After being on the air for more than a decade and still going strong (well, The Walking Dead has made television history. The series got off to a great start with its six-episode first season, but it undeniably improved in subsequent years.
As the cast became more accustomed to their roles and the writers settled into their storytelling format, The Walking Dead carved out its own creative niche that made it stand out from the crowd. Here are 10 ways that The Walking Dead changed for the better after its first season.
Blurring The Lines Between Heroes And Villains
In the first season of The Walking Dead, there are good guys and bad guys. In subsequent seasons, it’s much more vaguely defined. Some of the characters remain psychologically sound, but others, like Rick and Shane, gradually (or not so gradually) lose their minds.
When Rick and the group broke into a Savior outpost and killed dozens of people in their sleep, it’s hard to call them the heroes of the story. But of course, the Saviors are pretty crummy people, too. Later Walking Dead episodes have much more ambiguous morality, which is infinitely more exciting.
Shifting The Focus To Daryl
Rick Grimes was the undeniable star of The Walking Dead in its first season, but as Daryl Dixon emerged as the fanbase’s favorite character, the focus shifted to him.
In The Walking Dead’s heyday, Rick and Daryl shared the spotlight. It’s always great when a breakout character gets more attention from the writers.
Introducing New Survivor Communities
In The Walking Dead’s first season, the audience is introduced to one group of survivors outside Rick’s group: a bunch of guys protecting a nursing home, who appear in one episode.
But later seasons of the show would introduce a whole bunch of new survivor communities, some with stronger ethics than Rick’s group and some with weaker ethics. All these communities are either allied together or at war with one another. The worldbuilding is fascinating.
No Character Is Safe From Death
One of the defining hallmarks of The Walking Dead — and of modern TV drama — is that protected by plot armor, or by an actor’s contract.
In a zombie-infested wasteland, death could be waiting around the corner for anyone. But in season 1, only minor characters that no one really cared about were killed, like Andrea’s sister Amy and Carol’s abusive husband Ed. In the later seasons, anyone could die.
More Genuine Terror
It’s harder to sustain terror throughout a 16-episode season of television than in a 90-minute movie, but The Walking Dead is a horror series, and that comes with certain obligations.
The first season had a few decent horror moments, but the terror was much more palpable and consistent in the following seasons, like exploring the dark catacombs of the prison.
Keeping Rick’s Group On The Move
In the first few episodes of season 1, Rick and the group have set up camp in the woods, and they mostly stay there. But when they get an indication that the CDC is a safe haven, they drive across the country to see for themselves.
This set a precedent for the rest of the series, as the show’s subsequent seasons kept Rick’s group on the move. No sanctuary is permanent, and it keeps the audience on their toes, unsure of what to expect.
Introducing Villains Other Than The Walkers
In the first season of The Walking Dead, the main antagonistic force faced by the characters is the hordes of walkers wandering the Earth. The living all stick together to fight the undead. But in later seasons, it became apparent that in the show’s post-apocalyptic wasteland, walkers are the least of the characters’ troubles.
In season 2, Shane emerged as a major threat. Then, season 3 brought the Governor. Later on, Rick’s group had to contend with the cannibals at Terminus, the garbage people led by Jadis. And of course, there's Negan.
More Action
Fans of The Walking Dead came for the grisly zombie action and stayed for the complex characters. But they still demanded grisly zombie action, and the show continually delivered.
Each season of The Walking Dead has raised the stakes and offered more and more riveting action sequences following the show’s relatively tame initial outing.
Expanding The Ensemble
The first few episodes of The Walking Dead focused on a handful of main characters, like the Grimes family, with everyone else existing as ing players around them but hardly the focal point.
In the later seasons, there are some episodes that don’t feature the main characters at all. It makes the world of The Walking Dead feel so vast.
Deepening The Character Development
In season 1, the characters were introduced as archetypes: the wayward sheriff, the nagging wife, the sci-fi geek, the lecturing old man, etc. But in the following seasons, the character development was deepened significantly.
Rick was slowly broken down and turned into a psychopath; Glenn matured a lot and found love; and Daryl developed into one of the show’s most sympathetic figures.