The Walking Dead Season 3 – Release Date: 2012

Episode Guide

Seed
Sick
Walk With Me
Killer Within
Say The Word
Hounded
When The Dead Come Knocking
Made To Suffer
The Suicide King
Home
I Ain’t A Judas
Clear
Arrow On The Doorpost
Prey
This Sorrowful Life
Welcome To The Tombs

After a lacklustre second season, The Walking Dead bounces back from the issues plaguing its second season to deliver a well written story that proves just why the show is so endearing. The characters are well written, there’s more zombies this time around and in turn, the action is increased too. With The Governor and his group entering the fray, the show becomes ever more complicated as the fight for survival against the zombies takes on a new dimension.

We start the season panning out to show two gormless zombies staring into space in a house before a crunching blow to the back of the head knocks them down. The group are weak, hungry and in desperate need of safe refuge and as we soon discover, the sheer mass of zombies surrounding them at all times mean they’re constantly on the run. Despite finding an abandoned house, within minutes they’re swarmed by zombies and find themselves back on the run again. By sheer luck, they happen upon a prison and decide to liberate it from zombies and make it a safe refuge. At the same time, we follow Andrea after being separated from the group as she finds herself in the company of The Governor, a charismatic man who’s managed to transform a town into a safe haven with its own community.

With more characters joining the show, the writers do a very good job of fleshing each of them out whilst still maintaining enough screen time for the returning faces. We get a few sub plots throughout this season but the thing that makes Season 3 stand out is its splintered focus between The Governor and Rick’s group. Last year there were some real pacing issues and some of this came as a result of spending so much time with characters where very little was happening. Thankfully, this isn’t the case this year and with the focus shifting between groups, its used cleverly to keep the action and tension high throughout. The Governor himself is also an endearing character and one that really lives up to the expectations set out from the comic book which helps to elevate this season to the best in the show’s history.

With an increased focus on intensity, action and a coherent story featuring another group and the charismatic Governor character, Season 3 of The Walking Dead bounces back from its lacklustre season last year to deliver a brilliantly written, well paced story. Its action packed with an increased focus on more zombies and the story line revolving around the Governor is gripping enough to do the comic book its based on justice. It certainly bodes well for a fourth Season but it’s hard to say how it will top this.