TV Review: #thewalkingdead (Half)-Season Premiere

AMC continued their bizarre scheduling patterns (like splitting up the final season of Breaking Bad by a year, and having more than a year pass between seasons of Mad Men) by having a half-season premiere of The Walking Dead after a nearly three month hiatus between the 8th and 9th episodes of season 3. I thought the first half of season 3 were the strongest episodes the series has ever had, but they still weren’t good enough to justify the explosive ratings. [So far, The Walking Dead is the highest rated cable series in history, and has an 18-to-49 demo rating most broadcast networks would kill for.]

This episode picked up where “Made to Suffer” (episode eight) left off: with Meryl and Daryl reunited but pitted against each other by The Governor——-royally pissed from having his town fire-bombed, his zombie daughter killed, and forever being forced to wear an eye patch in a gruesome attack from Michonne——-who said they must fight to the death if either of them hoped to live. Then Rick and Maggie launched an attack that freed the brothers, but killed several more of Woodbury’s residents, while also leaving a hole in the perimeter fence that let a few stray zombies enter.

The rest of the episode wasn’t nearly as good as the first scene, and it was more of a builder, setting up all the conflicts between the now four different groups of survivors: there’s Rick’s prison group (which is growing ever smaller), the Dixon brothers since Meryl and Daryl went off into the woods after dickhead Rick asked Daryl to abandon his brother, a new group of survivors that have somehow wandered into the prison, and the Governor’s Woodbury residents, who were inexplicably demanding to leave Woodbury even as hungry zombies waited outside the walls for them. [Although the new group wants to join Rick’s group…which really could use something besides skinny white girls, babies, geezers, and random, even skinnier men.]

In true Walking Dead fashion, the conflicts aren’t just between the different groups, but for most of the episode featured turmoil inside the different groups: The new group debated on whether or not to kill Rick’s group and take the prison. Rick’s group argued about…well…nothing much, but it wouldn’t be Rick’s group if there weren’t needless conflict and whining. The Dixon brothers don’t even seem to like each other all that much, bound by blood more than real affection. And the Woodbury residents are clearly separated along the lines of the Woodbury civilians (who seemingly have never seen a zombie attack before) and the guys with guns that are more loyal to the Governor. 

Anyway, the episode was slow and mostly un-involving (even the cliff-hanger, involving a cracked-up Rick was pretty weak). A season 2 episode more than one reminiscent of the first half of season 3. When your second most notable scene is perennial fuck-up Andrea giving a rousing speech that united the citizens of Woodbury, you know you’ve got a pretty disposable episode. Grade for the episode: C+