I stopped watching at the end of Season 8. I wasn't planning on stopping actually, but what made me stop was the news that Andrew Lincoln/Rick would be leaving the show in S9 and then I was like "ok S8 will just be the ending for me" because my favourite part of the show by far was Andrew Lincoln's Rick. I did post in previous TWD threads, and just thought i'd pop in here for old times sake lol.
That said, I am planning on catching up eventually- my initial assumption was that TWD would never end and that AMC would milk it for everything that its worth- but now that S11 is supposedly the final one, I think that I will watch the remaining seasons once I have time as I have been hearing that the new season have been better than the S7-8 Arc.
I might be / probably am in the minority when I say this, but I think Andrew Lincoln leaving kind of ended up being a good thing for the show. His final handful of episodes were fantastic, and once he and Lauren Cohan* left, it left room for other characters to step up and have some much-needed development / time in the spotlight. It also made some parts of the story more interesting (imo), since it was one less character with guaranteed plot armor. On top of all that, the vibe of the series just changed a bit after his departure and the show felt kind of refreshed-- again, in my opinion.
All-in-all, season nine of the show is my favorite of the series, and most of the reasons why are from episodes that came after his departure. Season ten, while not as good as season nine, was still pretty good, and so far, season eleven is shaping up to be a great finale based on the quality of the eight episodes that're available. I do miss Rick a little bit, but I don't think the show's suffered in his absence, and besides, he'll show up in the movies, whenever they happen.
*Lauren Cohan is back on the show now, but she was still gone for more than a season's worth of episodes, and by the time she returned, they'd managed to put Maggie into an interesting place for her character.
