The Walking Dead was an integral part of the TV landscape for 12 years but which of its 11 seasons are the best, and which ones fell a little bit short?
The Walking Dead was a staple of television for over a decade. No amount of reiterating that can truly convey just how much of a TV veteran it became. It’s darn near impossible to remember a time when it wasn’t on our screens, and it still doesn’t feel right to think that it has ended. In a way, it still feels like we’re waiting on its next season to premiere.
But all good things must come to an end (even the already dead ones, it seems), and The Walking Dead is no different, as bowed out with its series finale in November 2022. Again, 11 seasons is a long time to be on the air, and TWD (along with its fans) has seen it all.
As with all TV shows, some seasons are better than others, and The Walking Dead unfortunately wasn’t immune to a little rot every now and again. Thankfully, the good vastly outweighs the bad as the show successfully managed to entertain a generation (or two) throughout its run.
With the show having taken its final bow (and an exciting new era beginning for the TWD Universe with new spinoffs The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live), let’s take a look back at its equally legendary run, and rank all of its seasons from worst to best.
11. Season 7
The infamous finale of The Walking Dead‘s sixth season failed to pull the trigger on the shocking first kill from the show’s long-awaited villain Negan, opting to show Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s antagonist battering the camera instead. It was a divisive moment that fans weren’t happy with because it was a blatantly obvious plot device to tease a huge death in season 7. When season 7 rolled around, the premiere provided some answers. And it was shocking.
The death scenes in that episode have arguably become even more infamous than the fakeout season 6 finale, with the show’s viewership surging to new heights. But not even its most violent scene ever could prevent The Walking Dead from falling back into the habits that turned fans off in the first place. Lengthy periods of nothing happening, extended episodes for no reason, and a whole lot of misery as Rick and his Alexandria crew feared what Negan would do, season 7 was a slog to get through.
As for the viewers, well they just feared whenever Negan opened his mouth, because he spent far too much time talking about what he was going to do, which grew tiresome very, very quickly.
10. Season 6
The Walking Dead had plenty of ups and downs by the time it had reached the halfway point of its 11-season run, but season 6 is when things truly started to go wrong for the show. In all fairness, it was a mostly solid season, focusing on the survivors’ continued attempts to establish Alexandria as the future of their group, all while protecting it from a massive herd of the dead – that eventually resulted in a nail-biting invasion as the walkers inevitably found their way inside the walls.
Its issues came in the back half through the mostly off-screen introduction of Negan and the Saviors. Don’t get me wrong, their overarching presence was thrilling but because this show champions excessively long-form storytelling, the payoff needed to be worth it. And, well, the infamous Negan monologue and blood trickling down the camera trick wasn’t.
The show successfully built up The Whisperers as a mostly off-screen threat in succeeding seasons, but the reason it didn’t quite land with Negan was the fakeout moment. It rubbed fans up the wrong way, extending the wait across the summer when the payoff was already overdue.
If anything, at least they learned their lesson for when the time came to introducing the next threat.
9. Season 8
The Walking Dead season 8 promised an all-out war and that’s exactly what it gave us, but unfortunately, this was proof that you can have too much of a good thing. The show’s bid to make up for the shortcomings of its previous season resulted in a season full of fighting, travelling, more fighting and more travelling.
On paper, it should have worked (and to a degree, it did), but this once again made it susceptible to its familiar sin of dragging good storylines out beyond their lifespans and it really highlighted that Negan was protected by a ton of plot armor. Rick, Daryl, Carol, Maggie; they all got within shooting distance of Negan and yet they allowed him to speak and speak and speak before taking their shot – at which point it was, of course, too late.
In season 8’s defense, it was an explosive comeback after two lacklustre seasons, but its struggles continued, once again highlighting that a good storyline that be corrupted by too many episodes. Furthermore, we can’t overlook the show’s biggest mistake in killing off Carl Grimes. An unexpected midseason decision destroyed the legacy of the show and that is, quite frankly, unforgivable.
