I am a long time fan of the comic book “The Walking Dead” but the TV show has been a hit or miss with me for many reasons but the most grating is the characters doing so many ‘too stupid to live” actions that I can’t help being taken out of the moment.

Spolier alert:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/03/17/the-walking-dead-season-3-episode-14-review-andrea-plays-the-most-dangerous-game/

Episode 14 Review: Andrea Plays The Most Dangerous Gam

For an episode featuring so much of Andrea, I found myself pleasantly surprised.

Yes, there were some weird plot twists that defy plausibility.

That The Governor was able to so easily find Andrea first in the field and then later in the exact building she was hiding in failed to pass the sniff test.

That Tyreese, an obviously good guy, would be so easily taken in by The Governor after everything is also a bit hard to believe; that he would first let Andrea go and then snitch on her seems a bit odd also.

Finally, after facing off some twenty zombies all at once, The Governor is still able to catch up with Andrea (who apparently didn’t bother to take the truck or at least sabotage it when she had the chance) just as she gets to the prison.

All of this is a bit much to stomach, honestly, though I did like how they tied Rick’s visions into that scene. Fortunately, the episode has some great drama and tension that makes the implausibility somewhat more palatable.

In other words, in a season dominated by me yelling at the screen every time Andrea appeared and gnashing my teeth in frustration over her bizarre decisions and horrible character judgment, in this episode I was on her side. I may not like her still, but she’s not fundamentally bad the way The Governor is.

Maybe she’s just too old to be acting so childish, so naive, but at least she’s tough enough and—deep down—good enough to make the right decision.

—->continued

My other examples of “too stupid to live” is that Rick’s group spends a year on the run from zombies and we have an episode where Glenn and Maggie stroll into town on a supply run and act like they are taking a Sunday stroll. I imagine living a year fleeing zombies would give a person that 1,000 yard stare and make them jumpy but these people seem too stupid to even be scared. Also, I know for budget reasons they can’t have zombie hordes in every scene but there are 300 million Americans give or take - you would expect to see them all over the place but we only get one or two shambling zombies here or there. also, the TV show does not allow us to understand how characters like Shane or the gov. went from good people to bad people though we did see how Rick started to lose his mind and why (but why is his kid not freaking out? - he did the actually shooting of his zombie mom). At this point I think the writers are just creating scenes to move the plot along.

Last but not least in the implausibility scale is how easy they zombies get killed by hits to the brain and head. The brain can survive a lot of damage and still allow mobility (X-Rays of spikes through the brain being one example). So every time a zombie is killed by a simple bash or stab to the head (and all seem to be near perfect shots that never miss) you get the feeling it’s too easy for this to be scary.

As you know, comic book fans are never satisfied so take these critiques from one with a grain of salt.