On Time Tuesdays: Walking Dead Season 3 in Review

Last Sunday was the season 3 finale of The Walking Dead, AMC's zombie thriller that I have discussed previously as one of the better examples of horror TV at the moment. Season 3 was fairly strong overall, but it still had its ups and downs as it constructed a new societal system for the main band of survivors and developed a conflict between their group and another community nearby. I hope the show will continue to strengthen in season 4--I wonder if some of the difficulties they've faced haven't been due to the transition from a six episode format in the first season to a more traditional thirteen and sixteen episode arc in seasons 2 and 3 respectively. Season 1 was all action; with more episodes, the show had more time to spend on exposition and character development but it didn't always seem like it was sure where it was going. (If you haven't yet seen Season 3, spoilers follow.)

Season 3 attempted to find a bit more balance between action and introspection. Whereas Season 2 had focused more on internal conflict in the group, Season 3 brought in an external villain with the introduction of the Governor, a well known character from the graphic novels the show is based on. It also introduced a few other novel characters, notably Michonne and Tyreese. Tyreese has still only had a small role on the show, and initially Michonne was almost criminally underused, particularly in the first few episodes after the mid-season break. In the last few episodes of the season, however, the writers finally remembered that maybe they should give Michonne some lines and the character started to really pop. There are obviously a lot of great directions they can take her in now, particularly in her relationships with group leader Rick and his son Carl (who was also one of the best parts of the season, after being one of the most irritating aspects of Season 2 and spawning a meme about his foolishness and the absentmindedness of his parents).

I've read the graphic novels up through the first portion of the Governor's story line, and the show made some pretty dramatic changes to the character. This was a good decision in many ways, as it gave him a much greater depth and made him more interesting to watch over 16 episodes. If anything, his backstory could have been a little more fleshed out--Milton, for example, alludes to knowing him before he became the tyrant he is on the show, and remains loyal to him throughout quite a few atrocities because of it. Likewise in the final episode the Governor expresses some regret over not having become what he was sooner, saying he believes his daughter would have survived if he had been the same person then, but all of this is too vague to really connect with.

The first half of the season packed a lot of punch. The showrunners weren't afraid to unexpectedly kill off major characters or pull surprise twists, such as having Glenn and Maggie kidnapped suddenly while on a supply run. The mid-season ended with a bang with the raid on Woodbury, and seemed to be gearing up for an extended conflict between Rick and the prison group and the Governor in the second half.

Things slowed down a lot, however, and there were a few too many episodes dedicated to various characters talking it out and waffling on what to do. There were a few very strong episodes--most notably the episode in which Rick, Carl, and Michonne return to Rick's hometown and run into Morgan, a character not seen since the first episode. The show managed to provide a great deal of suspense as the trio moved through the booby-trapped town while also going into deep character development, both as Rick tried to get through to Morgan and Carl bonded with Michonne as she helped him retrieve something from a walker-filled restaurant.

However, other episodes struggled to fill time. The show obviously needed a detente between Rick and the Governor to establish the plot conceit about turning in Michonne, but the other aspects of the episode went nowhere and seemed like pretty obvious filler. Likewise, far too much time was spent on Andrea waffling between team prison and team Woodbury; her situation could have been more quickly and more strongly established than it was.

Ultimately the season had more good moments than bad, and the season finale had some great scenes. The scenes between Andrea and Milton were extremely well acted (I'll miss Dallas Roberts!), although I was screaming at her to talk and work on freeing herself at the same time. Her repeated loss of urgency was frustrating and another aspect where the show felt a little forced for the purposes of reaching its end goal. The raid on the prison was also great; the background music as the Woodbury group searched the cell block was perfect, and the show did an excellent job of building suspense. But that portion of the episode lost some steam from there, and I was disappointed that Rick has still not had a major confrontation with the Governor. Obviously they've decided to draw that portion of the storyline out for next season, even if Woodbury itself has dissolved.

I'm still excited to see what The Walking Dead will have to offer when it returns next fall. The biggest thing they could do to improve, though, should be relatively easy--they need to tighten up their continuity and establish a better time line. In one episode, they're celebrating how much food they've found and how secure they feel, and in the next, which shouldn't be more than a week later, they're on the brink of starvation. The car Rick drives is typically extremely clean for a world without electricity, and even though they've been on the move all winter they're still an easy drive from Rick's home town. What's more, they're so close to where he lives and Rick (a former sheriff) is surprised by the presence of the prison--wouldn't he have known that was there? These are nitpicky little things, I know, but I'm obviously not the only one who notices them considering the existence of this meme: