Walking Dead’s Creator Admits 1 Criticism of the Franchise Is 100% True

When it comes to zombies, The Walking Dead comic is a seminal entry in a bloody and violent genre that fans have flocked to almost as consistently and insatiably as the undead hordes that are always trying to eat Rick Grimes and friends whole. Though an achievement in its own right, The Walking Dead isn’t without its flaws, with one particular criticism of the franchise recently being singled out by series creator Robert Kirkman as being 100% true.

Full of death, dismemberment, and more ripping and tearing of flesh than most other zombie stories combined, when The Walking Dead isn’t killing off beloved characters while setting up others for their doom, it’s telling a story of loss and grief pushed along by themes of family and survival — elements that admittedly skew towards the overdramatic at times.

In a recent behind-the-scenes breakdown of the series by Robert Kirkman, he reveals why people criticizing The Walking Dead by calling it “a soap opera with zombies” doesn’t bother Kirkman because, according to him, that was “kind of the idea.”

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Robert Kirkman Agrees That The Walking Dead Feels Like A Soap Opera At Times

The Walking Dead Deluxe #82 (Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Dave McCaig)

Admitting to having no qualms about being compared to a soap opera in the “Cutting Room Floor” material in The Walking Dead Deluxe #83, Kirkman explains why some writing techniques and story beats are derived from soap opera structure. Saying that he sometimes has so much narrative ground to cover where he needs to make “every little story” — i.e. each character’s individual arc — progress a little in each issue, Kirkman likens this process to being “Kind of like how soap operas work with their never-ending string of check-in and update scenes.”

Going on to further say that he doesn’t ever “take offense” to people calling this similarity out and that The Walking Dead telling a soap opera-like story isn’t “a bad thing at all,” Kirkman’s open embracement of this specific criticism says a lot about how the series works as a whole. Rightfully choosing to put character development over spectacle while constantly piling on relationships defined by juicy drama and backstabbing reveals, Kirkman often relies on dialogue-heavy interactions between his characters, a good chunk of which understandably comes across as having a very soapy feel.

The Walking Dead Is A Soap Opera And The Series Creator Isn’t Bothered By It

While the series has had its fair share of other criticisms over the years that fans and critics alike have leveled at it, Robert Kirkman’s undead epic is still hands down one of the most important and influential tales the zombie genre has ever produced, with the comic’s soap opera “flaws” even making the jump to the franchise’s various television series, where the same critiques were more valid and far easier to see. The Walking Dead wears its soap opera DNA on its sleeve, and according to Robert Kirkman, that’s one of the reasons why it’s so good too.