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Review: The Walking Dead S3E05 “Say the Word”

Posted on by Arleigh

 

“People need entertainment.” — Phillip “The Governor” Blake

Wow has been the most heard, read and seen word regarding last week’s episode of The Walking Dead. While “Killer Within” had some flaws the episode overall continued season 3’s streak of quality tv since the season premiere. Gone, but still not forgotten, were the long philosophical debates about humanity and civilization in the face of overwhelming horror. In its place has been what fans and critics had been waiting for. A show that really showed the dangers and dog eat dog world of a zombie apocalypse.

It’s always been a criticism that the show had unlimited potential to explore just how people would react and be changed (or not) in a world overrun by the living dead. The show this season still asks those questions, but lets the behavior of the characters and the situation they’re in speak for themselves. This season has minimized extended expositional scenes while improving on the show’s pacing. The change in the show’s pace has been the highlight of the season as the show just continues to propel forward at breakneck speed though there’s now fear that new showrunner Mazzara and his writers might not be able to sustain such a pace with still 12 episodes left in the season. Sooner or later the show might have to slow down if just to give fans a breather.

Things don’t seem to look like they’ll be slowing down anytime soon as we find Rick unable to cope with his wife’s death and knowing it was his son, Carl, who had to make sure Lori didn’t come back. It’s not a good place we see Rick go into both literally and figuratively as he takes his trusty hatchet and enters the prison to take out his grief on whatever zombies might be still left inside. The refuge the prison was suppose to be for him and his people haven’t turned out to b safe. With two of the group’s people gone and a third missing it falls on Rick’s right-hand man in Daryl to take charge of the situation to make sure they don’t lose anyone else.

Over at Woodsbury we find Michonne finding more and more hints that the town and the Governor are not what they seem. It doesn’t help that the episode’s opening sequence has the unquestioned leader of the town keeping what looks like his undead daughter as if she’s still alive and he can’t let her go. We’re getting a sense of the insanity lurking behind the charismatic facade the Governor puts up in front of his people yet the episode also subtly brings up the question whether the people in Woodsbury even care if their leader is batshit insane as long as they’re kept safe. The scene close to the end of the episode inside the town as the Governor provides entertainment for his people shows just how much a scared population will tolerate as long as they’re kept safe.

Even though we don’t hear one word uttered by Rick in tonight’s episode (ironic considering the episode’s title) we’re able to get a glimpse into the path Rick is treading right now. People have been wondering whether Rick will turn out to be just like the Governor. Become a leader who will abandon whatever humanity and moral principles he has left to keep his people safe. Tonight we’re close to seeing just how much Rick has gone through to try and keep his family safe yet the realization that his best (which at times means doing the worst things) was not good enough. He’s snapped and his trip inside the prison was very Kurtz-like. He’s now entered the proverbial abyss and the audience gets to see Rick prowling those dark hallways in an attempt to exorcise the demons he’s now been saddled with.

While tonight’s episode lacked some of the heavy action we’ve seen from this season, so far, it more than made it up casting a light on the mental state of the show’s two leaders. The episode ends with the two leaders now seen in better light. The Governor looks to have already gone through what Rick is going through now and come out on the other side not just amoral but with a functioning insanity that allows him to keep control of his town and it’s people. Rick looks to still be on that path that could turn him into something like the Governor. Time and the rest of the season will tell whether Rick can come out of the other side of his grief-induced insanity devoid of any humanity or finding himself back out of the wilderness and into the light, so to speak.

NOTES

  • I understand AMC wants to make money off the show especially since it looks like they’ve upped the show’s budget (two locations and all), but the channel is close to the tipping point (if they haven’t already gone past it) of having way too many commercials.
  • Tonight’s episode has Greg Nicotero back in the director’s chair with Angela Kang writing.
  • The cold opening of the episode could easily have been a flashback to better times until Andrea showed up. With Lori gone it looks like Andrea will now have to bear the brunt of most-hated character on the show.
  • Enter the Governor’s young daughter. Things really are not fine in Woodsbury or with the Governor.
  • Great to see how Daryl was able to take charge of the group for the sake of the baby when he noticed Rick was still not in his right mind. In the past two seasons this situation could easily have extended for far too long as people tried to decide what to do.
  • Rick is on a killtacular killing spree and who can blame the guy.
  • Andrea has definitely tasted the Governor’s kool-aid while Michonne just wants her sword back and out of what she suspects and believes is one fucked up situation.
  • Scene with the Governor’s notebook had a nice touch a la The Shining.
  • Michonne looked like she needed a cigarette after that little exercise in the yard.
  • Nice quite moment between Maggie’s men.
  • One could almost sense how Andrea is pretty much working on Michonne’s last good nerve and doesn’t even know it.
  • Rick looks to be in a very bad place, but he seems to be clearing things out in the hallways quite nicely.
  • Mazzara must’ve made his writers watch Day of the Dead because we get another homage to that classic Romero with the wrangling scene.
  • Daryl Dixon: Badass Nanny on top of everything else.
  • Lori’s body seem to have disappeared. Whether it’s in the stomach of the zombie in the room Rick comes across or is now walking in the prison is the question.
  • The Governor must be a student of history because he knows exactly what the mob wants and it’s games.
  • Andrea always seem to have the bad habit of realizing things too late.
  • The telephone (something fans of the comics will know well) makes its appearance sooner than expected but after seeing what Rick goes through in lately it’s understandable.
  • Zombie Kill Count of tonight’s episode: 12.

Review: The Walking Dead S3E04 “Killer Within”

Posted on by Arleigh

“No more kids stuff. People are gonna die. I’m gonna die. Mom. There’s no way you can ever be ready for it.” — Rick Grimes

[spoilers within]

This third season of The Walking Dead has been hitting 3 for 3 when it came to quality episodes. The surprising part is that the season is three episodes in. Last week we had an episode where Rick and the prison group never appeared. It was a well-done introduction for the new characters that will have a major impact on the series. With tonight’s episode, aptly named “Killer Within”, we return to Rick and the prison as they start to settle in their new safe haven (as safe as any place can be in a zombie apocalyptic world).

Tonight’s episode begins with a mysterious individual who seems to be up to no good within the confines of the prison fences. We see this person (all we see is that he’s dressed like a prisoner) using the carcass of a deer (or was it a wolf) t lure zombies into the prison and also taking an axe to the chains and lock that kept the gate secured. It’s an ominous beginning to an episode that would see a major reshuffling of the show’s cast of characters. To say that tonight’s episode was shocking would be an understatement. It was full of what fans and critics had been saying last season lacked. It had action pretty much through half the episode’s running time not to mention even the quieter scenes in the beginning of the prison segment and back at Woodbury led to something instead of just filling up airtime.

