The Walking Dead, Episode 3.10: "Home"

It's amazing how the last five minutes of tonight's episode went a long way towards changing my impression of this week's episode. Prior to then, we had a lot of conflict-driven drama, but nothing really new or inspired… as if we were stalling for time again. For example, we had more of Rick's wacky visions this week… on one hand, I like Rick's talk with Hershel, where he tried to snap Rick out of it; however, Rick's "I'm not finished" response didn't inspire much confidence as to resolving it soon. We also got Merle and Daryl battling it out about whether to go back to the prison or not, where the anger that Merle's been building up since Season 1 bursts out. (But at least, we got that impressive bridge set piece in the meantime.) Although I didn't get the hokiness of splitting the brothers up if they were going to show up at the prison together. (But then again, did you want to keep either Daryl or Merle away from the main action? Nah…)

But what made that final action sequence great was not only how everyone came together to combat the Governor's Truck Full O' Walkers, but how it managed to knock Rick out of his visions, and brought Merle and Daryl into the prison fold - much more quickly than I had anticipated, mind you. My only question is: I wonder how long we'll go between last night's invasion trial run (as Robert Kirkman described it in tonight's Talking Dead) and the real assault.

I did like the enhanced focus on Glen tonight: the Glen/Maggie aftermath was to be expected, but I liked Glen's attempt to step up and become a leader in the wake of the loss of Daryl (and the loss of Rick's mind). On the other hand, the enhanced focus on Axel the inmate backfired… I should've seen that coming. (It also didn't help that Carol decided to use Axel's corpse as a barrier during the gunfire. Poor Axel!)

Meanwhile, in Woodbury, the Governor does some additional preparations for invading the prison, by trying to sway Andrea to step up as a leader of town… while at the same time putting Milton on Andrea Watch, because he "doesn't know where her loyalties lie". And, given how the show's trying to get all the action back to the prison - as hinted by bringing the Dixon brothers back in the gates - Andrea's going to make it over to the prison sooner than later.

Random notes:

• For those keeping track at home, Lori has appeared alive in 4 episodes this season, and dead in 3 episodes - her appearances this week and last, plus the phone episode. I will be impressed if Sarah Wayne Calles manages to show up in the vast majority of this season's episodes without actually being alive. :-)
• Ooh, Chris Hardwick didn't do tonight's hash tag segment! I know these bits caused lots of anger among the Internet commentariat, because of how his loud excitement soured some otherwise-effective act breaks. (Per his words on tonight's Talking Dead, he was called "worse than Hitler!") Oh well… good luck delivering those hashtags, AMC Announcer Guy!
• Tonight's movie trailers: Dead Man Down, THREE (!!!) commercials for Dark Skies, The Last Exorcism Part II,  Snitch, and 21 and Over.
• Tonight's kill count: An insanely high count tonight: 31 walkers, 12 of which were killed by Daryl. Plus, we lost 2 humans: Axel and the shooter in the guard tower.
• Kill of the night: The hatchback. No contest. Combined with the headslam-to-the-window and the (after-the-fact) headsmash-by-tire, I've gotta wonder how many more denouements-by-automobile we could've had in that segment!
• Tonight on Talking Dead: Special guests Robert Kirkman, True Blood's Alcide, Joe Mangianello (whose fandom of the graphic novel we can credit to SNL's Taran Kiliam!), and surprise guest Lew Temple, a.k.a. Axel himself… who demonstrated that his mustache was epically real. :-)
• Next week: The Walking Dead goes up against the Oscars… in a perfect world, the death reels for the Oscars and the Talking Dead episode will air simultaneously. ;-) Here's AMC's clip from the Story Sync feed:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.09: "The Suicide King"

After two months off, The Walking Dead returned tonight to kick off the final eight episodes of the third season. It's been an eventful, yet bizarre break, earmarked by two significant off-screen developments. First, bolstered by what's widely considered by fans and critics to be the best run of episodes in the show's history, the first half of Season 3 managed to become the fall's top-rated series among the crucial 18-to-49 ratings demo… even beating every program on the major networks. That's no small feat, and a major achievement for a basic cable series (or a sign that the Big 4 networks are heading down the crapper). But, the other big development during the break, which conveniently occurred right before Christmas, was that AMC had ousted showrunner Glen Mazzara, who took over the show after Frank Darabont's high-profile firing in the middle of Season 2. Given that Season 3, which has been fully under Mazzara's control, has been well-received to date, people have wondered what the heck's going on over at AMC, whether it be budget-consciousness, the network's rumored distaste for upcoming plot lines, or the need to continue shelling out big bucks to pay for Mad Men. No matter what, it's also the kind of development that I tend to try and see in the show itself… trying to find any evidence in the episodes themselves to help infer the off-screen drama… while at the same time fearing that the back half of Season 3 will end up being disappointing in any way.

Now, it's very possible that tonight's midseason premiere, "The Suicide King", might be a little bit uneventful for some viewers. But, from a macro perspective, this episode is all about moving characters around on The Walking Dead's chessboard, and setting up new interpersonal conflicts to help fuel the rest of the season. Let's start with the major event that ended the fall run: the long-awaited reunion of Daryl and Merle, whom the Governor has pitted against each other in a zombie-assisted Fight To The Death for all of Woodbury to see. Of course, the show isn't going to kill off a character in that fashion… which is why the sight of Rick and Maggie infiltrating the Woodbury Makeshift Colosseum and facilitating their escape is good to see. (If nothing else, it provided that shot of Daryl retrieving his bow and arrow in true bad-ass form.) And even though they get away, the cold opening closes with that kind of look on the Governor that emanates that type of "Everything's going according to plan" vibe.

Except it doesn't exactly go to plan. When the crew reunites with Glen and Michonne at the heroes' beloved Honda, a standoff for the ages occurs when Glen sees his captor Merle along with his group mates. As you can imagine, Merle isn't exactly welcomed back with open arms… as evidenced by the half-dozen "Shut up, Merle!" utterances and Rick ultimately knocking Merle unconscious. As much as the Guv would hope that Merle would integrate into the group and infiltrate the prison, Rick's not the welcoming type… which leads to Daryl leaving the group in order to be with his brother. It's intriguing, but in character: Daryl had long been looking for his brother, and as Carol puts it later in the episode, he's got a code to adhere by.

Speaking of welcome wagons, let's talk about Tyreese and his gang, who are still shoved aside in the cafeteria while they wait for Rick to come back and decide their ultimate status at the prison. As they prepare to bury Donna, the deceased group member from the midseason finale, there's talk of taking Carl and Carol down at the prison gate and taking over the prison… but Tyreese isn't going to do anything to upset the apple cart. Of course, Rick's touchy all throughout this episode: he's reluctant to speak to them initially, and at episode's end, he shuts Tyreese's pleas down, too. As Hershel says, "You're wrong on this. You've got to start giving people a chance." I appreciate the show's brief attempts to flesh out Tyreese's group, rather than depicting them solely as outsiders to our core group. Yes, we might be hitting some of the same beats that we've seen over the past two-and-a-half-years - namely, that each group is suspicious of the other - but it bodes well for how they'll be treated over these next seven episodes… if they stick around that long.

Also short on words tonight: The Governor, who's secluded himself in his apartment after the Woodbury firefight and the episode-opening invasion. Woodbury's citizens have formed an angry mob in response, and a number of people have packed up, wanting out of Woodbury's gates… and that's before the biters show up. You see, as Rick and the others escaped from town, some walkers managed to get in via an opening in the fence… leading to the seventh Woodbury casualty thus far. Andrea pleads with the Governor to get out there and lead again, but he's giving up to an extent, willing to let Woodbury fight for themselves instead of sheltering them in the creature comforts of a world gone by. Ultimately, Andrea takes it upon herself to give an Inspiring Speech to unite the team again, with the Governor watching from a distance.


