The Walking Dead Ending & 2 Spin-Off’s Announced

[Malcy]

Finishing in 2022 after 11 series. Seems S11 is being split into two 12 ep runs. Daryl & Carol to get a spin-off as well as a new anthology series showing character backstories.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-09-09/the-walking-dead-ending/

I gave up after Rick left as it seemed it would drag on forever but I might start again knowing there's an end in sight.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I gave up after Rick left as it seemed it would drag on forever but I might start again knowing there's an end in sight.

It was shit for a while, then it improved a bit, but still nothing approaching the heights of the early seasons.

So with the spin-off confirmed it means no jeopardy for Carol & Daryl then...

[Bently Sheds]

Daryl & Carol to get a spin-off as well as a new anthology series showing character backstories.

Please let this be like The Good Life; Daryl and Carol as Tom & Barbara and a horde of walkers as Jerry & Margo.

[wooders1978]

Has their ever been a more overrated character than Daryl?

[Bazooka]

Has their ever been a more overrated character than Daryl?

He's fine but was better when he was more low key and quiet, he is less effective without Rick around. I'll watch it wrap up as I've invested so many years in it, but I really don't see the overall quality getting any better.

[Brundle-Fly]

It was shit for a while, then it improved a bit, but still nothing approaching the heights of the early seasons.

So with the spin-off confirmed it means no jeopardy for Carol & Daryl then...

Also backstories anthologies means no peril either. That's the problem with prequels in general.

[Malcy]

Also backstories anthologies means no peril either. That's the problem with prequels in general.

Doesn't really need to be peril to tell a good story though. They could be set pre-outbreak as well.

[Spiteface]

Has their ever been a more overrated character than Daryl?

Tommy Oliver in Power Rangers.

[Brundle-Fly]

Doesn't really need to be peril to tell a good story though. They could be set pre-outbreak as well.

Agree, but I was never a fan of all that Young James Bond, Sherlock Holmes/ Indiana Jones stuff. We all know that Holmes or Jones is going to make it to the end of the movie but even more so with prequels.

Pre-outbreak Walking Dead. That would be like watching Little House On The Prarie or thirtysomething

[Famous Mortimer]

99.99% of all prequels are rubbish.

[bgmnts]

99.99% of all prequels are rubbish.

Half of Godfather II,
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
Temple of Doom,
Solo and Rogue One,
Red Dragon.

[Moribunderast]

The Walking Dead is so strange to me. I watched it for several seasons and it was okay-to-bad the whole time. Every season they'd introduce a new element from the comic and fans of the comic would always say "NOW is when it gets really good!" and it would always just remain the same aimless, slow, repetitive show. Tried Fear Of The Walking Dead because I was told "It's like The Walking Dead but this one is actually good!" and lasted two episodes - it felt just as aimless and dumb. The idea of more spin-offs, more prequels, to go along with the supposed Rick-centric movies that were planned... I don't know if I've ever seen so much meat carved from such a skinny pig. I literally don't know what the appeal of the show/s could be. By the time I stopped watching (which was around a season after Negan's introduction) there were zero likeable or interesting characters and no plot.

[Bently Sheds]

It started out ok, but once it got into the "find a group of survivors who are doing ok but our heroes take over and fuck everything up and then leave" cycle (starting with Hershel's farm) it just went to shit.

[Malcy]

Tried Fear Of The Walking Dead because I was told "It's like The Walking Dead but this one is actually good!" and lasted two episodes - it felt just as aimless and dumb.

It's far better than TWD has been for a long time. Mainly due to having characters that I like and am interested in their stories. If you only gave it 2 episodes then you haven't really given it enough of a chance. The first series is 6 episodes and quite different to the rest.

It started out ok, but once it got into the "find a group of survivors who are doing ok but our heroes take over and fuck everything up and then leave" cycle (starting with Hershel's farm) it just went to shit.

Finally getting to some normality only to be attacked by continuous waves of shitty people doesn't help either. Too repetitive.

I think that's what annoys me most about this show. There are so many story possibilities but they just keep doing the same shit over and over again.

[Bazooka]

The meeting other factions and the others Re a bit more worse than  you morally, works on a shorter scale, but the show dragged out each narrative for such long periods without consistently good characters and interesting situations.  Even the worst seasons had some really good episodes because it had a fun situation or was filmed well, but for obvious reasons, there was too much filler.  I liked Negan, The Governor and the Wisperers but for every good bit of screen time they had,the rest was surrounded by meh, but yet I still keep watching.

You've got the brilliant Negan bat cliffhanger episodes, then you have an episode where the characters sit behind invincible cars and fire infinite ammo at a building for half an hour with no sense of dread , just an episode of the A-Team with WD characters.

[Famous Mortimer]

If you only gave it 2 episodes then you haven't really given it enough of a chance. The first series is 6 episodes and quite different to the rest.

I've never understood this attitude. If I watch the first two episodes of a show and don't enjoy it, why should I carry on watching? There's way too much TV to stick with something you're not enjoying.

[Malcy]

I've never understood this attitude. If I watch the first two episodes of a show and don't enjoy it, why should I carry on watching? There's way too much TV to stick with something you're not enjoying.

It's more the fact that the 1st 6 episodes are more or less pre-outbreak and setting up the characters. Once they're on the move it's a lot different.

