This week, the Washington Post and the Vancouver Sun include The Walking Dead on their year-end best lists, and FEARnet ranks Sophia's death as one of 2011's top TV kills. Read on for more.

• Entertainment Weekly names The Walking Dead's cast as one of its "Entertainers of the Year," with actor Patton Oswalt writing that Season 2 has been "stellar." (No Link.)

• Daryl Dixon is one of MTV's top 50 TV characters: "There are few men in this world who manage to look so good while killing the living dead."

• The Washington Post's list of 2011's best TV shows ranks The Walking Dead at No. 6: "Gets my 'most improved' award for a gripping second season..."

• The Vancouver Sun includes the show on its top 10 list, applauding "a taut, slow-boiling second season that burrowed deeper into its characters' buried pasts"

• Sophia's death is one of FEARnet's top kills: "Rick steps up to the plate, takes aim, and with little hesitation, shoots her dead."

• Robert Kirkman teases the rest of Season 2 to FEARnet: "the first episode back has the best ending that I've thus seen. I was just super-thrilled..."

• TV Fanatic chats with Norman Reedus, who discusses how Sophia represents Daryl's "hope for a new new beginning." Reedus also talks to MTV about his favorite zombie kills, including "slashing the zombie churchgoer across the face."

• Sarah Wayne Callies talks to the NY Times Syndicate about the source material: "It would be a disservice to the fans if they knew what's coming in every frame of the show because they know what came in every frame of the comic."

• Discussing the ubiquity of horror programming, the Plain Dealer credits The Walking Dead for setting the bar for gore "so horrifically high."

• IGN ranks The Walking Dead at No. 2 on its list of top comic book TV shows, remarking that the drama "hasn't lost the delicious bleakness of those black and white pages."

• Ology reports that The Walking Dead was the second-most watched basic cable TV show of 2011, while TV by the Numbers breaks out the numbers in the 18-49 age demographic.

• Apple's iTunes Rewind says Season 1's "What Lies Ahead" was the year's top-selling single episode. The Hollywood Reporter has the complete list.