The Walking Dead Season 4 Premiere "30 Days Without an Accident" Review

Warning: This Review Contains Spoilers for the Episode!

            Now that The Walking Dead is finally back, I can finally get my review up for the episode that aired on Sunday. Sorry for the tardiness. I hope it will not happen again. By the way if you could not read the gigantic sign above this paragraph, I will state spoilers of the episode inside my review, so if you have not seen the episode, then exit this review.

            We are now back with the prison crew as this season change has been the only season change in all of the season changes of this show where the primary group has actually become more like a society and improved their version of a society between the seasons, because the prison is now significantly better and more safe. Though, this episode feels the need to spend the first half of it focused on how all of their lives are now, making it enjoyable, but somewhat dull during this time of the episode. I will get to the characters now.

            Rick is now not even a warrior anymore. He does not go on runs with the crew and does not do any walker killing. He just provides food for the group using the farm they now have, and every now and then goes outside the prison gates to see what their animal traps caught. I do like that he is not crazy anymore. I do think that he is possibly doing this to get away from what he was in the last season. But I really do not like the direction his character is going in. He was my favorite character through the first three seasons, so I want him to be awesome like he was then. Though, I do think he possibly will because of his interaction with that incredibly creepy woman. The interaction between the two of them felt unneeded and went too far, but I think that will possibly affect something in a future episode or even the rest of the season. The act of the episode when Rick was following that woman around, yet suspenseful was sadly predictable. The character of that woman is sketchy; therefore she will do something bad. There is still hope for the character of Rick, thankfully.

            Now I will get to Hershel. We do not see much of him in this episode, but we do see is that he now has this thing he can use to actually walk on two legs now and that is cool. I really am glad that he has still survived, because he really knows how to farm, and he is helping Rick with that. That is all we know about him now though. The direction his character is going in is good, but there are not really any more possibilities.

            I will mention Glen and Maggie in the same paragraph, due to the fact that you never see Maggie without Glen in the scene. Glen is now going on runs and he is fighting walkers. His character is basically the same as it was last season. Maggie actually thinks they can have a baby, while having a pregnancy scare. I do agree that it would help rebuild a society, but I still think that this is no time to have a baby. I do not know about the direction they are going with her character, because I do not know much about what they are doing with her character yet. Glenn’s character is still the same. He is likable and says basically all the same lines of dialogue.

            I will talk about Carl now. I actually learned to like what he turned into in season three, but now he is not fighting at all anymore. He is now like a normal kid. I really do not like that, because he was really cool when he was good at killing walkers, and now he is somewhat a waste. That “naming the pig Violet” stunt that he pulled was really annoying and also really clichéd. Those kids “naming that walker and Carl telling them they’re dangerous” really irritated me and, like the other one, was really clichéd. I definitely do not like the direction they are going with Carl’s character.

            This is the paragraph where I mention the little time we had with Beth. At the beginning, we see that one of the people going on the run happens to be her boyfriend. Then, when they come back at the end of the episode we find out that Daryl took it harder than Beth. Last season she would have definitely cried over that, but not now. That shows that this series illustrates the realistic way of how this apocalypse affects people and I really like the direction this season is going in with her character.

            Lastly, I will get to Michonne. It was like season three was a beta test for her character. In season four, they have fixed all of the flaws she had in season three because her character is awesome. She now talks to everyone and makes jokes, which are funny, while still being as awesome as fighting and killing walkers as she was in season three. I love the direction they are going in with her character.

            Now I will talk about the episode in general. The first half does have some dull moments and nothing really happens, but the second half is awesome. The scene in the grocery store, while somewhat absurd, was so thrilling and so fun to watch that I was nearly riveted by its awesomeness. It got thrilling in the second half and really picked up. At the end of the episode, everyone comes back and the thing with Beth happens and there is just dialogue, but the ending of the episode was great. Even though the season premiere itself had room for improvement, the way it ended could only have improved a few things. It was a great setup for episode two.

            Now is the time to rate the episode.
            On the grading rating scale, I give the episode a B+.
            And on the out-of-ten scale, I give it an 8.4/10.