The Walking Dead season three has burst forth like a big old machete through the cranium!  Kirkman and crew have outdone themselves and showed the world how to do the zombie apocalypse right, with compelling characters that change through interesting story arcs, fast paced plotting, nail-biting tension, pathos, and lots violence and scares.  The audience is eating it up and loving it!  Here are ten the coolest ten things that have happened in the first two episodes. (Spoilers)

The Silent Opener

The opening sequence of episode one told us a lot.  We learn that months have passed since the farm. We learn that Rick and crew are always on the run.  We learn they are hungry.  We see that they have become a finely tuned, well-oiled machine.  And all of it without one line of dialog.  Cool.

Killer Carl

Carl’s all grown up.  His dispassionate head shot of that zombie gal in episode one let us all know Carl may not be keeping up with the 6^th grade curriculum, but his zombie kill scorecard is looking like straight A’s.  You go boy!

Riot Gear Zombies

What’s not to love?  Zombies in riot gear.  And Maggie getting all excited when she figured how to take ‘em out.  Ha!!  Priceless.

Hello Michonne

Michonne meet the zombies, zombies meet Michonne’s blood soaked katana.   Comic book readers have been waiting for her and she’s here!  Audience, now you’ve got another bad ass to cheer for.

Lori’s Baby Talk

The scene where Lori is spilling out her worries of nasty baby scenarios to Herschel was a doozy.  What if the baby dies and tries to eat me from the inside out?  What if I die and try to eat the baby? Oh tell me more!

Breaking a Leg

Ricks reaction to chopping off Herschel’s leg was a whopper.  After cracking countless zombie skulls, it still ain’t easy to hack your friend’s leg off.

Who Are You Guys?

The prisoner reveal was a great cliffhanger.  I was wondering if they would pull that one out of the comic.  Glad they did.

Big Tiny Gets Smaller

When tough guy prisoner Tomas took down his zombie infected friend Big Tiny and then beat his head into a bloody pulp, I think we all figured out what Tomas was in prison for.  Then him huffing and puffing in a blood fueled rage, wow.  Powerful scene.

Exit Tomas

Tomas made a few mistakes and had to go.  Rick drifts further from his old civilized policeman ways and when confronted with the threat of Tomas, he ends it shockingly quick.  And Tomas’ friend Andrew gets caught in the fray; all that’s left of him are his blood curdling screams as Rick locks him outside in a courtyard full of zombies.  Rick 2, prisoners 0.

Maggie’s Lament

Maggie’s wrenching scene with not so nearly dead Herschel worked on many different levels, in no small part due to the fine acting by Lauren Cohan.  It was a heart rending scene of a daughter saying goodbye to her father, but there were nagging questions behind it. Did she want to see him go because he was going to end up a cripple and burden the group if he lived?  Why is she ready to give up on her dad so quickly?  Or is she?

These are some of the many reasons The Walking Dead is such a fantastic show.  It’s got depth, pathos, and lots of crossbow bolts entering zombie skulls.  Season three is killing it so far.  The show is raising the bar for TV horror.  I hope they continue to raise it, stopping every so often to jam it into an eye socket or two of course.