The Walking Dead: Seasons 8-10
Year: 2017-2021
Created by: Frank Darabont
Starring: Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Danai Gurira, Lennie James, Andrew Lincoln, Ross Marquand, Sonequa Martin Green, Alana Masterson, Melissa McBride, Cassady McClincy, Josh McDermitt, Samantha Morton, Khary Payton, Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs & Christian Serratos
Episodes: 54 (3 Seasons)
BBFC: 18
Published: 06/07/22
Created by: Frank Darabont
Starring: Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Danai Gurira, Lennie James, Andrew Lincoln, Ross Marquand, Sonequa Martin Green, Alana Masterson, Melissa McBride, Cassady McClincy, Josh McDermitt, Samantha Morton, Khary Payton, Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs & Christian Serratos
Episodes: 54 (3 Seasons)
BBFC: 18
Published: 06/07/22
In my reviews of The Walking Dead so far I’ve covered ‘The Rise’ which covered Seasons One through Three, and ‘The Fall’ which covered Seasons Four through Seven. With three more seasons left to go in this three part retrospective review series, The Walking Dead is currently in a position where it desperately needs new ideas and a shake up of the core principals of the show to regain its foothold. So, without further ado, I present The Redemption of The Walking Dead.
The biggest problem that faced Season Seven was that the survivors we have been following and rooting for since the beginning at New Alexandria and Hilltop were being beaten down and bullied by the new big bad, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and weren’t doing anything to stop it which was incredibly out of character for them. Thankfully Season Eight does some hard course correcting and begins the ‘All Out War’ story arc from the comic books. Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) group in new Alexandria, Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) group at Hilltop), Ezekiel’s (Khary Payton) army from The Kingdom, and the newly allied forces of Oceanside all begin to band together to fight back against Negan and The Saviours.
It’s one of the few seasons where a slow pace pays off because it’s slowly building to the epic final episodes where a full-scale war takes place. The creative’s behind the show also weren’t afraid to throw a few curveballs in there like killing off Carl (Chandler Riggs) to really throw down the gauntlet and make a statement that nobody was safe and they were going to divert from the comic books if they needed to.
Season Eight still isn’t a full recovery however as there are still issues surrounding the age-old issue facing The Walking Dead in that there are several episodes that are just acting as meaningless padding. But it’s a significant step in the right direction and puts itself on a similar quality level to Season Two.
The biggest problem that faced Season Seven was that the survivors we have been following and rooting for since the beginning at New Alexandria and Hilltop were being beaten down and bullied by the new big bad, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and weren’t doing anything to stop it which was incredibly out of character for them. Thankfully Season Eight does some hard course correcting and begins the ‘All Out War’ story arc from the comic books. Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) group in new Alexandria, Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) group at Hilltop), Ezekiel’s (Khary Payton) army from The Kingdom, and the newly allied forces of Oceanside all begin to band together to fight back against Negan and The Saviours.
It’s one of the few seasons where a slow pace pays off because it’s slowly building to the epic final episodes where a full-scale war takes place. The creative’s behind the show also weren’t afraid to throw a few curveballs in there like killing off Carl (Chandler Riggs) to really throw down the gauntlet and make a statement that nobody was safe and they were going to divert from the comic books if they needed to.
Season Eight still isn’t a full recovery however as there are still issues surrounding the age-old issue facing The Walking Dead in that there are several episodes that are just acting as meaningless padding. But it’s a significant step in the right direction and puts itself on a similar quality level to Season Two.
It’s Season Nine though where The Walking Dead truly got its groove back though. The first five episodes of the season takes place eighteen months after the war against Negan. Rick has imprisoned the madman in New Alexandria and this has caused tensions between them and Hilltop due to Maggie’s unwavering need to get revenge for Negan murdering Glenn. In an attempt to boost trade between all the settlements, and repair strained relationships, Rick proposes a bridge be built over a nearby river. But when a herd of walkers threatens the safety of everyone Rick detonates the bridge and sacrifices himself to save everyone.
The rest of the season picks up eight years later with Michonne (Danai Gurira) now in charge of New Alexandria and raising Rick’s daughter Judith (Cailey Flemming), and the movement of people and goods between all four settlements is smooth and easy. Though life isn’t plain sailing, walkers have begun congregating in larger and larger groups with herds in the thousands wandering around, and there seem to be reports of some walkers having learned to talk and develop more advanced battle tactics.
It’s as though Frank Darabont and co. knew the only way for The Walking Dead to recover from its mistakes was to quite literally burn the bridges to the series roots, and it’s an incredibly bold move to get rid of Rick but one that pays off monumentally. It’s like the show is finally unshackled from the ball and chain holding it back. There are still some pacing issues but with newer characters finally able to step up to larger roles it means that there’s a wealth of new story content to explore without the need to involve Rick somehow.
