When does the series return after the mid-season break?

[Neil]

Well? When?

[bassman]

February. Though no specific date has been announced yet. Last year it was somewhere in the teens, I believe. They'll place it sometime after The Superbowl, which is on Feburary 3rd. So either the 10th or likely the 17th is my guess.

[MinionZombie]

As a side note, I have heard that Comic Book Men will be shifting in February from Sundays @ 11:30pm, to Thursdays at 9pm ... so all the CBM-haters can stop crying about it being on during Walking Dead night. :p

Makes a lot of sense as half eleven is a dead-end slot on a Sunday, and content wise it doesn't need to be on late due to sex or swearing or violence (making the 11:30pm slot even more daft a choice), and it also keeps that night exclusively about TWD (as it mostly is anyway).

I'd wager late-teens in February for a return of TWD.

[Neil]

February. Though no specific date has been announced yet. Last year it was somewhere in the teens, I believe. They'll place it sometime after The Superbowl, which is on Feburary 3rd. So either the 10th or likely the 17th is my guess.
So about a 9/10 week gap then...

[AcesandEights]

I actually like the gap, as it'll make waiting for October next year a lot easier!

[Neil]

I actually like the gap, as it'll make waiting for October next year a lot easier!

And Game of Thrones is back early next year too to help fill in that space :)

[MinionZombie]

The gap for TWD feels a bit less than some other shows. We have the mid-season finale at the start of December, so in a way only three weeks of December are devoid of TWD's creamy goodness, but jam-packed full of Xmas-and-New-Year-flavoured delight, then you've got January, and then it's just a couple of weeks at the start of February and you're under way again ... so it doesn't feel as long-a-gap.

Way better than the full year between 5x08 and 5x09 of Breaking Bad! :stunned:

Plus they pace the show to reflect the mid-season gap, and it kind of works quite nicely. It certainly ramps up the anticipatory glee that we get in the lead-up to a new batch of episodes, and, very true, the wait until October for a whole new season is shorter.

Remember after season one when the howls of turmoil rose up from the mists of HPOTD, exclaiming "WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER?!" Simpler times... :D

[bassman]

Remember after season one when the howls of turmoil rose up from the mists of HPOTD, exclaiming "WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER?!" Simpler times... :D

That always baffled me. It's usually a year between seasons for drama shows of it's kind.

I've wondered if the mid season break originated during Season Two because they had to rewrite the second half during the Darabont departure and the first two episodes being combined. That's likely what happen there, it also worked out for the Holiday Season, and they've just continued it for this current season. I imagine it will be this way from here on out.

[MinionZombie]

That always baffled me. It's usually a year between seasons for drama shows of it's kind.

I've wondered if the mid season break originated during Season Two because they had to rewrite the second half during the Darabont departure and the first two episodes being combined. That's likely what happen there, it also worked out for the Holiday Season, and they've just continued it for this current season. I imagine it will be this way from here on out.

Hmmm ... maybe, but maybe not. As you say - the holiday season - that would have always come up, and with a show like this it's daft to have just a week or two off between episodes - it really interrupts the flow (even on the likes of ABC and Fox they eventually stopped such nonsense with Lost and 24 so the viewer wouldn't lose their momentum), so surely they were always planning a mid-season break ... right? Hmmm ... I'd imagine the back-six were relatively unscathed by the Darabont situation, it was perhaps more likely the front-seven that had to be rejigged a bit at the last minute.

It is interesting though that an original idea was to have them reach the prison at the very end of season two and be surrounded by a shitload of walkers and then the season ends ... but of course there was also the intention of having 2x12 be the thirteenth episode, or at least the Rick/Shane confrontation to be the season climax ... so hmmm, maybe there was larger rijigging done to the back-six after all as I think about it more (beyond side issues like Dale getting killed instead of Hershel).

Either way, it's a happy accident of sorts (in unhappy circumstances) that has worked out not-too-bad so it seems. They're planning the plots that way too, so it's not just some arbitrary thing. It's also good to see that the stormy weathers that battered season two around have subsided and season three is proceeding very smoothly. I'd imagine many shows have easier second seasons generally, but it's excellent that TWD weather those various storms and pushed on through to the rarified atmosphere beyond. Season three has been really strong. :cool:

[bassman]

It was confirmed on Talking Dead that TWD will return February 10th. They also mention that Talking Dead will follow directly behind the new episode and will now be an hour long. Good news all around.

So slightly over two months until episode 309....

[MinionZombie]

It was confirmed on Talking Dead that TWD will return February 10th. They also mention that Talking Dead will follow directly behind the new episode and will now be an hour long. Good news all around.

So slightly over two months until episode 309....

Good news indeed, it's just a shame that AMC don't share The Talking Dead with the rest of the world's TWD fans via YouTube. :(

It did seem a bit stupid to air the repeat immediately after the episodes had just aired, thus shafting new content a full hour later on a Sunday night. Thought that was a silly move to begin with, and clearly they've found it to have been a silly move (as I mentioned elsewhere, and as a connected aside, they're moving Comic Book Men to its own night - Thursdays at 9pm, from what I've read).

Just a touch over two months - very reasonable. :)

[aaron2]

Its been confirmed! Starting on 14feb :)