1. It’s the best zombie show of all time
It’s easy for some people to throw shade at The Walking Dead; to overlook the good things and say that it’s based on a comic book, that it never got the awards it deserved, or that it went on far too long. But none of that changes the incredible legacy that it has built up over the years, or the fact that it is undoubtedly the most successful – and best – zombie series ever made.
The truth is that the zombie genre is pretty timeless. It’s been around for decades, frightening audiences as much as it entertains them. But there was something of a drought throughout the mid-2000s, with less mainstream outings. To say that The Walking Dead brought it back from the dead would be an understatement.
It wasn’t just another zombie movie, or a slasher without much plot, it was a gripping, compelling saga of survival. It was an ongoing story that didn’t just showcase how the characters coped with a sudden rise in, well, zombies, it dramatized how they lived with it, how they coped with it, and how they survived it. And that led to a rise in more zombie TV shows, including Z-Nation and iZombie.
The Last of Us might be the series of the undead that is thrilling everyone now (and well-deserved, too, because it’s brilliant), but we may not have gotten to this point without The Walking Dead. The show might be over, but it’s legacy will live on (as will its beautifully imperfect 11-season run) as the greatest television installment the zombie genre has ever seen.