Walking Dead Season 3 Discussion (Spoilers)

[Kojiro]

I wonder if Rick's group could get Maggie and Glenn released by threatening (a message sent via note on a bolt) to simply burn Woodbury down if they were forced to assume their people dead (ie unreleased)? Would the Governor be prepared to risk someone sneaking up in the night and putting a few molotovs into the buildings?

[Themightytom]

Is the prison really cleared or was that strategy on Maggie's part. I'd love to see the governor try to sneak in a back way and find himself in the midst of an un cleared cell block.

God damnit we're playing the dance around game where Maggie and Glenn don't know Andrea's there, Andrea doesn't know Glenn and Maggie are there, Rick and co. don't know Maggie's there Michonne may or may not know that Rick and co. KNOW Andrea, the Governor doesn't know Rick and Co. and Michonne are there... it's like a fricking Scooby Doo episode...

Hey alright Rick took a minute to be a father, that was cute, hella awkward timing but eh...

Carol is INVITING a flashback surprise character or something to explain how she REALLY escaped, I don't trust Darrel's speculation.

Dr. toolbag just found out the ENTIRE PLANET isn't wrong about this disease being irreversible, I wonder if this will affect his attitudes towards the governor...presuming he knows he has his daughter shuffling around, or his adjustment to the reality that...yeah this is probably permanent, the world is never going back to where it was.

The Governor is very good at reading people, and yet... he's with Merle. Maybe it's just women he's good at playing, and yet... Michonne wasn't picking up what he was putting down. He's got Andrea charmed and Maggie terrified.

[Alyeska]

The Governor doesn't fully trust Merle. So the Governor has people loyal to him. With that he can control Merle.

The Governor might be comic book evil, but he seems to know his limitations and work around them.

[Admiral Drason]

So no one walked the perimeter of the prison to be sure that there were no breaches in the fence...smart

[ArmorPierce]

There goes t-dawg 2 but looks like we got a t-sawg 3 possibly now.

I'm curious of the story behind that lone guy surviving in a cbin in the woods near woodbury town. He seemed off balance and not aware of what was going on in the outside world but seemed tto have been making it fine with his dead dog.

[Flagg]

Yay Tyrese and his trusty hammer of doom! I think he's had more lines than T-Dawg. Oscar made a noble sacrifice as second useless black guy on the show. Is the third time the charm? Find out next year!

[Block]

The last half of that episode was... insulting. Talk about contrivences of plot to save the villain and Andrea being stupid beyond all belief. "I keep them to remind me of the horror"? Fuck you, look over the wall, you're clearly insane and need to die is the only logical response.

[ArmorPierce]

Yay Tyrese and his trusty hammer of doom! I think he's had more lines than T-Dawg. Oscar made a noble sacrifice as second useless black guy on the show. Is the third time the charm? Find out next year!

He died pretty stupidly too. Some guy slowly walked up and shot him as rick sat there watching. I guess it may be related to lori's death so rick's state of mind has affected the attack and has been a liability resulting them in losing someone.

I think the main problem is they don't know what to do with more than one black man on the show at the same time.

Also, why is Rick acting like such a dick toward michonne?

[Block]

and why didn't Michonne mention Andrea to Rick, since they she spent 8 months with her, and should know who Glenn, Maggie, Darryl and Rick are. Also why didn't Michonne tell Andrea about Maggie and Glenn being held prisoner swhen they were staring eachother down? etc...

[Flagg]

Yay Tyrese and his trusty hammer of doom! I think he's had more lines than T-Dawg. Oscar made a noble sacrifice as second useless black guy on the show. Is the third time the charm? Find out next year!

He died pretty stupidly too. Some guy slowly walked up and shot him as rick sat there watching. I guess it may be related to lori's death so rick's state of mind has affected the attack and has been a liability resulting them in losing someone.

I think the main problem is they don't know what to do with more than one black man on the show at the same time.

Also, why is Rick acting like such a dick toward michonne?

The guy Rick was staring at was an hallucination of Shane. It was actually John Bernthal.

[Ralin]

Wow. I cannot believe that they killed the black guy who was introduced a few episodes ago.

This show has some serious balls to go there.

[Wing Commander MAD]

The look on Andrea's face at the end of the episode is priceless.

[Alyeska]

The look on Andrea's face at the end of the episode is priceless.

She is starting to see the truth. She doesn't see the whole picture, but now she understands that things are not what they seem.

[Meest]

and why didn't Michonne mention Andrea to Rick, since they she spent 8 months with her, and should know who Glenn, Maggie, Darryl and Rick are. Also why didn't Michonne tell Andrea about Maggie and Glenn being held prisoner swhen they were staring eachother down? etc...

She seems to keep all revelations to herself for some reason even if her life is on the line, really lazy way to keep the drama going. Also wish they went a bit further with giving her more hatred for the governor, make him write his name on her sword or something. Rick has threatened her two times now, is she going to wait in his cell and try to kill him too, that's the way her character is written right now.

[tim31]

She's not. Read between the lines when she says to him 'You need me' just outside Woodsbury.

[Alyeska]

Michone is paranoid. Its kept her alive this long. To her, paranoia is normal. The Governor seemingly being open was strange to her. Rick being defensive of his group from the very start is something she can understand.

[Themightytom]

She's not. Read between the lines when she says to him 'You need me' just outside Woodsbury.

