My zombie serial has become a soap opera. (Although in the historically literal meaning of the term, that’s still not true. I can at least still count on the zombies to be rotting, putrid shambles of people who are completely unbathed over the past year of their new existences.)

But seriously. The Heart’s Desire is chock full of people cheating on each other and dudes having fistfights and mysterious drifter chicks who talk to themselves as though they were communicating with someone a long way off, except for the lack of apparent technology. (The only soap I ever watched is Passions, so it’s possible that last thing will strike some readers as unusual; but it completely fits my experience.) Sure, Rick Grimes and companions continue to struggle with what it means to live their lives morally in this dead new world, so it’s got good philosophy mixed in. But it’s completely missing plot, just like the second one was. I liked the character development, don’t get me wrong. But probably not as much as that time, which made the plotlessness stand out more. On the bright side, Volume 5 promises to return to form. I mean, based on the pattern so far; I haven’t cracked it open to check, or anything.