One of my favorite shows in TV.  If I had to watch only 5 shows, this would be one of them.  I PVR it, I watch it, I discuss it with friends, I anticipate the next show and wonder what will happen.

However, the last 2 shows had some disappointing moments.

Now, if you haven’t seen the last shows, stop reading now.  Stop.  Now.  Don’t even look down.  Don’t.  I will spoil things if you do.

Ok?  Seen it?  Then read on…

At the end of Better Angels, Shane gets stabby-stab-stabbed by Rick.  Some questions/flaws but ok.  So then the son shows up, assuming (I guess,) that he saw his dad and Shane through the binoculars, (though why Shane would lead Rick all the way back to the farm field, I have no idea) and then rushes out to, what see his dad?  but ends up pointing his gun at his dad, but wait, it’s not at his dad, he’s pointing it at Zombie-Shane who is shambling and Grrr, ugh, nrrring his way to feast on Rick’s flesh.

Does Rick hear the grrr, ugh, nrrrring?  Nope.  We do.  He doesn’t.  I guess he’s so focused on his son that he’s gone deaf.

And that’s what rubs me the wrong way.  Stupid things happen so something in the plot will work.

Hey, zombies make noises.  Grrr.  Ugh.  Nrrrrr.

Instantly I was back in last week’s episode where Dale wanders out in the dark only to get jumped by a zombie.  Ok, so how could he possibly miss the zombie?  If it was super dark, and believe me, I’ve been in super dark and it’s like you turn off the lights, put your hands over your eyes and a pillow over your head – you can’t see a freaking thing.  If that was the case, then he wouldn’t be able to see where he was walking.

Or was it kinda moonlightie and starie?  If so, how did he miss a slowly lumbering zombie approaching him?  How?

It’s not like Dale hasn’t lived in a zombie-infested world.  Surely he has evolved enough to keep his eyes freaking open but no, he sees nothing, doesn’t hear the zombie grrr, ugh, nrrr, doesn’t even smell the zombie until it ninjas him and rips open his stomach.

Silly, silly, silly.

Why not have the mist on the ground and Dale hears the grrr, ugh, nrrr and smells the zombie and desperately looks around but can’t see it, can’t find it, only to have a zombie hand reach out from the mist and pull Dale down, biting him just enough to infect him.  I mean, this show is all about the tough moral choices.  Eviscerated Dale getting shot, not all that tough.   Soon-to-be Zombie Dale, with just a bite on his leg, that’s tougher.

But whatever.  Dale, cautious, caring Dale has to do something stupid for the plot to move forward.

And that brings us back to the boy, Carl, shooting Zombie-Shane.  Why?  To make that happen, Rick has to be stupid and/or deaf, the son has to somehow make it out just in time for all of this and then he has to shoot Shane in the head at what is not a short distance for someone who’s not used to guns!

Grrr.  Ugh.  Nrrr!

But it gets worse.  The moment that happens I think, Damn, Rick stabs looney-toons-Shane and then his son shoots Zombie-Shane and I’m half expecting mom to come out from the tree line and pitchfork Dead-Really-Dead-Shane through the eyes.  That way, the whole family could have a hand in it.

Grrr.  Ugh.  Nrrr.

However, the end, after all that silliness, was awesome.  An homage to George A Romero’s movie where zombies attack an isolated farmhouse.  A whole butt-load of zombies at that.

Brilliant.

I HAVE to see the next episode!