On the road danger lives in every direction for the group and the first real trauma that ignites the season comes in rare moment of peace; whilst Carl, Rick and Shane admire the majestic beauty of a wild stag, a hunter’s stray thru-and-thru gunshot hits Carl. The hunter takes the trio, and eventually the group, to his nearby farm for help and hopefully long term shelter.

 

“The Farm Season” as it has become known in many quarters, has been much derided for being slow and uneventful but on viewing as a whole Box-Set Digest is a solid season. The introduction of many more characters, much of which hold views contrary to the core group breathes more life in to the show. Hershel’s religious beliefs cause him to operate by a different set of rules when it came to the dead & contributes to the seasons moral quandary of how, or if, one can maintain the old code and humanity from before in a world as dark as this. The two extremes of this quandary are personified in the form of Hershel and Shane; Hershel believes in pacifism and compassion when dealing the dead, praying that one day a cure will come along to return his loved ones to their living state. Shane on the other hand is very much a shoot first, no questions later type. His MO is survival for he and his at any cost, even the lives of other innocent people. His fall to a much darker side is brought out by Rick “taking” Lori from him upon his return the previous season, with the pregnancy a constant source of friction. The hope of Hershel and darkness of Shane ultimately makes Rick the arbiter on behalf of the audience.

 

The most significant emotional story comes from the Sophia story line with its gut wrenching conclusion. Second to that is Shane’s role as he clashes with Rick over how to best lead the group through the continuous danger, with Shane also trying to influence Carl to his way of thinking and trying to take Lori back from Rick. Despite earlier claims from the show creators that they were intentionally deviating from the comic storyline much of this season faithfully follows, or slightly modifies, a good deal of the early issues.

Creatively there was a dramatic change at the helm in the form of Frank Darabont’s departure. The separation was anything but amicable with the resulting legal dispute raging to this day. In his stead, Greg Nicotero was elevated to a higher position with more creative influence. He and his prop team once again innovate more with Walker design and disposal with the well-walker a grim stand out.  This season saw several interesting narrative deployments of zombies including the heart-pounding highway herd that remains one of the tensest moments of the whole show. The season drives home the idea that walkers present a danger when they gather in large numbers but don’t forget to show that with out due care and proper precautions even an isolated walker can be deadly.

 

All in all, a good season that does well to build and develop as many of the characters as it can, including Carl learning his first real lessons of the new world and the first real steps of Carol becoming the woman we know in later seasons. The static location is not reflective of story or character progressions; if anything the groups staying at the Farm represents their inability to accept the new world, clinging to the farm as the last vestige of the world that was. As life is one to do, the season ends taking the choice from our group forcing them back to abandon the farm, forcing them to enter the madness of the wild again.