I see your point and partly agree.

One of the problems to me is that "our" community, the characters we have been used to are meanwhile seperated from each other due to them hiding or being kidnapped - or dead.
It's not just one group anymore but many of them.
I also think that some elderly characters are missing, which is a pity because they had brought some kind of steadiness to the group in the past, in their role of parent-replacement. Their wisdom is missing.

Ever since the Saviors appeared everything seems to drown in chaos. The funny thing is, despite the different groups having settled at more or less safer places that come close to normal homes, it feels as though the characters wouldn't know where to belong anymore. And some indeed don't (or didn't) like Carol, for example.

Further, there are too many twists in characters and story for my taste.
One can't trust te protagonists or antagonists anymore because they might make backflips at any time.
When watching TWD I now have the feeling that I'm watching multiple different shows at the same time because it's hard to concentrate on one thing or storyline due to all the parallel stories at the same time.

The walkers have become a secondary problem, it's now all about fighting each other like kingdoms in Game of Thrones or something.
Plus, Negan is too much of a cartoon-villain (no wonder though... ). He belongs into a Batman story, playing the main villain.

However, TWD could be compared to different stages in history.
First there is chaos with predators (walkers) all around, people only try to survive and trek around like nomads.
Different "tribes" are giving each other a tough time and people have to adapt to new circumstances over and over again.
Step by step they come closer to places where to settle but have to fight for their place and defend their sovereignty, fighting other leaders, suffering severe damage and losing many people on the way, fighting totalitary systems and anarchy at the same time until finally civilisation can be build up.

Nevertheless, I liked the characters more in the first few seasons when they had to stick together and when the story concentrated on them.

 

Show is garbage since The Governor died in Season 4.
Sadly there is no zombie alternative so u have to stick with it.

Current cast is one of the most boring of any TV Series. And I watched a lot.
The only good characters at the moment are Negan, Simon and Gregory.
I wish they would forget Rick and focus the Story now on this three.

Rick is a soft pussy and needs to get back like he was in Season 3.
Michonne became such a disgrace as a warrior too.

 

I hated the season 6 cliffhanger.

 

I don't know if it's character development as much as the writers have people do things that are out of character just to serve plot points, or to try to make things "interesting."

The first big example of this was Tyreese being unable to kill anyone, not even walkers. I could understand people, but walkers?

Then around the same time we had Maggie forgetting that Beth existed just because they wanted characters in certain places for the overall plot.

I still enjoy the show, but I think they really lost their focus after the prison fell.

They ocassionally have a great episode, like the recent Morgan one, but the quality of the show has been trending down. I know it's tough to maitain a show for many seasons and keep it fresh etc, but I feel they expedited the decline. They relied on cheap gimmicks, like the Glenn dumpster dive and the Season 6 cliffhanger too.

 

I enjoyed the earlier seasons more than the last two maybe because we were getting to know the characters and the world they had to adapt to. In terms of character dev in the early days I felt more connected to the characters even the ones I didn't like such as Lori and Andrea. Now I'm kind of tired of the characters I know we are setting the groundwork for the battle to come but things feel too drawn out. I don't really care for most of the characters. Maybe there are too many of them or we don't see many of them for too long. TBH I don't need anymore scenes with Gregory to know that he's a treacherous coward.
I'm interested in carols story and Morgan but the inclusion of too many new characters, has taken time away from the characters I feel a link with because they have been around for many seasons. I look back on the unforgiveable way T dogs character was wasted and compare it with the way new characters have been introduced and given back stories and lots of screen time i.e; Dwight.
The overall plot feels slow and unfocused except for the Morgan/ Richard ep. I never thought I'd say this but I'm getting a bit bored of the show(sacrilege!) but fan loyalty must be earned and maintained by keeping the quality of the show up with our expectations.

 

I don't konw if character development has been terrible. I do think they have developed some characters far more than others. We found out more about Rosita during her conversation with Sasha in the last episode than we ever knew before then. And do I need to mention what they've done with Daryl's character? With the story, they're following the comics with AOW and many events leading to it. Im sure everyone understands that they can't wrap that up in 2 to 6 episodes. Yet a lot of people are complaining thst the story is dragging. That damned cliffhanger and dumpstergate aside, they haven't done the worst job following the source material IMO.

 

We could do with a bit more background on some main characters, is it bad that I can't think of any I'd like to know more about? I don't want to name anyone because this show has a habit of killing off people at random

 

I'd say the actual problem is that in the past it was about different people with different lives sticking together to fight a common enemy, the walkers.
Now it's more about fighting for power and autonomy - and fighting unrealistically evil characters.

The multifaceted questionable characters like Merle were much more interesting, in my opinion.
I'm also missing the ones that were the conscience of the group, like Dale and Hershel.
The current characters are more like mentally unstable egoists. Without the ZA they'd probably be running around with their smartphones, not watching and looking up and crossing red lights all the time.

 

Oceanside and the Scavengers are probaly only a means to end and will come into focus once the war with the Saviors starts.
Perhaps we'll see more of them after it, who knows.

I agree, Eugene's story is very interesting, at least so far. I hope they won't make him a traitor (even if only temporarily).

There are not enough likable characters in one spot, for my taste, not enough friendship in just one group. No real gravitas but crazy taking over. Guerilla wars against each other instead of solidarity against the walkers.
And still, no solution in sight, and it obviously never will.

Still interesting and it makes sense storywise, yet it could as well be renamed to "The Fighting Groups" instead of "The Walking Dead".

 

The show appears to have less character development lately because there are so many characters. Earlier seasons focused on one small group. Now we have characters in 6 different locations, all with their own back story. Simply spread too thin.