That was really well done I thought you could hear her realizing the reverse.

Governor Blinkey is in trouble, a blind spot is a massive liability in this world.

the entrees that Carl rescued still haven't killed their walker.

Stachey the prisoner is getting to be a major problem, though the part where he though Carol was a lesbian was great.

[Meest]

And another show-runner bites the dust. Wonder what the big wigs at AMC want if two show-runners get booted or want out.

[Alyeska]

And another show-runner bites the dust. Wonder what the big wigs at AMC want if two show-runners get booted or want out.

Care to elaborate?

[Meest]

Glen Mazzara is leaving after season 3, said differences in opinion of the direction of the show.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/12/21/walki ... r-renewed/

[Alyeska]

They've fired the entire writing staff twice. And now twice fired the producer.

AMC is trying to kill their hit show.

[FSTargetDrone]

A bit more speculation here:

Let’s Deduce Why The Walking Dead Lost Its Showrunner

AMC announced on Friday that it had made the unsurprising decision to bring back The Walking Dead for a fourth season. After pleasing fans with this not unexpected news, it then dropped a more surprising announcement: The network was in the market for a new showrunner to replace boss Glen Mazzara, who would be leaving in an “amicable” split after a “difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward.” Wait, what? In its third season, the zombie drama has never been bigger, drawing huge audiences, and not just by cable standards. The show handily and regularly delivered more 18- to 49-year-old adults than its broadcast competition. Moreover, Mazzara is credited with overseeing a massive creative turnaround; critics who complained The Walking Dead’s second season had almost ground to a halt in the farmhouse cheered the current season’s bloodier, faster pace. So why does it seem like fans just got coal dumped in their Christmas stockings?

It’s not clear what precisely went wrong. When Vulture last spoke to Mazzara as he was wrapping up the second half of the season (returning in February), he seemed to be genuinely excited for the future of the show. (His rep told Vulture he is currently “looking for his next endeavor.”) This bomb was dropped on a Friday afternoon when most of Hollywood was shutting down for the holidays, conveniently making it possible for all parties to avoid difficult questions, so we are left to sniff the evidence for theories as to what went wrong.

In retrospect, we probably should have seen this coming: AMC waited a good long while to greenlight a fourth season, even when the third debuted with a huge 10.9 million total viewers (and a 5.8 rating in 18-49). Last year, Dead got a third season pickup immediately following its then-record breaking season two premiere (7.3 million total, 3.8 in 18-49) — though that was after they’d already separated from Darabont and installed Mazzara. Perhaps the delay indicates executives were hoping to announce a new deal with Mazzara at the same time as the renewal, only a deal was never reached. (Recently, when Hell on Wheels showrunner John Shiban quit after the show had already been renewed for a third season, AMC backtracked and said the greenlight would be contingent on finding his replacement.)

While the joint statement from AMC and Mazzara cites “creative differences,” it likely comes down to money. The network has a history of playing hardball when it comes to dinero. Following tense negotiations between executives and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, he eventually got $30 million for three more years in exchange for ceding a little more time in each episode to advertising. If Mazzara thought he deserved more – and The Walking Dead does deliver roughly five times the audience of Men – it’s possible AMC didn’t want to budge again.

Walking Dead is AMC’s most profitable show – and unlike the network’s other series, which are owned and produced by outside studios, Dead is entirely theirs. It’s the show that pays for all of AMC’s other shows. Again, we have no idea if a negotiation breakdown was the real cause for the split, but if Mazzara wanted a piece (or a bigger piece) of the backend, one would think, with this much profit, why not reward the man at the helm of the show when ratings went up from great to dominant? Perhaps executives decided that the show had already survived the exit of original showrunner Frank Darabont, and executive producer Robert Kirkman, who wrote the comic books on which the show is based, is sticking around. Perhaps someone believes Mazzara is not as intrinsic to The Walking Dead as Weiner is to Mad Men.

Ultimately, Mazzara may not have been in the best bargaining position. When negotiations got contentious between Breaking Bad boss Vince Gilligan and the network, he had the benefit of backing from the show’s producer Sony. At one point, the studio threatened to shop Breaking Bad’s final run to another network. Because AMC is the studio in the case of The Walking Dead, Mazzara had no such leverage.

But for now this is all educated guesswork. The executives are nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums and/or ad rates dance in their heads, and until they (or someone else) starts leaking details, we can only hypothesize. But if this was a matter of money, it will likely lead to show creators rethinking the cable world, which always laid out the promise that they get to make the show they want to in exchange for taking less money. Now that cable ratings for shows like Walking Dead are rising up to pass broadcast networks on their way down, TV writers might start to question the salary discrepancy between network and cable television.

[Flagg]

Man, tonight was great. The Dixon bros are rolling solo again. Wonder how long until Daryl has to put Merle down...

[Alyeska]

Called it on the rescue. The season 3 previews showed smoke in the arena. Figured the crew rescued Daryl and Merle.

Welp, Rick is losing it. What started with the phone appears to be getting worse.

[spaceviking]

I wonder how great a threat Woodburry is? They lost a a number of fighters in the last attack, and Michones escape wiped out a team. They have a lot of citizens, but those people have been having bbq's and cookouts not continual battle. Mearle is gone and he seemed to run most of their outside operations. They have heavy weapons, I think that's about it.