I only came on board for Season 3, and crammed the first two seasons in a few months back to get caught up for season three. Therefore, I didn't have the full blown love/hate relationship for as long with this show as those who've been with it since the beginning (or came on right after that). I'm FINE with the season finale as it was. Was it Great? Hell no. But it wasn't bad, and certainly better than average.
I had already prepared myself for the idea that an all-out war simply wasn't going to happen, as the physical numbers on each side simply didn't support that happening. I DO get that people were a bit miffed though, by all the endless hype of the impending bloodbath to come, and all they got was The Governor going off the rails and wasting his own peeps. I think part of that is a limitation of the writers, but mainly comes from being such a HUGE hit show, that the mass media interviews the crap out of the actors, producers, etc., and what are they supposed to say?
"Stay tuned for next week....we're going to have some SERIOUSLY INTENSE staring off into the distance scenes, as well as major arguments between our characters over things we may or may not even do anyway"?
It might be in the best interest of the show if it DID kind of, well....suck for a bit. That might take some of the shine off the show's image, and it won't be at the 10-15 million viewer mark. With that kind of viewership, there's a LOT of kowtowing going on, so it may be nice if the show lost some luster and fell back to being just an "average" show. Of course, once you've hit the big time, it's really hard to come back down and still survive, so I could be wrong there.
I WILL say this though; as contrived as some of their numbskull plot developments go, I didn't necessarily find many of them to be unbelievable in and of themselves. While they certainly could've made the Governor's descent into madness a bit more gradual over the course of the season, rather than so abruptly turn into the monster he was, Merle already pointed out last week that, he'd seen the Governor do things to people that would turn people's stomachs. This wasn't a nice man, and we saw as far back as the killing of all the National Guardsmen in cold blood, that he seemed to enjoy doing so. Once the townspeople did not acquiese to his wishes, they were no longer of use to him, so while the decision to shoot them all in cold blood like that might have seemed out of the blue, its perfectly in line with a sociopath, whose decisions are made solely based on their own interests. He had no reason to burden himself with caring for these people that, were not - in his eyes - grateful for what he'd provided - and were not willing to abide by his wishes.
I agree that Tyrese and Sascha have been a complete waste of time, but one has to consider that given the nature of the situation with AMC/Mazzera, there could've been tons of scenes filmed with them that completely ended up on the cutting room floor to appease AMC's direction of the show....who knows. Why they invested SO MUCH TIME on Andrea's character, who did so VERY LITTLE to develop and move the plot along, is probably the biggest faux pas the show made. Honestly, I was very critical of Laurie Holden for her portrayal of Andrea (I too have read all the comics so far, and loved how Andrea became a bad-ass), but honestly, I have to chalk this one all up to writing. No wonder half the time she was onscreen this season, she looked like she'd sucked a lemon; her character was so unbelievably badly written, and her motives were head-scratchingly unnerving to keep up with. Good for her for telling the rest of the cast that, she has to "do it herself...it's important" with regards to killing Andrea off - that was probably very cathartic for her to shed herself of this weak-ass character. And honestly, while she might miss out on a cash-cow salary for staying on the show had Andrea lived, where the hell would they go with her character? I mean, seriously? She should be relieved she has the ability to get the hell out of Dodge while she can.
I actually LIKED the ambush at the prison, and as lame-brained as it was to send their folks into the tombs, remember people - they're being led by a psychopath hellbent on vengeance, leading a collection of completely untrained, softened up sissies. They simply couldn't have been expected to have been smart enough to think they were walking into a trap. For all thy knew, the prison gang had completely abandonded the prison, and this was their opportunity to investiage what the prison had to offer them? So the gung-ho, guns-blazing, attack down into the tombs concept by the Woodburians didn't bother me one bit. I too thought it would've been a good idea to lock them in behind them, but remember - they likely hadn't sealed the other side out, since that's the way Tyrese's gang came in. It's not inconceivable that, even despite all the noise alerting the Walkers, they still might've potentially escaped out the other end and out the damaged prison walls (maybe minus a few of them, but still).
Michonne crying for Andrea.....I know they had to sell it, or at least try to. But man, for Danai to try to pull that off would be like seeing John Wayne trying to force a cry watching Adolph Hitler die in a 1940's war-buddy movie, depicting those two as "best buds". They NEVER showed how and why they got close while on the road, other than a brief flashback moment. It just wasn't believable at all.
The good stuff?
I liked the Ambush scene - It was a very simple idea to ambush the Woodburians, and at the same time, a clever one. There's no way in hell they could stand toe to toe with them, and they knew it. Rick and his people gave every reason for the Governor to believe they were truly afraid of him and what he could do. And once the Governor had dispatched Merle, it gave reason for the Governor to believe that the Prison gang would be even less convinced they could face up to his army.
Dallas Roberts was spot-on as Milton; you REALLY FEEL for the guy (much sadder for his death than Andrea's)
David Morrissey's character's "sudden" transformation from evil guy with a nice smile to evil guy with an evil cowl aside, Morrissey DOES play a very good, very bad guy. He certainly bears NO resemblance to the sinister Danny Trejo-looking Governor of the comic books, but while he may not have evil physical features (aside from the patch), he makes up for it with very sinister scowls and looks. There's a real depth to his tone and demeanor when he delivers a nasty message. You can see that Milton had a real reason to be truly scared for his life, even when the Governor removed his binds and took him to see Andrea; he knew there was something calculated and cold in the Governor's intentions already.
I have more thoughts on this stuff, but clearly I've already invested too much time in something supposed to be not so deep, so I'm gonna wrap it up there and try to do some work
