"The Walking Dead," the famous apocalyptic TV series is navigating its way across a tormented sea of insecurity. Season 8 is in full flow, but the overall trend pinpoints 'TWD' below expectations. On IMDB website, Season 8 appears as the last piece of the puzzle although the AMC network is likely to renew the TV series for Season 9. The fact is barely a consolation prize after the Season 8 premiere saw a huge decrease in audience numbers which are the crucial part of the equation and what keeps the juice (money) flowing in. Still, the most watched TV series of AMC, "The Walking Dead" has to work its way back to the top.

So far, Season 8 seems rather a hit and miss narrative.

The narrative story still has potential

A complex post-apocalyptic drama, "The Walking Dead" really disrupted the stage several years ago. The first three seasons were crucial in cementing its strong fan-base. Thus, several million viewers each week ensured a comfortable future for the show. Even so, a certain recurrent feature saw a constant decrease and now Season 8, which is far from being a convincing one. According to Forbes.com, its premiere saw a 33% fall compared to Season 7's premiere. It's a huge step back, but according to the same source, "The Walking Dead" still gathers between nine to ten million viewers weekly. Moreover, Season 7 benefited from an augmenting factor with Negan making his entrance as the ultimate villain, especially after that heart-stopping Season 6 finale.

After seven seasons, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) still stands at the core of the narrative story. The rest of his group will always come as second-tier characters. Having a flurry of premises at their disposal, the show's producers might want to try exploiting some other direction too.

The Walking Dead is in need of a fresh perspective

It should be clear by now that those herds of zombies are no longer a threat, they have become part of the new status-quo. Thus, Rick Grimes' group has to deal with some of their peers, others human beings that have survived the zombie apocalypse. And here comes the recurrent part, each season bringing in a similar scenario with some new enemy threatening the integrity of the Atlanta-based group.

The show might want to explore other directions maybe extending its geographic radius. As far as we know, North America is the only place caught in this plagued situation, and somewhere in the back of the mind, the cure's dilemma might be still alive. These are paths that must be considered if the show is to survive for years to come.
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