The Worst Show On TV Is Back This Weekend For One Last Shot At Redemption

“I need a photo-opportunity, I want a shot at redemption. Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.” ~ Paul Simon, “You Can Call Me Al”

I have been a fairly harsh critic of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead over the zombie show’s last four egregiously ridiculous seasons. Even before then, when the zombie drama stumbled rather badly in Season 2, or when the Season 1 time-jump basically wiped the premise of the entire show away. It was supposed to detail the earliest days of the apocalypse but quickly left that plan in the dust.

Still, the first three seasons were decent, and Season 3 was genuinely great. It remains one of my favorite seasons of any Walking Dead show. And I’ve wanted this show to return to that. One of the big reasons I’ve been so critical of Fear is that I know it has the potential to be more than what it is. It could be good. If the show’s creators would just listen to criticism and take it to heart, it could be good. If AMC had the stomach to change up leadership, it really could be good. It’s too late again, but I want to believe.

Hope springs eternal, I suppose.

So does crushing disappointment.

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I really do want Season 8—Fear’s final season—to be good. A return to form. I want it to surprise us all. I want to eat my proverbial hat.

That’s the trouble with becoming invested in a story, I suppose. In these characters, in this world. I stuck with The Walking Dead all the way through the bitter end, and there were moments I’m grateful I stuck around for—but plenty of wasted hours, as well. The 11th season of The Walking Dead was a shambles. The finale had some powerful moments, but ultimately left me pretty cold.

If nothing else, I’m sure that Fear The Walking Dead will be more entertaining—for better or worse. Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg are not very good writers or showrunners, but even the bad stuff on this show tends to be entertaining. I recapped Season 4 – 7 a few weeks ago and I highly recommend you read through that post as a way to brush up on the nonsense that’s gotten us to this place.

In a lot of ways, after the disaster that was Season 7, the show can only go uphill from here. Then again, this is Fear The Walking Dead. Anything is possible.

You can read my spoiler-free review of the Season 8 premiere right here.

Season 8 Synopsis

Rolling out in two parts, the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead kicks off with the first six episodes following Morgan (Lennie James) and Madison’s (Kim Dickens) plans to rescue Mo (Zoey Merchant) from PADRE and seven years later — Morgan, Madison and the rest of the people they brought to the island are living under PADRE’s cynical rule. With our characters demoralized and dejected, the task of reigniting everyone’s belief in a better world is the person Morgan and Madison set out to rescue in the first place — a now eight-year-old Mo.

There are just 12 episodes this season, with six airing before a midseason break, which is when the Negan/Maggie spinoff Dead City will air. The following six episodes will release later this year.

Check out my worst and most disappointing shows of 2022 right here. Here’s my video version of my Worst Shows Of 2022 list:

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