The Walking Dead – The Complete Fourth Season: Blu-ray Review
Season Overview:
In the fourth season, we see Rick and the group of survivors fostering a thriving community in the safe haven of the prison only to have it short-lived as the group loses everything, their home, family, and friends to the threat of the walkers, outside threats and the hidden dangers brewing inside the fences. The group of survivors are broken apart and sent on divergent paths, unsure of everyone else’s fate as they are exposed to new dangers, new enemies, and heartbreaking choices. They will have their faith thoroughly tested – a faith that breaks some of them and redeems others.
The Walking Dead has had everyone’s attention from day one and now in their fourth season they’ve shown that they definitely have longevity. I’m not going to say that it hasn’t had it’s ups and downs (we’ll get into that) but it’s hardcore fan base has stayed the course. The season started off really strong with the group encountering the “zombie flu” that was going around. I thought that it was an awesome idea that I really wish would’ve been explored more. They could’ve done practically a whole season on that aspect and even gone into real life scenarios involving the agriculture and water in the area due to the sickness. I still think that my favorite “villain” pick on my wish list would be a HUGE storm but I’m going off topic here. I think my only qualm so far was that all of that happened in the first half of the season and by the second half you didn’t see any more sick walkers or any mention of it. I think something like that NEEDS to come up again, especially now that they aren’t within the safety of the prison walls anymore. The resurgence of The Governor was something that I was waiting for and I really liked the fact that we got to know him a bit more and delve deeper into his story a bit. The thing that I dug the most was the way that they built him up to a point where you almost felt sorry for him and then you just end up hating his guts again…haha! The end of his chapter I thought was a bit cheapened in my opinion. I really thought they were going to send him off extravagantly and memorable but it kind of felt like the exit of any other person. The second half of the season was solid and built up on what came out of the previous half’s finale and gave us some really good, emotional episodes and by the time the season finale came around it opened up a whole new list of questions. Now although I did feel like the last moments of the finale didn’t have a huge impact or leave me with my jaw dropped but it was effective. Now I really hope that next season we don’t have the group splitting up anymore. I know it does create a narrative for them to find each other and connect again but you can only do that so many times. If you’re a fan of the comics then you can somewhat see what may (or may not) be coming and that has me pretty excited for the possibilities. I saw this season as a stepping stone to some big moments to come from Team Rick and even though there were some story elements that fell a tad short I still think it was solid. If you’re like me then this is a definite buy and it will feed your Walking Dead until October.
Special Features:
Inside The Walking Dead – Featurettes for each episode this season that goes into the story and character development.
The Making of The Walking Dead – A featurette for each episode in the season that digs into the behind the scenes aspect. They give us a look at just what it takes to bring this post apocalyptic show to life.
Drawing Inspiration – A neat feature that looks at how the show and the comic are similar yet very different in many ways.
Hershel – The cast and crew discuss just how influential the character was in the show and the impact he made.
The Governor is Back – A look at the character and his development and journey through this season.
Society, Science & Survival – A look into the inclusion of The Walking Dead into various courses in academics.
Inside KNB Studios – This feature shows how the effects team creates some of the gory moments in the show and their process. This was a personal favorite of mine.
A Journey Back to Brutality – An examination of Rick Grimes and the characters’ changes throughout the season.
Deleted Scenes – A good number of scenes that I actually thoroughly enjoyed. That doesn’t happen too often with me and deleted scenes.
