Granted, that’s still a hell of a lot of moving parts for The Walking Dead to corral with narrative urgency, but the TV show can now work a little more like the comic books, where the plot can jump from one area to the next without the explicit need to slow down and set up exposition.
And anyway, it would be hard to clearly reiterate plot machinations while in the middle of a massive gun battle that features a special appearance from a killer tiger.
Season 8 has the gigantic advantage of not having to introduce a full set of brand new settings and character populations, since we’re now quite familiar with The Kingdom, The Hilltop Colony, The Sanctuary, Oceanside and the Scavengers’ junkyard.