Matt Armitage
The Walking Dead
Another potentially controversial choice. It’s been de rigeur for some years now to deride The Walking Dead as having lost its way, being boring, not having enough frickin’ zombies anymore, and those are perhaps all valid points. There have certainly been points, even whole seasons, where I’ve watched more through a sense of duty than actually wanting to, but I think we owe TWD a debt of gratitude for kicking in the door and showing networks that horror TV could have gore (and seriously impressive gore) and also deliver drama that hooked people who may not normally watch horror shows.
We’d had Buffy, and Supernatural, and Dexter, but TWD when it started was like nothing else. Zombies on TV! Zombies being killed in horrific and entertaining ways! Characters being bitten by zombies and dying or being shot! Gore! In many ways we’ve become somewhat spoiled with the amount of gory horror shows on TV now and TWD was a large part of the reason we got them. Frank Darabont’s name was what convinced AMC to sign on to fund his desire to make a show about Robert Kirkman’s series of comics, but he was unceremoniously fired midway through Season 2 production, allegedly due to unprofessional conduct (expletive-filled ranting emails to other production members).
Everyone has their own opinions, but for me the show lost its way when the story began to introduce too many characters and too many locations: around Season 5 and 6. Negan’s arrival provided some entertainment, especially that Season 7 opener, but it dragged on too long, and the split between the different groups of people led to a less-cohesive focus on a core group which is what made the early seasons’ character development and emotional involvement so much more effective. Viewership dropped dramatically after Season 7, and continued to fall, despite Angela Kang infusing some fresh vision into the show in Seasons 8 and 9 and the introduction of The Whisperers storyline.
Nonetheless, if you wandered off at some point in disgust, or boredom, and have lingering bad feelings, try a rewatch of the first season and think back to how groundbreaking The Walking Dead was when it premiered, and if you did lose faith, give the last two seasons a go and see if Angela Kang can bring you back into the fold.
There are many other great horror TV shows and it was hard culling the herd. Honorable mentions go to Channel Zero, which I loved the first season but have failed to get into other seasons as much. Supernatural should get some kudos for its longevity, sense of humour and having some genuinely great episodes amongst the fluff. American Horror Story Season 1 was excellent, but it declined slowly from there for me, despite the stellar cast. My other favourite zombie show was Black Summer, a spinoff from the Z Nation universe (which I did not like) but tighter, leaner and more action-packed. Last but not least, Ash Vs. Evil Dead is a funny, smart, gore-fest that successfully transfers the humour and mood of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness to the small screen.