[Famous Mortimer]

6 episodes is too much preamble, I reckon.

[Moribunderast]

6 episodes is too much preamble, I reckon.

Yeah, I do get Malcy's point in that a friend of mine says basically the same thing re: FOTWD but the preamble can't be boring. As I recall it, the episodes I watched were boring, had bad acting, no characters that grabbed me and no immediate plot or sequences that I found interesting at all. There are plenty of shows that start a bit slower and become great but those at least have something to keep you invested long enough for the world and characters to grip you.

It's probably a bit shitty of me to waltz into a TWD thread and exclaim "It's shit!" because that's no fun for fans of the show to read but I am genuinely fascinated by how much content they've wrung out of this show when I feel it was good for maybe 3-4 seasons and then diminishing returns ever since. I hope one of the spin-offs or the prequel or the Rick movies are actually great because I'd be happy to watch if so but I have no faith in the creative behind TWD because, to my personal tastes, it hasn't been earned.

[Leo2112]

All that's worth bothering with:

TWD - Season 1 & bits of Season 3

FTWD - Season 3

That's it

[The Mollusk]

6 episodes is too much preamble, I reckon.

Agreed. The Wire was a very slow-paced show but even that managed to hook me in with probably only 3 episodes.

The Walking Dead is so strange to me. I watched it for several seasons and it was okay-to-bad the whole time. Every season they'd introduce a new element from the comic and fans of the comic would always say "NOW is when it gets really good!" and it would always just remain the same aimless, slow, repetitive show. Tried Fear Of The Walking Dead because I was told "It's like The Walking Dead but this one is actually good!" and lasted two episodes - it felt just as aimless and dumb. The idea of more spin-offs, more prequels, to go along with the supposed Rick-centric movies that were planned... I don't know if I've ever seen so much meat carved from such a skinny pig. I literally don't know what the appeal of the show/s could be. By the time I stopped watching (which was around a season after Negan's introduction) there were zero likeable or interesting characters and no plot.

I also agree with practically every word of this and am pleased that you posted it, despite your reservations of derailing others' enthusiasm.

[Famous Mortimer]

I think it (and dozens of other great shows) suffered from success, and having (at the time) source material with no ending. Perhaps it's just me, but I like shows to have conclusions, and there's very few that didn't overstay their welcome, or stretch out their plots too thin because they expected to get a substantial number of series - don't know if anyone remembers "Invasion", from 2005, which is perhaps the ur-example of this, a potentially brilliant show that was so sure it'd get Lost-style numbers that it stretched 10 episodes of plot over 20.

There have been some fantastic segments and episodes of TWD, lots of top performances, but when I know it's only going to end when it stops making money (or, in this case, there are spin-off shows for all the cast and crew to move over to) I find it difficult to maintain interest, much like I would a 400 page novel where someone decided to take the middle bit and expand it by 3000 pages. But this might just be me. I'm sorry if this is derailing a thread, or adding to the negativity.

But I do remember season 2, where it felt it took them four weeks to move about 50 yards down that highway, and realise my negativity is probably justified. Time to watch "Z-Nation" instead.

[kngen]

FTWD really fucked up a great opportunity to tell the story of the outbreak by (for what I would imagine were budgetary reasons)

Spoiler alert

wimping out with a quick timejump from the very start of it to about two or three weeks in, when martial law had been established

[close]

. That squandered a lot of charitable 'let's give it a chance' feelings on my part. It does get a lot better, but I've found the most recent season a struggle as it's gone a bit Beyond Thunderdome (and not in a good way).

[kngen]

Tried Fear Of The Walking Dead because I was told "It's like The Walking Dead but this one is actually good!" and lasted two episodes - it felt just as aimless and dumb.

By season 2, it became a kind of repository for more ambitious storylines rather than the same group of people crunching through the leaves in circles in the Appalachian forests for months on end. Some worked better than others, but at its best, it was a far more engaging watch than TWD.

[Bently Sheds]

Fear went to shit when Morgan appeared, the Happy Helping Friends storyline just sucked and killed my interest in the whole franchise.

[purlieu]

I stopped watching FTWD around season three I think, when I realised I hated all of the characters and the scenarios were just hilariously unrealistic. There's probably some meshed version of the show which has the more dynamic aspects of FTWD with the grittier, more consistent bits of TWD and works really well.

I'll admit TWD has been coasting for a long time but I do like a lot of the characters and it's enough to make me carry on watching, especially knowing there is going to be an end in sight. The producers said a couple of years ago that they were planning on carrying the show on indefinitely after the end of the comics as there are so many stories to tell, and I'm glad they've scrapped that idea (or, at least, shifted it to spin-offs).

[Bazooka]

Perhaps because the comic ended sooner than expected, they thought nah we'll just stick with the ending of that, although there is no Rick or Carl so not sure how it will play out.

[The Mollusk]

This is still my favourite moment from the show. A touching scene with Egg and KORL.

[surreal]

Well, it's back, so is Maggie and it was actually a good tense episode for the most part.... Sure that won't last.  Another enemy faction of course.

[Bazooka]

Oh wow I'd completely forgotten about it, thanks for the heads up,even though I'll probably be hate watching. The opener and closer rarely mirror the luncheon meat quality filler in the middle.