8. Season 11
The final season of the show opened on an absolutely majestic note with the gripping two-parter that firmly established Maggie’s return and all the dangers that came with it, as the survivors went up against the dreaded Reapers. It didn’t quite maintain that high the whole way throughout as the Reapers got less interesting the more screentime that they got, but it did offer up some real conflict for the characters, with Daryl, Maggie, Aaron, Eugene, and Judith all at the center of their respective stories in a compelling way.
It also introduced the mysterious Commonwealth, and even though the story did drag at times, it was an inherently different chapter for the show, which presented the characters with the possibility of something they hadn’t had in a long time: A real life.
All in all, The Walking Dead‘s final season goes big, and in spite of a few stumbles along the way, it ensures that the show ends on a high that brings you to the edge of your seat more times than it has in years, while also setting aside enough time to set up the various spinoff shows that would focus on veteran TWD characters.
7. Season 10
Season 10 largely picked up where season 9 left off (we’ll get to that, soon) and that was a good thing. Very much dealing with the fallout of the shocking deaths in season 9, the tenth season once again did a great deal of work to reinvigorate the show, offering up compelling character arcs for Carol, Siddiq, Daryl, and even Negan.
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Furthermore, with The Whisperers firmly establishing themselves as a formidable threat, it made for an interesting new dynamic as each of the communities clashed on how – or if – they should deal with them. Carol, of course, was out for vengeance (and we know by now that she always gets it), so that led to some unexpected dynamics as she was willing to do whatever it took to take down Alpha.
This was continuation of the strong comeback that the show had made the season prior, help by the fact that it had strong and well-storylined villains at the center of it. And even though the final six “bonus” episodes divided fans, the primary 16 episodes of The Walking Dead season 10 remain one of the show’s most consistent installments, led by compelling performances from Melissa McBride, Samantha Morton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
6. Season 2
Bigger, meaner, and scarier than its first season, The Walking Dead‘s sophomore outing saw Rick Grimes and his not-so-merry band of survivors find their way to one of the most pivotal locations in the show’s history: Hershel Greene’s farm. And much of the season was spent there, as we met not only Hershel but his daughters Maggie and Beth – both of whom would become huge parts of the show going forward.
This season was the first time that The Walking Dead began to slow down but that slower storytelling never overwhelmed the plot in the way that it would in the later seasons. One of the best examples of this was Shane’s downward spiral, which played out over the course of the second season in such compelling fashion (and featured an incredible performance from Jon Bernthal) that it ensured we couldn’t take our eyes away from it. And that wasn’t the only jaw-dropping quality from season 2, with the Sophia barn reveal, and the Walkers storming the farm in the season’s conclusion still standing out among the show’s all-time greatest moments.
It may not have been as tight as season 1, but it was every darn bit as compelling.
5. Season 5
Ah The Walking Dead season 5. The season where Carol couldn’t decide if she wanted to be Rambo or The Terminator and thought “Why not both?”. Seeing her single-handedly destroy Terminus to save her friends in the season premiere not only made for an incredible visual and exhilarating experience, it solidified her as arguably the best character in the show’s entire run.
Even though the explosive premiere made it impossible for the rest of the season to reach those high-intensity heights again, season 5 continued the compelling character journeys that its predecessor set in motion, provided plenty of thrills along the way and officially introduced Alexandria into the series – making it one of the most pivotal (and enjoyable) seasons of the show.
It was nice to see the survivors get the chance to settle down in a real community after all the running they were forced to do in the aftermath of the Governor’s destruction of the prison, and the Alexandria community welcomed some intriguing new faces into the mix. This was really the season were all the new groups came together, with Abraham, Rosita, Eugene and the others officially joining Rick’s group of survivors. And this was needed after the heartbreaking loss of Beth during that traumatic hospital storyline.
In many ways, this was where TWD‘s central family dynamic was born.
