I’m stuck between rating this 5 or 4.5 stars but i absolutely love this season. I see this season as the real introduction to the show as season 1 is short and fast paced and doesn’t do as much as this season does. In this season we see a collision of different ideologies, mainly between rick shane and hershel, which builds up complex conflicts between the group. They all have a different way of thinking and this is due to how they each adapted into this world full of decay. Hershel views the dead as still alive and thinks this is all "gods plan”. Not everyone agrees with these ideas so whilst that, Rick is trying his best to stick to his altruistic values as a police officer and act as a leader for the group. Shane due to having witnessed the horrors of this world (like in the hospital) far more than others has adapted the most. He has lost trust for society and won’t let anybody near the group alive or dead and not caring if they aren’t a danger to the group. these ideologies are obviously in contrast to ricks bc as a police officer he believes in helping others etc. Their dynamic amazes me, it perfectly explores both positions of pessimism vs optimism in the nature of their situation. There’s also an interesting lucifer and archangel michael parallel to rick/shane’s dynamic but I won’t get into that. This is all such a good way to kick off the show and these events hugely influence the characters especially rick on their actions later on in the show, for example we literally get to see rick turn into shane in s5 (even his shirt changed into the same colour as shane’s shirt from all the blood showing how rick lost his sanity just like shane). in conclusion this is an almost perfect season of tv and one of the best twd seasons with ease.