than most of the good guys did, leading some to feel like it had become The Negan Show. Worse than that, most of his extended screentime was dedicated to showing us over and over again that he was a brutal, untouchable leader. Eight episodes of this has left his once dramatic lording it over Rick and the others very same-y indeed.

For better or for worse, it’s been confirmed that Negan is going to stick around until season 8. On the one hand, this could be a good thing, as the character’s unpredictability and Morgan’s performance could ensure his place as a great TV villain. For this to work, though, he would need to be used more sparingly in the future, lest he overstay his welcome too soon.