4. Season 9
The ninth season will forever be known as the one that saw the departure of Rick Grimes, and while that was certainly a major turning point for the series, it shouldn’t overshadow a season that was very much a turning point in its own right. Set in the aftermath of the war with the Saviors, season 9 put some distance between itself and the stale shell that The Walking Dead had become by literally putting some space between them. And it accomplished that with not one but two time-jumps.
This season placed a greater focus on communities, and the struggles they faced when there aren’t always major threats attempting to kill them every day of the week. It also made a lot of time to highlight the natural conflict that arises when the different communities come together, and the struggles each leader faced trying to bring them together. And, of course, while all of this was happening, a new, more intriguing (and terrifying), threat emerged.
The Whisperers were a force-to-be-reckoned with as the show successfully played the long game with their introduction, successfully building them up as one of TWD’s scariest group of villains.
Season 9 breathed new life into The Walking Dead and ended up being its best installment in a very long time.
3. Season 3
When The Walking Dead fans think of the show’s greatest villains, there is a pretty high chance that The Governor might find himself atop that list, and that is all down to the intricate work that season 3 did in establishing him as the show’s first major human threat. He was a force to be reckoned with, with both the civilization he had built in Woodbury and the fact that he thought he was genuinely doing good, setting the tone for many of the villains that would come later.
This season was also something of a reinvention for the show as it was when it began to find a tone that would stick with it throughout the remainder of its run, as the survivors found ways of working together to build their own home. The prison setting remains one of the show’s best locations and it served well as a battleground for many of the season’s major episodes.
We also have to acknowledge that this was the season that introduced Michonne and killed off Lori in a heartbreaking moment that caught us completely off-guard. It also marked another major chapter of Carol’s evolution into the badass that she would ultimately become – and that’s something we’re all incredibly grateful for.
2. Season 1
Oh take me back to start. The Walking Dead‘s first season seems like a completely different show looking back on it now, and it’s insane to think about how far it has come in its 11 seasons. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t say that the AMC show got it so right with its maiden voyage that it rarely ever rose to these heights again.
Not only did it introduce us to the post-apocalyptic world that would become the backdrop for the whole series, it effectively made Rick Grimes one of the most gripping protagonists on television in a very small space of time. It felt like a low-budget indie western, and we mean that in the best kind of way. We saw the dangers of this new world unfold through Rick’s eyes, and we didn’t need big, excessive explosions or over-the-top villains to drive home the gravity of the situation. We just needed the environment and the small group of survivors around him – many of whom would go on to become TWD’s most important characters.
The antithesis of most of the later seasons, this concise, compelling, and character-driven first season is The Walking Dead at its very best.
1. Season 4
If season 3 took The Walking Dead in a new direction, season 4 is when it finally figured out what it wanted that new direction to look like. Focused solely on aftermath, it spent more time with the characters as they all figured out how to live with one another in what they thought was a post-war safe space. But the terrors of the brave new world resulted in dangers within the prison, while the return of the Governor meant that there even greater dangers outside of it.
Rick’s decision to step down as leader of the group after his cold approach in season 3 was necessary for the character, and it also enhanced the character dynamics as he learned to look at life a new way. This worked equally well for Carol, who was experiencing the inverse of that outlook and was willing to do whatever it took to survive as the group battled a new deadly strain of flu inside the prison. It set the stage well for everyone’s journeys whenever they ended up outside of those walls in the back half of the season.
While this is the season responsible for driving home the show’s tendency to split its characters off into standalone episodes, there was never a more captivating time to do it than the aftermath of the prison showdown with the Governor. And rarely has the show ever managed to make you feel as emotionally broken as it did with that edge-of-seat, soul-crushing midseason finale.
Peak Walking Dead.
What is your favorite season of The Walking Dead? Are you watching the new TWD Universe spinoffs? For more news and updates on The Walking Dead, follow Bam Smack Pow on Twitter/X.