Plot: The season continues the story of former sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, who relinquished his leadership in order to live a quiet life in contrast to his cold-hearted nature in the previous season. Rick and his fellow survivors struggle to maintain their idealistic lifestyle in the prison in the face of threats, including the proliferation of walkers near the prison gates, the outbreak of a contagious and deadly flu-like infection within the prison population, and the spectre of The Governor, whose whereabouts and status are unknown and, unbeknownst to the prison community, is planning his revenge upon meeting a new family and rallying a new army.
Review: So now we come to what is easily the weakest season so far of The Walking Dead; it’s still great but Season 4 feels very disjointed in places with the story being dragged out unnecessarily.
The storyline of The Governor is finally brought to an end but really it should have finished during Season 3. We do get a few brilliant episodes focusing on his character and we almost think it’s going to be a redemption tale for him but no, he’s still a psychopath and it’s almost like he can’t help himself.
The climactic showdown at the prison with Rick and Co. battling The Governor is the action highlight of the entire series so far. We actually have a tank, explosions and a real sense of scale to the action.
I hated the episodes with the disease going around the prison as it just made what was already a grim story even more miserable; I also just plain dislike anything about diseases.
I think the writers of the show have an overly negative view of humanity as well. There is literally no hope or pity shown and it almost becomes unintentionally funny that so much awfulness happens to one group of people.
Also, why haven’t they killed Glenn off yet? Never been a fan of his character and his relentless pursuit of Maggie is annoying as he doesn’t even care that he’s endangering everyone else.
This is the first season where I didn’t find the story all that engaging and it just felt like it was all over the place. It took FOREVER to get to Terminus and it really dragged the pacing down.
It sounds like I hated the season but I actually enjoyed it and the acting was first rate as always. Daryl remains a complete badass with a heart of gold and poor Rick continues to go through absolute Hell.
When the group are all separated there’s a real feeling of desperation as they all try to survive and find each other again. Carol’s transformation from scared housewife in Season 1 to complete warrior woman by Season 4 is amazing to behold and shows the talent of actress Melissa McBride. Her incredibly disturbing scene where she has to shoot Lizzie Samuels (Brighton Sharbino) after she essentially goes completely insane haunts you long after watching.
Daryl’s new group of “friends” are pretty scary too and their final episode which is also the Season finale is one of the most intense episodes of any TV show… ever.
We have new members of the team too and I really like Sgt. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz); when he first appears you think he might be a villain but he turns out to be a total hero with an honourable mission. He also beats up Glenn which can only be a good thing…
Overall, although Season 4 is the weakest of The Walking Dead so far, it’s still one of the best shows on television with engaging characters and constant intensity well deserving of all the hype. It could do with even a smidgen of hope or positivity though.