The inclusion of the new enemy faction, The Whisperers, is also extremely welcome. Unlike any foes faced previously, the Whisperers behave in entirely unpredictable and deeply disturbing ways. Whilst they may be human, they’ve lost all sense of humanity and are more at peace among the dead than with the living. It’s far from perfect, but it’s the first time since the first three seasons that The Walking Dead has arguably had a season that’s truly worth watching.
The rest of the season picks up eight years later with Michonne (Danai Gurira) now in charge of New Alexandria and raising Rick’s daughter Judith (Cailey Flemming), and the movement of people and goods between all four settlements is smooth and easy. Though life isn’t plain sailing, walkers have begun congregating in larger and larger groups with herds in the thousands wandering around, and there seem to be reports of some walkers having learned to talk and develop more advanced battle tactics.
It’s as though Frank Darabont and co. knew the only way for The Walking Dead to recover from its mistakes was to quite literally burn the bridges to the series roots, and it’s an incredibly bold move to get rid of Rick but one that pays off monumentally. It’s like the show is finally unshackled from the ball and chain holding it back. There are still some pacing issues but with newer characters finally able to step up to larger roles it means that there’s a wealth of new story content to explore without the need to involve Rick somehow.
The inclusion of the new enemy faction, The Whisperers, is also extremely welcome. Unlike any foes faced previously, the Whisperers behave in entirely unpredictable and deeply disturbing ways. Whilst they may be human, they’ve lost all sense of humanity and are more at peace among the dead than with the living. It’s far from perfect, but it’s the first time since the first three seasons that The Walking Dead has arguably had a season that’s truly worth watching.
Which brings us on to Season Ten, a season that was mired in production problems and setbacks but somehow still managed to get through reasonably ok. Season Nine ended with some major character deaths and a mighty big cliff-hanger for what was to come next. Several months after Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) deadly warning the communities have once again banded together to fight this new threat. But with the Whisperers ability to control large herds of walkers they are vastly outmatched. With Negan wanting to prove he’s changed; he’s sent to infiltrate the Whisperers and take them down from the inside.
There’s a lot more to Season Ten but it had a very difficult production period so it’s difficult to cover everything without completely spoiling some areas of the show. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the second half of the season was delayed and suffered the wrath of social distancing meaning that filming was slower and had more roadblocks in place. Combined with this it was decided that Season Eleven would be the final season of the show, so Season Ten was extended by six episodes which aired a few months after the original finale so that Season Eleven wasn’t horrendously long with the new episodes they needed to include to wrap up the storylines.
But all in all, despite these problems Season Ten continues the strength of Season Nine by putting new spins on old characters, raising the stakes, and once again making some bold decisions. It does suffer pacing problems more than some other seasons because of the increased length, but considering this change was made just a few weeks before the Season Ten finale was due to air I feel that the showrunners did a decent job of making it feel somewhat cohesive.
Seasons Eight through Ten of The Walking Dead weren’t without their troubles but it’s clear that the creative team had learned from their mistakes of the past several years and wanted to try and make good. Whilst the show didn’t get back to the same heights of its glory years, it’s significantly better than what the show had been producing for a number of years and left it in a good place for the final season. With only a handful of episodes left until the grand finale, The Walking Dead has definitely had its ups and downs but still remained one of the most popular shows on TV. I’ll be sad to see it gone, but it’s certainly long overdue for it to shuffle off this mortal coil.
There’s a lot more to Season Ten but it had a very difficult production period so it’s difficult to cover everything without completely spoiling some areas of the show. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the second half of the season was delayed and suffered the wrath of social distancing meaning that filming was slower and had more roadblocks in place. Combined with this it was decided that Season Eleven would be the final season of the show, so Season Ten was extended by six episodes which aired a few months after the original finale so that Season Eleven wasn’t horrendously long with the new episodes they needed to include to wrap up the storylines.
But all in all, despite these problems Season Ten continues the strength of Season Nine by putting new spins on old characters, raising the stakes, and once again making some bold decisions. It does suffer pacing problems more than some other seasons because of the increased length, but considering this change was made just a few weeks before the Season Ten finale was due to air I feel that the showrunners did a decent job of making it feel somewhat cohesive.
Seasons Eight through Ten of The Walking Dead weren’t without their troubles but it’s clear that the creative team had learned from their mistakes of the past several years and wanted to try and make good. Whilst the show didn’t get back to the same heights of its glory years, it’s significantly better than what the show had been producing for a number of years and left it in a good place for the final season. With only a handful of episodes left until the grand finale, The Walking Dead has definitely had its ups and downs but still remained one of the most popular shows on TV. I’ll be sad to see it gone, but it’s certainly long overdue for it to shuffle off this mortal coil.