The Walking Dead is a legendary brand. It started as a comic book series in 2003, and has grown into something that is beloved worldwide. While its video games, spinoff comics and other forms of media are all a part of its success, the biggest reason is the massive hit TV show that the comics inspired. The show, which has been airing since 2010, is the juggernaut of the franchise.

The show’s seventh season began airing in October 2016, with the premiere episode “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” It was a smash hit, drawing in 17.03 million viewers – the second highest number for the show ever. This episode was a fantastic way to kick off the new season, with more than enough brutality and drama to satisfy me. The actors really went to bat on this one, as Negan (a phenomenal Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Rick play off each other in an incredible way. The season opener did what any good season opener should do – it made me excited to watch the rest of the season.

“The Kingdom,” the second episode, was definitely a cooldown from the intensity of the first. Instead of following up on the first episode, this one shifted focus to Carol and her discovery of the Kingdom, a new community. While all the new developments were interesting, the episode itself definitely was less enthralling than the opener. This was partially due to the lack of Negan – every time the character wasn’t onscreen I wished he was.

Thankfully, the third episode of the season gave me what I wanted – which was more Negan. The episode “The Cell” shows us Negan and the Saviors’ base of operations – a factory – and centers around a battle of wills between Daryl and the Saviors. This episode gave viewers their dose of Daryl (who doesn’t show up much this season) – but he wasn’t in a good place. He was smack dab in the middle of Easy Street and watching the torture he goes through there is difficult.

After this psychologically intense episode came “Service,” which was just oodles of fun. Negan came to Alexandria to take Rick’s stuff and of course it all goes bad. Watching Rick and Negan snap and bite at each other is fantastic and I look forward to watching this happen much more. “Service” was another solid outing following “The Cell,” and I was quite excited for the season to continue in this fashion.

However, that wasn’t what happened. The two episodes that followed were not on the same level. This is due to a couple reasons, the foremost of which is a lack of Negan. However, they also seemed to suffer from a strange detachment from the main arc of the season thus far – Rick and the gang vs Negan. “Go Getters,” the fifth episode of the season, focused on Maggie at Hilltop. Shenanigans ensued when the Saviors stopped by for a visit. It was nice to see Maggie again, but the episode wasn’t all that enthralling.

Neither was the sixth episode of the season. It was called “Swear,” and it focused on Tara. This was a poor idea. In fact, the whole episode was a poor idea. I did not care about anything introduced in this episode – not even the new community that was introduced, Oceanside. I simply could not get past my intense distaste for Tara and anything to do with her – how she is still alive in this brutal apocalyptic world makes no sense to me.

Thankfully, episodes seven and eight saved the season. Episode seven, “Sing Me a Song,” gave me all the Negan I had been missing since episode 4. Carl tried to sneak back to Negan’s base to kill him, but was caught – and punished in an exquisitely unique way. Getting to see the inside of the Saviors’ home was great, as was watching Jeffrey Dean Morgan dance around with Lucille – his performance improving as you watch.

All this led up to the midseason finale – “Hearts Still Beating.” This episode was the best one of the season. Earlier episodes suffered from a lack of focus and a lack of Negan – both of which were rectified in this episode. Negan came back to Alexandria with Carl, which prompts several deaths – one of which is as fantastically gory as the season opener. I’ll be damned if Negan killing people makes me hate him, though – he is just too much fun to watch.

So, is the first half of season 7 worth it? Some parts are. This is a very uneven start to the season, with some episodes (like the opener) being stellar, gory fun that is impossible to miss, while other episodes (such as episode 6) being so dull that you wish everyone had died when the apocalypse started. To solve this problem, I recommend watching every episode with Negan, and reading up on the ones he’s not in. Negan is what made the show so far, and I look forward to watching him in the latter half of season 7.