The mystery of the  “killer within” of the episode’s title was kept a secret until pretty much close to the end of the episode. It was quite surprising to finally find out who it was who had opened up the gates to the prison and turned on the prison alarm which was ringing the dinner bell to zombies within the prison and those still outside the fences. There’s some leaps of logic that someone watching tonight’s episode would need to get past as to how this “killer” was able to survive so long since episode two without being noticed, but the positives of tonight’s episode outweighed any failures in logic that one noticed.

With tonight’s episode we got to see how much Rick and Carl has changed since the end of the second season and this season. What exactly happened to the group during the 7-8 months they had been out in the Georgia wilds trying to survive day-to-day until they happened upon the prison. The writers have been very silent about whether there would be some flashback sequences that showed how the group survived the Fall and Winter. All we’ve seen this season was how those months out in the wilds had turned the group into a well-oiled survival machine that had one leader and everyone with a role they’d accepted and played. The fact that the group suffered no casualties during the time-off between season 2 and the start of season 3 showed that maybe being on the move was the best thing. They’ve just moved into the prison and started cleaning the place up and now two (maybe three) of their group has died.

One of the things which stood out the most with tonight’s episode is how much Carl has come to be just like his father this season. Last season, Carl had become a joke to the audience with is penchant to avoid his adult handlers and go off running into danger. His behavior and actions even led to the group losing one of their own late in season 2. Carl before this season was almost as if the writers had no idea how to write up a child character in a zombie apocalyptic world. One moment Carl was this helpless and naive child then the next he would act and talk tough like Rick or Shane. Both sides of Carl last season didn’t ring true, but we saw hints of changes to the character in the last two episodes. We see the result of the change in the show’s leadership and mission statement for season 3. Chandler Riggs has improved as an actor which goes to show that good writing will bring out the best in even the least experienced performer. While we find out who the killer within was the episode’s title could easily mean the arrival of a harder Carl who could be on the dark path to turning out to be a killer.

As for Rick, we see another instance where he seems to have left his idealism behind and accepted the fact that ruthless pragmatism was the new golden rule of this zombie apocalyptic world. He looks at strangers not with an open-mind or whether these new people would become helpful members of his group. No, Rick has taken an insular view of the world. If you’re not part of his group then you’re a danger waiting to happen whether that suspicion has credence or not. This mindset has kept his group alive since they left the farm after season 2 but it has also made him harder, colder and more ruthless to those in the outside looking in and, more importantly, even to some within his group.

Will tonight’s events finally become the final straw that breks Rick both emotionally and mentally or will it galvanize him even more to protecting his own and damn to everyone else. This Ricktatorship has suffered it’s first casualties and it should open up a whole new world of storylines moving forward. Idealistic Rick became a frustrating character to root for in the second season, but there’s also the danger of a despot Rick this season becoming too much on the other side of the personality spectrum. It will be up to Mazzara and his talented group of writers to balance Rick as a character where he still has some sense of the white hat sheriff’s deputy, but at the same time also knowing that he cannot let that very idealism endanger him and his people.

As an audience we’ve come to expect a season to spread out how much action and tense moments a drama series has the length of a season, but the writers of this series seem to be making up for all the “go nowhere” episodes of season two with a vengeance. I’ve been saying since the beginning of this season that we’re finally seeing the series’ take on the narrative style of it’s newest showrunner in Glen Mazzara who came up writing some of the best episodes of the FX cop drama The Shield over seven seasons. He and his writers seem to understandthat in a world as savage and cruel as the one in The Walking Dead having episodes where nothing happens outside of character debating and philosophizing about the nature of civilization and humanity wouldn’t make for very dramatic tv. the question that comes up now is whether the show will be able to sustain this streak of very good episodes over the length of season three.

NOTES

  • Tonight’s episode was directed by Guy Ferland and written by series newcomer Sang Kyu Kim.
  • Some levity involving Glenn and Maggie didn’t last the episode which looks to be the most nihilistic of the series to date.
  • Michonne may not be as chatty as Andrea this season, but she’s made her words count when she has spoken. Also very observant of not just her surroundings but her situation.
  • We come across a situation regarding strangers and their fate. Last season the group, especially Rick, would’ve debated all episode long and maybe into the next one about how to deal with the strangers. Another sign that this season has become a sort of reset for the series with Rick (with some help from Daryl) deciding not to change the agreement he has with the surviving prisoners.
  • Look between Rick and Lori before all hell broke loose looked like things may be thawing between the two.
  • Good to see the writers not making Hershel go through a bout of self-pity. He even made good use of the crutches when things got real stressful.
  • This now marks the third stressful and action-packed episode inside the prison. Writers have definitely taken to heart about the lack of action and tension that plagued Season 2.
  • Carl has definitely become a mini-badass like his father.
  • It had to happen and the sequence leading up to T-Dog finally getting bit was handled quite well. There was no mysterious zombie suddenly popping out of nowhere to chomp down on his shoulder. When he moved to close the gate one could see just before the scene switched away a zombie come into the frame and move up towards T-Dog who had his back turned.
  • Part of me thinks that disagreeing with Rick’s decisions is like people saying “NO” to Jack Bauer. It’s a sure way to get yourself killed either by Rick or some other way.
  • This season really hasn’t made Andrea a sympathetic character. I’m wondering if the writers have a new role for her in contrasts to how she was in the comics. I can definitely see her turning on the group and joining the Governor.
  • The Governor definitely has a way with him when it comes to getting his way. Andrea seems to be buying what he’s been selling her and even Merle seems off his game around him.
  • It’ll be quite a turn of events if this season we end up getting Merle rejoining the group as a helpful member while Andrea becomes the Judas.
  • We learn that the Governor’s first name is Phillip and that he has a young daughter. We also get to see him channel his inner James Bond villain with a scene of him doing practice golf swings at the zombies beyond Woodbury’s walls.
  • Carl’s reaction when Maggie told Lori to take her pant’s off was classic.
  • T-Dog went out a hero and his final scene was a nice shout out to a similar throat-rip scene from Day of the Dead (the original one).
  • We finally find out the answer to whether Andrew the prisoner who Rick left locked in the prison yard with the zombies died or lived.
  • Sarah Wayne Callies performance as Lori in tonight’s episode was some of her best to date.
  • For all the talk on Twitter about zombie babies I like to remind people that the best zombie baby ever comes courtesy of Peter Jackson.
  • We hear the shot but we never truly saw Lori die by Carl’s hand. Here’s to hoping the writers are not trying to pull a fast one on the audience.
  • Carl definitely turned a corner in tonight’s episode. This season we’ve seen that Carl’s become more useful and mindful that his past behavior had some fatal consequences. It’s not until tonight that we see Carl lose that final vestiges of his childhood behind and become the child-soldier Rick and his group need him to be.
  • For all his cold distancing from Lori we see that Rick still loved Lori in the end. Talk about heart-wrenching scene from Andrew Lincoln.
  • I have to give it up to Sarah Wayne Callies, Chandler Riggs, Lauren Cohan and Andrew Lincoln for bringing their A-game and more for tonight’s episode.
  • The monologue towards the end that really got to this hardened horror fan: “You’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna beat this world. You are smart, and you are strong, and you are so brave. You promise me you’ll always do what’s right. It’s so easy to do the wrong thing in this world. You promise me you’ll always do what’s right. It’s so easy to do the wrong thing in this world. So, if it feels wrong, don’t do it. Alright? If it feels easy, don’t do it, don’t let the world spoil you. You’re so good. My sweet boy. The best thing I ever did. I love you.” — Lori Grimes
  • Zombie Kill Count for tonight’s episode: 32.

