Sunday marks the return of AMC's zombie survival drama The Walking Dead. Sources say the midseason premiere promises to be darker than season 3, which ended with an attack on the prison that scattered the survivors.

Despite being widely popular, a reviewer from Salon has criticized the shows last seasons for lack of diversity and representations of patriarchal society: "If anything, gender and race have become even more problematic in this past season than they were in seasons one and two. Where before, I argued that in this new world, women were to be protected while men of color occupied a liminal space, it now appears that the white men have closed ranks and cemented their power.

"Women have been taught to shoot guns so that they can participate in protecting the group, but they do not have access to power -- they are not consulted when major decisions get made -- and their bodies have become the sites of contestation for men's power."

Aside from that, burning questions for the new season include: How will the survivors get back together? Will Carol rejoin the crew? Is baby Judith really dead?

Walking Dead Executive Robert Kirkman promises in-depth development of new characters this season. "Everybody's separated and so we're actually doing a lot of really intense, character focusing episodes. So because they're separated there will be episodes that focus on different people. There will be episodes that focus on different groups at a time when they're in their worst situation yet. We're really going to really drill down into them and get to know them much more than we've gotten to know them before."

"I think after the end of these eight episodes you're going to be acutely aware of who these people are and I think they're going to be some really shocking revelations about what makes people tick and who they really are at their core," he said.