With all the reuniting going on tonight, it only made sense for a lot of "reconnection"-type dramatic scenes… and the episode didn't skimp on that - the Beth/Carol scene (where Beth has emerged as a surrogate mother of sorts in the wake of Lori's death), the scene where Hershel tells Glen that he's like a son to him, and the quick acknowledgement of the loss of Oscar, who "went out like a fighter"! It's evident of the shifting roles and responsibilities of the group.

But the most interesting development tonight is Rick's further descent into insanity, exemplified not only by Rick's blanking out while holding Li'l Asskicker Grimes in his hands, but by the haunting vision of Lori - flowing white dress and all - while talking to Tyreese, which causes him to Lose His Shit and scare everyone off. This is the third episode out of the past four where Rick's had a bizarre moment - following his telephone conversations with dead people in "Hounded" and his firefight vision of Shane in "Made to Suffer", and I'm wondering what the endgame of this all is, not to mention how they'll continue to stretch this out over the last half of the season. Oddly enough, the two halves of the show - Woodbury and the prison - have now led to essentially, the same overall arc, with their respective leaders crumbling under the pressures and the overwhelming hopelessness. The big thing, then, is how Rick and the Governor handle the situation from here on out… and from a human drama perspective, I'm excited by this prospect the more I think about it.

Random notes:

• Tonight's director: Lesli Linka Glatter, a prolific TV director who's helmed many episodes of ER, The West Wing, and Mad Men. Her major film credit: 1995's adolescent comedy-drama Now and Then.
• Tonight's kill count: 16 walker kills, distributed nicely across the cast of characters. Maggie and Woodbury's own Martinez. But I think we can all agree that Glen's face-stomp of the pickup zombie was tonight's highlight. :-)
• Tonight's movie TV spots: G.I. Joe: Retaliation (which will hopefully be released next month), Warm Bodies (well, of course), Snitch (two Dwayne Johnson movie ads!), A Good Day to Die Hard (two Bruce Willis movie ads, too!), The Last Exorcism Part II (does that title even make sense?), Dark Skies, Beautiful Creatures, and Tuesday's Blu-ray release of Skyfall.
• I don't know if you noticed tonight, but tonight's episode of The Walking Dead netted its first TV-MA rating. The show's violence has often seemed more grisly than its TV-14 rating would allow… which incurred the wrath of the PTC during the two-month break. Oddly enough, I didn't really consider this to be a really violent episode… there's been worse, believe you me.
• Do you love those AMC reality shows? Well, you're getting a whole night of them now! (What, AMC wasn't willing to show four consecutive nights of Happy Gilmore instead of three? Boo!) But the lead-in to that lineup is intriguing: AMC will be replaying old episodes of The Walking Dead in black-and-white, in line with the graphic novel, starting this Thursday with the first two episodes. I know I'm setting my DVR, out of curiosity.
• Tonight on Talking Dead: It's an entire hour, with Hardwick, Steven Yeun, and fellow AMC employee Kevin Smith! It's certainly more leisurely… maybe a bit too much for my liking. But, I'm hopeful that they'll fill out the hour more thoroughly as time goes by.
• Along those lines: On March 7th, selected movie theaters will be showing the February 5th PaleyFest panel discussion on the show, also moderated by Chris Hardwick.
• I don't know about you, but I bet the United States Postal Service would recoup a large chunk of their losses if they'd start selling Li'l Asskicker letter tray cradles. ;-)
• Next week's AMC-supplied preview:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.08: "Made to Suffer"

Now this was a midseason finale. Penned by The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman himself, tonight's episode was action-packed, taut and tight, with many plot elements coming to a head - not to mention gobs of ripe potential for the second half of Season 3. It's a fine way to cap off what might be the show's strongest half-season yet.

The episode begins somewhat audaciously, at least within the scope of a TV finale: by adding in an entirely new group of survivors, led by Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman, whom you may know best as Cutty from The Wire) and Sasha. I immediately got a Lost Season 2 vibe, when that series introduced the Tailies (Ana Lucia, Libby and Mr. Eko, among others)… if I had to give a name to Tyreese's crew, it would have to be "The Shovels" (after their weapon of choice). To the show's credit, they tried to give as much semblance to the idea that their adventures have carried just as much drama as Rick's Gang. And in that cold open, we get just enough plot potential for the Shovels: one of their own has been bitten, and they've just so happened to find the prison, which was presented in a wondrous wide shot of them entering the damaged wreckage of one of the prison cell blocks.

Once they get deeper into the prison, the show makes an intriguing, yet effective choice, in having Carl be the chief representative of our group. It's Carl that goes in after the Shovels once the screams start, who goes in and takes down a walker to help the Shovels escape their latest attack. And when Carl brings them into the block, he's the one who's adamant that they take their wounded member out… and given Tyreese's instrument of choice, I shall refer to this primarily as "Hammer Time". Finally, it's Carl who locks them up in the cell block. It's a stunning display of leadership and courage… and it's a testament to how the writers have managed to plausibly and effectively develop Carl these past eight episodes.

Tonight was also strong in the payoff department, as a number of the Governor's secrets were finally exposed… or, at least, to our main characters, that is. As soon as the Governor decided to sing a lullaby to his beloved zombie daughter, a part of me started hoping, "Please let this be the second consecutive mid-season finale in which a little walker girl dies!" And, as luck would have it, we got just that, as Michonne discovered the Governor's Secret Room of Heads in Fish Tanks… and ultimately, little Penny. Let's give credit where credit was due: that extended fight between Michonne and the Governor was twelve kinds of awesome, wasn't it? First, there's the way it started - with Michonne sliding her katana through Penny's mouth, invoking the Guv'ner's rage. Then, there was the Guv slamming Michonne's head into one of the fish tanks… causing the undead walker heads to roll around during the face-off. And then, Michonne was nice enough to slam that shard of glass in the Governor's right eye (which, let's face it, didn't seem to be affecting the Governor much by episode's end). And then, just as Michonne's about to finish the Guv off, here comes Andrea who pulls out her gun, sees Michonne off… and then views the zombie heads and Penny in full view. That sheer combination of revelations and unbridled rage was a tremendous and efficient way for this show to Get. Things. Done. Let's watch some of that scene again, shall we?



Of course, for Michonne to have her fun time at the Governor's apartment, that meant she had to disband with Rick and the gang as they worked to get Glen and Maggie out of Woodbury. I did appreciate how the show didn't dawdle around: by the beginning of the third segment, there's Rick tossing out smoke bombs and extracting the couple from Team Merle. (Not only that, but we got to see Glen and Maggie wield some nice bone shivs, too!) This leads to an epic firefight in the streets of Woodbury - a bit of a surprise, in that the show's major action sequences tonight had very little to do with zombies altogether. The one awkward misstep was how the show worked overtime to prevent Andrea from recognizing Rick, Daryl, et al… by having the Governor keep her from helping shoot 'em down, from obscuring most of them during the smoke-filled firefight (save for the Token Prisoner, who unpredictably got bumped off during the shootout), and by holding the revelation of any familiar face (Michonne excepted) until the final scene, in which the Governor reunites Merle with the captured Daryl in front of the Woodbury community. (The Governor was quite apt to throw out the T-word - "terrorists!" - when describing Rick's infiltration tonight.)

(And, within said firefight, as Rick was hiding behind some handy-dandy solar panels, we were treated to none other than a hallucination of Shane! To be honest, I was surprised to see him show up, because (a) he was conspicuously absent from the Dead Phone Caller episode two weeks ago, and (b) he famously defected to Frank Darabont's new TNT series, L.A. Noir. Still, it was a nice treat… and in epic shotgun-wielding slow-motion, nonetheless.)

