As a girl who has watched all 11 seasons The Walking Dead, there have been some truly amazing storylines. The first season, the CDC, the prison, even The Whisperers — those are all great examples of fun storylines that I was locked into.
However, some storylines on this show started strong but slowly faded into obscurity — things I once cared about but ended up kind of hating. I picked four storylines that I can’t stand now and couldn't when I first watched the hit zombie series.
The Saviors (season 7 – 8)
Yeah, sorry, the Saviors got old really fast.
I think if season 7 of The Walking Dead were just focused on the Saviors, this wouldn’t be here. When Jeffrey Dean Morgan showed up as Negan at the end of season 6, it quite literally changed lives. He really was the best pick for this character, and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. It’s why even years later Morgan is still playing Negan in a Walking Dead spinoff, Dead City.
However, it gets to a point where the Saviors are just the only villain. There was nothing else going on. Rick (Andrew Lincoln), the whole Alexandria gang, and every other community were so locked onto this one threat that it took away from the rest of the show. Heck, it even took away from the villain that made this series in the first place — the walkers.
At one point in season 8, it felt like we were repeating storylines over and over until Negan and Rick finally fought at the end. And even then, Negan ended up surviving because Rick spared him to be “better” in honor of Carl (Chandler Riggs). Two seasons of build-up for barely any payoff.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Negan. But I also recognize that we could have gone in an entirely different direction if he had been killed. I know he doesn’t die in the comics, but I think after two seasons of just utter chaos, it felt deserved. It would have been a change-up.
The Grady Hospital (season 5)
I hated this so much. And it’s really not for the reason you think. Yes, Beth (Emily Kinney) was kidnapped to this place in season 4, and of course, that also led to Beth’s death (because why not make us hate this place more?). But that’s not the real reason I hate it, although it is a factor.
It’s that it’s so boring.
I thought throwing Beth into a kidnapping situation would add a lot more thrill to her storyline because we were really just starting to get to know her in season 4. She was becoming a fan-favorite character. In reality, we saw her walking around and trying to figure out a plan, only for it to backfire and let Noah (Tyler James Williams) escape.
I do like new locations in this show, and I think this could have been interesting. Because there was barely any real threat at first until the very end, it’s a storyline no one really remembers now.
The Reapers (season 11)
I genuinely don’t understand why we had the Reapers in season 11 of the show. I think it was really just to connect to that one episode in season 10 where Daryl had a love interest, Leah (Lynn Collins), only for her to turn into a villain and make his story even more tragic. Don’t even get me started on that.
The Reapers just felt like a lukewarm villain in comparison to all the Walking Dead villains. I think there was potential at first. We were between the major threats of the Whisperers and the Commonwealth, and the Reapers were a good bridge to fill that gap, even though some characters were already experiencing the Commonwealth when this was happening.
The idea at first of a former lover-turned-villain is cool, but it wasn’t done well because we don’t really know Leah, nor do we really care that much about her. It just doesn't hit the same.
Oceanside (seasons 7 – 11)
Does anyone else really recall Oceanside? Because I seriously don’t.
Oceanside was a Walking Dead community that became a part of the fight against the Saviors since they were under Negan’s rule. And they were interesting at first, as an addition to the war and as someone who had people who could fight. There was also the fact that all men aged 10 and older had been killed there, leaving them pretty vulnerable but also leading to some interesting storylines about the women having to rise up.
And then we just sort of forgot about them? Like, seriously, we barely see Oceanside after season 8. They barely exist. We don’t see the characters there often, and even when we do, it's only for brief moments. It felt like the writers just forgot they were there and focused all their attention on Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom.
There could have been something here. But instead, it was put into the shadows of obscurity, like many other storylines.
You can watch all 11 seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix.
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