The Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 3 Review: “Walk With Me”

One thing that’s become vastly apparent with Season 3 of The Walking Dead is this; the show has picked up in terms of action.  There was a ton of plot today in “Walk with Me” and, well last season an episode almost entirely dialogue driven would have irked me, it really goes to show how big the quality turn around is in Season 3 when it WASN’T completely terrible.  In fact, it was pretty damn good.

I think the decision to split the story in two parts was a good move on The Walking Dead’s part.  My big issue with last season was how slow and monotonous the show could be.  Simply sticking all the characters on one farm and calling it a day gets extremely repetitive after a while (which is why my favorite episode of last year still remains “18 Miles Out”, simply because most of it took place OUTSIDE of the farm).

That doesn’t seem like it will be a big issue with this season though.  Even though the characters are still only in one location, the team has been separated into two groups: the ones at the prison, and the ones at the Woodbury colony.  Last week’s episode focused entirely on the prison and, in return, “Walk with Me” is only about Andrea, Micchone, and the newly discovered town of Woodbury.

And well this episode isn’t as good as the previous two, it served as a pretty good introduction to the Woodbury storyline, one that comic fans have been looking forward to since the show began.  It was actually nice to see Merle again, especially since he’s reigned in a little of his blatant racism (or so it seems).  And David Morrissey’s Governor character looks to be an excellent antagonist for the season, an element that was really missing in Season 2.

I’m enjoying the characterization of The Governor so far; we all knew that he would turn out to be a very bad man, but he also has the chivalrous and charismatic presence that makes a good leader.  A lot of today’s episode reminded me of the third season to another popular genre show; Lost.  During the season, we met The Others, led by the calm man who was Benjamin Linus.  Ben was the type of person you could easily picture as being your dentist one minute, and a psychopathic murder the next.  And well I think The Governor isn’t quite as interesting for the time being, hey, it’s barely his first episode.  With a little time, he might be.

“Walk with Me” was definitely slower than “Seed” or “Sick”, but since those were two extremely fast paced episodes, it’s not too much of a bad thing.  Most of “Walk with Me” is merely set up for what is going to be one of the two ongoing stories running throughout the season and, as set up, it more than served its purpose.

Loose Ends:

• So Woodbury has a silent black dude, a badass hick, AND a young Asian guy…all they need is an idiotic rebellious teenager and old dude with a beard and they would have the whole set!
• They even have a sassy black nurse!
• That opening was very Breaking Bad esque, in that you had no idea who the hell you were following and what exactly they were doing.  And just like Breaking Bad, it had an excellent effect when it was ultimately revealed.
• Now I’m sad…damn it Todd.
• Merle’s new arm is pretty awesome…and I imagine will inspire a lot of last minute Halloween costumes.
• Wait, she’s a sassy black DOCTOR?!  The Walking Dead continues to break racial paradigms on a weekly basis.
• That last shot was…deeply upsetting.  Not sure if there’s any angle to the Governor’s actions there or if he’s just an insane psycho killer, but I’m curious to find out.
• Do you like The Walking Dead show?  Then you’ll probably love the game too! We’re giving away a free copy of the latest entry, and you can enter here!
• Next week will apparently switch back and forth between the prison and Woodbury…hopefully that will work.  We’ll see if the show can pull it off next Sunday!

-Matthew

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