REVIEW: THE WALKING DEAD LOSES ITS BITE

Fear for The Walking Dead. Not the LA spinoff, which may or may not offer a short-term fix, but Frank Darabont’s once cherished creation which is trudging along slower than those that in time’s past terrified us beyond belief. Let’s not kid ourselves. Season five was disappointing. The finale was ninety minutes of nothingness. The zombies may be dead, but ideas for the show died a long time ago too. 

   

Morgan is back. Shit the bed. Finally reunited with Rick, watching the former cop blast a hole in some stranger’s brain was probably not how he had envisaged their long awaited meet. The Wolves offer interest, and a big-bad seriously lacking from this season. Zombies are rubbish. They provide little or no threat to our seasoned shuffler slayers. Speaking of which, do we care for any of them anymore?

Father Gabriel and Sasha wind me right up. Gabriel has done nothing but complain since he was introduced to the show. You killed people. Get over it. Shame you can’t kill yourself. Sasha’s scene when she joined the corpses in the ditch was one of the finale’s best. But the dead stayed dead and Sasha is still with us. At least she’s unhinged and unpredictable.

The scene with Daryl and Aaron taking refuge in a car offered no tension whatsoever. Even when the note revealed that the vehicle provided little sanctuary, drama took a back seat. Maybe Daryl and Aaron should have too, answering one of the show’s much debated questions, dragging the show back into the spotlight. At the very least, it would have kicked off on Twitter.

Television shows upset their fans for a variety of reasons. Usually it's the sudden death of a character. The Walking Dead has done it many times in the past. Game of Thrones continues to do so, and is one of the reasons why this show has started to bore me. I can’t remember the last time I sat through an episode on the edge of my seat, fearing for my favourite character. I'm not sure I even have a favourite character. 

They need to shake things up. Whack them inside a school of the dead. Unleash some zombie horses fed up with always getting it in the neck. Anything but another season of moping about and stealing chocolate. DW