Why Can’t The Walking Dead Be Great for a Whole Season?

MILD SPOILERS LAY AHEAD. NO DETAILS GIVEN FROM EPISODE 603.

Season six of The Walking Dead's first three episodes took off like a F-18 from an aircraft carrier. I'm afraid episode four will land like a F-18 on an aircraft carrier; catching an arresting cable and coming to a sudden stop.

All of the preview clips and photos show only Morgan, played by the fantastic Lennie James, meandering around the woods dealing with zombies. When you think about the mind blowing way the last episode ended, it makes complete sense that this is the week that showrunner Scott M. Gimple and crew put a KA-BAR in the head of the show for a while.

This has been the pattern of The Walking Dead since season two. Great episodes, of which there would be one or two in a row, are then followed by one to four episodes that spend too much time defining characters and do nothing to move the story forward.

In season two, the first three episodes of the second half, "Nebraska" (ep. 208), "Triggerfinger" (ep. 209), and "18 Miles Out" (ep. 210) were full of action, plot movement, and character development. Rick, Hershel, and Glenn were attacked in the bar by another group, and by a small herd of zombies. They end up taking the wounded Randall back to the farm and instead of killing him decide to cut him loose in a near by town while the bubbling feud between Rick and Shane over Lori and (Shane's) baby finally exploded.

The the next episode "Judge, Jury, Executioner" (ep. 211) was horrible. Everyone talked about what should be done and then more talking and Carl was being a dumbass (back when Carl was a dumbass, he isn't anymore.)

Season four was also loaded with inconsistency, especially the "What's the Governor been up to?" episodes of 406 and 407.

My best guess of what is to come in this week's episode, entitled "Here's Not There" (ep. 604) is a lot of flashbacks to the time between the last time we saw Morgan in "Clear" (ep. 312) and Morgan finding Daryl and Aaron outside the Wolf Den in the season five finale. My fear is that the frenetic current timeline will cease to take place and we will watch 90 minutes, yes that's right, 90 minutes of character development.

Either AMC thinks fans are stupid, or they are abusing their best product to promote its other shows, one or the other. In a press release the network tries to coat the pill with chocolate before Miracle Max shoves it down our throat.

AMC is bringing fans “The Walking Dead Mega Sunday” event on November 1st at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. During the all-new extended 90-minute episode of “The Walking Dead,” AMC will air the world premiere of the trailer for AMC’s upcoming, highly anticipated series “Preacher,” as well as the television premiere of the “Into the Badlands” trailer.

Guh.

Maybe these shows will be really cool. But then again, maybe this 90-minute episode is really only a normal 60-minute episode stretched out with so many commercials and promos it would make the NFL blush.

I will find out Sunday because I am the definition of a sucker.

I also hope I am completely wrong.