The Walking Dead: Ranking Every Season From Worst To Best

The third season showed a lot of promise from the start, bringing some much needed consistency to the show with a higher class of action and sustained tension. The dark setting of the fortified high-security prison also allowed for some memorable set-pieces that genuinely appealed to the show’s horror roots.

Stronger character moments, heightened stakes and a much greater sense of urgency contributed to the general improvement of the show. The Governor’s introduction as a villain - fascination with severed walker heads and all - was still handled with more subtly sinister undertones than the threat posed by Negan and his blunt, bludgeoning instrument.

As a whole, however, it lost steam continuing into the second half, as the story continuously shifted between the prison and the inhabitants of Woodbury. The Governor’s romantic pairing with the much derided Andrea did nothing to improve her standing in the eyes of fans and his full blown assault that the season purported to be driving towards fizzled out with a whimper; his army fleeing the prison at the first meagre sign of resistance.

Still, fans will fondly remember Merle’s return, and some real gems from the year such as Clear and Killer Within which, along with the strong first half, established the third season as a return to form of sorts.

Best Episode: Clear - The series would come to experiment with short story vignette formats more and more often, and this is one of the earlier examples. A stunning triumph, Clear brings the highly anticipated return of a now deranged Morgan, whose story is laced with palpable tragedy. The tight focus on a small group of characters is reminiscent of season 1, while the small plot point of the hitchhiker that bookends the episode also demonstrates just how much these people have been forced to change, their humanity slowly stripped, in order to survive.

Worst Episode: I Ain’t a Judas - Andrea’s attempts to mend fences between Rick’s group and The Governor’s clan continues the trend of the show utterly failing to make her a sympathetic character: her insistence that The Governor - quite obviously a very bad man - can be reasoned with coupled with her propensity for self-righteous lectures contribute to a highly irritating hour of place-setting. By the time she chooses not to kill The Governor in his sleep, any hope for the audience warming up to her has long gone.