Warning. This review contains several spoilers about the third season of the series “The Walking Dead”!

On March 31 the third season of the show “The Walking Dead” ended.

The great success of “The Walking Dead” went on in its second season, so much that the TV channel AMC that broadcasts the series in the U.S.A. renewed the series when the second season premiere scored excellent ratings. Therefore a third season was produced and once again it was made longer, with 16 episodes of which 8 were aired in October / December 2012 and the other eight in February / March 2013. A series of webisodes titled “Cold Storage” were also produced.

At the end of the second season, I expressed my concerns because the style had seemed more like “Little House on the Prairie” than a post-apocalyptic show, especially after the first season based on a constant tension and the struggle for survival. Luckily, everything changed again in the third season, I think for the better.

“The Walking Dead” third season cast consists of:

• Andrew Lincoln (photo ©Angela Natividad)as Rick Grimes
• Sarah Wayne Callies (photo ©Angela Natividad) as Lori Grimes
• Laurie Holden (foto ©MingleMediaTVNetwork) as Andrea
• David Morrissey as the Governor
• Danai Gurira as Michonne
• Steven Yeun as Glenn
• Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon
• Michael Rooker as Merle Dixon
• Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes
• Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier
• Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene
• Scott Wilson as Hershel Greene
• Emily Kinney as Beth Greene

Between the end of the second season and the beginning of the third several months have passed. Rick and his group find a prison full of walkers and start cleaning it up to turn it into a fortress in which they can live relatively safe. In the third episode the town of Woodbury is introduced, where a group of survivors are trying to rebuild some semblance of civilization. Their leader, nicknamed the Governor, is apparently a good person but hides a very dark side.

Andrea, who in the escape from the farm at the end of the second season was separated from her group, was rescued by Michonne, a survivor who was traveling on her own and uses a katana to eliminate the walkers. Merle appears again and he works for the Governor and when he finds Andrea and Michonne he brings them to Woodbury.

The season is developed over the increasing hostility between the group in the prison and the one in Woodbury. In a season of 16 episodes it was impossible to keep on maintaining a high pace. Compared to the second season the impression is that there was a bit more planning and they didn’t simply stretch a certain plot over a greater number of episodes.

Of course, not everything is perfect. For example, Andrea begins the season along with Michonne, after arriving in Woodbury soon starts an affair with the Governor, when she discovers that her old group lives in the prison and the hostility of the Governor against them even she doesn’t know who to side with.

Some initial confusion is understandable because Andrea knows very little about what really happened, but when she discovers some of the Governor’s secrets it becomes stranger and stranger that she doesn’t run away immediately. It’s also understandable that she doesn’t have the courage to kill him in his sleep but at that point she should at least have gotten out of Woodbury. Her motives were too ambitious: she wanted to save everyone but she couldn’t even save herself.

During the season there were some episodes with a high rate and full of action and other slower, often dedicated to a greater development of some of the characters, especially Rick and the Governor with their psychological complexities. The highlight on this theme was in the episode “Arrow on the doorpost”, mainly dedicated to the face-to-face meeting between Rick and the Governor.

The cliffhanger in the mid-season break, with the two brothers Daryl and Merle who meet again, had me a little disappointed because when the show resumed it was over in a few minutes. The second part of the season was basically used to build up for the final battle between the prison group and the Woodbury one, with a pace that at times I found a bit too slow.

The good thing is that the final episodes gave us some twists. I’m not particularly interested in redemption stories but Merle’s final choices were undoubtedly interesting. The attack of the Governor to the prison fails because he wants to eliminate the other group at all costs, but most of his people never fought against other living humans and they panic when the they realize they were caught in a trap.

Sure, you can discuss the absurdity of some elements, starting with the fact that after the failed attack the Governor kills most of his people so easily despite the fact that everybody had weapons. It’s still a TV show with zombies so it becomes difficult to determine what’s really absurd.

“The Walking Dead” was already renewed for a fourth season in December 2012 and the last few episodes have confirmed the success of this show. The Governor is still out there and there are still plenty of walkers so there will be more threats to the prison group, now expanded.