Horror Review: The Walking Dead S3E02 “Sick”

Posted on by Arleigh

“You think this is sick. You don’t want to know what’s outside.” — Daryl Dixon

[some spoilers]

There’s been an interesting pattern when it comes to The Walking Dead. The series has always had strong season opening (even mid-season returns) but the follow-up episode always seem to come up short. It happened with the second episodes of both first two season and even the episode which came after the mid-season return last season had some big stumbles throughout. It almost as if the writers (who at the time were still working under Frank Darabont’s directioneither as showrunner or the template he set up for the season) put everything they had into making the opening episode really strong and hoping the viewers would forgive them for not doing the follow-up episodes just as strong. Tonight’s season premiere follow-up looks to try and break that pattern. Time and reaction to tonight’s episode, titled “Sick”, will tell if it succeeded or not.

Tonight’s episode begins pretty much exactly where the season premiere left off with Rick and his group trying to save Hershel’s life who had gotten his leg bit during their attempt to clear out an adjoining cellblock. The premiere ended with Hershel minus his bit left ankle courtesy of Rick and his trusty axe and Daryl focusing the aim of his crossbow at the sudden appearance of a group of prisoners who happened to have survived almost a full year on their own in the prison cafeteria. It was this group’s reveal and how the two groups dealt with the knowledge that there were others who have survived just as long.

We learn much abouthow the time Rick and his group spent moving around the backwoods of Georgia between seasons. The episode doesn’t say what exactly happened during those months (a nice change for critics of the series who thought episodes after episodes during the first two season relied too much on exposition scenes to tell rather than show) but we see in the changes to the behavior and attitudes of the group members how those months were. It couldn’t have been a fun time for Rick and his group, but it looks to have made them much more harder and accepting of this new world’s harsh realities. Whether not letting her hopes up when it came to her father’s chances for survival after getting bit and having his bit leg chopped off to Carol becoming even more useful as a member of the group. In the season premiere we find out through a off-chance remark from Rick that she’s gotten quite good with the AK47 and tonight we find out that during their time in the Georgia backwoods Hershel had been teaching her how to perform first-aid and rudimentary battlefield medical work. The scene with Carol patching up Hershel actually gives some clues as to what Hershel’s backstory must be outside of being just a farmer.

Is there a chance that Hershesel could he have been in the military as a medic in his younger and wilder days or was he some sort of civilian emergency medical technician?

Tonight’s episode brought up such questions and without the characters sitting around explaining things that happened. This change in narrative style could be just temporary, but ever since Glen Mazzara took over as showrunner we get less and less exposition and more and more let the character’s actions convey the story. This less is more approach has made for a much more faster pace to the story even when there’s no killing of zombies. It also has made the actors much better in how they’re portraying their characters. Long scenes of quiet diaogue is always good, but in a show that tries to show that survival is a day-to-day or even an hour-to-hour task sometimes such long, extended scenes of just sitting around talking are luxuries that shouldn’t be used like they were a necessity.

There’s a chance that the show could slide back to what plagued the first two season, but for the time being Mazzara and his crew have done a great job with the first two episodes of season 3 to address some of the complaints fans and critics had with the show. We didn’t even have any scenes with Andrea and newcomer Michonne yet the writers avoided the temptation of trying to shoehorn scenes of them in tonight’s episodes which meant sacrificing some time in the prison. Tonight’s episode was all about Rick and Tomas butting heads to see who would end up being the alpha male of the two surviving groups.

We saw how the differences in how the two groups survived has affected them. Tomas and his group of inmate survivors did so almost by luck and having to depend on their prison-honed instincts to get them through. How they’ve managed to survive even with just the zombies in the prison and not knowing the full extent of the crisis would be seen by Rick as a miracle. Our main group on the other hand had to go through almost everything this new post-apocalyptic world could throw at them and they’ve survived. It’s this time out on the road, surviving day-to-day, supplies always on the verge of running out and not knowing if tomorrow might be their last day that has forged this group into hardened battlefield veterans. Make no mistake about it Rick and his group look and behave like war veterans still fighting to survive and having almost having learned an almost preternatural instinct to see danger lurking about.

This doesn’t mean that Rick and his group have come out of their time out in the wilderness surviving fully unscathed. Carl has become more useful and capable of taking care of himself, but at the cost of his innocence and childhood wonder at the world. Even T-Dog has become a very integral part of the group (thank you writers) and has become not just the “red-shirt” waiting to be knocked off for expediency’s sake. The biggest change has been to Rick who seem to have lost whatever optimism he might have had about finding peace and quiet in this new world. He’s now all about keeping his people alive and if that means killing other humans who might pose a danger to him fulfilling that mission statement then he’ll do whatever it takes. We see this change in Rick not through some exposition (something the character loved to do in the first two season) but in how he dealt with Tomas and other prisoners. It will be interesting how Mazzara and his team of writers will deal with Rick and the Governor who, if they’re following the basic outline of the comic book character, had to do almost the same exact things to keep his town of survivors alive through the crisis.

With the episode ending with Rick firmly in control of not just his group, the prison and the rest of the surviving prisoners (not to mention Hershel looking to have survived his encounter with the walker bite and Rick’s axe) it looks like next week’s episode will be focusing on the adventures of Andrea and Michonne and what looks like the introduction of this season’s main villain in David Morrissey’s own brand of despotic ruler in Philip Blake aka The Governor.

