I liked Negan as well, at least he was always interesting to watch even if he slightly overstayed his welcome because it just got so repetitive after awhile due to dragging that plotline out. Aside from the overhyped double-death of the Season 7 opener which just turned a lot of people off, I liked the rest of that episode and typically Negan's scenes. Not sure they could have cast him or played him better. Still, like I said, the cyclic plots got old fast, with characters doing dumb or repetitive things. It's always the problem. I wish sometimes they only had 8-10 episodes a season because they'd then have to make the scenes count versus all the rehash. I hated Beth, I thought they wasted Andrea in Season 3, and I really liked Shane in Season 1-2 and thought they were doing some daring stuff with him for a lead character. I hated Carol for two seasons, but then she buckled down and suddenly she became one of my favorites... until the end of last season through much of this one, where she felt very wasted and pointlessly aimless. When they could tie deaths to moral decisions and sociological interactions, I find the series a lot more interesting -- like that whole bit with the venture to the warehouse, which resulted in two deaths, the debacle in the revolving door, and Nick getting suckerpunched by Glenn. Horrific, engrossing, terrifying. I liked the boat element. I just didn't feel like it was well-capitalized on, in Season 2 (well, the half I watched). I've heard too about how some humans are coexisting within the hordes of zombies now -- that was just a one-off idea appearing a few times in TWD and usually failing (resulting in multiple cast deaths). So it's weird to see it so effective in FTWD, when it's been shunned and/or a flop in TWD.