So where do we go from here? Well, having our two bands of survivors should lead to more interesting face-offs, especially once Team Rick makes it back to the prison… when they're not rushing to prevent the Woodbury army from invading the prison and taking them out. And, of course, there's the dubious fate of Merle and Daryl, who are finally reunited (but not feeling so good). Sure, the crowd says, "Kill 'em!", but there's no way that we're getting rid of our beloved Dixon brothers anytime soon. But now begins the hard part: waiting for all this to resolve itself. Like last year, AMC is taking an extended midseason break, and won't bring the show back until after the Super Bowl… which means we won't see the next episode until February 10th. With that in mind, thank you very much for reading our Walking Dead Season 3 coverage thus far… and we'll see you in 2013!

Random notes:

• Tonight's director: Billy Gierhart, who directed the second episode of this season, "Sick".
• Tonight's kill count: 5 humans and 13 walkers… and in his first episode, Tyreese notches top honors, with 5 walkers slayed!
• Tonight's movie TV spots: We got oodles of previews tonight: Zero Dark Thirty, The Hobbit, Texas Chainsaw 3D, Django Unchained, Warm Bodies, Jack Reacher, The Last Stand, and Mama.
• After 27 episodes, I've gotta say that the opening title sequence and theme is still one of my current TV favorites. Can you think of any other show opening that tops it… in the sense that you'll actually sit through it every episode instead of skipping past it on your DVR? I sure can't.
• Last week, we were treated to those wacky Freakshow promos… and now, AMC is blessing us with Immortalized, a reality TV series all about taxidermy. Wow, they're really going to the bizarro well… and given the network's newly strengthened commitment to reality television (including a dedicated Thursday-night all-reality lineup), this is only going to get worse. But if this is what it takes to bankroll future seasons of AMC's scripted shows, so be it…
• So, Kevin Smith got Stan Lee to show up on Comic Book Men, eh? As overexposed as Stan seems to be these days, at least Kevin Smith has a well-documented history with the man.
• So you're not a lesbian, Carol? But you got the short hair! My, my… this is interesting!
• If you're so inclined, AMC advertised a Walking Dead marathon on New Year's Even and New Year's Day, which will include all 27 episodes thus far. We'll probably get an extended preview of Season 3.5 sometime during then… at least that's my guess.
• As mentioned on tonight's Talking Dead, the Chris Hardwick talk show series will directly follow the premiere airing of each week's Walking Dead episode when it returns on February 10th. In addition, Talking Dead will now be extended to a full hour each week. Exciting, eh?
• Next time: Here's a brief, and largely inconsequential, scene from episode 9, which takes place immediately after tonight's final scene:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.07: "When the Dead Come Knocking"

Since I'm still recouperating from the long Thanksgiving weekend, I'll keep my remarks brief tonight… and to be quite honest, I don't have much profound stuff to write about, because this was very much a setup episode for next week's Woodbury action extravaganza. When even the inevitable Rick-versus-Michonne face-off takes a backseat to the quest to find Glen and Maggie, you know we're in too deep to slow down.

With the very first scene of the episode - the "Merle interrogates/tortures Glen" setup - I was afraid that this whole thread tonight was going to be kind of rote… and I say that having watched 8 seasons of extravagant torture as a 24 fan. :-) But then, here comes Merle later on, tossing a walker into Glen's room with Glen duct-taped to a wooden chair… and I was enthralled. That's the beauty of a show like The Walking Dead: that its writers can take old tropes and infuse them with a unique zombie-laced mentality. As for the Governor's strip-based torture of Maggie, as disturbing a scene as it was, I probably should've been more creeped out than I was… but that's because I was too distracted by the blatant continuity error involving Maggie's bra straps. (Seriously, how that made it past post-production, I don't know…)

Back to Rick versus Michonne: This could've been an entire episode's worth of juicy story material, and I had almost expected it to be that way. But, with Maggie and Glen in danger, the show had to work to distill pretty much every "Can we trust her?" bit that the show's flung at us the past two-and-a-half seasons into as the first third of the episode. At least we got that initial scene of Michonne proving her skills to Rick… even though, just like the Governor, Rick had to deprive Michonne of her sweet, sweet sword. The Hyundai-sponsored trip to Woodbury felt a little bit like filler, especially the trip to Token Old Guy's Random House In The Woods. But I guess they had to pad it out, just so that they could tease us with the shots of Rick and Company hiding just outside the Woodbury patrol wall.

The science experiment sidebar, in which Milton (with Andrea's help) attempts to see if a person retains their human memories after turning into a walker, was intriguing (in that Lost-like mysterious way). But I loved how it quickly turned into a way to flesh out Milton, who, as we found out, hasn't really had that much exposure to walkers to begin with… and whom certainly got a taste of it when Andrea saved his butt. Even if it wasn't much of a revelation, it was still nice to burrow into the inner mechanisms of a walker, albeit briefly. (And it saved us from another episode full of Andrea/Governor lovey-dovey stuff… so that's a plus!)

And now, we wait for next week's big midseason finale, which I can only assume will be a big action-fest like Season 2's "the farm goes down" season-ending extravaganza. If nothing else, we've got a pretty clear plan of action, so hopefully AMC will break the piggybank to let us see Woodbury turn to toast. :-) See you then!

Random notes:

• Tonight's director: Longtime TV director Daniel Sackheim, who made his Walking Dead debut this week. His credits include early episodes of Law & Order and The X-Files. He has no film directing credits to his name, although he has a producer credit on the first X-Files movie.
• Tonight's kill count: 1 human, 15 walkers. Rick won tonight with 7 walkers to his name.
• Kill of the night: I'm going to have to give it to Andrea's takedown of Mr. Coleman. That was insanely swift… and a fun way to cap that plot.
• Tonight's movie ads: Django Unchained, The Expendables 2 on Blu-ray, Jack Reacher, and Zero Dark Thirty.
• So, umm, Freakshow, huh? Way to stay classy, AMC. And here I thought that they couldn't get any more bizarre than Small Town Security…
• I'd like to have Merle bake a cake for me… with pink frosting! That machete arm would come in pretty handy in the kitchen (pun not intended).
• As brief and rushed as it was, it was beneficial to get a good Rick/Carl scene before Rick took off to Woodbury… complete with the naming of our newest Grimes, Judith. The Rick/Carol reunion was a nice touch, too.
• Rick and Carl should've listened to Daryl: I personally think "Ass-Kicker Grimes" would've been a great baby name.
• I loved the wide shot of Rick's vehicle driving away as Carl, Hershel, and the others watch them depart. Yay for striking camera angles!
• Next week: Here's a casting spoiler for next week's midseason finale. And below, you'll find your AMC-sanctioned preview clip!

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.06: "Hounded"

Believe it or not, there are only two episodes of The Walking Dead left in 2012. That can only mean one thing: the show has to start heading toward a mid-season endgame to help wrap things up (and provide fuel for the second half of Season 3). Last year, you'll recall, the endgame ultimately centered around the Barn Full O' Walkers, which ended up circling around to Sophia's disappearance. For Season 3, the basic endgame is simple: the prison and Woodbury groups have to converge in some fashion, with the likelihood that the second half of the season will focus on having all our characters together, duking it out for power and so forth. In that sense, this week's episode of The Walking Dead, "Hounded", started laying the groundwork to unite the show's two halves, and that alone makes me very excited to see how the next two weeks play out. Granted, it took us the majority of the episode to get to that point (and until then, the episode's scattered nature was a bit reminiscent of last week)… but we can still be optimistic!

