5 Reasons To Finally Quit The Walking Dead

It's easy to write that I love The Walking Dead, but there might not be enough words for me to adequately show how much. For the past eight years, a part of my fangirl heart and brain has lived and breathed this show - its songs, its special moments, its amazing female characters, the recaps and anticipation of a new season on the horizon. But there comes a time where it's too painful or disappointing to watch the show decline beyond repair and the idolization chips away.

While The Walking Dead is still one of the most popular shows, fans have been dropping in droves for quite sometime. Lately, I've become a fan who's made justifications for why I still watch it: The worldbuilding isn't too bad. The earlier seasons are still great. There's still hope for something to change. But as season eight hits the half-way mark, and there's no going back after its unpredictable turn-of-events with major characters, I finally have enough gripes towards one of my all-time faves that I have to acknowledge them.

As a show I've been a hardcore fan of since the beginning, it's gut-wrenching to ponder saying good-bye out of my own free-will rather than the show officially ending in a blaze of glory. But the show has struggled to be consistent or return to the elements that used to make it so great for far too long. I don't want to quit something I love so much, but here are five reasons it's finally time. Are you sticking around for season nine? Let me know in the comments below!

6 Best Rick and Carl Grimes Moments on The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead has always been about family; people from all walks of life who would've never met otherwise and trying to survive what the zombie apocalypse throws at them. But there's no bond bigger in the series than the one between Rick and Carl Grimes - a father trying to protect and keep his son alive by any means necessary. There's almost too many heartfelt, important moments between the two to list them all, but here's my take on the best of Rick and Grimes from The Walking Dead. (This post includes major spoilers of all the seasons so far!) Is this list missing one of your favorite scenes? Feel free to share in the comments below.

10 Best Performances by Andrew Lincoln on The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead started with a sheriff waking up from a coma into the zombie apocalypse. After locating his family Rick Grimes became the leader among fellow survivors trying to live within the walking dead. and other survivors try to live among the walking dead.

What would AMC's hit television show be like without Andrew Lincoln? Since the beginning he's given the the fiercely protective papa bear, killer, and mercenary a questionable morality and enduring sympathy unlike any other that could've played him. When the storylines are intense, Lincoln goes all in guns blazing. When the storm calms down, Lincoln can be inspiring or heartbreaking, just as we expect Grimes to be. No matter the changes thrown towards his character, Lincoln manages his biggest struggles: to be an effective leader, to keep Team Family alive while watching some of them die, to relinquish living in a world of death, and determine what it means to be a human.

Sure, he can grow one hell of beard, and still look hot when he's covered in literal grime and guts, but it's been an awesome journey to see Rick adjust his ideas of law and order in order to protect his family. Despite the great, and sometimes plotholed-fill direction of the show, Lincoln delivers a great performance year after year. To celebrate this hero and anti-hero, here is a list of my favorite performances. (This post includes major spoilers of all the seasons so far!) What episodes do you consider to be the Best of Rick Grimes? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

The Walking Dead 08x08 How It's Gotta Be

Photo Credit: AMC / Gene Page

Rick tries to make an alliance with Jadis and her trashheap crew, while the rest of Alexandria wants to take Negan out immediately after believing crucial members of The Kingdom have been killed. Tara and Daryl enact a plan of their own against the Saviors which backfires, leaving the communities to deal with a surprising ambush by Negan.

Below includes spoilers of the series' eight seasons so far. You've been warned but hope you enjoy!

The Walking Dead 08x07 Time For After

Photo Credit: AMC

The line has been drawn between Saviors and Alexandria, but loyalties are tested as the hammer is starting to crack down on going through with the all-out war. As Rick tries to appeal to the trash heapster's community for a stronger alliance, Negan wants to know who has betrayed while walkers flood their gates. It's time for another recap of The Walking Dead latest episode.

Below includes spoilers of the show and comic book, theories of who might be killed off. You've been warned but hope you enjoy!

Season eight promised us an all-out war between the communities, but it's time to deliver action and intrigue has been slow-going - to say the least. In the eleventh hour of the new season, episode seven seems to follow in the same glacial pace as the prior two seasons. Someone has betrayed the Sanctuary, and every episode "it's time to find out who that is", as AHK (Alexandria, Hilltop Colony and Kingdom) fight for a better future.