NB This review contains spoilers for Season 8

The eighth season of The Walking Dead is one of the most important years the show has ever had. Not just because of what it does but what it doesn’t do. This is the season where the show definitively, permanently, breaks from the comics and whether or not you think that’s a good thing it certainly marks the show out as something very different now.

And the thing is, that’s a blessing.

The war with the Saviors finally comes to an end this year and gives the first half of the season both some welcome urgency and surprising twists. The assault, that plays out over the first few episodes, is meticulously planned and should absolutely work. The fact it doesn’t is actually the bravest thing the show has ever done. People get in the way, personal choices get in the way and the collision between sticking to a plan and taking justifiable if horrific vengeance drives wedges between several characters that pay off here and will pay off still further in the next season. This is Rick’s last long dark night of the soul and it’s never been darker or longer than it is here. The loss of Carl is, despite the much rumoured behind the scenes reasons why it happened, remarkably well handled. Chandler Riggs has never been better than he is this season and the Cormac McCarthy-esque dynamic of Carl’s relationship with his dad has never been strong. He carries the light, especially at times like this when no one else does.

The brilliant thing is that Carl being so focused and altruistic doesn’t detract from the hot mess everyone else is. Rick, Negan, Eugene, Gabriel and all the others are so focused on day to day survival that they don’t think to look at the future. Carl does and in doing so becomes our proxy. That makes his death all the crueller but it’s never once swept under the carpet. The event is as massive as it needs to be and Carl’s shadow is cast over the entire rest of the season.

Which is a relief as, while the war finishing is a good thing, the show stumbles badly a couple of times along the way. Michonne, Danai Gurira presumably on reduced duty due to filming Black Panther, is sorely missed. The Saviors, gurning over articulate southern facial hair enthusiasts almost to a man, have never been as fun as the show thinks they are and this season we spend more time with them than we arguably wanted. Austin Amelio’s Dwight is as fun, tragic and sweaty palmed as ever but he’s in the minority and it’s a massive relief to see the Saviors end, or at least pause, as a threat.

Worse still, the show throws a couple of deeply lazy plot beats on screen. There’s a character we haven’t seen much who shows up a lot in the first few episodes. You should worry about their safety. Similarly, there’s a linked moment later on at Oceanside which was clearly written to be a tragic accident but instead comes off as arbitrary and weirdly staccato. The strain shows, at times, in a ways it hasn’t in previous years and it’s no surprise the show is heralding into a soft reboot.

But that isn’t to say this is a bad season, it really isn’t. ‘Still Gotta Mean Something’ not only gives Jadis the most interesting backstory in the show but gives Negan the context and humanity no script before it managed. ‘The Key’ sees Maggie and Hilltop confronted with a strange, benevolent woman who offers them a book that will basically reboot society and is arguably the standout this season. Their caution and hostility towards her says everything about the Hell they’ve been through and makes her serene, apparently resource heavy approach all the more enticing. Word is she’ll be a big part of season 9. I certainly hope so. ‘Honor’, Carl’s send off episode, is a standout too, not just for Riggs’ performance but for the gravity and seriousness it approaches the event with. For me though ‘Some Guy’ is the standout. The darkest moment of the initial assault leaves Ezekiel’s troops slaughtered and his glorious, well-meaning personal myth in tatters. Khary Payton is always one of the best things about any episode but here he and the always great Cooper Andrews knock it out of the park. it isn’t that Ezekiel isn’t a King. it’s that Ezekiel believes the best of things for his people and, when he needs it, they do the same for him. It’s clever, nuanced and profoundly moving storytelling and stands comfortably with the show’s best hours. Especially as, like those hours, it’s so structurally unusual.

The central irony of season 8 seems to be that it was criticised for more of the same when in fact it changes the show drastically and permanently. That process, with the imminent departure of Andrew Lincoln, Lauren Cohan and Scott Gimple, will only continue in season 9 and for me at least is a sign of the show’s health. The world ended, the characters survived and now, at last they are much more than the walking dead. That future, now the war is over, finally starts here. That makes this season one of the most important in the show’s history. The fact it’s in many ways one of the best speaks to just how much story there is left to tell here.

Verdict: Difficult, eccentric and compelling, this is The Walking Dead in transition, in microcosm and frequently at its finest. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

The Blu-ray box set includes extended versions of six episodes, as well as commentaries on another three (each featuring Scott Gimple alongside either writer or director), and featurettes, most notably the ten-minute ‘Price of War’ which looks into how the season’s war footing has affected the characters.

Win a copy of the Blu-ray here