NOTES

  • Tonight’s episode was written by show newcomer Nichole Beattie and directed by show veteran Billy Gierhart.
  • Anyone who thought that Tomas and his group of prisoner will get through the episode unscathed can’t be blamed for that assumption. If this was season two there’s a chance they would’ve lasted intact for half the first half of the season. New regime looks to avoid that and keep the number of survivors from spiraling out of control to the show’s detriment.
  • Sarah Wayne Callies has done a very good job in a tough role that only seems to get tougher. I don’t think she’ll ever become a sympathetic character for the fans of the show, but then again not everyone on the show needs to be sympathetic.
  • Then she blows up at Carl for putting himself in danger even though what he did probably saved Hershel’s life for the  moment.
  • Kudos to all Glen Mazzara and his team of writers for actually making a follow-up episode to the season premiere not have such a huge drop in quality. Tonight’s episode was a strong one.
  • The change in how the two Greene sisters acted in tonight’s episode reversed the role Maggie and Beth had while at the Farm. Maggie Green has become hardered by the intervening months between Season 2 and 3 while Beth has become much more optimistic.
  • The prisoners were all very interesting but kudos for the writers for not lingering too much in exploring the group’s dynamic with Rick’s own group.
  • Love how Daryl’s completely in Rick’s corner now and even willing to do the dirty work for him if and when Rick gives him the signal. Show’s that for all his faults in the early goings with the group Daryl understands that it was with Rick and not Shane that the group had the best chance of surviving. Rick may be doing the very same things Shane was advocating in the first two seasons, but Rick does so with a clear head and focus that Shane never really had.
  • The show may never have the Tyrese character from the comic book, but having Daryl Dixon in Rick’s corner more than makes up for it.
  • Killing other survivors still doesn’t sit well with Rick, but he looks to have learned that outside the group itself everyone else is expendable. He may not like murdering other people but he will if it keeps his group alive. This may be an ongoing theme for this season.
  • With the show having deviated from the comic book’s narrative it’s interesting to see how the show’s writers are starting to mine particular scenes from issues and storylines that happens much later in the comics to use in the show.
  • The relationship between Rick and Lori looks to be even more broken in the show than it as in the comic book. The question now is whether the writers will find a balance in keeping their relationship from being too broken. I do like how Rick at the end doesn’t seem ready to break the iceberg between her and Lori or if he ever wants to.
  • It’s good to see Lori admitting it on-screen just how much of a bad wife she has been since Rick returned. Her character has always been the one who was in real denial of her situation especially when it came to Rick and Shane now with the months leading up to this season it looks like Rick’s arctic attitude towards her has finally settled in her mind as to who really put the conflict between Rick and Shane into it’s violent end.
  • The zombie effects tonight wasn’t as extensive as the season premiere but Greg Nicotero and his men at KNB EFX still did a great job as usual.
  • Zombie Kill Count for tonight’s episode: between 20-25.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E11 “Judge, Jury, Executioner”

Posted on by Arleigh

“This new world is ugly. It’s harsh. It’s survival of the fittest and that’s a world I don’t want to live in.” — Dale Horvath

[some spoilers]

All the episodes since The Walking Dead returned from it’s mid-season break has shown a change in pace through most of it’s episodes. The first episode since the break looked to continue the much slower pace of the first half of the season but finished off with a literal bang and the two episodes following it up just continued this faster pace to the second half.

“Judge, Jury, Executioner” returns everyone back to the farm and has to deal with the conundrum that is Randall. The farm has become a symbol of the show hitting the breaks instead of keeping pedal to the metal. It happens once more tonight as the bulk of the episode was mostly Dale trying to convince everyone and anyone away from Rick’s decision to kill Randall. It’s a decision we’ve been expecting as Rick readily admitted it to himself and his erstwhile friend Shane in the previous episode that Randall will probably have to die to protect the group and the farm from the unknown group lurking out there.

Jeffrey DeMunn seems to have had a tough time having to play the role of Dale Horvath who was suppose to be the voice of decency and morality in a show that was veering away from such pre-zombie apocalypse notions. It’s a sort of character that will always look out of place in a world written to be lawless and tooth-and-nail survival. Most post-apocalyptic stories will always have such characters to try and keep the rest of the group from becoming savage and amoral. It’s a tough role and made even tougher when those who behave without conscience and without morals seem to look more like hardy survivors while those who try to stay decent end up being shouted down or killed outright for their naivete.

It didn’t help DeMunn that his character seemed to come off as spinning his wheels whenever he tried to speak up to the group about the dark path they’ve been traveling down since the end of the first season. Tonight went a long way to making Dale’s point of view make sense as it did show him as the only person who seemed to be the only one who wanted to hold onto his humanity in the face of apathy and amorality. Whether his ideas and point of view was correct or not doesn’t matter. He was that angel on everyone’s shoulder who was fighting for control of the group’s morality over the devil that was Shane.

While the outcome of the decision to kill Randall wasn’t too much a surprise, Rick may be learning to be pragmatic about his decision making, he still has a soft spot in trying to be a high moral role model for his son Carl and killing Randall wouldn’t be a good way to keep up that illusion. The outcome in regards to Dale was a major surprise and should continue the show’s off-the-rails decision to deviate from the comic book in terms of who lives and who dies and when it happens. Seeing the zombies attacking Dale and with him vainly keeping the snapping jaws from his face made the scene almost being set-up as a way to convince Dale that those who were going to save him were the same people he was accusing of being amoral and inhumane. So, it was a major shock when the zombie remembered it had more than just it’s snapping teeth to kill and decided to use it’s clawed fingers to rip Dale’s midsection open.

As surprising an ending that the Sophia story-arc ended up doing with the character this one with Dale was even more so.

Just like episode 8’s “Nebraska” which started off slow and was much more focused on intellectual and philosophical debates about the right and wrong things, tonight’s “Judge, Jury, Executioner” went down a similar route until an ending that also had a literal ending with a bang. With just two more episodes left in this second season of The Walking Dead Glen Mazzara and his team of writers need to close off this Greene Farm location and find a way to get the group back on the road and have it make sense. I’m much more confident that this new showrunner and writing team will pull it off than the previous regime.

