The Walking Dead changes nearly every season, introducing us to exciting new characters and plotlines. While some seasons have certainly been better than others, an argument could be made that the 2016 episodes at the end of Season 6 heading into Season 7 were among some of the strongest that the AMC show has made. Yet the show isn't nor has it ever been given any awards love by the critical faction, and we're here to walk you through a few of the reasons why the show never gets love.
If you would like to see what shows, actors and actresses were nominated this morning for the 2016 Golden Globes, head here.
There Are Too Many Key Players
While members of ensemble casts have gotten nominated by the Golden Globes over the years, The Walking Dead has more key players than nearly any other show on television and it also has a penchant for killing off more major players than most other shows. People show up to watch characters like Rick, Daryl, Carol and Michonne kick-ass and make the tough decisions, but the show really spends a lot of time expanding its universe and introducing us to an ever-growing number of people living during the walker apocalypse. Sometimes we'll spend 30 minutes or even an entire episode getting to know a new character or spending time with a character that isn't a lead on the series. It's an amazing character study on dystopian societies, but it means that the key players don't always get the screen time they might get on other shows and that could be translating into a lack of award nominations.
We're Too Many Seasons In To Get Nominated Now
Another problem that The Walking Dead is facing is that it's extremely difficult---but not impossible---for a show to get nominated later in its run. Shows that are trendy with critics often stay trendy with critics, which is why Game of Thrones is still getting nominated well into its seventh season. Newer shows---shows like Westworld, Stranger Things and This is Us also dominated this year's Golden Globes nominations list. However, it's hard for a show that is already in its seventh season to grab enough attention to just START popping up on critics lists. If anyone has a shot it might be newcomer Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who just started playing the huge TWD presence Negan earlier in 2016. Still, even that is going to be an uphill battle...
Major Awards Nominations Rarely Go To Horror Shows
Another reason that The Walking Dead may have trouble getting nominated is because it is, at its heart, a horror series filled with a lot of gleeful gross-out moments. Critics hate horror in general as a genre, and while a few shows have managed to transcend critics' general hate of horror, including previous incarnations of Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story and this year's Stranger Things, horror shows are not often given a place on a pedestal, even if they are engaging, like The Walking Dead or the smaller Ash vs Evil Dead.
The Walking Dead is clearly one of the most popular shows on television and clearly gets a lot of love at fan curated awards shows and events like Comic-Con and Walker Stalker Con. However, it would be nice if a lead like Andrew Lincoln or even the show as a whole would get some of the love it has deserved for years. Maybe Season 7, with its more deliberate pace and peeks into the world at The Kingdom and the lives of The Saviors, is not that year. But we can always dream, right?
The Walking Dead returns to the schedule on February 12. To find out more midseason return dates, check out our premiere schedule.
