How to halt The Walking Dead's ratings slide

The start of the hit show's fall

Ratings are down. People are either tuning in or tuning out because of Negan. 

Characters are acting uncharacteristically dumb.

The death of Glenn someone everyone cared about was a death too far. The show that had earlier staged the cheap death of Tyreese still hasn't recovered.

Now it faces losing fan fave Morgan to Fear The Walking Dead at a time when fans are now saying Fear is the better show.

Smart Rick has done some dumb stuff

Stop making smart folk do dumb things

Rick goes back to the Garbage people. Yep, the same ones who stabbed him in the back and sides with Negan.

Jesus brings some of Negan's soldiers back to the Hilltop as prisoners and Maggie lets him.

Come on Walking Dead writers, you need to do better.

The only message Rick should have been delivering is a bullet in the show's most annoying character's brain. Jesus, Jesus, why would you bring some of Negan's band of killers back to your home?

The characters doing dumb things all started with the contrived situation whereby most of Rick's pals all ended up waiting to see if they'd be next to be on the barbed wire Lucille that Negan was swinging.

How did they fit the huge cast into one pic?

Cut the cast

There's too many of them and there's not enough we really care about. Would we really care if Rosita died? They haven't developed the character enough.

Same goes for Tara. I probably wouldn't be saying that if they'd actually allowed a same sex couple to be happy and not be torn apart by death and we'd seen their relationship develop.

As for slimeball Gregory. He's guilty of treason so why isn't he dead? And he's annoying.

The Jesus character has lost his way telling people like Maggie who watched her husband Glenn get his head caved in with a baseball bat that she's got to show compassion. Would anyone miss him now his earlier promise has been ruined by weak writing?

Enid wouldn't be missed either. 

Rid Trash People of

The ridiculous Jadis

Apart from the spike covered armoured walker Rick's forced to fight by the Garbage people what have this band of weirdoes and one word sentence talkers brought to the show?

Time to take out Jadis and the rest of her boring trash.

The only good thing the trash people have brought to the show

Give us & Daryl something to laugh at

 

When Daryl smiles we smile

Hey, we know it’s the apocalypse and end of the world stuff, but does it have to be so darn depressing all the time?

What's wrong with a laugh every so often like one of the best Rick lines ever to Daryl when he has to leave him at the Kingdom so Negan doesn't find him at Alexandria? 

His parting words were - 

"Maybe you can stare him (Ezekiel) into submission."

Give us some hope of a cure

When Eugene arrived there was hope

We haven't had that since Abraham and Rosita arrived on the scene with Eugene who conned them into believing he had a cure. 

Every show needs hope. The Walking Dead has lost of that. Every season now seems to be about beating the next big bad like Negan. 

Morgan Jones crossing over to Fear the Walking Dead could herald in the Whisperers

Morgan Jones in Clear

The news that Morgan will be The Walking Dead character crossing over to Fear The Walking Dead, has been met with some anger and confusion.

Anger because had the show just telegraphed the major character who will die in The Walking Dead?

Confusion because everybody assumed it would be Abraham our favourite ginger haired sergeant who'd be making the crossover and that Fear would focus on him and has family and how he lost them to the walkers after they ran off.

So, what will Morgan's story focus on - if it's a full story that is and not a blink and you'll miss it cameo?

Considering the timeline it looks like the events Fear The Walking Dead will have will feature Morgan from between season one when Sherriff Rick Grimes leaves him and his son Duane and season three, Clear where Morgan Jones appears to have turned crazy. At that point when Rick meets him, his son Duane is dead with the suggestion that the wife he couldn't kill, Jenny, bit the poor kid and Morgan Jones had to put him down.

During his now legendary rant, Morgan talks about -

"People wearing dead people's faces."

Clearly he's talking about the Whisperers who skin walkers and wear them so they can easily get through the walker hordes.

Rick thinks Morgan's gone bananas and replies- 

"I'm not wearing a dead man's face."

The Whisperers make Negan and the Saviors look like teddy bears and are led by a scary female character called Alpha.

With Morgan and the Whisperers Fear The Walking Dead season 4 could be very entertaining indeed.

Why we need more of Carol and Daryl in season 8 of The Walking Dead

Season 8 has teased more Daryl and Carol

The Walking Dead's main strength is in its relationships and not many are stronger than the one between Daryl and Carol, a bond that was forged forever in season 2 when Carol's daughter Sophia went missing and Daryl refused to stop searching for the little girl.

Daryl comforted Carol when she lost her daughter Sophia

That search ended in possibly the most famous scene in the show's history when a walker-died or zombified Sophia came shambling out of Herschel's barn. She was promptly dispatched by a Rick Grimes bullet as Daryl comforted the grieving mother.

One of the few highlights of season 7 was the couple's reunion at the cottage outside the Kingdom where Carol was staying. Daryl didn't tell his friend about the death of Glenn and Abraham at Negan's hands because he knew she was suffering from some kind of mental breakdown.