Notes

  • Dale looks so lost trying to get people to listen to his talk of decency and humanity. Everyone either looks at him like he’s talking crazy or just plain tired of hearing the same litany of why the group needs to retain it’s sense of humanity. Even the one person he thought he had in his corner in Hershel pretty much admits that his convictions in the decent thing to do were mistakes.
  • I know it’s getting old, but it’s sort of hilarious watching Dale and Shane trying to sidestep the fact that when it comes down to the bones of it they both want to kill each other.
  • Good to see Hershel make a decision about Glenn and his daughter. It’s definitely a much better scene than how it was handled in the comic book.
  • It was very surprising to see Andrea suddenly switch gears and support Dale during the group’s confab inside the house. I’m still not sold on her sudden change of heart. I think some of it was Dale’s unwavering conviction and near pleading to the group not to go down a path hey may never recover, but I also think her reaction to Shane’s advice to do some sort of coup over the Rick/Hershel leadership might’ve shown Andrea to what extremes Shane would go to. She might be regretting calling Shane as her good teacher in regards to survival.
  • Carl was a major part of tonight’s episode and probably highlighted the very things that screamed “Dumb things TV kids do” for everyone watching the show.
  • The dumb things he did sneaking into the barn to get his close look a Randall and then sneaking off with Daryl’s gun off into the nearby creek and finding the zombie might be the only thing people will remember about tonight’s episode, but deeper down Carl was the very symbol of how things were taking an amoral turn for the group that Dale was railing against.
  • Carl the tv version looks to be much farther along the path of becoming a sociopath than his comic book counterpart. I think having Shane live past the first six episodes of the show and still alive with season 2 winding to a close has had a much more detrimental effect on the child of Rick and Lori Grimes than in the comic book. This makes the character much more interesting moving forward but it also could blow up in the writers face if they make him too sociopathic and amoral that redemption would be too late for the boy.
  • Daryl’s moment in the episode showed him at his worst, badass and best. Worst in how he continues to try and distance himself from the rest of the group. Badass in how he’s able to get the very info about Randall’s group when others from RIck and Shane have failed. Best in how he dealt with Dale and how he may be the one person Rick should listen to moving forward.
  • Daryl is not idealistic like Dale, but he seems to be more observant about how the group is doing and handling things than people give him credit for. He’s willing to follow Rick’s lead even if he doesn’t agree with most of it, but at the same time won’t upset the group’s leadership dynamics. The fact that he knew Shane killed Otis but not as guessing, but observing Shane the moment he got back without Otis makes Daryl less the dumb, hick redneck he’s shown to be.
  • Some people have been theorizing that killing off Dale was because Jeffrey DeMunn was a Darabont regular thus was going to be on the chopping block because of that professional relationship. If that is the case instead of a creative decision to shake up the show’s group and storyline even farther from the comic book then Laurie Holden should be worried in her role as Andrea since she is also a Darabont regular.
  • T-Dog makes an appearance and I think he had one or two throwaway lines. Please, Mazzara and writers just kill him off and bring in Tyrese who at least brings some backstory that could be mined to better effect than what T-Dog has contributed.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E5 “Chupacabra”

Posted on by Arleigh

“If I knew the world was ending I would’ve brought better books.” – Dale

[spoilers within]

There’s been a growing complaint from fans of the show that this second season of The Walking Dead has been meandering and walking in place instead of dynamically moving forward and killing lots and lots of zombies along the way. I will admit that the show has lingered on too much on the”Sophia is missing angle” for far too long. The writers seems to be using the search for her as the reasoning for Rick and his group to continue on staying on the Greene Farm. I will however disagree that the show hasn’t had enough zombie action to justify the show’s premise of a world experiencing the zombie apocalypse.

The Walking Dead the tv series was always going to be a show which focused on the characters and how they’re managing to adapt or not adapt to the new world around them. If there was ever a reason why fans of the books became fans it was that very thing. I try not to compare the show to the books, but if there was ever a similarity between the two it’s how the zombies remain on the background as a looming threat which would actively make their presence known not every issue but when readers least suspect them. The show has done a good job in trying to convey this aspect of the books and at the same time taken more effort to make the characters on the show more fully-realized.

This season has done more in expanding the characters than the truncated first season, but it also meant it had to sacrifice some of the more gruesome and zombie action some fans have been clamoring for. The previous episode, “Cherokee Rose”, typified the complaints some fans have been having with this season. It went too heavy on dialogue some of which were pretty good and some which didn’t seem to do anything but just expound on the main themes for the season.

“Chupacabra” makes the fifth episode into the second season and it manages to balance the zombie action and the character interaction. First off, we still haven’t found Sophia in one shape or another. Even one of the characters on the show second-guesses the need to continue searching for the missing girl if it meant constantly putting the group in danger. While the search for Sophia only amounts to finding a discarded doll by the creek during the search it does mark one of the stronger part of this episode. An episode which continues to make a character created for the show and not in the books one of the highlights of the series in it’s 11-episode history to date.

But before we move onto why Daryl Dixon remains the badass and fan favorite of the series I must point out that the series does another great cold opening. This time it’s a flashback to the chaotic days of Shane, Lori and Carl trying to make it to the refugee center in Atlanta. We see them stuck in the very same type of highway gridlock which began this new season. This scene shows Sophia still safe and playing with Carl as we see a bit more of the abusive relationship between Carol and her husband. The highlight of this scene is seeing the event of Atlanta being napalmed and dashing the hopes of Shane and Lori that a safe haven could be found there. Like the cold opening from season 1 where we see Shane back in the hospital with a comatose Rick, this episode’s opening does a great job of showing how things just fell apart while Rick was under.

This opening would be followed up with Daryl going off on his own to continue looking for Sophia and getting into more trouble than he anticipated. If anyone ever doubted how much of a badass Daryl Dixon has turned out to be then this episode should erase such doubts. Not only did he survive falling off a horse, down a steep incline into the river and get an arrow stuck to his side for his troubles, but he survives even worst things as the day wore on. We even see the return of Daryl’s brother, Merle Dixon, in this episode but in such a way that fans of the show probably didn’t expect.

When the episode wasn’t focusing on Daryl’s troubles it brought it back into the Greene Farm where we continue to see a growing rift between Hershel and Rick. Hershel is starting to turn from the kindly, country doctor and into a patriarchal autocrat who expects his orders to be obeyed or else. In the case of Rick and his group the or else would be them being told to leave the safety of the farm for the outside world. It doesn’t help that Shane’s growing pragmatism and survival at all cost mentality has turned to questioning Rick’s judgement as the group’s leader. Even their good-natured conversation about their respective love life during their high school days shows that the two really are quite polar opposites when it comes to their personalities and how they view things around them.

It’s these type of scenes which some fans have considered as too soap opera-ish and boring. How it detracts from the horror of a show about the zombie apocalypse. It’s these scenes which actually makes a point in showing just how much horror awaits those who have survived, so far. All the reminiscing of their past lives just reinforces the fact to these people that their lives have irrevocably changed and not for the better. It also shows how much the new world they live in now have begun to change all of them and not for the better. For some these changes have been easier to accept while some still try to cling to the ways of the old world in an attempt to not just survive but live.

Even the title of the episode just reinforces the premise of the show and how everyone in it must learn on the go to live and survive. In a world where the dead have come back to life to devour those still left alive then everything and anything is possible. Whether those still left will find a way to stay human in order to survive is the ultimate focus of this show. The zombies will always be waiting to greet these characters which makes these “peaceful” moments that much more bittersweet for everyone involved.

