The Walking Dead: Season 3 (Review)

This can’t be it. You gotta be able to come back from this. - Rick Grimes

The Walking Dead Season 3 is an interesting one to review. In my opinion this is one of the weaker seasons of the show, however it does contain some very good episodes including some of the best up to this point in the series. These episodes can't make up for subpar pacing, especially in the second half of the season. That being said, even when The Walking Dead is at it's worst, it is still an incredibly high caliber show. As any piece of television, Season 3 is excellent. But, when held up to Walking Dead standards it falters. Is it still good? Hell yes. There's plenty of action to go around, the walkers continue to be a brutal threat, and we're introduced to the first big human villain of the show. There's plenty for fans of the series to enjoy and luckily the slight falter that happens near the end is corrected in future seasons.

Without further ado, here is my in depth review of The Walking Dead Season 3.

We pick up in the spring after the last season ended. Our group has been on the road traveling from shelter to shelter all winter long. Right off the bat we get an interesting creative choice to have the entire cold open play out with no dialogue. We see our group take out walkers in a home and raid for supplies before leaving at the sight of a small herd. They work in unison like a well oiled machine. This is down to show us just have accustomed to this harsh new world our survivors has become and it's an excellent choice to kick off the new season. After the titles Rick and Daryl decide to hunt. While looking for prey, they discover a prison. Rick believes they have found the shelter they need to survive another winter and stay safe while Lori delivers her baby. This is the catalyst that drives the majority of the season as they must first clear their new home of walkers and then defend it against those who would like to take if from them.

The main theme of Season 2 was a loss of hope. In Season 3 the writers present us with a bigger question. How do you keep those you love alive in this harsh world without losing your humanity? It's a fine line that Rick and the group must learn as they navigate through the constant threat of being eaten alive and what becomes the even bigger threat, other survivors. This marks the beginning of the show changing from the walkers being the huge threat each season to other groups posing a bigger threat.

We are introduced to the first big human villain of the show, a man called The Governor. When reviewing Season 3 I have to mention that comic fans may not be as into this one. This is the season that deviates the most from the source material and in my opinion it varies in successfulness. One of the biggest changes is the characterization of the Governor. When we meet him in the comics he is a psychopath who quickly tries to kill our survivors and even entertains his group with gladiator fights to the death surrounded by walkers. This is not the Governor we meet in the show. He is more of a polished politician who has not yet completely given himself over to the darker side of himself. This puts us in a unique spot with that character. On the one hand, we get to see the Governor start out a little more humanized and watch him slowly descend into madness, but on the other he never fully reaches the darkest point as he does in the comics.

A change I do think worked extremely well, however is the death of Lori. In the comics both her and Judith were gun downed during the climactic prison attack, but in the show Lori dies in childbirth allowing baby Judith to live. This death comes as a complete surprise and gives us the most emotional moment in the show up to this point. It also allows more character development for both Carl and Rick as Carl is the one who must put his mother down before she can turn.

One of the elements that really stands out to me this season is how gruesome the walker kills are. Fore whatever reason it seems like in Season 3 Greg Nicotero and his team have really amped up the gore level for the walkers. We get decapitations, exploding heads, Rick pulling the face off a walker, then crushing it with a machete. It's a gory mess in the best way possible. I know there are some pretty gruesome walker kills later in the series too, but this season just seems so constant with it. It seems like the creative team really wanted to show off the gritty lifestyle that our survivors have to endure while taking the prison. It also works very well with the theme of the season.

Where the season really starts to slip is in some of the character development and pacing in the second half. A notable example is how then show runner Glen Mazzara handles Andrea's story arc. This is to no fault of the actress as Laurie Holden does an excellent job with what material she is given, however that material is flawed. Many comic fans will hate this part of the story as it sees a huge departure where Andrea engages in a romantic and sexual relationship with the Governor leading to her eventual demise. Now don't get me wrong, I do not dislike Mazzara as a writer. I've seen some of his other shows and greatly enjoyed them, such as Damien, which ended way too soon. I do greatly disagree with some of the story choices in the latter half of this season when it pertains to The Walking Dead though. Apparently, Robert Kirkman agrees with that sentiment as Scott M. Gimple is promoted to show runner from Season 4 onwards.

The overall production value is still there. The acting is as good as ever and many of the new characters handle themselves well with the remaining cast. The cinematography is in the same vein as the previous seasons as well as the score and directing. The story takes quite a few risks early on in the season, but later story choices don't exactly pan out as effectively. For these reasons I give Season 3 of The Walking Dead 3.5 out of 5 cauldrons!