"If Daryl dies, we riot." This was the rallying cry from fans during the early days of "The Walking Dead" on the way to an 11-season run, as Norman Reedus' character, Daryl Dixon, quickly rose to the forefront of the expansive ensemble and became a favorite.

No matter how lofty the concept, regardless of how successfully it launches, the gravitational pull of “giving the people what they want” has a way of loosening the bolts on an otherwise tight fuselage.