The Walking Dead 3×01 ‘Seed’ Premiere Review

All I really have to say is that wait? So beyond worth it.

Just kidding. Imagine if that was my entire review?

I usually do recaps and reviews, but I don’t think that my writing skills are good enough for me to properly convey just how exciting, awesome and great this episode was. Instead, I’m just going to praise everything I loved, and brush over the things I didn’t love.

The time-jump. It’s not very often that I enjoy when a show’s season ends, and the next begins with a huge gap of time to be filled only by brief mentions by the characters and occasionally a few flashbacks, but The Walking Dead got it right. Usually I’m left feeling lost and a little confused whenever there’s a time-jump in a show, but not here. All that really happened was efficiently summed up by the group’s actions and words. Rick is still Alpha Male but a little less concerned with how the rest of the group felt, like, say, exhausted? Nope. Keep on keepin’ on. I think this will eventually create conflict and tension and we all know how much I love that. I like how they infiltrated a house, took care of the Walkers, had about 3 minutes to sit down, then were on the move again due to another influx of zombies, and that led into the opening credits. That told me that’s all they’ve been doing: trying to find a home, only to be run out of it.

The opening credits. As in love as I am with the theme song (or sound, I guess?), no opening credits could ever ruin it totally for me, but of course they could’ve done a lot better. Finally, they did. This season’s opening credits are intriguing, creepy, a tad graphic and a lot more complimenting and telling of just how great the show truly is. The old opening credits were a little dull to me, but now I actually look forward to watching them. Who knew that was possible?

The shift in relationships. I do love tension and conflict but even more than that, I love growing, loving or even caring relationships, such as Carol and Daryl’s. This episode, Daryl not only showed concern for her hurt shoulder or whatever it was that was hurting her, but also helped her massage it! He actually initiated physical contact with another human being, and when Carol teases him for it, he doesn’t snap at her or bite her head off! He kind of laughs and just very gently tells her to stop. They’ve obviously grown closer and Daryl cares about someone for once. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never seen him that genuinely soft and caring before. He’s perfect. Now, Lori and Rick’s relationship? Let me not even get into how horrible that is, and how terribly hard it is going to be for them to raise a child together, but I’m just going to say it is clearly visible how their relationship is falling apart, and how it will continue to fall apart. I’m curious to see if it can be salvaged, and how. Overall, the entire group acts like more of a team, I think. Rick is still playing the boss card though, a little more strongly and often than he did before, but the fallout I expected after his “this isn’t a democracy” line didn’t happen. Yet. Right now, they’re strong. We’ll see how that changes. Also, Andrea and Michonne! They’ve grown so close, and I honestly did not know what to expect of Michonne, especially after she saved Andrea, but they seem to have a genuine solid friendship and caring of each other. Also, Michonne? COMPLETE bad-ass. She is not to be played with. I’m too excited to see more of her and Andrea.

The prison. Finally. Finally, finally, finally. They have a new home, bigger than the farm! Even though we didn’t actually see how much they struggled to find a new home, I still felt really bad for them because they’re clearly exhausted but now they finally had a place to relax. For about five seconds. I absolutely love what a challenge it was for them to even get into the prison, it made the fact that they actually got in so much more rewarding. I was happy for them, I actually applauded! But then they had to go down into the basement or infirmary or whatever, all dark and empty and creepy and lit by flashlights. Also, the eerie music started to play. That’s when you KNOW things were gonna get good.

The other humans. HOLY FUCK! THERE ARE OTHER SURVIVORS! I am literally way too excited to get to know this group, these new characters, the structure of their clan,  how they operate, how they treat the ones within their group and how they’re going to treat the members of our beloved group. I’m just all around fucking excited for them!

Now, the things I didn’t love…

Lori’s zombie baby drama. It might kill her. And by might, I mean hopefully. I really have no type of sympathy or care at all for this character, so this storyline didn’t intrigue me at all.

Lori’s baby bump. Almost as bad as Amanda’s from Revenge. Come on, people.

Poor Hershel’s leg. I was kind of pissed that he was the one who had to get hurt, when he’s already lost so goddamn much. The poor guy. I’m not actually sure if he died, or just fainted after losing his leg, but either way, boo. I found it a little unnecessary. As an audience, we’ve seen the damage that Walkers can do and the people they have already killed. Not everyone has to get wounded every episode, I feel like that was just a ploy to up the ante, and I hate that.

That’s all, folks.

All around, this was an excellent episode, and a solid return that basically shouted, “we’re back, and better than ever.” I thought the show would be a little bland to me without Shane, seeing as he was the main antagonist and one of my favorite characters, but this premiere let me know how stupid I was for thinking that and basically showed me that no matter what character they kill off or what changes, the writers of this show have got plenty of tricks up their sleeves to keep the story not only moving, but always intriguing and exciting. This episode reminded me of just what I was missing.