Season 3, Episode 1- Seed
Aaaaaand we’re back with the premiere of Season Three! Before I begin my review of this episode, a quick note: I recently made a promise to myself to stop comparing this show to the comic book. For those of you who have read my posts on the subject, you could not have helped notice an increasingly negative tone in my reviews—starting from the end of Season One. Since most viewers—who know TWD only through the show— love it, I must assume it is my knowledge of the original comic book series (and the TV show’s many deviations from the same) that has poisoned my own enjoyment of the program. So, while I cannot promise to remain wholly objective on the subject, I will try to take the show on its own merits from now on; and consider it a separate (if loosely related) entity from the original comic book series.
As with any episode review SPOILERS BELOW
When we left off at the end of the last season, two of the more interesting characters had been regrettably killed off: Dale, who (sorry to break my word so soon in re the intro paragraph) had a much more awesome death in the comic book; and Shane, who had become (in my opinion) the most interesting character on the show. Lori was mad at Rick for killing Shane (even though it was something she actively encouraged), everyone else was mad at Rick for not telling them about their inevitable zombiehood (like that’s something you would actually want to know), and Rick was mad at everyone for being idiots.
Not an entirely satisfactory ending, but they did leave us with an interesting panoramic shot of the prison (TWD readers will know what I’m talking about), and the introduction of Michonne (one of the most badass characters you are ever likely to encounter in fiction).
And that leads us into the premiere episode of Season Three, which I have to say (a couple of minor critiques aside) was quite good; lots of new development, lot of zombies, and efficient setup into the series arc. I am cautiously optimistic; optimistic because of the strength of the opening; cautious because of this show’s tendency to start off strong in the first episode and then slow to a crawl until the penultimate and ultimate episodes.
Season three opens with Rick and company foraging for food from house to house, killing zombies as they do so. Due to Lori’s impeding due date (from Shane’s bastard child); the fact that they’re only turning up dog food on these foraging runs; and the increasing difficulty of avoiding the Walkers, Rick decides it’s time to set up camp in a defensible location. Enter prison. Upon discovering the prison (revealed at the end of Season Two) Rick and company waste no time clearing the perimeter of zombies and—later—the interior of the prison itself.
There’s some fairly boring material, in between clearing the perimeter of the prison and the prison proper, dealing with Lori’s concern for her pregnancy resulting in a potential Walker baby (if it’s still born) or of her own conversion to Walkerhood (should she die during child birth). She confides in Herschel, who has all the time in the world to listen to Lori’s concern over the loss of one or two lives, since he’s already lost almost everyone that mattered to him (insert sarcasm here).
Later during the attempted fumigation of the Walkers, Rick and company come upon for groups of said Walkers converging from four different directions, and Herschel is bitten during the groups attempt to escape. Thinking quickly (for once) Rick amputates Herschel’s infected leg. Just as he does so the group is discovered by what appears to be (from their uniform jumpsuits) prisoners who have been living among the zombies. Upon discovering Rick and company one of the prisoners utters the phrase “Holy shit”. Holy shit indeed. And it is on that note that the camera fades to black. We have to tune in next week to find out what happens.
The B story to this episode involves Michonne and her pet zombies taking care of Andrea. It really does nothing to advance the plot, but it’s nice to see Michonne kicking ass. See you next week!
