Television Review #12: The Walking Dead Season 3 (2012-2013)

Season 3 reunites us with the group roughly nine months after the last season left off and you can tell that they have been through the ringer. They all look sleep-deprived, weak and starved. They keep moving from shelter to shelter trying to not just outrun the walkers but to find a place for the group to call home. Then they stumble upon the prison. It's the perfect shelter for the group to start what could possibly be a normal life. But there is another community close by called Woodbury, run by a man called the Governor. Woodbury looks like the perfect Utopian society. Not just during the apocalypse but even in real life. But things aren't actually as perfect as it looks on the outside.

This is my favorite season of The Walking Dead so far. I loved almost everything about this season, but I'll list my favorite things that happened in the third season.

1. The show finally gets a definitive villain. In the first season, they were fighting against the walkers. In the second season, you could argue that Shane was the villain, but he was mostly the villain towards Rick and not towards the entire group. So I didn't think that season 2 had someone everyone could call villain. Luckily, The Governor is the villain that this show has been deserving of. He starts out calm, cool, collected, reasonable and likable in beginning of the season. By the season finale, you want to see Michonne kill him and stick his head in his freaky fish tank. That leads me to my second favorite new addition to the show.

2. Michonne. The show introduced us to the character of Michonne at the end of season two when she saved Andrea from a swarm of walkers. What I love about her is that she perhaps one of the only characters on the show who actually does what we want her to do. For example: When she walks into Woodbury and meets the Governor, she instantly thinks that there's something off here. The audience knows something is wrong and she does what we want her to do: Leave! She is the only character with common sense to leave when something is strange. And her character introduction was completely awesome. She decapitates two walkers with her Last Samurai katana and the camera pans to her. Her face shadowed by her Sith Lord cloak and hood with to defenseless walkers on chains. How can you not find that completely sweet?

3. The Return of Merle. In the second episode, Rick handcuffed Merle to a rooftop and ended up leaving him stuck there when they lost the key. When they returned, he cut off his own hand and left. We had speculated that Merle was still alive for a while and he finally returns! Even though Merle was only in one episode, I though Merle was a great character. Yeah he was a creep, a jerk and a racist but I found him hysterical. They also give him a great conflict whether he should side with the Governor or the group that his brother is in. It's very interesting seeing his internal struggle.

4. Andrea. No member of the original group since Shane has driven us up the wall quite like Andrea. I almost hated her as much as I hated the Governor! Her character probably got the most development this season. She, like Merle, had to choose between the original group and the Governor. Only this decision is much more difficult for her than it is with Merle because of her very close relationship she forms with the Governor. Her performance is definitely one that stands out. First Shane, now the Governor. She has the worst taste in men.

There are moments when the show slows down. All of those fairly pointless moments courtesy of whenever Rick goes off the deep end and takes the 3:10 to cray-cray town. That was the only time in the season that I didn't care for. Aside from that, I've got nothing else.

Final Report: Season 3 of The Walking Dead is the most satisfy season so far. Enough said.