Notes

  • As a huge fan of apocalyptic fiction the cold opening of the highway gridlock was well-staged. From everyone seeming to have packed haphazardly to Carol’s husband acting like their quest for a refuge was a military operation.
  • The scene of Atlanta being napalmed as the horrified refugees looked on in the distance is really something we rarely see in zombie fiction. Zombie apocalypse stories usually occur with the world already gone to hell or the setting is more intimate and smaller scale. Rarely do we see just how epic in scope the event truly is (w/ exception to Max Brooks’ World War Z and, to a certain extent, 28 Weeks Later)
  • It was good to see Carol not moping around and feeling all useless. Her volunteering to cook for the group and the Greene family was a nice touch in trying to bring her back from the brink.
  • Leave it up to Glenn to figure out Lori’s secret and as we see later on in the episode it won’t be the only one he will have to try and keep to himself.
  • Speaking of Glenn, his growing relationship with Maggie was such fun and nice addition to a show that’s all about doom and gloom. The fact that they were acting like high school kids who were in lust with each other put a smile on my face.
  • The fact that the barn finally becomes a major component to the current story-arc wasn’t a surprise, but how the writers were able to finally show why Hershel wanted Rick and his group to stay away from the barn should make the next episode something to look forward to.
  • Maggie’s expression of glee at another rendezvous with Glenn suddenly turning into utter horror continues another strong performance from Lauren Cohan in the role. She has definitely made the Maggie Greene much more well-rounded this early on in the show when compared to the books.
  • I was surprised at how Merle’s return was treated and I must admit that it was done in away that made sense.
  • Always wear steel-toed boots when the zombie apocalypse hits.
  • Andrea is finally on her way back from being useless and constantly harping on Dale and everyone. Unfortunately, her first attempt to show just how useful she can be ends up turning into a friendly fire situation.
  • Daryl’s “encounter” with his big brother Merle may not be to Rick and the group’s benefit. Going to be interesting what the writers plan to do with this turn of events and whether fans of the character will like or hate it.
  • Two more very inventive zombie kills from the make-up wizards of KNB EFX.

Quickie Horror Review: Masters of Horror – Deer Woman (dir. by John Landis)

Posted on by Arleigh

It is hard to categorize John Landis’ contribution to the Showtime horror anthology series, The Masters of Horror. Landis made a name for himself in the horror genre as the director of the classic early 80’s werewolf film, An American Werewolf In London, and the cult classic vampire-noir film, Innocent Blood. With his “Deer Woman” episode, John Landis reaches back to his past work and comes up with an episode that mixes horror, absurd situations and a healthy dose of black comedy.

“Deer Woman” has something in common with An American Werewolf In London in that this episode deals with a creature born out of folklore and myth. This time around its a creature from Native American folklore. The creature in question is the Deer Woman. A legendary creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman from the waist up and that of a deer from the waist down. The Deer Woman will then go on a spree of seducing random men then trampling them to mincemeat. In this respect she has a bit of the mythical succubus mixed in with the shapeshifting. It is during the aftermath of one of her killings that we’re introduced to the main player in this horrifically absurd little tale. Detective Faraday (masterfully played with a dry wit and comedic timing by Brian Benben) gets called in to the scene thinking it is an animal attack, but the crime scene leaves him confused, perplexed and a tad more than intrigued by the case after it’s unceremoniously taken away from him.

We learn through the length of the hour-long episode that Faraday is a disgraced cop due to an incident in the past that’s made him a pariah in his own department. Faraday’s sidekick in his hunt to solving the murders and thus finding the Deer Woman is a beat cop played by Anthony Griffin. Former Brazilian, and still smoking hot and stunning, Cinthia Moura does duty as the abovementioned Deer Woman. She goes through the entire episode without uttering one line. Her eyes, expressions and body language conveying whatever motivations and thoughts may be in her head. She did pretty well and it didn’t hurt she looked very natural baring it all on the screen.

The dialogue in the episode was where the absurdity of the moments in the story shone through to give “Deer Woman” its black-comedy. The characters in the film react to murders and the clues leading to what might be their only suspect with incredulity, denial and dismissal. Yet, no matter how much the characters of Faraday and his partner try to deny what they know in their mind is the real killer, they inevitably see the truth of the matter dangerously up close and personal. The teleplay for the episode was primarily written by Max Landis (the director’s son) with some brief rewrites and treatments by John himself. They both run with a very absurd situation and run with it fult-tilt and non-stop. They both know how silly the story sounds and its that silliness that makes this episode memorable. In fact, if I really had to categorize this episode I would call it a comedy with small bits of horror slipped in (horror and gore effectively done — once again — by the master effects people from KNB EFX.

Despite “Deer Woman” being closer to a comedy-horror than a straight-up horror tale, I found the episode to be very entertaining and worth the viewing. John Landis stuck to his guns in crafting an absurd tale and making it believable to his audience. With shades and hints of An American Werewolf In London, Landis’ contribution to The Masters of Horror marks a bright spot in the an uneven series, so far. Landis’ has once again shown that horror and comedy are more intertwined than most people would think.

SDCC 2011: The Walking Dead Season 2 Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

The day before AMC released new production photos from the set of the second season of The Walking Dead series. Another bonus was their reveal of the Comic-Con exclusive poster for the show painted by comic book illustrator and cover artist extraordinaire Tim Bradstreet. Today was the big panel for the show’s season 2 at San Diego Comic-Con. Robert Kirkman was in attendance as was showrunner Frank Darabont and producer Gale Anne Hurd. The cast was also in attendance. Questions about their initial experience on the truncated first season were asked and answered. But the one thing people wanted to see the panel showed quite early and again as the panel concluded.

The Walking Dead season 2 has been given a definitely premiere date of October 16, 2011 just in time for AMC’s Fear Fest leading up to Halloween. It was the unveiling of the new season’s trailer which got the audience cheering loudly and from reactions to the trailer one thing is set to be sure and that’s this season looks to be even more bleak and with more forward momentum than the first season.

The show is less than 3 months away and it cannot come any sooner.

Quickie Review: Masters of Horror – Cigarette Burns (dir. by John Carpenter)

Posted on by Arleigh

Cigarette Burns was John Carpenter’s episodic contribution to the Showtime series, Masters of Horror. This 13-episode horror anthology thought up by Mick Garris (a fellow horror director best known for adapting Stephen King stories) which includes eleven other directors known for their work in the horror genre.

John Carpenter works off of a screenplay that posits an interesting premise about an infamous film that caused the audience it was shown to the first time to go homicidal. The story itself involves a man known in the film community as someone who can find and hunt down any copy of film no matter how rare. Norman Reedus (he of Blade II, The Boondock Saints) plays the cinephile who takes on the job to hunt down a copy of this infamous film titled Le Fin Absolue Du Monde. His client was played with relish by resident weirdo Udo Kier. Really, Kier could be given any role and he’ll add his brand of idiosyncracy and weirdness to the part. In Cigarette Burns he plays an obsessive fan of the rare film to the hilt. His contribution to the the climactic ending will bring a smile to gorehounds everywhere. Alas, it’s Kier’s performance that’s the highlight of the acting in Cigarette Burns. Reedus’ performance as Kirby Sweetman the cinephile leaves much to be desired. The screenplay itself was already average, but with genuine ideas that could be explored if the acting could raise it beyond its C-grade pedigree, but Reedus wasn’t up to it.

Carpenter’s directing really can’t be faulted for the major flaws in the screenplay and in his lead’s performance. It’s not early Carpenter, but his work in Cigarette Burns was much better than what he’s done in his last couple films. In fact, this tv show entry in Carpenter’s body of work resembles one of his more underrated films. I am talking about his ode to Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft with In the Mouth of Madness. Instead of a book influencing the sanity of the reader, its a film that does it instead. A film that may or may not have divine origins that doesn’t just turn its viewers homicidal but bend their sense of reality.

