Was the show perfect, no. It still had some incredibly powerful, emotionally wrenching moments. What it did exceedingly well, in a horror setting, is explore the question of what it means to be human in incredibly difficult times. I understand some of the decisions that were made in later seasons, and overall feel they were good (vs. great) ways of pulling the story out and looking at the new world from a larger perspective.

In the end, it was the characters that made the show. And the later seasons successfully introduced new characters that I cared about just as much as some of the characters that were lost, or that left. I hope the spinoffs are half as good as the original, and thank the great performers for the many hours of engaging entertainment.