Here it is! The long awaited time where we get to the Gimple Dynasty and I get to rip the show apart! Admittedly, I don’t mind the first half of Season Four. It’s slow, and as I mentioned that “stalker cam” comes back, but I like the idea, or at least what I assume is the idea behind this first half of the season; Rick trying to be “Officer Friendly” again. As mentioned, last season Rick kills Tomas without batting an eye lash.

This season, however, he’s reserved. He holds back and is somewhat disconnected. He’s a farmer, not partaking in decisions for the now much larger group and listens to his iPod, rocking out and planting greens. And then when the zombies are breaking the gate and he cuts the pigs throats, making a trail of blood to lure them away, he seems broken for having to kill the pigs. He was so happy they had them. While I like all of that, I pretty much don’t care about the rest. I mentioned the “stalker cam” is used again, later to reveal it’s Episode VI, Return of the Governor. I’ll talk more on that later.

A highlight in this half for me is the episode Internment. It’s when Hershel is tending to all the sick in the prison, while Carl and Rick are guns blazing the gates since walkers are ripping through. But breaking this event down, it’s really stupid. This season skips ahead sometime after Season Three ends. Last season was about to approach winter, whereas this season begins maybe mid-spring.

There’s greenery everywhere, and the entrance has this new badass metal door with spikes in front of it. But the perimeter is two rows of chain-link fence. One, that’s not a strong, sturdy type of fence to begin with; Two, there’s nothing in place to ensure better protection. I’ve played the video game 7 Days To Die and it’s a lot of fun. But the zombies in that game rip through everything. You have to fortify and have multiple layers of metal or wood and then spikes all along your base in order to really keep you safe.

Otherwise the zombies will rip through the wooden walls of your house and that’s that. The zombies in 7 Days To Die are faster and stronger than the walkers on The Walking Dead, but that principal is still apparent. You need more than a chain-link fence.

But the really stupid thing about this season is the sickness itself. With the larger group, a new problem is established. And I’m fine with that, you need external and internal turmoil on the show, and it can’t always be an outside enemy and walkers in the background. Other problems need to arise. But they shouldn’t be stupid. This sickness that begins looks intense.

People’s eyes are bleeding out and they die in their sleep. This lasts 5 episodes and then Daryl, Tyreese, Bob, and Michonne come back with some over the counter Tylenol and everyone is cured instantly. Problem solved. That bothers me on multiple levels. It was introduced as a major issue that lasts a decent amount of time, only to be resolved within seconds. And I’ve been sick before… and I’ve haven’t always taken medicine. My eyes have never bled as a result. Now I’m not an expert in this field by any means.

But I can’t suspend my disbelief, as they say, to buy into this storyline as it gets fixed immediately. Surely, Hershel was immune to the disease, so maybe some people are immune to the Tylenol? Or maybe it would be just a spoonful of sugar and all better? It all happens too quick considering how long it took to get there.

And then we see the return of The Governor via “stalker cam,” just before a three-episode arc. I like The Governor. I don’t like that he is the “Big Boss” at the end of a level and just plummets Rick beating the shit out of him every time they meet, but I think he’s portrayed well, with more humanizing characteristics than the comic ever gives. But the three-episode arc for him, including the finale, is good and bad.

I like the idea of following a different character and being introduced to new ones in this manner. It’s interesting to break up the narrative in this fashion. Game of Thrones has done it constantly since Ned died and it works. It gives us another viewpoint on this world. And I like how these episodes continue immediately after the previous season’s finale, showing where The Governor strolled off to and leading up to the finale where his storyline and Rick’s converge.

But these episodes aren’t that good. They are too slow with not enough of anything going on. It’s interesting to see how he parallels Rick, and how both tried to return to their former selves after the prison battle fake out, and how both inevitable come back to the man the new world has made them. The new family moments are nice. To binge these episodes, it’s not so bad. But you can’t rely on that when this is a weekly show, and to come back and have to wait three weeks to see what’s been going on with Rick’s clan is daunting.

The Governor had solo episodes in Season Three, and you didn’t realize Ricks group was absent until the credits rolled. Here, it’s very apparent they’re gone and it disrupts the flow of everything.

I guess it’s interesting because then we don’t see everyone again until The Governor comes for the long-awaited prison battle. But it could have been done better, especially since the prison battle doesn’t disappoint. One-eyed Jack kills Hershel versus killing Tyreese like in the comic! (A change that had more of an impact on the characters in the show, at least you’d think).

Daryl uses a zombie as a shield and throws a grenade in the barrel of a tank! The prison is completely destroyed! Our characters are in complete disarray and separated! It’s awesome! You have no idea who made it out or not.

Another interesting change is Lilly. In the comic book, this battle is with Woodbury, but on the show, it’s with a new group of people that the Governor assumes leadership over (much like how Rick does next season with Alexandria, another parallel). After all the chaos in both mediums, Lilly shoots and kills the Governor.

But her relationship with him is completely different. In the comics, she kills Lori and Judith and after all the chaos and the Woodbury folk being stuck in the prison, she realizes she was on the wrong side and kills The Governor, making herself a leader of the surviving members. In the show, she comes out of nowhere as she wasn’t involved in the battle, and acted as a new wife to one-eyed jack.

He cared for her and she arguably started to fall for him, but he fails to protect her child, turned her sister into a fighter and put her life at risk, and she saw the monster he is and so she kills him with more of a personal vendetta than in the comic.

While the mid-season finale is a roller coaster of fun, it’s where the formula of The Walking Dead becomes very apparent; nothing really interesting happens throughout the season and the show drags its feet until the big WOW moment during the mid-season and season finales. And the feet are dragged even slower with the second half of Season Four.

Though the first half was slow, watching the second half, I slowly started to wish my eyes would bleed. To get a review on all that jazz, take a look at second half of this article, Season Four Of The Walking Dead Part II: Too Far Gone!