Let's begin with the evening's biggest slap-your-forehead moment: As soon as Maggie and Glen got out of the vehicle at Baby Formula Central and smooched, you probably screamed at the TV, "Well, they're screwed!" And as luck would have it, there's Merle right there, to provide some convenient conflict and to capture the couple. However, I'm afraid that if it wasn't Merle that showed up, I'd be even more upset… but again, this scene is important to dovetailing the two main threads. And it set up the even cooler payoff in the final scene, in which Michonne (formula in hand!) walks up to the prison fence and sees Rick. (It served as a great final payoff for Michonne being covered in guts, and her eventual discovery that they camouflaged her scent.)

Before I get too far into tonight's write-up, I have to give some appreciation for Michael Rooker's presence this season. As great as Michonne and the Governor have been to watch in this season thus far, there's something so gleefully enjoyable about Rooker's sleazy performance… and the fact that he has A BAYONET FOR A HAND only serve to catapult him into the "Iconic TV Character" stratosphere. And fortunately, since the Governor was too busy trying to bed Andrea last night, Merle got to take center stage… first in the hunt for Michonne, then with the "we ain't gonna let them turn" head stabs of the other deceased team members and the swift takedown of Cargulio (or, as Merle calls him, "the other guy"), and finally with the capturing of Glen and Maggie. (Speaking of the Governor… well, at least they got the hook-up part out of the way. The show's been telegraphing their inevitable couple-ness for several episodes now. Now, to wait until Andrea has to - again - decide between the comfort of Woodbury and the Guv'ner or the fun world of fightin' walkers!)

And then there's Rick's wacky vision quest, or however you want to call it… which, I'll admit, I wasn't too keen on. You'd think that suspension of disbelief wouldn't matter much on a series revolving around the zombie apocalypse… but when the "It's me, Lori!" reveal came, I couldn't help but feel like it was a misstep… which was a shame, because up until that point, I liked the sadness and desperation in Andrew Lincoln's acting work, especially during the first phone call and his "We're dying here" speech. At least everything was contained to voiceovers, and not Actual Magical Visions of Dead People. (And if we're going to bring back former cast members for audio cameos… why not Shane? Or was he being spited for sticking with Team Darabont?)

And in the midst of all of this, there was plenty of room for some minor moments: the scene where Hershel consoles Rick in the boiler room; the mesmerizing single-take scene between Daryl and Carl in the hallways (brought to you by Virginia Slims!); and the powerful reunion of Daryl and Carol. Let's give credit for not dragging our Carol's disappearance like they did Sophia's… that would've been a rote mid-season capper! But what wonders will next week bring us, what with all the wonderful new character combinations? I'm a bit afraid that we won't get much done, simply because we'll be having too much fun having Michonne and Rick face off, or Glen and Maggie versus the Governor. But again, we've only got two episodes before a 2-month break, so let's hope for an all-around exciting hour!

Random notes:

• Tonight's director: Dan Attias, who's served as a veteran TV director for over 25 years, and who's been a major director of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Big Love. This is Attias' first episode of The Walking Dead; however, he does have some horror experience: his only feature film to date is 1985's Stephen King's Silver Bullet.
• Tonight's kill count: 3 humans and 5 walkers. Michonne leads the chart, with 1 walker and 2 humans.
• Tonight's movie promos: Red Dawn 2K12, Killing Them Softly, Hitchcock, and This is 40.
• Norman Reedus' Zombie Apocalypse Playlist:
• Motorhead - "In the Year of the Wolf"
• Sonic Youth - "Dirty Boots"
• Minor Threat - "Filler"
• Neil Young - "Rockin' in the Free World"
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Simple Man"
• Iggy Pop - "The Passenger"
• Shall we prepare for a shocking rise in biter-grams nationwide after this week's show?
• I could sure use some flannel slippers… you know, for the end of the day! And relaxin'!
• Next week: Here's a clip that picks up right where we left off last night… Enjoy!

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.05: "Say the Word"

After last week's high-mark episode, I was a bit prepared for a bit of an emotional cool down. After all, in episodic television, series cannot and do not stay at a fever pitch… it's just not sensible. But, what baffled me about tonight's episode was that it was, surprisingly, not focused. Instead, it chose to meander through a number of separate and somewhat minor plot threads. But, when you toss out this week's major revelation in the cold open - that the Governor still harbors his undead daughter, Penny - and you end the hour with a bit of an anti-climactic reveal - that The Episode's Big Secret is essentially a zombie-tinged gladiator match starring Merle - you can't help but be a bit disappointed.

But if nothing else, we at least got some movement on the one plot element that started to drag - the "Shall we go?"/"Shall we stay?" tug-of-war between Andrea and Michonne. Now that Michonne has actually left - with her sword! - the Woodbury civility that's held her back can be shed, and we can actually see her more in her element…. which we got to see a bit of in the enjoyable "target practice" scene, in which Michonne slices and dices her way through the walkers for the night's wrestling festivities. (That scene must've eaten up a good chunk of the show's CGI budget… or maybe AMC's willing to loosen up the purse strings, now that The Walking Dead is getting better ratings than most network series.) Heck, let's watch that scene again!



Oh, and then there's the zombie gladiator stuff… which merits a little bit of fun, if only to see Michael Rooker kicking ass, which is pretty cool. (As was Merle's bayonet-hand-stab-to-the-head in the earlier scene when he and his crew went to collect some new recruits for the fight.) Still, it's a little nonsensical, as Andrea rightly calls the Guv'ner out on… despite the intimate relationship play that he's trying to pull.

Meanwhile, over at Le Prison, the order of the day is to get some formula for the baby. It's a relatively straightforward B-plot, as Maggie and Daryl - ahem, make that PONCHO DARYL!!! - raid an abandoned daycare and come across their biggest enemy to date… a possum! Okay, that's an exaggeration… but still, not much tension tonight. We also learned, via Carl, that his baby sister has no name as of yet, although the first name of every dead or missing female to date is up for consideration. Shall we start placing bets on which one will be selected?

And then, there's Rick and his post-shock quest to find Lori's body… or something. This is a hard plot thread to gauge, if only because there's no real focus to it, outside of the primal, scattered, and emotional state of Rick… which leads to some gone-bananas slaying in the prison corridors, a tense scene with Glen (who tries to reason with Rick), and a head-shot/stomach-stabbing of a gorging walker in the ill-fated boiler room. Ending it with an out-of-the-blue phone call that seemed straight out of the Lost playbook didn't help matters, either. Hopefully, next week will provide a good payoff for that… and maybe a more cohesive episode as well.

Random notes:

• This week's director: It's none other than Greg Nicotero, the key mastermind behind the show's makeup effects. This is his second episode at the helm… and in addition, he's directed both series of Walking Dead webisodes, Season 2's "Torn Apart" and Season 3's "Cold Storage".
• Tonight's kill count: No humans (whew!) and 12-plus walkers, 6 of which were taken out by Michonne.
• Tonight's kill of the night: Definitely Michonne's head stomping… further proving that she doesn't need her sword to kick some butt!
• Just a heads-up: Next week's write-up might be posted later in the evening than usual (or, worst-case scenario, Monday night), due to personal obligations. But something will be posted eventually! With that in mind, here's the preview clip for next week:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.04: "Killer Within"

Last night, I was with my college-aged brother and a couple of his buddies, and The Walking Dead came up in conversation. One of said buddies asked, "Did you watch last week's episode?" "Yeah," I said. "I thought it was pretty cool." He responded, "It sucked! There were, like, only 5 zombies in the entire episode!" Now, granted, not every episode can have zombie fun… after all, this is as much a survival drama as it is a horror showcase. Nonetheless, here's an episode that works very, very hard to bring walkers back into play, by way of destroying the peace and security of our wonderful prison… not to mention the very structure of our group. But we'll get to that last part later.

