Now that Breaking Bad is over, I have a big hole in my heart and Sunday night TV schedule. So it’s a bit unfair for Walking Dead. I don’t think anything is ready to live up to the expectations, let alone a show that I struggled to stay interested in during its last season.
The previous season of Walking Dead left me feeling a bit indifferent to the series. Season 3 felt like such a slog to get through. As a reader of the comics I knew the Governor was a bad dude (though I feel he was a much worse dude in the books) so it was tedious watching the story line develop, and when all was said and done I just didn’t care enough about any of the characters, who mostly went undeveloped save for fluctuations in their mental stability.
So I was actually pleasantly surprised to find our survivors somewhat leveled-out, living a closer-to-normal communal life in the prison. It seems to be re-fortified, they’re starting to farm and there’s a council to provide a little governance. Honestly,I find this setting much more interesting than a bunch of scared folks hiding out in a dark prison, facing attack after attack from walkers and humans alike. It gives us some stakes. Something for them to lose other than human life, and, let’s be honest, the show is pretty willy-nilly about when it decides to give any importance to the death of a human being.
It’s also strange to see smiles from the likes of Michonne, Daryl, and Rick. I’m not sure which was stranger, Michonne riding a horse through the gates with a smile and armful of comics for Carl, or Carol calling Daryl “Pookie.” Of course, outside the walls the world hasn’t got much better. Rick runs into a woman with an accent (was she Irish?) who he forces to carry a Chipotle burrito back to her camp in order to answer 3 riddles. Of course, she’s gone off the deep end, and she was going to feed Rick to her husband (or baby?) who is kept under some burlap.
Meanwhile, on a supply run, we get a fun scene where zombies come crashing through the ceiling and explode, or chase survivors around, or dangle by their intestines. Some really gross things happen (many of which don’t really make sense biologically, but questioning the realism of this show would make my head explode.) We get some hints at an alcoholism subplot with the ex-Army medic, and Beth’s possible love interest gets bit. I saw that coming, but maybe not quite so soon.
The only bit of mystery we get from this episode comes from young Patrick, who wanders into a shower and starts bleeding from his face. Probably from banana peel smoking or Mollys or butt-chugging, or whatever the kids these days are into. Or maybe the virus is mutating!
As if it’s not obvious, I’m still having trouble caring about this show. It’s nice that’s it’s not constantly bleak so far. I’m excited to see how the communal living develops. Honestly the only characters I care about and find interesting are Hershel, Maggie, Glenn, and now Beth. I’d be happy if the rest of the series was about the remnants of the Greene family on their homestead with the occasional walker wandering through the background. I’m sure that’s not what I’ll get, though, but we’ll see if they can offer up anything else to keep me interested.
