The Most Divisive Season Of The Walking Dead, According To Fans
AMC's The Walking Dead is the most popular TV zombie program on air and has run for 10 seasons to date, but not all seasons have been regarded by fans equally. One season continues to divide fans years after it premiered, for several reasons.
One Walking Dead fan posted a question in The Walking Dead Reddit, wondering which season fans thought was overrated and which they thought was underrated. As it turns out, season 4 came up a lot — on both ends of the spectrum.
For those who need a bit of a refresher, season 4 of The Walking Dead begins with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson), Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs), Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and the rest of the crew living at the prison — which has become just about as livable as any abandoned prison in a world overrun with "walkers" can be. The group grows their own vegetables, has a fairly stable living situation, and orchestrates urban foraging ventures into walker-infested territories. Some sort of flu-like disease starts getting passed around, and Hershel does everything in his power to keep the sick alive. Meanwhile, Carol gets booted from the group because she's decided to start killing people.
The previous season of The Walking Dead saw the group whooping on the Governor (David Morrissey) and ending his whole scandalous dictatorship at Woodbury, but they didn't kill the guy. So, the Governor shows up on season 4 all one-eyed with a new crew, looking for a fight. He puts Hershel and Michonne into a proper position for an execution, and has a standoff with Rick. Then, the Governor breaks the standoff by beheading Hershel, which fuels a fire that turns the prison grounds into a war zone. Lilly Chambler (Audrey Marie Anderson) ends up killing the Governor, saving Rick's life in the process. But the prison is destroyed and being overrun by walkers, so the group heads out in search of yet another home. Cue the Carl-eating-pudding scene.
The group breaks up into pods when they leave the prison, and each pod gets into their own bouts of trouble, but most of them meet up in the end and head to Terminus. Yay!
With so many jaw-dropping moments having happened on The Walking Dead season 4, it's easy to see why some fans would view it as great and others would think it isn't worth the watch.
The Walking Dead season 4 is overrated or underrated, depending on who you talk to
Over on Reddit, user u/purvanc believes The Walking Dead season 4 is overrated because "that flu storyline was so s*****." Redditor u/1random_redditor agreed that the flu arc wasn't very good, also pointing to a handful of episodes that they felt added little value to the season overall: the two "Governor flashback episodes, and that Daryl and Beth episode." Overall, many of the season 4 haters referenced the sickness storyline as the downfall when they offered their thoughts about TWD's most overrated season.
The season 4 lovers, on the other hand, tended to go into more detail defending why they believe it's the most underrated season of the show.
"Underrated: 4 – a nearly perfect season in plot and character development," posted user u/hunta-gathera. "If it wasn't for the Gov stand alone episodes (one would have worked, two is unnecessary, especially since the character did not end up actually developing in a meaningful way)I think it would be a perfect season otherwise."
Added u/stregosim, "Season 4 simply has two of the very most iconic twd moments: Rick's speech and hershel's smile just before the governor chops his head off + rick biting joe's neck. Plus I really liked all the storylines."
Whether they hate it or love it, season 4 of The Walking Dead has clearly had a big impact on the fandom.