First, let's quickly backtrack to Woodbury, where we keep the suspicion vibe about the Governor going right where we left off, as Michonne finds bullet holes and blood on the newly acquired Army trucks. This leads to the first of several sweet-talking sequences from the Guv'ner tonight, as he tries to have a soldier like her stay on board. The major thread in Woodbury tonight, though, deals with Andrea providing Merle with information on Hershel's farm, in an effort to help Merle reunite with Daryl. This leads to a stellar conversation between the Governor and Merle, set against a makeshift driving range placed right on the town border. Merle asks permission to leave Woodbury to find Daryl.. and the Governor tries to instill doubt with every sentence he utters. I loved this scene because it's a true battle between the two most powerful men in the town… and yet Merle has very little pull against the Governor. Granted, the Governor offers his assistance if Merle can get some solid intel… but it plays off more like a stalling action than anything. Still, the show has set up the elements needed to help dovetail the two disparate halves of our show back together.

The prison occupies most of tonight's episode, thanks primarily to the walkers' human-assisted overrun of the grounds. The brief cold open sets up the chaos effectively: an unidentified person cuts the prison gate's chains loose, and lures walker in with a freshly-killed deer. When the walkers come crashing through the prison courtyard - and ultimately, in our heroes' cell block - suspicion immediately turns to the two prisoners left over from Episode 2, Axel and Oscar. After all, they can't stand the living conditions in the cell block that Rick has kept them to - seeing their fellow former prisoners as corpses is too disturbing to bear. But, Rick won't hear it - there's very little room for trust outside the gang. But, as it turns out, it was neither of them: it was actually Andrew, the prisoner that Rick had locked out and said, "You'd better run." Rick, Daryl and Oscar find him by the generators when they attempt to shut them down to shut off the blaring horns… but Andrew shoots down Oscar, and then gives up his gun, in a bold attempt to secure trust from Rick.

But that's not the only casualties tonight… not by a long shot. For starters, let's talk about T-Dog's unfortunate bite that he incurred during the opening walker attack. As T-Dog and Carol scurry around the corridors of the prison, the two find themselves surrounded by walkers… but T-Dog makes a heroic sacrifice and lets himself get chewed up by zombies in order to let Carol escape. Farewell, T-Dog… we shall miss you.

Meanwhile, Lori, Maggie and Carl, who are also scurrying around the corridors, encounter a perfectly-timed complication: Lori's going into labor! It's certainly a chaotic time for this to happen; fortunately, our trio camps out in the boiler room to bring the new baby into the world, despite not having Hershel around… or even Carol, who practiced on a corpse for this last week. Lori attempts to push… but blood comes out… and that's when the episode makes its tragic turn. Lori says she's not losing this baby, and that's why she asks Maggie to cut her open and get the baby out, even if it means she'll die in the process. And thus begins the devastating final act of the episode, as Maggie copes to make the incision. But when Lori says her final words to Carl - "You are going to beat this world!" - it's some of the most gut-wrenching work this show's ever produced.

But it's not just the tear-jerking content that makes this scene. After the cut is made, there's the haunting 15 seconds or so where Maggie has the newborn baby in her hands and the baby hasn't cried… for those few moments, you fear the worst has happened. But the baby's alive, and Maggie says they have to go… but Carl is adamant about finishing the job, lest she turn. The sheer sadness of the situation - "She's my mom", Carl says - combined with the cold, silent way Carl exits the boiler room after the gunshot - makes for a moment of television that only this show could accomplish. (The juxtaposition of Rick's talk with Carl - "No more kid stuff" - brings it all home.)

The final scene provides an oddly effective bookend to the episode, as the baby's cry silences Rick's commanding in the courtyard. For a moment, the peaceful quiet that we heard just prior to the start of the walker riot has returned… but at an immense cost. And to see a show like The Walking Dead kill off its characters in an uncompromisingly brutal fashion is affirming to the storytelling intentions of the series. Yes, it whittles down the cast quite a bit… but this is a show where every day is a matter of life or death, and those risks need to be reinforced in the storytelling. And for that, "Killer Within" earns its place as the best episode of the season thus far.

Random notes:

• Tonight's top kill: I thought Daryl's stab to the skull was going to be the winner… until it was followed mere seconds later by Glen's slicing of a skull in half like a cantaloupe!
• Tonight's director: Oddly enough, it's Guy Ferland, the same director from last week's episode. Rare is it where a director helms back-to-back episodes of a series (24 excepted), but here we are.
• Tonight's kill count: 3 humans, 24 walkers. Top killer: Rick, with 6+ walkers.
• Tonight's movie promos: Only a couple were shown tonight: Skyfall (An exclusive look at Javier Bardem's villain! Oooooh!), and the impressive-looking Hitchcock.
• Glen and Maggie, sitting in a prison watchtower… K-I-S-S-I-N-G...
• It was a cheesy effect, but I liked the editing of the Governor's final golf club hit leading directly into Rick's zombie head shot in the cell block.
• Another effective filmmaking effect in this episode: the reveal of the walkers in the prison when the camera rotates around Carl.
• FYI, we are halfway through the first half of Season 3. New episodes will air until December 2nd, and then the show will take a break until the week after the Super Bowl (just like last season).
• Next week: Glen and the prisoners be digging some graves, in this preview clip:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.03: "Walk with Me"

Tonight's installment of The Walking Dead is a bit gutsy for the show…and no, I'm not talking about the guts of that National Guard soldier who was split in half. This, the 19th episode of the series, is the first that doesn't feature the core pack of survivors at all. Instead, we get an entire hour with Andrea and Michonne, after the brief few moments with them in the season premiere. Now, a strong setup episode for this pairing would be plenty interesting in itself… but by stacking the introduction of The Governor and Woodbury on top of this, and by reintroducing Michael Rooker's beloved character Merle to the show in full force, this makes for a jam-packed episode that never flags.

The episode starts with a helicopter crash, which catches the eyes of Andrea and Michonne… but when they hop on over to check it out, they soon see the Governor and his cronies show up to evaluate the aftermath. Of the two soldiers in the helicopter, one solider's still relatively intact, and the other? Well… he's in halfsies, in an astonishingly gory shot. (Seriously, are there any limitations to the blood and guts that this show can get away with? TV-14-LV my patootie…) Before you know it, Team Woodbury takes out a few zombies at the crash site (Baseball bat to the skull for the win!)… and Michonne makes the ultimate sacrifice to keep her and Andrea alive: by decapitating her two 'pets'. (This scene quickly answered one of the burning questions I had for this season: How was AMC going to afford a season's worth of visual effects to remove Michonne's pets' arms? Yay, budget consciousness!)

Speaking of missing limbs: Merle's back!!! Just knowing that Michael Rooker is on board as a regular cast member this season is exciting enough for me… and his entrance during the crash site sequence with HIS BUTTKICKING STABBY BAYONET HAND made me just giddy! The episode makes the wise choice to give us some quality Merle time, as he delivers a nice soliloquy to the two ladies in the Woodbury infirmary. (We also get a fleeting shot of Merle's arm stump, to appease our taste for lost body parts.) Plus, Merle nets the quote of the night during his speech, when talking about who he can trust these days: "I think I'd piss my pants if some stranger come walking up with his mitts in his pockets!"