I think with a better cast and a screenplay that’s worked on a bit more by its writers, Cigarette Burns could’ve been a great episode in the Masters of Horror anthology or, better yet, become a full-fledged feature film. Instead, it’s just a very good work from Carpenter with great gore sequences (courtesy of KNB EFX), but brought low due to a very rough screenplay and a lead actor in Norman Reedus who seemed stoned, drunk or both throughout his entire performance. It’s not something great, but a good showing from Carpenter that said he’s not as washed-up as many seem to be calling him.

Review: The Walking Dead (EP02) – “Guts”

Posted on by Arleigh

[Some Spoilers Within]

The second episode of The Walking Dead just aired and while it didn’t have the emotional impact the Frank Darabont-directed pilot episode had it still more than held its own. It was an episode that more than lived up to it’s title and for zombie fans and gorehounds this episode should assuage any thoughts that the series will be heavy on emotional themes and scenes while lacking on any sort of zombie mayhem and bloody good horror (shout out to the Bloody Good Horror Crew). With an apt title of “Guts” the follow-up episode of this series looks to move the story forward now that we’ve gotten some of the basics of this new zombie apocalyptic world and its rules out of the way in the pilot episode.

When last we left our intrepid hero, Rick Grimes, he had gotten himself into quite a pickle. Mode of transportation was now chow for the zombies he had cantered into and he was now stuck inside a tank with no idea of how to get himself out of the situation until he hears a voice over the tank’s radio. One would think that we’d see the start of the second episode starting up from this very last moment in the pilot, but instead we get a quieter, but more disturbing sequence to begin the show. It involves Rick’s wife Lori out in the woods near their make-shift camp outside Atlanta. The scene is set-up to almost be a jump scare scene and for some I’m sure the pay-off in the end probably made them jump, but instead we get another glimpse into Lori Grimes’ current situation and expands on what she has been doing since leaving their Kentucky town with her son Carl and Shane Walsh, Rick’s partner. This opening scenes really paints Lori in a bad light and I’m not sure it needed to be handled so heavily. I’ll reserve a bit of judgement on this development on Lori and Shane as characters. The pilot episode seem to have hinted to something like this maybe happening already before the zombie apocalypse dropped in their laps which would definitely diverge this series from the original comic book source. Only time will tell if the planned triangle-drama will pay off in the long-run or ruin a major character’s growth with audiences in this show’s future.

This brief interlude leads up to where we last left Rick and his mysterious friend on the other end of the tank’s radio. From the moment this scene starts the show puts the episode on high gear and never lets up. The pilot episode was all about quiet desolation and isolation for our main character. This second offering is all about adrenalin and desperation as Rick goes from one dangerous situation into another. We also get to meet his benefactor who had been helping him by way of radio. In a role that should make Steven Yeun a fan favorite at comic book and fan conventions starting now, we meet a fan favorite of the comic book.

The character of Glenn has always been one of the constants in the comic book series. He has been with Rick since the very beginning and while his character doesn’t have the emotional and/or dramatic gravitas as the others he does prove himself to be voice of reason when everyone around him seem to be on the verge of losing their minds from the constant barrage of danger not just from the zombies but from other people as well. It was good to see Glenn portrayed early on as the snarky character the original source material had him before he become just a tad domesticated as the series went along. The fact that he was the one who seem to know how to truly survive in this new world while those around him seem to be making mistakes after mistakes should make fans of his character very happy.

We meet the rest of Glenn’s group which includes original character from the comic book in Andrea with four new additions created just for the series. All these new characters almost have “red-shirt yeoman” tattoed to their foreheads with the exception of Michael Rooker’s blatant racist redneck role of Merle Dixon. Rooker takes this over-the-top character and drives it into the ground. I thought the character could’ve used just a tad bit of subtlely in how he was written, but Rooker definitely looked liked he was having fun with the character. In any other actor’s hand the character of Merle Dixon would’ve looked just foolish, but the Rook’s manic intensity in playing the role made me hope the situation the group left him in wouldn’t be the last we see of Merle. Rook needs to get some more screen time to either play his character’s racist personlaity to the very end or at least time to round him out a bit before he finally gets his just desserts.

Laurie Holden as Andrea seemed like she was still searching for her character’s main focus. We find out that her younger sister is back at the camp with Lori and Shane and that she’s very knowledgeable with firearms. Her Andrea also seem to be slightly prone to panicking (though with zombies having destroyed one’s world panicking seems like a natural thing to do). I hope Daradont and his writers (Robert Kirkman being one of them) don’t mess with Andrea too much, but just expand on the type of person she is and how it will grow in time to be the Andrea everyone who are fans of the comics see as one kick-ass lady.

Now, the aforementioned episode title and what it means. It literally means guts. One could see the word used metaphorically to describe Glenn’s character finding his inner courage to follow Rick into one crazy and dangerous plan to save everyone in the group. Or one could see it in the way everyone who saw the episode saw it. Rick, Glenn and their group hacking a zombie to pieces to use it’s guts to camouflage themselves. This sequence is in line with how the comic book handled it but was moved up in the story’s timeline. This slight adjustment tells me that Darabont and crew look to be mixing and matching some of the original source’s narrative to create something more dramatic on the tv screen. Either way the sequence was the best one in the episode. It had the gross out factor zombie and gorehounds love. It also had tension and white-knuckle terror as we wonder if their trick will fool the zombies and when nature throws a curvebal their way while their in the middle of a horde I could almost sense millions of viewers shouting at Glenn and Rick to drop their shit and run (for people in the same situation they may literally drop their shit before running).

While the second episode didn’t have the quieter and emotional moments as the pilot episode it did have the adrenalin boost some horror fans were missing from the first one. Some have called this episode a let-down from the pilot because it played off as your typical zombie siege story. From group members bickering to rehashing scenes from other zombie films to solve their problem. I can’t say I disagree with them, but I didn’t see it as being a bad thing. I understand some critics and non-zombie fans want something new and fresh to be done in the zombie genre. Again I wholeheartedly agree, but one also cannot forget that this is a zombie horror series and zombies will still be on the forefront of what makes the show tick. A zombie story with no guts and in-group bickering is not a zombie story. How they handled it in this episode show that the writers know how to take the usual zombie story tropes and do it well.

Now, if the series is just all about gore or interpersonal drama then it will lose people. The writers definitely have their work cut out for them about balancing what horror fans want and what fans of dramatic storytelling want. So far, they’ve done a good job, but with four more episodes left in this freshman season the question now is will they be able to pull it off and end the season on a high note. Official word that AMC has announced the series has been renewed for a second 13-episode season should make fans of the show happy and make the writers get somne of the burden off their shoulders. They now have some leeway in terms of time to go at their pace. I  do think even episode that skew more towards the dramatic need at least a couple exploding headshots and one gore scene just to keep the horror fans sated til the next gore-heavy episode.

