As you stated in your previous post, it is a viewing priority to you. For me it isn't, and will likely continue to deliver predictably "unpredictable" non events until enough people bore with the premise and it gets cancelled.
Are fans of this show turning on it suddenly? I just ran into 2 Tweets back-to-back from people I follow who seem to be hugely dissing it. Chuck "Watercooler Films" Dowling was one, then Matt Zoller Seitz even called it sadistic.
Perhaps they are. If it's because of the brutality, then they need to just stop watching. How stupid to call the show sadistic. The character of Negan is a sadist. That couldn't be more clear from the season opener. All I ever seem to hear is constant complaints from people about how boring this show is or how badly written it is. Sorry, but I find it anything but boring. I still can't believe that we have a weekly zombie show on TV filled with lots of interesting characters and terrific special effects. I know not everybody agrees with my opinion, and that's fine, but I still think this show is outstanding. Sure, it has it's slower moments, but I still look forward to it every Sunday night.
The show's great fun to watch, Harry. I enjoy it. Why devote your time to something you do not enjoy? 'I can't believe how bad these past seven seasons have been and that I've watched them all!'
I just hate the general aesthetics of all millennium "realistic" "gritty" horror, etc. You can't fake gritty, you can't style gritty. You can't put grey grease and brown dirt makeup on people's faces and clothes and give them the look of having been through something. You can't shakycam intensity. Etc. And my experience with the show is just that it doesn't do anything new aesthetically to appeal to people like me who want wild creative concepts (I guess I should be checking out this Stranger Things instead but I do not want to be letdown). So, I keep sticking to sophisticomedies, mockumentaries, ensemble quirky comedies, etc. Right now, I'm watching Bojack Horseman (finished season 3 in a day) and The Mindy Project. If that actually tells you anything.