Caution: Minor Spoilers Ahead
I'm not quite sure why, in the months that I've been posting reviews of The Walking Dead TV series up on my blogs, I have not interviewed individual episodes but have instead elected to review a whole chunk of a given season all at once. Thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that to do so would feel too much like giving individual review to a few bites of a sumptuous meal rather than the whole picture. It's the same logic behind my reviewing several comic books at the same time as well.
In any case, the first four episodes of season three of TWD have, to my mind been properly epic.
The first two episodes, "Seed" and "Sick" are the nail-biting account of how Rick Grimes and his group of survivors take over a prison, seeing its high fences as the perfect protection from the walkers outside. Because the considerable prison population has turned into walkers, it's a rather challenging task of clearing the expansive grounds, especially since several of the former prison guards are still wearing their riot helmets and are a little harder to kill than the usual walker, with the result that the group take a hit when one of its members gets bitten. Not only that, but they encounter an additional challenge in the form of a handful of still-human prisoners, at least two of whom appear to be particularly murderous.
The third episode, "Walk With Me," is actually the first episode to air since the series began that does not feature Rick (Andrew Lincoln), but it does feature such important characters as Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Michonne (Danai Guria), it signals the return of Daryl (Norman Reedus) Dixon's brother Merle (Michael Rooker) whom audiences last saw chained to a pipe on a rooftop, and most importantly of all features the debut of potentially the series' most menacing character yet, the Governor (David Morrissey). It's an impressively written piece, with the Governor's thriving Woodbury community providing a stark contrast to the hopelessly inhospitable world to which Andrea has become accustomed, though the audience are made privy to the governor's true nature, even if the characters are not.
The fourth episode, "The Killer Within" is, literally and figuratively, a gut-wrenching affair in which the goings-on at the deceptively idyllic Woodbury are played out parallel to a shocking new development at the prison, which has suddenly been invaded by a large horde of walkers, leaving Rick's survivors, who are caught completely off their guard, to fight for their lives, a situation further complicated by the fact that Rick's pregnant wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) goes into labor. Andrea, in the meantime, has second thoughts about leaving Woodbury, much to the annoyance of Michonne who does not trust the Governor. At the prison it becomes evident that the walker incursion is a result of someone (and no one knows who) having opened the gates from the inside and turned on the alarms which draws the undead like a beacon, and Rick's group races to turn off the alarms. Suffice it to say, not everyone makes it out alive.
What really amazes me about this fantastic run of episodes is that there have only been four of them in a season of sixteen, and yet the writers and directors have already raised the emotional stakes considerably. Episode one was strong right out of the gate, but most remarkably, episode four played out with the visceral impact of last season's climax, and with more heart-wrenching casualties compared to the deaths of the arguably throwaway characters who were disposed of back then. For all of that, there is still so much that has yet to take place. Rick's group, for example, have yet to meet the Governor and his Woodbury community, and anyone who has read the comics knows that this encounter has cataclysmic consequences. Sure, much of the show has departed significantly from the comics' storyline, but the writers of TWD have made it very clear that their version of the Governor is very much the bastard he was on the printed page, and that an encounter between this man and Rick is not going to end well. The fact that Rick and his group will now come into that inevitable encounter after suffering such enormous loss makes things all the more interesting.
Not only that, but there's so much about the details that make the show all the more fascinating; the anxiety of Merle to look for his brother, for example, and how this could affect his relationship with the Governor is being set up as something interesting. Merle and Daryl, after all, are unique to the TV series, having been created by Frank Darabont and not Robert Kirkman, and so anything they do is nothing of which devotees of the comic book can claim to have any prior knowledge. Another slightly interesting subplot seems to be a bit of infatuation on the part of Rick's tweenage son Carl (Chandler Riggs) with Beth (Emily Kinney), the younger daughter of Hershel (Scott Wilson). After all the writers of TWD killed off Carl's longtime playmate from the comics, Sophia, last season, so they have to give Carl something to do besides kill zombies.
I join the chorus of people complaining that season 2 definitely had its low points. As gory as the finale of that season was there was something innately silly about the way all of the most peripheral characters were served up as zombie chow almost on cue, and that was after the series struggled to rebound from the somewhat controversial "search for Sophia" storyline that some people complained took up too much time.
Season 3, so far, has completely changed the game. It's not even about the bloodletting; it's about how urgent things have felt from episode to episode. The third episode may have been relatively quiet but I would argue it was the most important among the three as it states loud and clear that the biggest threat the cast of characters will face this season is not going to be from the walkers, but a living, breathing man and his posse. Considering that just one man in their prison was able to cause them as much trouble as he did in episode four, one wonders how they would fare against an entire group of armed, ruthless men.
That is something I am quite anxious to see.
5/5
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