7 Things The Walking Dead Must Do To Get Back To Its Best

4) Stop Overusing Negan

Negan was so full of promise when he first arrived at the end of season 6 and then bludgeoned his way through two major cast members in the season 7 premiere. His name was on every character’s lips and it seemed like the show had found someone to replace The Governor as The Walking Dead‘s greatest villain.

Since then, however, the character has lost a lot of his spark. To be clear, this is no fault of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who’s given a great larger-than-life performance that perfectly channels the character from the original comics. Rather, it’s because he featured more in the first half of season 7 than most of the good guys did, leading some to feel like it had become The Negan Show. Worse than that, most of his extended screentime was dedicated to showing us over and over again that he was a brutal, untouchable leader. Eight episodes of this has left his once dramatic lording it over Rick and the others very same-y indeed.

For better or for worse, it’s been confirmed that Negan is going to stick around until season 8. On the one hand, this could be a good thing, as the character’s unpredictability and Morgan’s performance could ensure his place as a great TV villain. For this to work, though, he would need to be used more sparingly in the future, lest he overstay his welcome too soon.