An Open Letter to TWD Writers & Producers
Listen. I see where you’re going with this. We all do. I implore you to stop, trash what you have for s9, and start again. Rewriting is never fun, but sometimes you have to. This is one of those times. Let’s be real. Season 8 has crashed and burned pretty bad. But I have the utmost faith that you can somehow manage to make the next season even worse without proper guidance. So, here it is. Here’s how you save this show.
1. Kill Negan
Kill him in a grand, disgusting display, kill him from a runny nose, it DOESN’T MATTER. Just get this man gone. If for no other reason than to leave s8 behind and start fresh.
2. Unite Team Family
They’ve been beaten down too long. They need to be strong & united again. They need to come out of this conflict better than they’ve ever been. You can keep stomping on broken glass until it’s turned to dust, or you can pick those shards up and make a leaded glass window out of them.
2a. Establish a single, well-defined home base.
Get all our people inside the same walls. Our world has gotten too big. Bring it back down to size.
2b. Strengthen our character’s relationships.
Tie Rick to this shit world by strengthening his relationships. Do it for all the characters. Remind the viewer: what is it all for? For each other. If there is one theme central to this story, it’s loyalty. Showcase that.
3. Reestablish and develop our characters.
There’s not a lot of them left. Remind us why we care about these people. Let them interact with one another. Give them good moments that let us learn new things about them. Let them have conflict with one another that isn’t life or death.
4. Let them win.
Not a little, a LOT. Give them an awesome victory, one that puts a smile on every one of their faces. It’s what they (we) deserve after two seasons of torrential shit storm. We’ve been in a nosedive for too long. Give them space to live in their world. Conflict is made more impactful when it ebbs and flows. It’s meant to cut into times of peace, not be a constant state. You continue on this way, and you’ll numb us out.
[tldr; Remind us why we care about these people. Then, show us that caring about them doesn’t always mean heartache. Let us feel proud of them. Give us reason and opportunity to cheer them on.]
