After what seems like an eternal hiatus, The Walking Dead is finally, thankfully, making it’s return to television in a matter of days. It’s hard to believe that this long-running series is actually going into its tenth season, but boy are we glad to see TWD making it to the double digits. The Walking Dead has always been a show of ebbs and flows, and while it seemed to be hitting the skids for a little while in the previous seasons, it completely rallied and ended off on some of it’s best material yet in season 9.
But as we go into season 10 of The Walking Dead, there are obviously some things that we really hope to see, and that we really hope we don’t. If TWD can just continue on the upswing that it gave us in season 9 then we’ll be happy, but here are 5 things we definitely want to see in season 10, and 5 things we don’t.
Less: Character Deaths
Okay, characters dying is pretty much what everyone expects when it comes to The Walking Dead, but hear us out. It’s not so much that characters shouldn’t be dying anymore, but they definitely shouldn’t be dying for dumb reasons. If anyone is left alive at season 10 of The Walking Dead then they have more than proven their abilities as survivors.
So dying at the hands of other survivors? That’s believable. Dying because some random walker pops out of nowhere and bites them? That’s a little harder to believe at this point. So if someone dies now, it should at least be for a good reason.
More: Alpha
It’s pretty hard to come up with a new villain that is somehow scarier and weirder than the many villains that came before her, but The Walking Dead seems to have succeeded in that with their addition of Alpha to the show.
She and her squad have certainly found a unique way to ensure their own survival, and her insane, over the top pack mentality makes her a formidable opponent to these seasoned veterans of violence. Her ability to both fake her human facade and to embrace her most violent, animalistic instincts make her an incredibly believable and intimidating threat.
Less: Negan
It’s been a while since Negan became a significant presence on The Walking Dead, but in retrospect, he seems like a character that was just guaranteed to flop on some level. He’s a decent addition to the story and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is great, but the show built Negan up like this apocalyptic, life-changing character that nothing could have really lived up to.
And unfortunately the show’s writers really put all their eggs in one basket with him, and they made him an enormous focal point of the show at the expense of all of the characters we already knew and loved. Negan taking on a supporting role lately was a welcome relief, and we hope it continues.
More: Scare-ol
Carol Peletier has endured more torment and suffering in ten seasons than any person should have to put up within one lifetime, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t welcome the opportunity to see more of the scarier sides of Carol again. This is obviously something that is up for debate, but it’s safe to say that Carol is one of the most intimidating if not the scariest character in all of The Walking Dead‘s history.
After Alpha killed Henry, it was an enormous blow to Carol, but we are hoping and praying that Carol is going to show Alpha who the real boss is in this scenario.
Less: Precocious Judith
Including children in post-apocalyptic horror TV shows is a difficult balance to strike, but The Walking Dead certainly had a lot of practice with Carl Grimes. And Judith Grimes hasn’t been too much of an obtrusive presence on the show as of yet, but she has a habit of acting older than her age and inserting herself into situations that she really shouldn’t be in.
Seeing Judith act more like a kid would be awesome, and seeing her being slightly less integrated with the adult characters would make a lot more sense. And her weird friendship with Negan definitely needs to go.
More: The Michonne We Know And Love
Michonne has experienced a significant amount of trauma in the recent past, and it’s totally understandable that she would completely cut herself off after having to murder a bunch of innocent, brainwashed children. But to be honest, Michonne has endured worse, and she managed to come back from the brink of insanity with the help of her friends.
So in this season, she needs to accept the help of her friends and get back to being something close to resembling her old self. Horrible things happen, and what happened to her was undeniably horrible, but she’s too important to the show to be sitting on the sidelines forever.
Less: Separate Plot Threads
The Walking Dead is a big show in a lot of different ways. It’s a smashing success, it’s been on for ages, it’s going on for ten seasons, it has about a thousand characters, and it takes place in half a dozen locations. But as we go into season 10 we’d really like to see them streamline things a bit.
At certain points, it has felt like characters or storylines don’t get any attention for episodes at a time, and the sheer volume of storytelling feels a bit unmanageable for a little over a dozen episodes per season. Involving most of the characters in one overarching story would be a lot more satisfying.
More: Daryl
Now that Rick is MIA, Daryl is pretty much the de facto male lead of the series, but he spent the majority of his new leading man time completely on his own. As with Michonne, his withdrawal from the rest of the world is understandable given the circumstances, but it doesn’t make for very good character development and storytelling.
Daryl’s not Rick and he never will be, but it took years for him to develop his bonds with the rest of the group, and now that the main characters of TWD seem to be dropping like flies it’s even more important that he remains a part of the group.
Less: Constant One Upping
The Walking Dead seemed like it was on shaky ground for a few seasons, but this last season actually seems to have gotten the series back on track. Season 9 has some of the best that The Walking Dead has ever offered, and it is in large part because of a trend that we only hope can continue.
It’s easy for a lot of action-oriented shows to get caught up in constantly trying to go for even bigger and better shocking moments, and TWD seemed to be going down that route for a bit before reeling things in, and we only hope that the show keeps remembering that there’s a difference between bigger and more powerful.
More: Of The Characters Together
TWD has done a great job of continually expanding its universe as the show has gone on. It started off with a small group of people who developed an unshakable bond, but they kept on traveling, meeting new people, and discovering new places. However, once the group settled in Alexandria it seems like everyone split up and just never got back together.
The relationships between the characters are what has held the show together for so long, and the more The Walking Dead gets back to those roots, the better. The characters have always known they can tackle anything together, but they can only do it collectively.
