THE SECOND SEASON of AMC’s The Walking Dead came to a conclusion this past Sunday.  It was a whopper of an episode, drawing in 9 million viewers (which is impressive for TV both cable and network these days).  It was the much-needed wrap-up to what I thought was a felt-longer-than-it-was season.  I, of course, blame the gravity of Hershel’s farm for that.

In case you want a recap of the season, Newsarama has provided a handy “top ten moments” of the show’s second season.  The countdown starts here.  While it’s expected that the finale should have a number of top moments, it’s amazing how few great ones there were this season.  Don’t get me wrong: things started off strong, but I agree with those who felt like the show lingered too long in one very obvious spot (which many not bode well for the next two seasons, actually).  And the two big moments at the end of the finale were total teases.  The one thing that was worth the wait, of course, was the revelation of what was whispered to Rick at the CDC.  That wasn’t good news, of course.

A few days ago I mentioned that Andy Greenwald was reviewing NBC’s Thursday line-up each week over at Grantland.  He’s also been doing a review of this season of The Walking Dead.  I agree with a lot of what he has to say about the finale.  It’s also interesting to see what his readers think of his thoughts.  You can check out his column (with a sidebar linking to reviews of the rest of the season) here.

Speaking of those two teasing moments (lady with the swords and then the prison view), the showrunner for the second half of season two, Glen Mazzara, started dropping more hints about the show’s future (many of them in line with the comic book the show is based on).  Turns out the prison will be significant for more than one season at this point.  Not sure how I feel about that.  You can check out an interview with him over at MovieWeb here.  There be spoilers, mind you.

Is The Walking Dead a great show?  Not quite.  I agree with those who state that it has showcased moments of greatness but that it hasn’t hit a real and lasting stride (see Lost seasons one and two, in my opinion).  But it’s still worth watching.  It’s good to be reminded that television can still scare you, that fright isn’t something that only happens at the movies.  But character work is important, and I hope we see more of that in season three.  But more on my thoughts on this show later.