Some Thoughts on AMC's "The Walking Dead" Season 3

- by Señor Editor, 26 November 2012

As you may already know, I am quite a fan of "The Walking Dead" comicbook. What you may not know, though, is that I also watch the show regularly. Even if I don’t like it nearly as much as I like the comics. With yesterday’s episode, it seems things are finally heating up, and the conflict with Woodbury and the Governor is unavoidable. I figured this may be a good time to see how this chapter of the story was potrayed in the show thus far.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these sad fanboys that just want to see every adaptation of what they liked done without anything differing from the source material. I’m not sitting at home, yelling at the tv “THIS IS NOT HOW IT HAPPENED IN THE COMIC!!!!>:-(((”. I’m all for the show having a different take on the story, adding new stuff, changing things etc. Even if some of the changes they make are remarkably pointless and seem to not work at all. But that's another story.

The whole Woodbury/Prison saga is one of the most well know and liked parts of the comicbook story. In the show it starts differently, with Andrea and Michonne separated from the group, finding the crashed chopper and a team of Woodbury scalpers. Since the show's story differs so much from the comic's, let's take a look at the standout moments of this season and discuss them one by one. Also, there are some SPOILERS for both the show and the comic (a few years old spoilers, in the case of the comic, going up to something like issue #60).

Rara Reerooreereeroo Rara Reerooreeroo ROOOWW.... (our interpretation of the theme song)

ANDREA (AND MICHONNE)

By separating her from the group, Andrea has been put right in the middle of this whole Woodbury thing. In the show Dale died early on, so she's not by his side in the prison, instead she's relying on Michonne and getting easily convinced that the Governor is a good guy and there's nothing suspicious at all about the way he runs things. Oh, Andrea... I have to say, she's one of my favorite characters and I'm not a fan of how naive the show made her lately. She's quick to distrust Michonne, who kept her alive for the whole winter (a winter that the show skipped entirely, by the way - what, you mean to tell me nothing happened during these months of the zombie apocalypse? Hershel just grew a beard and Lori's pregnancy advanced and that was it? You take forever to kill off Shane but fast forward an entire season?) and dismiss her as a paranoid nutso. Well, Michonne is kind of a nutso, but who isn't in this world? Andrea falls for the obviously creepy Governor, who she doesn't know anything about, and with the last episode it seems she's more and more loyal to him. It weakens the character a bit in my opinion. It was way too easy for her to suddenly adapt to the carefree, utopian ways of Woodbury and fall for the charming creep just undermines her as a strong character, in my eyes. Maybe they have something planned for her though that will put her on the path to becoming the type of badass that the Andrea we know from the comic is. Michonne, though, is pretty much perfect in this show so far.

Michonne and Andrea. Beheadings and headshots.

THE GOVERNOR

Well, David Morrissey was a strange choice. Not a bad one, mind you, but certainly this is a completely different Governor than the one we knew in the comics. Last episode also shows us he's just a little less of a rapist, which is definitely fortunate for Maggie (another change from the comic, since it happened to a different character there). This Governor, while he still has walker heads in his apartment and the little zombie daughter he loves so much, is a real ladies man, apparently. He's not quite as insane as the comic version, either. He is nuts and we hate him, but him being the Big Bad Man is undercut by Merle being around (the Dixon brothers are exclusive to the TV show, which at least makes up a little bit for some interesting characters that are missing) and playing Big Bad Man #2. He also didn't get a chance to remove any limbs from anybody (or lose any of his own), but the next episode, the mid-season finale, may change that (by the way: I absolutely hate "mid-season finales". I want to watch the whole season, just like it happens with HBO shows, not wait many months to see you crank out another 7 or so episodes).

Actually the Governors look very much alike if you squint and rub chili peppers in your eyes. Try it at home!

LORI AND THE BABY

Lori dying so fast was one change that I really didn't mind, because she was the most annoying member of the cast and Sarah Wayne Callies' acting was just terrible. She wasn't nearly as annoying in the book, hell, I liked Lori in some issues. It was more sad when she died in the comic. Her death scene in the show seemed so over-acted and long... Ugh! Just die, Lori. What DID change, though, was that the newborn baby didn't die along with Lori (like it happened in the comic, although a few months after the birth). I'm wondering whether Judith will be around for longer than just the prison period or will she get shot sometime soon, because let's be honest, it's not a good time to be having babies.

After annoying everybody for 2 seasons, Lori double-traumatizes Carl, first by giving birth right in front of him, then by dying.

PHONE IS RINGING. OH MY GOD.*

Including the whole phone thing in the show so early on was one of the dumbest choices the show made, I thought. There was no good build up for that! In the comic it took place well later on, after many more dead bodies, mutilation, a high fever and plenty of reasons for a man to be losing his mind. Here, Lori dies and Rick goes off to be crazy. The build up wasn't there and the execution was pretty bad, too. Comicbook Rick is a way more interesting and likable character in general, and the way things were handled there, the phone call was one of the coolest ideas and a great way to show what a toll all of the recent events took on him, psychologically. Here it comes a bit out of nowhere. Okay, Lori is dead, but that was just one thing that pushed him straight into insanity, without ANY build up, while in the comic it was much more subtle, you were wondering how much more can he take, then they'd have to leave the prison, and then the phone call happened, and THEN you found out the phone isn't even plugged and Rick is losing his f*#%ing mind. That was good. They kind of wasted the whole phone idea here.

"Hello? Sir? Is your refridgerator running?"

ALSO IN THE PRISON...

Well, Hershel, since we have a smaller cast than the comicbook, it looks like it's your leg that we're gonna cut off. Not to worry though, because since we have a smaller cast than the comicbook, you won't be dying from it. Other than that, since there is no Tyreese yet, nor his daughter and her boyfriend, there won't be anybody commiting suicides and piling on the drama for now. And since there are less kids here, the chances are none of the prisoners will be exposed as crazed child killers/face stabbers (but if one of them will be doing that, my money is on the white, agreeable one). The prisoners didn't get fleshed out at all since they appeared a few episodes back, though, so maybe it's coming and something will be done with them amidst all the problems with Woodbury. Also, T-Dog's dead but he didn't do anything, really, so I don't think there's a legion of T-Dog fans vowing to never watch the show again.

* You get 10 Trash Mutant points if you got the reference and know where this quote comes from.

What are your thoughts on some of the plot threads from this season? What did you enjoy the most? What did you think was handled poorly? Let us know in the comments!

Tagged: movies & tv.

blog comments powered by Disqus

---

Follow @TrashMutant