Will "The Walking Dead" get Back to Being Great?

"The Walking Dead" has been exciting as watch this paint peel.

This Sunday, AMC will have a 90 minute "The Walking Dead" season finale. Some big things are supposed to happen in this finale we've been told. Some big name character will die, we will get to meet Negan finally and the group will be left in some kind of disarray. This seems to happen every finale, at least in the past three finales, with "The Walking Dead". Sometimes it hits, like when Beth was accidentally killed by that crazy cop at that hospital two finales ago, but it also misses. Case and point, I don't even remember how last season ended. I think Daryl may have lost his crossbow, but I honestly cannot remember anything else. I could also be wrong about Daryl as well.

For a show that started so incredibly strong, these past three seasons have been very dull and, quite frankly, boring. Yes, I'm still watching, as is most of the country, but it's staring to feel like homework and I'm beginning to not enjoy it so much anymore. They came out of the gates on fire. That opening scene in the series premiere, where Rick wakes up in an abandon hospital, and realizes something is not right in the world, is absolutely incredible. It only grew from there in the first season. The show was great, with great scenes, but it wasn't just a zombie show, it also dealt with the survivors. The show asked and tried to answer questions that included, how do we survive in this kind of world, and do we really want to survive in a world like this? I didn't want to watch this how at first, but I'm very happy my wife convinced me and I was immediately hooked. I couldn't wait for what they'd do next.

Then, in either season two or three, they found a farm and that's when the show started to turn. Yes, it was still very good and there was some excellent episodes, but when they went looking for Carol's young daughter, those specific episodes, it became very tedious. I thought, this is just a small part and they will get through this boring stuff very soon and, at first, they did. The stuff in the jail was great, Morgan returning was great, they seemed to have righted the ship. But, in the coming season, they found Alexandria.

Now, not to be this guy, but I'm totally going to be this guy, when they found Alexandria in the graphic novel, that's when it went from good to great, but the TV show just couldn't seem to find the right footing. Where the graphic novel still focused on the question of how to survive and live in this world, if that was even a good thing, the show decided it was time to start making up love stories and talk about the people to the point of tedium. They tried so hard to give Rick a relationship with some lady, who's husband was an abusive alcoholic, that I couldn't have cared less about. She also had some weirdo son that Carol befriended, I couldn't have cared less about that as well. They did too much of the point-counter point talking that worked well for them early on, but they had established a new world, and the talking made for very long and very boring episodes. I wasn't even really all that moved by the lady who ran Alexandria husband died in the finale. Spoiler alert, he was killed by Rick's new love interests crazy husband, in a fit of rage trying to fight Rick, then, with the "blessing" of the "mayor", Rick brutally murdered that man. I didn't care about any of that. The best thing about that finale was Morgan walking in right after Rick shot this guy. But, we had to wait an entire off season before we got to see anything from Morgan again. If that specific finale was supposed to make me feel something, all it did was make me angry. I didn't care about Rick and his new girlfriend and I didn't care about the original crew's plan to take over Alexandria. All I wanted, and they teased it all season, was to see Morgan, and all we got was that final shot. That was a bummer.

Then, last season happened. That last season was incredibly boring. I literally didn't care about anything that happened. I watched the season while I played on my phone, or wrote for this site. It was on, but I was half in and half out. I didn't care that Maggie was pregnant. I didn't care about the "Wolves". I didn't care that Carl had some new, weird girlfriend. I didn't care about Rick's girlfriends weird son and his relationship with Carol. I didn't care that Carol was becoming some badass that acted like a soccer mom. I did care that they barely used Michonne last season. She is awesome and when they used her, it was to be Rick's police partner. She had no huge story line or anything that important happen to her. She is the best one on the show and she was criminally under used during that season. I was ready to give up on the show after that uneventful finale I mentioned earlier, but I figured I'd give it one last shot. This show was great at one point and I thought they could do it again. I told my wife that the season premiere would be my gauge if I was going to continue or not.

Well, the premiere was very good. They got back to their roots. They focused on the story telling with the original crew. They had some awesome fight scenes. They made me care again. I was back on board. But, the second episode was pretty boring and pretty uneventful. The rest of this season has been wildly inconsistent. They've had some great episodes, but they've also had some duds. It's been very up and down. Some good stuff, the humongous fight scene in Alexandria was great, Rick finally has a cool girlfriend in Michonne, Michonne is being used more, a scene between Maggie and a guy from another town involving a trade for goods and services and meeting Negan's crew. Some bad and boring, Abraham and Rosita breaking up, the under utilization of Morgan, Rick going completely off the deep end, the character of Jesus and Carol's change of heart back to being a loner and all of the sudden a god fearing person. I just can't get my finger on what they are trying to do. In last week's episode, another spoiler alert, it ended with a gunshot in Daryl's direction and the shooter saying, "it will be okay". Some were outraged because they assumed that Daryl is dead. First of all, Daryl was never in the novel, so who cares if he is gone. And second of all, if they do kill him off, they can bring him back, just like they did, in super cheap fashion, with Glenn last season. I don't get the upheaval. People are supposed to die in a show like this. That's what happens. They also said a big name character would die. Someone important is not going to be in the upcoming season. Deal with it. We will finally get to meet Negan in Sunday's finale as well. I'm mixed on this, because I want to meet him, but I'm also wary of all the writers and showrunners saying that "he will be the best villain on TV ever". Don't say things like this, let the viewer decide. That's what they did so well early on, but now they feel that they have to sell everything and that scares me.

So, yes, I will watch all 90 minutes of the finale and I hope that it's worth it. If not, I will most likely give up on this show. It started so well, but it's been very hit or miss for the last four seasons and it's becoming tough to care and watch and pay attention every week. Hopefully they do something big and regain my full attention, but I don't think that will happen. Hopefully Negan is a great, once in a lifetime villain, but I wish the people involved weren't pushing him on me so much. I want "The Walking Dead" to be great again, but I fear it's time is up. We'll see this Sunday.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. In case of a zombie outbreak, Ty will hole up at Chesterfield Mall. Make sure the chopper is on time. Before the apocolypse you should follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.