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'The Walking Dead' ends on a sigh, some thoughts (Spoilers)

By April MacIntyre Nov 28, 2011, 4:34 GMT

Despite these annoyances, Greg Nicotero\'s work continues to excel and provide the best makeup effects on television. Exceptional work.

SPOILERS

AMC's "The Walking Dead" needs a major shot in the writers' room head, as this second season had some bright spots initially, but overall suffered from a bit of clichéd decomposition and lifeless arcs.

The alpha males, Shane (Jon Bernthal) Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) have a lot of potential, but it wasn't realized enough as the story got bogged down in the Sophia hunt, ultimately ending with her zombie revelation in the finale.

Even a cameo with the other alpha white-trash heart-throb, Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) was short-lived. This series needs a serious human thorn in all the sane survivors' side.

Even the Glenn and Maggie story was lulled into a predictable and uninteresting meh bout of blather. Hershel’s farm, and the repository of zombies that he kept alive just sucked the life out of what could have been a much more interesting season overall.

Hershel's irrational pro-life stance with dead zombies - a liability to the living - makes no sense for an ostensibly educated man of science and medicine.

He preferred to keep the living at arm's length and drive Rick's group off, which is antithetical to any normal behavior of small bands of survivors who need strength is in numbers when it comes to fighting off a ravenous zombie horde.

Despite these minor annoyances, Greg Nicotero's work continues to excel and provide the best makeup effects on television. Exceptional work.

Hopefully next season's (February 2012) efforts will reanimate some compelling post-apocalyptic possibilities and bring back Lennie James (Morgan) and his son, and even the odious Merle Dixon too.