The Mid-Season MVP Voting for The Walking Dead

To be honest, this column started off being titled “Dr. TV Snob: Or How I Learned to Stop Hand-wringing and Learned to Love the Walkers” or “How The Walking Dead Got It’s Staggered, Growl and Bite Back.” But I can forgo some of that pretentious garble and just state that while I still don’t have it among my top shows on TV (the finale left much to be desired), The Walking Dead is back to being a “good” show for me. Or at least one where it doesn’t get pushed to “when I’m bored and have an hour to spare on Wednesday night, I guess I’ll watch it from my DVR” status. I say this with some trepidation as The Walking Dead in recent years has been much better in the first half of the season then it has been in the second, so it could be history repeating itself. But I’m willing to remain optimistic that showrunner #4 has figured out how to make this a sustainable show that won’t make me roll my eyes hard enough to put me to sleep any more. So who gets the praise outside of the production and casting staffs? Well, we actually had some strong character portrayals this season, so I guess that’s a good place to land. Remember, this is just for the first 8 episodes of season 5, not the entire series. ***Spoilers if you haven’t seen the midseason Finale.*** 5) Noah

Yes, a newcomer cracks the top five in a surprisingly shallow MVP field from this first half of the season. Michonne, Daryl, Glenn and Maggie all spent a lot of time on the bench this season and not having large impacts on the…