The Walking Dead: All 11 seasons ranked from worst to best

3. Season 3

When The Walking Dead fans think of the show’s greatest villains, there is a pretty high chance that The Governor might find himself atop that list, and that is all down to the intricate work that season 3 did in establishing him as the show’s first major human threat. He was a force to be reckoned with, with both the civilization he had built in Woodbury and the fact that he thought he was genuinely doing good, setting the tone for many of the villains that would come later.

This season was also something of a reinvention for the show as it was when it began to find a tone that would stick with it throughout the remainder of its run, as the survivors found ways of working together to build their own home. The prison setting remains one of the show’s best locations and it served well as a battleground for many of the season’s major episodes.

We also have to acknowledge that this was the season that introduced Michonne and killed off Lori in a heartbreaking moment that caught us completely off-guard. It also marked another major chapter of Carol’s evolution into the badass that she would ultimately become – and that’s something we’re all incredibly grateful for.