The Walking Dead - Season 3 [Blu-ray]

A five disc dvd box set which contains all sixteen forty minute long episodes of season three of the Walking Dead. A story of people trying to survive after the world is overrun by zombies.There are four episodes to each of the first four discs. The fifth contains various extras.Although this season might work reasonably well as a jumping on point, there's a fair bit of backstory by now, so you're better off starting with season one.As with the first two seasons, It follows the comic on which it is based somewhat loosely, taking characters and storylines from it, but going a different path with many of them.The season opener picks up months after the end of the last one. Rick and his group are on the road, and running out of options. When they spy a prison. A place with walls and fences like that would appear to offer perfect sanctuary.Meantime, Andrea and her new friend Michonne, whom she met briefly at the end of season two, have also been on the road for months. They stumble across seeming safe haven as well. A town called Woodbury. A seemingly normal place. Run by a charismatic man called the Governor.Can they all now relax? Or will they find that some humans can be bigger monsters than any zombie?This does try to address the criticisms of season two. Anyone who thought they didn't see enough zombies in that one will be satisfied this time around. As there are plenty of undead encounters. As before, the makeup and costume department do a great job of making them each look different.The pacing of the first eight episodes does go very nicely, mixing character drama with zombie action, and steadily building a certain threat.The characters aren't invincible. A fact which leads to some powerful bits of drama you won't forget in a hurry.David Morrissey delivers an incredible performance as the Governor. A man who, in case you haven't read the comic, let's just say has a lot going on under the surface.Although there are plenty of zombies, the Walking Dead has always been a character drama first and foremost. It does that again here. It's all about the way Rick changes as a person as a result of the moral dilemmas and choices that trying to survive in this strange new world forces on him. Which does push him very hard here. Andrew Lincoln again makes a great lead. Tv drama can, if episodic, often just brush off and forget things as shows move on. But that isn't the case here. The things Rick goes through have an effect on him that is very convincingly portrayed.Other characters do develop superbly. Michonne, a fan favourite the comics, does that very well over the course of the season.The second half of the season is a bit of a slow burner, as it leaves a big threat slowly developing whilst individual episodes deal with individual issues. Although they do tie up one loose end that has been hanging for a while. But there are moments in this batch that are downright disturbing and memorable and that you won't forget in a hurry.The finale doesn't quite have the budget to be as epic as you might expect it to be, but it does what it needs to do. Completing character arcs nicely. And setting up a slightly different status quo for year four.This is quality tv character drama. With great acting. And zombies every so often. Even if the latter isn't really your thing, the quality of the former makes this a show worth getting hooked on.The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:Languages: English.Subtitles; English.Five of the sixteen episodes do have commentaries.The extras on disc five are as follows:Deleted scenes: not quite as many of these as on season two. Just six. One each from different episodes. They all run no longer than three minutes. And can only be watched individually. But there are some very good character moments amongst them, so they are all worth a watch.Featurettes:All of these run from four to nine minutes. And can also only be watched individually.Rising Son. All about Carl and the actor who plays him.Evil eye. All about the governor.These two are general promotional pieces, but decent enough viewing.Gone, but not forgotten. All about a big event that happens in one episode. This one will stay with you for a little while, so it's worth a watch.Heart of a warrior. All about Michonne and her character arc over the season. There are some very good interviewees in this one, in particular the lady who plays her, so it's good viewing.Michonne v the Governor. An involving look at a certain set piece from one episode and how it was done.Safety behind bars. A very interesting look at how the prison set was built.Making the dead. All about the aforementioned excellent makeup and costume work on the zombies.Guts and Glory. About characters who weren't invincible. A memorable watch.

By far the best work in the zombie genre. The Walking Dead season 3 is perhaps the best series to date. I've been watching The Walking Dead since the first season aired on Channel 5 here in the UK, and it has delivered what so many films have in my eyes failed to deliver. Before I watched season 2 I bought a load of the comics to get me up to speed with Robert Kirkman's work. As you can expect there are many differences between the comics and the TV series, but unlike some people who love the comics, I love BOTH the comics and the TV series.Season 3 picks up about seven to eight months after Rick's group were driven from Hershel Greene's farm, which happened at the end of season 2. During all this time some of the characters have changed. Carl is now a proficient shot, fearlessly killing Walkers when he confronts them; Carol has, in a way similar to Andrea back in season 2, gone from scared victim to determined survivor (a scene later on in the series shows her slicing up a Walker, which the old Carol of seasons 1 and 2 never did); Daryl is now more of a team player working with Rick and the others, rather than squaring up to folk like he has done in previous series; and Rick has become a bit more cold in how he does things. The group have survived winter moving from one place to the next when they stumble upon a sanctuary in the form of a prison, which Rick sees as a defensible spot to call home, so decides to move in, although the resident Walkers make the job a lot harder.Meanwhile, Andrea (who the group thought had died last season) has been surviving with the sword wielding Michonne, a woman of few words, who has kept herself (and Andrea) alive with her sword skills, her instincts, and a pair of armless Walkers that she kept chained up. They are roaming the countryside when a helicopter crashes not far from them, and this leads them into meeting a man called the Governor, a charismatic man who leads the town of Woodbury, and has about seventy or so people to look after. He takes Andrea and Michonne in, but underneath the charm lies a sinister man who you could say is on something of a power trip.This season is more action packed than the first two, with plenty of Walkers getting bashed, shot, decapitated and stomped. The second half of season 3 does slow down with the zombie killing a bit, and indeed the action slows as well. Quite a few people have not been impressed with this season because of the second half not having enough action, with most of those complaints about the season finale, which wasn't as action packed as the season 2 finale. I can see where these complaints are coming from, and The Walking Dead could indeed do with a lot more action here and there. But a lot of people are forgetting one very important thing; The Walking Dead is not just an action adventure series, it is also a drama. I like watching zombies getting killed just as much as most fans, but what makes this series (both the comics and the TV series) worthwhile is the human side of things.The Walking Dead shows us how the people deal with life in this new, horrible world where you don't know if you'll live to see tomorrow or if you'll die. It shows us a portrayal of life in an apocalyptic world that we can only really imagine, showing us how people react to the changes made in this world, from how people look upon the past, to how people react after a friend's untimely (and often brutal) death. We see how people cope and change throughout this entire show, from the very first episode of season 1 all the way through to season 3. We see love, betrayal, friendship, hatred, fear, grief, courage, determination, and loyalty. There are examples of these qualities throughout the show. We see how someone cracks from the strain of this world after they loose someone dear to them, and how they pull back from the brink of madness when things start to get hairy. We see a friendship put under strain between two men due to the brother of one putting other people in danger. We see a young mind adapting to the brutal world to the point where they believe in some situations that murder is the only way to keep the people you care about safe (and how that person defends their action shows how cold they are becoming).This is one of the best TV dramas out there just now. Whilst not 100 per cent faithful to the comics, it still tells the story in a brilliant way. With season 4 starting very soon, I am eager to see where The Walking Dead is going with Rick and his group.

Season 3 of this show is really one of the best seasons this show ever had. Although I do wonder why Amazon Prime Video has given a lot of this season the PG rating when it really shouldn't be.