I finally want to read The Walking Dead

I've really enjoyed watching The Walking Dead. Normally I don't get into blood and guts stuff -- the storyline often ends up being secondary to the violence. This show, though, is more about character development than squeezing as many blood soaked moments as possible into an hour.

As much as I've liked the show, I haven't really felt the urge to read the comic books upon which the show was based. The first season was compelling, but I didn't have the desire to dig deeper, and the second season was kind of boring for long parts. Definitely not the kind of thing to entice me to further reading.

The third season, though, has been different. The story arc that juxtaposed Rick and the Governor is the best thing that ever happened to this show. First, you are wondering if the Governor is really all that bad. After all, he's not doing anything Rick isn't doing. However, we get a slow reveal throughout the season and each week the writers let us peer deeper and deeper into the Governor's twisted psyche. Meanwhile, Rick is losing control of his mental state, all because he is trying to act like the kind of man the Governor really is. A man that Rick definitely is not.

I know that the season's not over -- we still have to fight the "war" between the prison and Waterbury -- but it feels like Rick's character journey, at least, has reached its destination. His call to arms in the last episode was the polar opposite to the ultimatum he delivered at the end of season two. It was an admission that the path he'd been trying to follow since he killed Shane was not right. He is a completely different person than he was at the beginning of the season, but he is much closer now to being the person he was at the beginning of the show.

It's this kind of interplay between characters, as well as a bad guy who is both believable and scary, that makes me want to delve into the story behind the show. If this kind of thing can be developed within the limitations of the TV format, then I'm dying to find out about what the writers of the comic book got into.

Plus, I hear there's more Michonne in the comics. And Michonne is my favorite badass zombie killer. I would love to see more of her.