Freddie Schwartz
Staff Writer
When the series The Walking Dead appeared on AMC in 2010, it was an instant success. In a time when the zombie genre has been overused from movies to books, this series, which is based on a series of comics, takes us back to the true horror of the zombie apocalypse theme. Seeing just how devastating this kind of disaster could be and also how it would affect humanity makes this show very edgy and at some points horrific. There is a good mix of blood and gore but also the human drama of surviving as well as keeping their humanity and in some cases sanity in tact.
In season one, the main character, Rick, wakes up from a coma to find the world has come to end because of the zombies, or walkers as they are called, that eat the living. There is no place to hide and no matter where survivors go, the zombies keep coming making tensions rise and the fight to survive more difficult. There are plenty of side stories between the characters added into the mix like the love triangle between Rick, his wife Lori, and his best friend Shane. The season ended after finding out that there is no possible cure and the hope of anyone who could have found a possible cure was lost because of worldwide power loss. It was a foreboding end and left us wondering what could be next for the survivors.
Season two focused more on the dynamics between the characters, which is all good and fine, but the season was a little bit of a letdown compared to the prior season. One of the issues was that the survivors stayed on the same farm for the whole season, while in the comic they also tried to live in a gated community. Another issue was the drama between Rick, Shane, and Lori seemed to drag on forever. We already knew that there was going to be an intense love triangle but to see it over and over was very repetitive and dampened the suspense. It was also a little disappointing how “safe” everyone was. I would have liked to see more dangerous moments and more serious split second decisions that could tear the group apart. However, there are very good redeeming factors. Shane’s descent into madness and murder was done extremely well and was shocking. It showed how this new world could corrupt even the most selfless of people.
But what is there to expect for this year’s third season? If you saw the season two finale, you saw a large prison in the background, which is exactly where Rick and his group end up. Through the first eight episodes, the group secures a cellblock for themselves and finds a group of prisoners who survived but have no idea what’s going on in the world. A few of the prisoners ended up dead. Hershel almost died, T-dog did die sacrificing himself to save Carol, and Lori died when Maggie had to perform an imaginary c-section to save her baby. Michonne and Andrea find refuge in a fully functioning community, which, Michonne ends up leaving because she doesn’t trust the man in charge, and frankly neither do I. In the last episode, Rick finds a severely injured Michonne and she tells them that Glenn and Maggie were taken there. Tune in to AMC on Sunday at 9pm to see what happens once Rick, Daryl, Oscar, and Michonne reach the community.
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