I took a look at the mountain of crap piled up in my dummy box’s recording device, and to my genuine surprise I found a gift from the television fairies. A present? For me? You totally should have. It’s the extended trailer for the new season of The Walking Dead, which airs Sunday night at 9pm on AMC.

Last season was genuinely terrible, with the characters alternating between looking for The Child Nobody Cares About and lollygagging around a farm. But, the final episode was intriguing. There was a zombie bloodbath, the survivors finally sacked up and left the farm, and we were introduced to a crazy person who keeps zombies as pets. From this brief glimpse at Season 3, we learn that Crazy Zombie Lady (like a crazy cat lady, only the pets really will steal your soul while you are sleeping) is back and she is in cahoots with Blondie. They have separated from the rest of the group and are guests/prisoners of a town called Woodbury. The town looks suspiciously zombie-free, which probably means it’s riddled with the undead.

In stark contrast to Woodbury, the rest of the travelers are in the process of taking over a prison swarming with walkers. These zombies aren’t the lame, boring kind from last season. No, these newfangled Prison Zombies are in varying states of decay. And there are lots of them. It’s almost like the writers realized that they were supposed to be making a show about zombies rather than a soap opera about feelings and love triangles.

And that’s why I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s season premiere like a kid before Festivus: because there’s hope that The Walking Dead will again be one of the best shows on television.

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