But there's a paradox, people! While the half-season has seemed to drag like a walker with no legs (so...a dragger? Anyway...), with the good bits standing out from the dreck like the blasted and withered trees on a WWI battlefield, it also feels like the whole Negan storyline is being rushed towards a conclusion by full season's end...yet it feels like we know sod all about him, his true beliefs and where they sprang from, why his people haven't offed him already (we had glimpses of why in the latest ep, but they needed to be shown well before that point, with Rick realised Negan was basically just an unpredictable ar$ehole during the mid-season finale, which would have made his decision to fight make a bit more sense), and so on.
The putting together of a 'coalition of the willing' would also take longer, given what has been established about the various groups. Ezekiel, for instance, wouldn't be willing to let his mask slip, or let all of his people know about his deal with the Saviours. Hilltop...well, how do you get Gregory to fight (and is it just me, or are they completely wasting Xander Berkeley, at least so far? He's way better than this!). Then you get to the Women With Guns. Given that they'll shoot whoever turns up, how do you get around that? (Convincingly, I mean.)
As for the way they were introduced, let alone set up, that was possibly one of the worst hours of TWD I've ever seen. I don't mind the slower, character-driven episodes - the one re: Morgan was a real standout - but when every one gets like that, and they don't quite work on top of that (no fault of Alanna Masterson; it just wasn't terribly well-written or conceived), well...
Also, while I know the show isn't about zombies per se, is there any need for them at this point? Both Tara and Aaron should have been liberally chewed in recent weeks, but no, the sand zombies surrounded her and had a hold of her, but failed to tear or bite, and the water zombies proved equally toothless when Aaron went in the water. He should have one bite, at least. I mean, come on!
If they are no threat, though, they why have them? Simply write them out, i.e. they all die off or generally rot away, leaving only the world of the remaining few. Otherwise, they simply have to become a serious danger again, even if only a peripheral one. Time was, you'd worry about a character encountering a zombie or two, let alone a group of four or five. Now, even the most pratus ineptus of the group has nothing to fear; they just dance around them, shank a couple, then dance some more or run away.
And Carl on rollerblades. Tell me who would think that's a good idea (and no, I don't buy that teenagers would, either; not in that world, not with what they've experienced for years by this point. They wouldn't even be close to thinking in the ways we're familiar with).