The Walking Dead returned to television yesterday with “The Suicide King” after an ungodly 10 week break. In case you weren’t one of the 12.3 million viewers who tuned in to AMC Sunday, I will do a short recap:

Continue reading The Walking Dead: 3.09 – “The Suicide King” Review →

I’m one of those fans who hates The Walking Dead TV show. Passionately. At least, I did anyway. Most people are quick to accuse me of hating it simply because it’s different from the comic, which is erroneous. During Season 1, I was delighted to see the show veering from the comic. I liked guessing what was next, rather than knowing what was coming, and the CDC Lab finale was riveting and unpredictable television for me. I found myself entranced that the show was set to stand on its own legs, and take chances with its source material, and do new, daring, exciting things with the show that hadn’t been done on the comic.

Then season 2 came along, and was singlehandedly one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. Suddenly every character acted in a way that seemed forced, and reeked of writers scrambling for character motivation. Nobody talked or acted naturally, everybody did stupid things constantly, and worst of all, nobody was likable.

There’s been plenty of hate on Lori for season 2, and rightfully so. Her character was singlehandedly one of the worst changes to the series from the books, since the show’s writers decided to make her an insufferable, illogical, stupid shrew-woman who was righteously hypocritical, and defiantly indignant at the same time. [Ed. Note – I hated her in comics too.] It was maddening as each week the show I watched that was adapted from a thrilling, human drama that involves an apocalyptic survival scenario, was turned into an overly melodramatic soap opera that occasionally had zombies in it. My problem wasn’t that the show was “different” from the comic, I mean it was, but it was “different” from the show it had been. Which is a good one.  It was now just a terrible show, in and of itself, and when compared with the comic it became impossible to imagine how insanely dumb the writers were for taking such a brilliant story, and screwing it up that badly.

When it came around to hearing about season 3, I had no interest in watching it. I wasn’t even angry the show had adapted the comic poorly, I just was angry the show had gotten so bad. However, by the time the fifth episode of the third season had aired, everybody and their mother was talking about the most recent episode. My disdain for the series notwithstanding, I decided to relent my hatred and give the show a second chance to get better. While it didn’t immediately convince me, sure enough by the time I got to the 5th episode, the show had redeemed itself. Suddenly characters were acting like people again, and not struggling writers trying to shoehorn in exposition. Suddenly the acting had improved, stakes had been raised, and it was back to being a human drama about survival rather than some horror/zombie knockoff of All My Children.

What bodes even better for the show, is the fact that with the recent losses the characters of the show have sustained, we’re getting a new addition, to complement and enhance the show.

via [EW]

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In an interview with EW.com Kirkman stated the December 2 fall finale of the AMC drama will feature a new character straight from The Walking Dead comic.

“There’s a new character added,” Kirkman told EW. “A big deal fan favorite from the comic book is introduced into the show in this episode, so be on the lookout for that.”

EW speculates that it might be Tyreese, a fan-favorite character from early in the comic series — and Kirkman could neither confirm nor deny.

“I don’t know, man!” he said. “I don’t know. I got no clue!”

While Kirkman is playing coy, rumors have swirled that actor Chad Coleman (best known from The Wire and I Hate My Teenage Daughter) has been spotted in the Atlanta area where the show films and could be playing the comic book fave. Whomever it is —  be it Tyreese, or another character entirely, like, say, friendly scout Aaron or Fu Manchu mustache rocking Abraham — he (or she) will be appearing on Dec. 2

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Fans of the comic will no doubt be excited to hear that Tyreese could be making his way to the show. I’ve long though it was going to be Tyreese, as I could have sworn I saw a stocky black guy of the right build to play Tyreese in one of the background scenes at Woodbury this season. At this point, I find it necessary to warn any readers who aren’t up to date on the comics, or the show, to beware that the next section has comic SPOILERS in it (click the + below to read anyway).

[toggle_simple title=”SPOILERS” width=”640″]Fans of the comic know that Tyreese’s death is probably one of the more brutal from the book, but even more interesting is his relationship with Michonne. Considering Michonne has left Woodbury, if Tyreese is already in Woodbury this leads to an interesting divide in storylines and relationships that will contrast interestingly with the established relationships in the book. Does this mean Tyreese could end up with Andrea? It could be the case, since Dale already died a long time ago.

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So if it does turn out that Chad Coleman plays Tyreese, I gotta say that’s pretty good casting. I gotta say, the shows quality has done a hard about-face in quality from one of the worst shows on television, back to being one of the best. It’s pretty wild, but unless everyone takes another trip back into stupid town like season 2, I’ll be sticking with the show.

“Say The Word” was an extraordinarily intense episode of The Walking Dead. Getting back to the standard format of the show, this episode picks up where episode 4 left off. After learning that his wife is dead, Rick is in a state of shock. This is not the Beth type of shock where you lay in a bed and become suicidal… this is Rick’s own personal hell. He becomes enraged and takes an axe to anything he can find in the prison.

He comes across a walker who…*shudders*…ATE Lori. Her body is gone with only scraps and a bullet remaining on the floor where she was left. It was devastating.

Back at Woodbury, Michonne got the award for best zombie kill of the week by unleashing some caged biters and letting her katana loose on them.

Michonne then had to have a sit-down with the Governor, who wants her to stay. He explained that she fits in. He then spoke with Andrea to try to get her to convince Michonne to stop being so aggressive and just embrace the town, as she is making other people uncomfortable. Andrea is being an idiot about it, but I cannot in any way blame her. If I had spent the past 8 months constantly fighting for my life, I would want peace and safety, too. After Michonne leaves without Andrea, who refuses to succumb to the ultimatum, the Governor asks Andrea to go with him to the event they’re having that night in the town. The event? ZOMBIE FIGHT CLUB!!!

This is one of the most interesting uses for these guys I have seen on this show.  The walkers form a ring around the two men and are chained to posts. The chains are loosened as the fight draws near an end. Merle wins this fight, of course.

We also saw that the Governor keeps his daughter, who is a walker, locked up. He was brushing her hair. Everyone in the room with me while I was watching this kept saying how creepy this scene was. I, for one, thought that it was just devastatingly sad. Here, this man has his daughter, his own flesh and blood, and she wants to kill him. We have seen it a lot in this show. Sophia had to be put down by Rick, Andrea’s sister Amy had to be put down by Andrea… it is so sad to see. Everyone is losing people closest to them, and I imagine that what happened to his family turned the Governor into this madman.

Maggie and Daryl went out and found supplies for the wee baby Grimes (Walsh?). They brought back formula and such, which lead to a sweet moment in the episode. Daryl was feeding the unnamed baby and smiling. As a woman, I am absolutely a sucker for this stuff. It was adorable.

At the end of the episode, after Rick has absolutely destroyed the walker who ate Lori, the phone in the boiler room rings. He picks it up, aaaaand of course the episode ends. WHO IS IT?! Could it be Carol calling trapped in another part of the prison? Could it be someone working for the Mayor, scouting all of the nearby places for survivors? Or is Rick just losing his marbles? Could it be someone like Shane or Lori on the phone? Could Rick be literally going crazy? Who takes over the group then? Although I am not happy that I’ll have to wait to find out, I am glad I have something to look forward to!

I could not have imagined that this season would be so amazing. I have loved just about every episode of this show so much that I find it difficult to be objective in rating them and trying to not give everything a perfect score. After much deliberation, I would say this is 4/5 Grizzlies.