Well There Goes That Surprise in The Walking Dead

If you're a Walking Dead fan, then this won't come as a surprise to you. For the rest, it will and for a good portion of you on either side, you may not want to know this. So read ahead at your own caution. AKA: Spoiler alert.

TNT won't say a word, but Variety hears Jon Bernthal is in "early conversations" with the network to headline L.A. Noir, the period-piece crime drama spearheaded by his former Walking Dead boss Frank Darabont.

Cut to the chase, they're telling us Shane (Rick's no so best friend growing increasingly unstable as season two progressed) meets his end as this season closes out leaving Bernthal the opportunity to look for work, and progress his career while it's hot further.

All things considered, yeah I'm surprised. Shane's fate in the Robert Kirkman comics, I knew. But they've so far kept Shane around further than that clearly picking and choosing from the source material while going in their own direction; a direction that seems dictated to waiting around Hershel's farm and looking for Sophia.

The Rick/Lori/Shane triangle was the kind of soap opera (returning from a presumed death, best friend sleeping with your wife behind your back, maybe getting her pregnant if we're following the comics) to keep the show going in between zombie head explosions.