A rare highlight in season 7

Another season 7 highlight was when Richard of the Kingdom outlined his plan to use an unsuspecting Carol as bait to kill the Saviors by leaving a weapons trail to her house so Ezekiel would be forced into a war with Negan. Of course he didn't know about Daryl's love for Carol and just called her the woman until Daryl demanded to know her name.

The weakest part of the writing though was that Daryl didn't kill Richard there and then for trying to use Carol to lure Negan and his Saviours into an ambush at Carol's cottage.

That task fell to Morgan after Richard got his child protege Benjamin killed by Negan's thugs. 

Richard talks to Carol about taking down the Saviors

In another lighthearted moment, who can forget Richard apologising to Carol in front of Morgan when he visited her at the cottage and was talking about rallying King Ezekiel to fight Negan?

Richard thinks all the talk of violence will upset Carol. Little does he know.

Morgan responds by telling Richard that Carol's probably the best fighter they have.
I don't know about you, but both Carol centred incidents made me smile.

Let's be honest, there wasn't much to smile about in the rest of season 7 especially the wretched first half of that gloomy season, including that depressing Daryl episode.

If The Walking Dead needs more screen time for the characters we really care about, that means seeing more of this interesting pair and cutting the less popular characters.

Reunions between Carol and Daryl are sweet

The Walking Dead gets real in Scotland - Dead Bastards

"Enough gore to satisfy the hungriest zombie fan."

Dead Bastards: Zombies hit Glasgow: How will the zombies survive?

To celebrate the return of Fear The Walking Dead, Dead Bastards is now just 0.99. That's just 99 cents or 99p. 

That's a whole lot of zombie action for less than the price of a cup of coffee. 

Grab your copy now.

LINKS 

You can grab the book here - 

Amazon.com

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada 

Here's what one reviewer said about Dead Bastards 

The Walking Dead season 7 finale could have been much better

One of the many iconic moments from The Walking Dead so
great- unfortunately there were few in the season 7 finale.

I enjoyed The Walking Dead Season 7 finale but I can't help feeling it could have been better.

A whole lot better with a faster pace and if things had happened differently.

Here's some things that bugged me about the finale -

1. Michonne getting her ass kicked

Michonne v Tamiel - Come off it, the woman who could kill you with a stare, who cost the Governor an eye, who took down all those walkers when Merle left her tied up outside an abandoned motel (This Sorrowful Life) almost gets killed by Tamiel. Really? Especially after Jadis wants to "lay with Rick?" and Michonne's still seething about that?

Now that's suspending belief.

Michonne cost the Governor and eye, then eventually his life.

2. Jadis and her garbage people being as weird as ever
Looking like something out of Mad Max and talking in one word sentences, there's still no explanation as to why this not so merry band are the way they are. Are they from a deaf school or maybe a school with special needs? Why's Jadis the only one who talks whilst the others stand around like teachers at a school prom?

More importantly, how did they manage to make a deal with Negan when they use two worded sentences?

Explanations needed or they just come across as dumb.

Jadis turned Judas. Did you see that coming?
Yep, me too. 

3. The Sasha/Abraham flashbacks
Were a good idea but they dragged the story right down and (and maybe it's just me) but the couple were only together about five minutes and as much as I liked the characters individually they weren't a couple long enough to make the flashbacks particularly poignant. 

Instead of the over long flashbacks between them they should have shown the moment Rick was first greeted by Glenn with the words over the radio: "Hey, dumb ass."

That would have tied in with Maggie's moving voice over at the end about Rick and Glenn bringing everybody together. Glenn deserved to be paid homage to.

Sasha and Abraham? Not so much. 

This just didn't work for me.

4. Negan's still alive - Rick should have ripped out his throat.
Almost bitten by walker Sasha, almost eaten by Shiva the tiger, why can't he die already? Walking Dead fans seem to be split into two camps - those who think Negan is the best thing ever and those who hate him and want him off the show.

Me, I fall into the second camp. Every time you see Negan he's at his bullying, swaggering worst. I don't blame the actor who's doing the best with what he's got. Nope, I blame the lazy writers who think a comic character can translate directly from a graphic novel to a TV screen.

It doesn't work. They either need to sort this or kill Negan off.

Good to see Rick tell Negan he'll kill him. 

Rick had no play when Negan had him on his knees? Well, maybe this one. 

And that brings me to my last point...

Negan shouldn't be the big bad in a show about zombies. That should fall to the zombies.

5. The lack of full on walker action  
Okay, we get that The Walking Dead are the humans in the show and not the walkers as we first thought, but where are the zombies? Arguably Season 7 has been the worst season of the show, and the main reason for that is a lack of undead action. We want more junk yard spiked walkers, more sand dwellers, more walker hordes. Have fun with them like Z Nation and Ash versus Evil do.

Remember primarily that it's a zombie show. Villains will come and go but zombies are forever. We need more of them.

We need to see more walker action.

What did you think?

What would you have loved to see in the season 7 finale?