But as we soon find out, this man without a right hand is, in fact, the right-hand man for The Governor, whom fans have been eagerly waiting to see on the series. He's played on the show by David Morrissey, a frequent British TV actor (including The Red Riding Trilogy and the original UK version of State of Play), but who's also had some experience in assorted genre films, including Centurion, The Reaping and, most infamously, the male lead in 2006's Basic Instinct 2. (Remember that movie? That's a thing that happened!) Right away, he sets the tone for the character: a slick sweet-talker of a leader who's definitely up to no good. Sure, he's managed to put together a seemingly peaceful community where people can return to some sense of normalcy. But then again, he's not too keen on giving Andrea and Michonne back their weapons or letting them leave… and he's perfectly willing to take down 10 or so National Guardsmen to get their weapons, food, and supplies. Oh, and then there's that pesky secret lab, complete with Milton, the Reserved Yet Still Creepy Mad Scientist. (Note to self: Don't invite Milton to breakfast. How he turns grub time into a fact-finding mission is just off-putting!) And let's not forget the end-of-episode secret room, replete with 22 heads in tanks… including those of Michonne's pets and the captured soldier. (The Governor is just trying to put together his own version of Futurama, right? Right?)

Now, I should iterate that I'm not a reader of the comic… I'm going into this show cold, without any knowledge of what the Governor's ultimate plans are. (If you are a comic reader, though, be sure to scroll down to the very bottom of this post.) But with such a setup, of course there's going to be plenty of conflict in play… but right now, it's mostly between Andrea and Michonne. As of right now, Andrea is pretty fond of Woodbury, and the comfort it provides: After 8 months of wandering, the setting is relieving, to say the least. Michonne doesn't necessarily agree… after all, you really think you can keep her away from her beloved sword? There's a little bit of conflict between the Governor and Andrea in that final scene, as she quickly learns that the Governor's not one to let his guard down, even to reveal his real name. Give it time, though, and this will certainly blossom into something much more intimidating.

But in the end, the great thing about tonight's episode is that it means we're going to have two strong sets of stories/settings to switch between, in the prison and Woodbury… which is especially important, given we have an expanded 16-episode season to fill out. This is new territory for the series, in terms of balancing plots… but if nothing else, the chances of pointless filler in Season 3 has plummeted significantly. And given we have two magnetic new characters in The Governor and Michonne to help drive this second plot, this is certainly going to be something much more exciting and interesting than "the B-plot" of Season 3. Heck, I wonder if this is going to make the prison stuff pale by comparison. :-) But that's where next week's balancing act will come into play.

Random notes:

• Tonight's director: Guy Ferland, a frequent director from the late, great series The Shield. He has only one major movie credit to his name: 2004's Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. This is his fourth episode of the series: among his previous episodes was the first-season finale.
• Tonight's movie ads: The Man with the Iron Fists, Flight, Skyfall (a Q-centric TV spot!), and Life of Pi.
• Best make-up effect of the night: As already stated, the split-in-half solder wins by a landslide… although I did also like the show of the Governor's fingers inside the mouth of Michonne's pet's decapitated (yet still active) head.
• Tonight's kill count, courtesy of Story Sync: 9 humans and 9 walkers. Merle leads with 4 walker kills!
• Next week: How will the show be able to juggle the prison and Woodbury stories? Well, we'll just have to see… to tide you over until then, here's a prison scene from next week's episode:

Bonus Fun Time! Thanks to the miraculous power of my DVR, I've transcribed the commercial break card from the 29-minute mark of the episode for your pleasure. So, here are Robert Kirkman's 5 favorite changes from the comic book to the TV series:


5) Morgan's wife. Showing her in the show was such a powerful and emotional scene that I simply never even considered! I suck!
4) Herd attacking Hershel's farm. In the comic Hershel put a gun to Rick's head and said, "You guys can't live here!" and Rick gathered everyone up and they left. No barn burning, no thousands of walkers attacking, no leaving Andrea for dead.
3) Sophia was in the barn! Spoiler alert… after 103 issues of the comic book… Sophia is alive and well! Her death in the show has affected all of the characters in meaningful ways.
2) Rick kills Shane. In the comic, Shane brings Rick out to the woods to kill him-- and before he can do it CARL shoots Shane in the neck. In the show, when Rick knifes him it's such a dramatic payoff, it's really the moment where Rick emerges as someone who will do whatever has to be done to survive… even kill his best friend
1) Daryl Friggin' Dixon. He's not even in the comic, folks.

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.02: "Sick"

Based solely on where we left off last week - with Hershel being bitten and Rick slicing off his leg like there was no tomorrow - and the title of this week's episode, I was all prepared for a big death episode for our beloved Hershel. And then, it didn't happen at all. In fact, the greatest pleasure of tonight's episode of The Walking Dead was its various shifts of power, and how the balance of life and death swung from one end to the other throughout the hour. In the end, we the audience were kept on our toes, and this season notches its second great episode this season.

Let's talk about our merry band of prisoners first. One of my concerns going into tonight's episode was that we were simply going to rehash a lot of the conflict material that we already burned through when Rick, Shane and company first landed on Hershel's farm at the beginning of Season 2… and even more so, that the show was going to linger on this conflict for quite some time. Boy, was I wrong on that count… but we'll get to that. But for most of the episode, you had to wonder who was going to win out: Rick or Tomas. It's a magnificent power struggle: At first, you think, "Well, it's the prisoners' prison; Rick doesn't stand a chance."… especially during the courtyard negotiations that quickly grow stale. But then, we find that not only do the prisoners have no idea what's been going outside the walls of the cafeteria - which they've been locked in for TEN MONTHS - but also that they have no idea how to successfully take walkers down (even after receiving an excellent crash course from Rick and Daryl). But then Tomas and company set aside their prison riot violence and truly get the hang of the head kills… destroying our gang's tactical advantage. And then, when Big Tiny gets scratched, Tomas takes him OUT and gets it done. (That wide shot of Big Tiny's corpse… sheesh, AMC is getting pretty permissive on the gore this year!)

And then comes the mass slaughter by the laundromat to repossess the second cell block for the prisoners. Tomas "accidentally" trying to take Rick out in the process is one thing, but Rick's response - immediately killing Tomas by way of a machete to the head - was nothing short of brutal, in one of those "Holy [bleep]!" moments that has you jumping off your couch and shouting at the TV. Those are the kinds of moments a TV fan lives for. If that wasn't enough, Rick manages to lock out another prisoner to his certain death before that final commercial break… effectively whittling down our 5-prisoner group to just 2 by episode's end. That's swift justice! But then again, when your wife gives us full permission to do what's necessary, why not? After all, in Lori's eyes, Rick isn't a killer… but given what we've seen in episodes past, is he?

This leaves Hershel's fight for life as the B-plot, but it still manages to explore some intriguing territory, as the female members of the group struggle with what to do. Last week showed us the efficiency of the group after months of banding together, and if anything, this week shows us exactly what life sacrifices our group is willing to make… and how rash and easy it is to make said decisions. Maggie's fine with letting Hershel go; Beth isn't ready (after all, Hershel saved her life last year); Carol feels responsible to take on Hershel's responsibilities in bringing Lori's baby into the world (as shown by her desire to practice on a walker corpse); and Carl… well, that final shot before the commercial break of him pointing his gun at Hershel says it all. (I've gotta admit, the way they're handling Carl and his accelerated maturity this season is one of the more tantalizing character bits this season. Killing two walkers with ease to break into the infirmary and get supplies… that's dang impressive.) Nonetheless, I did appreciate the show's restraint in *not* killing Hershel off just yet… but all those practical and visual effects to hide Scott Wilson's leg are going to break the bank eventually, so we'll have to see how long the show holds off on the kill.

