Like many, I stopped watching the walking dead around season 7-8, when the show was at its least creative. The show's best content in seasons 1-6 was about a 50/50 split between comic book storylines and new original stuff. This new content either fleshed out existing relationships (Shane and Rick, Carol and Tyreese, etc.) and totally new stuff to fill in the gaps (CDC, Daryl and Merle, Terminus, Grady Memorial Hospital, the wolves). Basically, the comic book would act as the base for the show to expand upon and fill in the gaps, and they nailed this balance for a while.
As season 7 came along, it became clear there simply wasn't enough saviors content to make up 2 seasons, but AMC made the writers go ahead and do it anyway. And thus one of the best parts of the comics was stretched out with tons of new filler and resulted in the weakest part of the show. Again, this is when I stopped watching, and I'm only just recently catching up.
The creators thankfully recognized their mistake and the show underwent some behind the scenes changes, and (from what I've heard, as I haven't fully caught up yet) seasons 9-11 were a return to form for the show. I only caught the last two episodes live but without getting into any specifics, this show goes out on a high and ends on the perfect note for this long journey.
This year saw another outstanding finale (BCS, as referenced in the title) and there's plenty of exciting new TWD content on the horizon (I have very high expectations for Rick and Michonne...)
