The Walking Dead Season 8 Premiere – Has This Series Finally Stopped Sucking?

The alliance of Alexandria, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom are moving forward with their plan to wage war on The Saviors. A team of Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), Tara (Alanna Masterson), and Morgan (Lennie James) do the necessary reconnaissance work, while Rick (Andrew Lincoln) rallies the troops.

The Walking Dead has sucked for as many, if not more seasons as it’s been good.

Ever since The Governor (David Morrissey) blew up the prison, and Rick’s gang sought out Terminus, this series has devolved into a series of infuriating predictability. The constant nerve-shredding tension of the series that made people afraid to walk out of their houses after an episode has been replaced with cheap jump scares, and torture porn violence. The dialogue which felt genuine and real has been usurped by insufferable existential ramblings ripped straight out of a drunken college’s student blog.

In fact the whole concept of the series, which is in essence a dramatized zombie film, is now more of a glacially paced, more miserable version of Game of Thrones with power mad warriors battling over land.

And every year, when I review the season premiere (new or mid), I say the same thing — this show always starts off strong, and within a few episodes, it devolves back into the same boring garbage it has been for years. Of course, it always ends a season with a cliffhanger, which taunts viewer’s hopes that maybe, just maybe this series to return to form.

So, it’s with great trepidation that I review the Season 8 premiere — because it was a really good episode.

Check out Pop Break’s interview with Norman Reedus, Austin Amielo, Melissa McBride, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan from NYCC 2017.

Yes, everything that I have wanted (barring a few things) from this show happened. There was action — and not just cheap, gratuitous bloodletting. It was logical, creative, and tense. Yes, real tension, just like the old days. I was worried about what would happen next — especially since the “good guys” always seem to have their plans foiled rather easily, and demonstratively. I mean, remember when those annoying garbage people turned on them? Exactly.

There were performances that had dramatic weight to them — not just yelling about the world, or waxing poetic about existence while staring at nothing. There were lighthearted moments. There were honest moments. And there were moments that had us wanting more.

This premiere should give me a newfound wealth of hope for Season 8. It’s pointing everything in the right direction — all out war is happening. The walkers are scary again. We’ve got questions that need to be answered. (e.g. What’s with Old Man Rick? And why did they play Weird Al?) There’s characters in peril. And we’re all wondering what the next episode will bring us.

But, I’ve been burned way too many times by this show. We’ve seen far too many strong starts, only to see the show limp into the finale. I hold out little hope, but I will be the first to admit I’m wrong if this show can turn it around.

If you love this show, you will absolutely love this episode. If you’ve felt this series has sucked for a long time, not gonna lie, you’re going to love this episode.

However, I cannot confidently saying this show is “back” or it’s returned to form. It has a really bad track record of letting the audience down. So keep up your guard, and don’t let this show fool you…for the fourth season in a row.

Rating: 8 out of 10