There is no doubt about the fact that The Walking Dead Universe is one of the greatest franchises in TV history. It's a phenomenon that brought the horror of zombies to the small screen in a way that no other show ever managed to before it. Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes became a pop-culture icon, soldiering through the dangers of the world that The Walking Dead created in the hopes of finding a better tomorrow for his loved ones. That journey inspired countless more like it (and some that were very different) as the TWD Universe expanded with multiple spinoffs set in the same universe.
But for most of the highs that the TWD phenomenon experienced, there were some lows to go along with it - including some incredibly poor seasons that fans just weren't happy with. From Fear The Walking Dead's genuinely baffling post-season 3 reinvention to a lacklustre start for World Beyond - and not forgetting the infamous all-out war storyline on the original series, here are the absolute worst seasons that the TWD franchise has to offer.
6. Fear The Walking Dead season 4
If you watched Fear The Walking Dead, you'll know why this one made the list. This is the season where everything went wrong - and a show that had just shown us that it was capable of being even better than The Walking Dead (season 3 was a masterpiece) completely fell off a cliff. And it was all down to new showrunners and a creative decision to make the show less of a prequel and more of a companion series to the mothership. But this decision was anything but creative.
Introducing Morgan was already a sign that things were going wrong as TWD fans grown weary of his cyclical we-can't-kill-but-also-kill-extremely-violently-while-I-judge-you-for-killing approach, so inflicting that on Fear audiences was just cruel. But it could have worked if the-powers-that-be simply respected the show they were working on. Instead, original lead Madison Clark was "killed off", and her family was sidelined for Morgan's self-indulgent search for purpose. Newer characters were introduced, almost all of whom were genuinely dull and uninteresting (with the exception of John Dorie), and main characters like Alicia and Victor Strand were overlooked.
In all honesty, the first half of the season is actually pretty good. It's a massive downgrade from season 3, but there was potential there. The second half of the season, however, is one of the worst stints that any TWD show has experienced. And with the dull grey filter that the original show was known for, Morgan's monologues, and some pretty lacklustre plots, Fear had completely lost its identity - looking like an extremely poor imitation of The Walking Dead. The Clarks, the show, and the viewers deserved better than that.
5. The Walking Dead season 7
No surprises to see this one here. Immediately after rubbing fans up the wrong way with that copout Negan cliffhanger that closed out season 6 (which didn't reveal who he killed), the season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead was the most violent episode in the show's entire run as Negan killed off two beloved characters. It was Glenn's death, however, that received the bulk of the criticism as the kind-hearted hero had just returned from a fakeout death, so to kill him off so quickly - so violently - was not the route to go.
What came after this was a relatively slow-moving season in which Negan was protected by a mountain of plot armor, speaking to a group of his enemies as they pointed their guns at him without actually shooting. The pacing was all over the place too, with 90-minute episodes in which very little actually happened, and that infamous CGI deer saw the show make headlines for all the wrong reasons all over again.
Season 7 just wasn't The Walking Dead's year and the huge ratings decline between the premiere and the finale is proof of that.
4. The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 1
The most unusual of all the TWD spinoffs, World Beyond centred on a new generation of survivors, who grew up in a world that had been overrun by the dead for years. Sheltered by their community, they never experienced the harsh realities of what it was like in those early years and decided to take it upon themselves to venture out beyond the gates to find out.
World Beyond had a rough start. The pilot episode was not good, spotlighting all the wrong characters and not really offering up much despite its interesting concept (and overall importance to franchise due to its ties to Civic Republic Military). Many described it as a CW version of The Walking Dead, but truthfully, a CW version would have been more interesting. This was just dull.
Thankfully, the show improved immensely throughout its debut run, finishing with a strong two-part finale that set the stage for a much more solid second season. And that makes the journey worthwhile, even if it is a slow one.
3. The Walking Dead season 8
If you asked a group of TWD fans to choose the worst season of the original series, there is a pretty strong chance that the majority of them will opt for season 8. In fact, it's almost a guarantee. I hate to say but I can't disagree with them.
The show had squandered a lot of the goodwill of fans in season 7 due to the violent death of Glenn and the lacklustre debut season for new villain Negan, so the eighth season attempted to make up for that with an "all-out war" to bring it to a close. Except the war didn't happen until the end and the characters kept splitting up, exchanging gunfire with Negan's men throughout the season without actually crossing paths with the villain himself. I didn't hate this as it at least made each episode feel like they had stakes, but making audiences wait another 16 episodes after doing the same as the previous season isn't exactly how you treat fans well.
What I can't defend is the absolutely crazy decision to kill off Carl Grimes. The character who Rick saw as his reason for surviving - so that he could guarantee a better future for his kids - it was absolutely senseless to take him off the board, especially when it wasn't actor Chandler Riggs' decision. And, while Carl went out heroically, the show completely wasted the storytelling opportunity by killing off the very character he saved (Siddiq) just two seasons later. What were we even doing?!
2. Fear The Walking Dead season 7
While Fear The Walking Dead season 7 is widely regarded as one of the show's worst seasons, it did get one very significant thing right: Bringing back Kim Dickens as Madison Clark. The character should have never been killed off in favor of shoehorning The Walking Dead's Morgan Jones into the main role and the fact that it took the creative team three seasons to realize that is extremely questionable, but we'll give this season credit for doing the right thing. Seeing Dickens back was nothing short of exhilarating.
Unfortunately, the rest of the season let the show down. Although the nuclear apocalypse-esque setting created a vivid, unnerving atmosphere from a visual standpoint, the storylines just couldn't match up to that aesthetic. The primary villains were extremely underwhelming and the majority of the time, it felt like the story was just meandering before it reached its conclusion in the finale.
This is not how a season that looked this brilliant should have played out and it resulted in a major step backwards from the sixth season - which had finally started showing the new iteration of the show's potential.
1. Fear The Walking Dead season 5
Fear The Walking Dead was already drawing the ire of fans after it killed off its two strongest characters in the fourth season (although some rewriting wisely allowed them to undo one of them down the line), with the second half of that season being particularly bad. Unfortunately, things only got worse in season 5 as fans widely considered it one of the worst seasons - perhaps the worst.
Morgan simply doesn't work as a main character and yet they constantly leaned on him in this season to offer up condescending pep-talks to characters who were already doing extremely well without him. His arc had already been exhausted by some of the original show's worst seasons, so having him explore his peaceful side (while casting judgement on others for simply trying to survive) was exhausting. Moreover, the lore as to why the walkie-talkies worked (and then didn't) was incredibly inconsistent, as was the fact that they simply couldn't leave Texas - and instead insisted on fixing their plane as the fears of a nuclear meltdown loomed over them - was also ridiculous.
Fear stopped treating its characters like characters, constantly sidelining interesting heroes like Alicia Clark, Victor Strand and John Dorie for more, more, more of Morgan. The response to seasons 4, 5, and 7 are just proof of how well that worked out.