But what I loved the most about this episode - and what inspires the most hope about this season - is just how swift the storytelling is, and how quickly it burns through material that could easily have been stretched out for several episodes. I almost think that this is the writing staff's way of saying to us, "You think we're gonna stretch this stuff out, like we did with Sophia and the farm? Nuh-uh! We're getting down to business!" If that's the case - and if the show can reasonably sustain this pace - then we're in for a roller coaster ride. And considering what we're due for in next week's show, I'm somewhat optimistic that they'll be able to pull it off.

Random notes:

• Let's get the big news out of the way first: AMC is no longer "not available on Dish"!!! Our long national nightmare is over… at least I won't be inundated any longer while watching one of AMC's shows.
• Tonight's director is Billy Gierhart, a longtime TV camera operator who's transitioned into directing. He's helmed episodes of The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, and Breakout Kings, among others. This is his third Walking Dead episode to date… and if IMDB is correct, he'll be directing the mid-season finale in December.
• This week's kill tallies: 3 humans, 30+ walkers. Rick and Tomas both notched 1 human and 5 walkers a piece.
• What are we having to eat today, T-Dog? "Canned beef, canned corn… canned cans!"
• I was kind of disappointed that Lori didn't head down to the infirmary herself… if only because she already knows the lay of the land.
• Walker of the week: The handcuff zombie, who's more than willing to rip his arm apart to get rid of those pesky cuffs, as we see at the 0:47 mark of this clip:
• Next week: Looks like we're getting a Michonne-centric hour… and more! Here's a very brief peek from the cold opening:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.01: "Seed"

If there's one way to sum up what we know about the third season of The Walking Dead, it's "fan service". In the last few minutes of Season 2's finale, we were teased with the addition of Michonne and the prison - two elements of the comic book that fans have been eagerly awaiting to see on the series. On top of that, AMC has made no effort to hide the addition of The Governor (played by David Morrissey) to Season 3's cast… allowing for a potentially transformative year of the series (and one that should hopefully quite the show's most vocal detractors). On that end, tonight's season premiere was a reinvigorating hour chock-full of zombie action, while carefully setting up the board for this year's character arcs.

First, let's talk about that cold opening, in which our band of heroes rummage through the latest in a series of houses, looking for food, supplies, and anything of note. The complete lack of dialogue in this 5-minute sequence is impressive, allowing all sorts of plot developments - Lori's pregnancy progress; the lack of food, as evident in Carl's hankerin' for dog food and Daryl munching on an owl; Carl's increased proficiency with guns, not to mention his big honking silencer - to be expressed solely via visuals, while still allowing for a few good zombie kills in the process.

After the first commercial break - and the shiny new opening credits sequence - we get a quick info dump: winter has already come, and our gang has been nomadically roving from house to house with little success. It sets the stakes just enough so that, by the 10-minute mark, when Rick and Daryl finally find the prison they were oh-so-close to in the Season 2 finale, you can understand why everyone's easily on board with getting into the prison yards. Food, medicine, shelter, fields to plant the titular seed of the episode, and a heavily fortified, enclosed space… what's not to like, considering what they've been through and what they're currently dealing with? (Of course, there are some caveats to this… several of which manifest themselves before the hour's end.) However, I do think it's a wee bit ridiculous, given how close they were to the prison last season, that they didn't happen to find it sometime during the winter… I wish they had justified that a bit better.

And from there, the episode pretty much wrote itself: our heroes get past the prison fences, Rick shuts the prison gates camp out for the night, spend the next day getting into the prison while blasting off walkers in the process, and work their way into a safe cell block. For those who bemoaned the inert nature of last season's relaxed "down on the farm" mentality, the forward momentum in this first hour is nothing short of fun to watch. Plus, we got oodles of action sequences in the process, eschewing the tension of last season's "horror on the highway" set piece with kills, kills, and additional kills. (I especially like the subtle special effects incorporated into the wide shots… it speaks to the weathering of us viewers that every kill on the show these days don't have to be thrust into our faces.) Plus, we got to see walkers in prison riot gear! How cool was that? (The makeup award of the night went to the riot gear guard whose face skin peeled right off when Rick removed his mask… followed immediately by Rick splitting his skull in half like a coconut.) The only qualm - and it's a minor one - is that it's too bad that Frank Darabont is no longer with the show, since he has some experience with prisons. Nonetheless, the show certainly appears to be doing the prison setting just fine so far.

The tricky part of tonight's episode, from a writing perspective, was how to slip in all sorts of character beats amidst all this action. We got some major pieces into play: Lori's growing fears about delivering the baby, presented in a tender scene between her and Herschel; the developing relationships between Glen & Maggie, Daryl & Carol (hey, that rhymes!), and even Carl and Beth; and Carl's increased maturity and responsibilities. (Seriously, Carl rocking that silencer still gets to me.)

One thing that surprised me about tonight's show was just how little we saw of Michonne and Andrea, given how ecstatic the fans have been waiting to see her in action. For starters, we didn't see Michonne at all until the half-hour mark… and even then, it was the exact same scene that we saw in July's hour-long Talking Dead advertisement for the new season. We did get one additional scene between the two, which basically sets up that Andrea's not feeling well, that Andrea has managed to save Michonne's butt quite a bit during the winter (well, that will make for an interesting flashback episode!), and that Michonne isn't going to leave Andrea behind. I guess with all of tonight's fun at the prison, that didn't leave much time for the B-story, which is understandable… but I can only hope that their scenes will take on a bit more significance in the weeks ahead, if only for the hardcore fans' sake. If what I've heard from advance reviews of Season 3 is true, these two ladies don't even appear in next week's episode… which may not make certain viewers happy.

But then again, given all the balls that The Walking Dead put into play at the end of tonight's episode, that may not be a problem after all. Not only are plenty of walker inmates are still scurrying about in the prison, but Herschel got bit by one of 'em, too… leading to a heck of a scene in which Rick hacks off Herschel's leg with no pretense whatsoever. (Have the walkers gotten to AMC's Standards and Practices department? That's the only way that scene could've made it to air, right?) Oh, and there's a band of prisoner survivors to contend with! "Holy shit" indeed… and with that, see you next week!

Random notes:

• As AMC did with the back half of Season 2 (and this summer's run of Breaking Bad), the network has brought back their fun Story Sync feature, which provides trivia during the initial airing of each new episode. The main Story Sync page can be found here.
• Tonight's episode director is Ernest Dickerson, who started out as Spike Lee's cinematographer, then went on to direct his own movies such as Juice, Surviving the Game, Bulletproof, and the Snoop-Dogg-as-a-back-from-the-dead-1970s-gangster horror flick Bones. This is the sixth episode of The Walking Dead that he's directed thus far.
• Number of zombies killed in tonight's episode: at least 56, according to the Story Sync. Rick alone notched at least 19 kills.
• Number of times "NOT AVAILABLE ON DISH" was mentioned tonight: Only 2… one for Fear Fest (hosted by Kevin Smith), and one for Comic Book Men (also with Kevin Smith). AMC's putting all their eggs in the Silent Bob basket, eh?
• The Season 2 Blu-ray/DVD set is well worth your while, if only for the illuminating look at the chaos behind the season premiere. Long story short: Much of the footage was unusable, especially the first 15 minutes of the episode, which was replaced by the awkwardly-edited scene with Rick on the walkie-talkie. So, the first episode was chopped down to about a half-hour and combined with episode 2 to create the 90-minute season premiere.
• Wow, there were a lot of movie ads on tonight's show: Skyfall, Seven Psychopaths, Cloud Atlas, Paranormal Activity 4, and Alex Cross. Plus, we got zombie-themed ads for Microsoft Windows 8 (???) and RunForYourLives.com.
• Tonight's episode was brought to you by SMEAT!
• Let's talk about Talking Dead: CHRIS HARDWICK IS SHOUTING!!! OUCH!!! As much as I enjoy listening to his Nerdist podcasts, there is something as 'being too excited'. (Tonight's guests: showrunner/episode writer Glen Mazzara, and Michonne herself, Dania Gurira.)
• Next week: What to do with a victim like Herschel? Well, see for yourself, in AMC's preview clip for the next episode:

Talking Dead: The Walking Dead Season 3 Preview Special

Since its debut in October 2010, The Walking Dead has been AMC’s undisputable savior.  Sure, AMC has had an incredible streak of original scripted programming, including such towering TV greats as Mad Men and Breaking Bad. (Heck, I’ll even vouch for the dearly-departed Rubicon!) But The Walking Dead has been the channel’s breakout hit, pulling in record ratings for basic cable while cultivating a rabid fan base composed of both longtime fans of the Robert Kirkman graphic novel, as well as full-fledged Walking Dead newbies.

