10. Character Development
At the end of season 3, Gimple was set up with bus loads of expendable characters. If this apocalypse were in the Star Trek universe, all of these characters would be wearing red shirts. As it is, I'm sure their shirts will be covered in red at some point this season. Theres certainly a bus load of benefits to this. We've been given some breathing room to see some spectacular deaths while our favourite characters continue to survive. Just think, we never got a head count. As far as the audience is concerned, there are an infinite number of people in the prison. Its almost like a solution to problems that plagued the pace of season 2. In season 2, the ideal life on the farm forced the zombies into the background; primary characters thrived and developed, but a core element of the show staggered out of focus. With a bus load of new characters, fans can have their flesh and eat it too. Simply put, while the primary characters are fleshed out, the other characters get the flesh torn off of them. What concerns me, however, is the new formula that it permits. If a new character receives a good amount of screen time, it equates their death in the latter half of the episode. Characters are reduced to very transparent plot devices. In the premiere episode of this season, Patrick and Zach are both introduced and killed off. We dont even have time to gain sympathy for them; instead, were shoe-horned into feeling sympathy for Beth and Carl, the primary characters that had stated relationships with them. Sure, it worked out fairly well in an episode primarily concerned with exposition, but if the formula continues throughout the season, then it may be infected with predictability.