The
Walking Dead's season-three premiere suggests that the
program's showrunner, Glen Mazzara, and writing team have listened to everyone's
gripes about season two's frequent and labored pontificating. Bearing almost
none of the heated bickering and discussions of morality that personified the
previous season, "Seed" is about persistence and strategy. It picks
up several months after Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the group's escape from
Hershel's (Scott Wilson) farm, which was overrun with walkers. Despite any
unrest among them, the group exhibits a renewed sense of unity as it trudges on
in an increasingly dangerous world. In the pre-credit sequence, Rick, his wife,
Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), Hershel, Daryl (Norman Reedus), and the rest of the
gang raid a home in the middle of the woods and share a brief meal consisting
of canned food. If for no other reason, the sequence is striking for its
silence. Without a word of dialogue, the opening ostensibly sets the series
forth in a new direction, thematically and otherwise.
The characters
inevitably get back to talking, but mostly absent from their conversations is all
the unsubtle moral agonizing. The writers seem more confident in the new
material and the urgency with which they deliver it. Some of the characterizations
and performances are marked by obviousness, such as the way Rick appears to be
less human with each passing moment, and how Lori still seems intent on
breaking the barriers around them. Overall, though, the characters more
concerned about survival. Consequently, the series more closely resembles the
sprawling dystopian vision it suggested in its first season than the soapy
dramatic palette of the second. The moments shared between characters are
punctuated by quiet exchanges, such as in an early scene around a campfire when
Hershel's daughter, Beth (Emily Kinney), is encouraged to sing. The scene is
drawn out to nice effect, articulating both the hollowness and camaraderie that
now defines the group.
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