Now, AMC certainly knows that it has a ginormous hit on their hands… and in the past year or so, it’s become painfully evident to viewers that AMC intends to milk their cash cow dry.  It began just months after the first-season finale, in March 2011, when AMC and Anchor Bay released a quick, nearly-bare-bones version of Season 1 on DVD and Blu-ray… only to release a jam-packed Season 1 Special Edition the following October.   Then, AMC announced that it was planning to split The Walking Dead’s thirteen-episode second season into two batches: the six-episode first half aired in October and November (to tie in with AMC’s annual FearFest), followed by a 2.5-month hiatus, with the final seven episodes starting in February.  (Now, one would think that a huge break in the airing schedule would cause the show to lose momentum, but in fact, the show’s midseason premiere garnered the series’ biggest ratings to date... only to be topped by the season finale itself!)

On top of that, The Walking Dead has been used a platform to increase and promote AMC’s other original programming.  If you wanted to see a clip from next week’s episode of The Walking Dead, then you’d have to watch the episode of Hell on Wheels or Kevin Smith’s reality show Comic Book Men in order to get it. (In fact, AMC is pulling this trick again next week: In order to see the premiere of the 4-minute Season 3 trailer, you’ll have to endure the premiere of AMC’s crappy-looking new reality program, Small Town Security.  At least I can DVR the show and fast-forward through all the cameltoe.)

And then there’s Talking Dead.  Starting with the Season 2 premiere, AMC decided to stretch out the viewing experience of The Walking Dead by putting together a live post-episode discussion series hosted by Nerdist podcaster (and current pop-culture emissary) Chris Hardwick.  The setup is simple: cast and crew members from The Walking Dead, along with random celebrity fans (such as Patton Oswalt, Kevin Smith, and Zachary Levi), sit down for 30 minutes to discuss the Walking Dead episode that just aired.  It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s certainly enticed fans to stick around on AMC after their weekly zombie fix…

…which brings us to tonight, and this weekend on AMC in general.  Season 3 is currently in production down in Atlanta, so to tide us over until the season premiere in October, AMC has put together the “Season 3 Preview Weekend”, in which they re-ran the series’ first two seasons (19 episodes total) marathon-style, leading into a special hour-long Season 3 preview episode of Talking Dead, followed by a special black-and-white airing of the pilot. On one hand, I was excited to see some juicy sneak peeks of Season 3 on tonight’s Talking Dead… but let’s be honest here: what we got was a painfully stretched-out hour of television, aimed at giving us as little of substance as possible while still ensuring that we kept our eyeballs glued to the TV for 60 minutes or so.

Let’s get the good stuff out of the way first: The Michonne scene was absolutely worth it. Even though it was only a meager 54 seconds long, it delivered the gory, katana-wielding goods.  At least AMC had the good sense to air a scene that they knew would get the fan base rabid and excited. Here’s a random YouTube capture of the scene in question; if it’s missing by the time you read this, I’m sure there will be a zillion copies on the Internet:

In second place was the tour of the prison set with Steven Yuen (aka Glen).  I’ve gotta say that the Walking Dead production team has cooked up a heck of an elaborate set (Hardwick and Yuen were keen to point out the blood spatter on the walls).  The other segments from Hardwick’s week on the Atlanta set (including visits with makeup guru Greg Nicotero, the show’s propmaster, and a brief moment with Laurie Holden) were alright, but the set tour dwarfed them all.

However, all that aforementioned footage took up no more than 10 minutes of tonight’s 45-minute program.  The rest was a classic case study in diversion tactics and padding for time.  Sure, there were a few, extremely sporadic juicy tidbits: for example, Merle’s returning in Season 3! (And he’s full of “anger and racism”!) But Hardwick’s continued visible frustrations at asking Glen Mazzara, Gale Anne Hurd, and Peter Alpert for insight into Season 3 – and the non-answers he received in the process – didn’t make for compelling television.  And then, there was tonight’s celebrity super-fan… Drew Carey!?!??! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m quite fond of Drew Carey from his Drew Carey Show/Whose Line? days, but he seemed a wee bit out of place here.  The low point was when Carey mentioned that he gave up on Lost because that show’s characters made stupid decisions… something which he claimed the characters on The Walking Dead never do.  I’ll refrain from any further comment. ;-)

Plus, there were all the plugs for Walking Dead merchandise: the 2013 video game; Wednesday’s 100^th issue of the Kirkman comic (complete with eight – count ‘em, eight! – collectible covers!); the exclusive Comic-Con obstacle course cover; other promotions for the show’s Comic-Con appearance this coming weekend… you get the picture.  Like I said, I'm very aware that the show is a cash cow, and I am aware that the hour we watched tonight was nothing more than a commercial for the new season, but I didn't need the entire show to feel like an advertisement. (Although, in their defense, AMC has to pull in a bunch of money to pay for Mad Men somehow...)

Maybe I'm being a wee bit too hard on tonight's Talking Dead episode... in fact, I'd say I certainly am. But still, I couldn't help but want a decent amount of substance.  Perhaps if AMC didn't feel the need to rush a preview special onto the air as soon as possible, and waited a month of so, when they would've had more episodes of The Walking Dead in the can, it could've been something special. But for now, I'll just rewatch those 54 seconds over and over again. I mean, that slice-and-dice sound mix is pretty awesome, you know... :-)

Random notes:

• FYI: Season 3, which (again) will begin airing in October, is going to be 16 episodes long! Given the traditional cable TV season for a scripted series is 13 episodes, that’s a staggering vote of confidence by AMC.
• I don’t plan on discussing the black-and-white version of the pilot… mainly because it was on the Season 1 Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray that came out last October.  (The black-and-white version, which was meant to emulate the comic book, was put together by the show’s creator, Frank Darabont for the video release; Darabont did something similar for the DVD release of his 2007 flick The Mist.)
• I can’t believe that Chris Hardwick made a Shawshank joke during tonight’s show, given AMC’s attempts to distance Shawshank director Frank Darabont from the series he created... and which he was unceremoniously fired from last summer. Hopefully, they won’t fire Hardwick, too, as a result of his gaffe. ;-)
• Speaking of Frank Darabont: His new cable series, L.A. Noir, which stars Shane himself, Jon Bernthal, is expected to get a series order very soon over at TNT. (And no, the series has nothing to do with that video game from a couple of years back... just so you know.)
• Chris Hardwick with a machine gun… that is all.
• Seriously, just a single still picture of David Morrissey as the Governor? Let’s hope next week’s trailer gives us a more substantial peek… let’s hope.
• Season 4: The Game of Thrones/Walking Dead crossover you’ve all been waiting for! ;-)
• Another quotable phrase from Chris Hardwick: “serious nerd boners”.
• We’ll be returning to AMC next week to begin coverage of the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad. Please join us!