Extras

This episode also had some memorable lines to remember and repeat…

Glenn: “He’s also an organ donor.” (right before Rick takes a fireaxe into one of the truely dead “walkers”)

T-Dog: “Yeah, dead puppies and kittens.” (after Rick tells a visibly sick Glenn to think of puppies and kittens to take his mind off the gore)

Rick: “We need more guts.” (realizing that he and Glenn need more zombie guts and viscera after already wearing almost a full body suit of it. Still best line of the episode.)

Review: The Walking Dead (EP01) – “Days Gone Bye”

Posted on by Arleigh

[Some Spoilers Within]

It took just a little over 7 years from the time the first issue of Robert Kirkman’s zombie apocalypse comic book series was first published to the airing of its tv adaptation’s first episode. Who could’ve thought that a tv show (even one appearing on a channel with very mature and edgy shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad) about a zombie apocalypse would ever make it on the small-screen. When I say make it I mean with all the violence and gore intact in addition to some very smart and emotional storytelling.

Now here we are just a little after Halloween, 2010 and the premiere of Frank Darabont’s The Walking Dead has finally completed airing it’s pilot episode to all of North America (Europe will get it’s own premiere a few days later). The series is the brainchild of Darabont and producer Gale Anne Hurd with Robert Kirkman on-board as executive producer and the source of all that is “The Walking Dead”. To say that the pilot episode was a wonderful piece of filmmaking and storytelling would be an understatement.

The pilot episode begins with a prologue showing a lone sheriff’s deputy with gas can in hand walking amongst the empty and abandoned vehicles parked every which way around a long gas station. We see the detritus of this makeshift camp’s former inhabitants. Every this deputy look he sees torn down tents and ripped blankets and sleeping bags. The camera even does a gradual sweep and pan on abandoned children’s toys and dolls. Before we even start to ask what happened to the people of the camp we finally see the first dead bodies as they molder inside some of the vehicles with flies flitting on and off the rotting corpses.

A sign proclaiming to anyone that the station has “NO GAS” dashes whatever hopes the deputy has of finding any. Before leaving to search the cars themselves a noise behind stops him. He looks down to find where the footsteps he heard might be and sees a pair of small, rabbit-ear slippered feet walking slowly before the figure bends down to pick up a ragged teddy bear off of the ground. One could see on this deputy’s face a sense of relief that he’s not alone and has found another survivor. But his relief doesn’t last as the small figure of the girl turns around to show the ravaged and bloody wound on her face plus the glossed over eyes of the dead. We finally see our first zombie and it happens to be a little blond-haired girl. How he deals with this zombified little girl definitely sets the tone for what coudl be one of the best shows on tv this season and, perhaps, beyond. It’s not the norm to see a little girl (even if she is one of the walking dead) get shot in the head with blood spurting and the back of the head exploding on tv. Darabont’s The Walking Dead will not be pulling any punches and dares the audience to stay and hold on for the ride to come.

The episode flashes back after this great opening to show the sheriff’s deputy in a more mundane time. He’s Rick Grimes (played by British actor Andrew Lincoln) and we learn through a back and forth with his partner Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) that he’s an introspective man who seems to love his wife and son, but like most marriages when one parent is a cop the  dangerous nature of his job has strained his relationship with his wife. This quite interlude gives way to a shoot-out with some criminals at the end of a car chase and crash where Rick gets seriously wounded and landing him in the hospital. Rick seems aware of whats going, but in fact he’s been under a coma for a month or more and when he finally wakes its not to the mundane world he left behind when he was under but one irrevocably changed for the horrific.

Darabont’s cinematic touches could be seen in the sequence in the hospital where Rick explores the empty and darkened hallways and corridors looking for anyone. This entire sequence tells me that Darabont knows how to milk a scene for tension and horror. His camera doesn’t linger on any particular bloody mess but just enough to convey the realization dawning on Rick’s mind that he just stepped into a nightmare. The decision not to use any sort of music to score this section of the episode just added to tension and built up dread. The part where he finally goes into the lightless exit stairwell has to be one of the scariest sequence on tv or film this year, bar none.

The rest of the episode sees Rick learning more and more of this new world he has woken up in. It’s not a nightmare though it definitely counts for one albeit a real one. His fortuitous run-in with survivors in the father and son duo of Morgan Jones (excellently played by another British actor, Lennie James) and Duane Jones becomes the audiences way of learning the basic rules of this new world. The recently dead are not staying dead but returning to some sort of life with little intelligence but with a voracious need to feed to people (and later we find out even animals).

While the word zombies was never uttered audiences know what they are whether they’re called “walkers”, “lurkers” or “roamers”. They could only be killed by destroying the brain (either by bullet or smashing the skull with whatever’s handy). They’re also quite slow and easily avoided when spread out in small singles or two’s but deadly when in a herd-like group and all riled up and hungry. Rick takes all of this in as stoically as possible (something the character in the comic book does as well), but in the end all he wants is to find his wife and son. Which the episode doesn’t answer, but his journey to where they might be leads to one of the best cliffhangers for a pilot episode. A cliffhanger that should hook even the least fan of zombies. All I can say is poor Seabiscuit.

The performances by all the actors we get to see in the pilot episode ranges from excellent (Lennie James) to very good (Andrew Lincoln) to the jury is still out (Sarah Wayne Callies and Jon Bernthal). This episode really hinges on Lincoln’s work as Rick Grimes and he pulls it off despite what some were calling as a very bad Southern accent. I did’t notice and I’ve been around people who spoke with Southern accents and dialects that I think I could tell when one was bad or not. I think fellow blog writer Lisa Marie being from the South would have a better perspective on how good or bad Lincoln’s Southern accent was in this first episode.

It’s Lennie James as Morgan Jones who shined in this pilot episode. He did outshine Lincoln in their scenes together and he added several layers of characterization to a secondary character in the comic book series who only appeared in the first couple issues before disappearing for most of the comic’s current run until recently. It’s his work as Morgan Jones which gives me some hope that Darabont and his writers will deviate from Kirkman’s comic book timeline and bring the character back sooner rather than later. It would benefit the series in the long run (and from the ratings numbers the pilot episode received I’m guessing this show will have legs).

But what would a tv series about zombies be if I didn’t talk about the zombie make-up and gore-effects. When news first filtered in that AMC was where Kirkman’s on-going zombie opus was landing for a live-action adaptation there were some trepidation from the book’s fans and just zombie fans, in general. How can a comic book that was nihilistic to its core and very violent (and gory when it required it to be) be able to truthfully translate to tv when it wasn’t being filmed for one of the two premium cable channels like HBO or Showtime. AMC was the home of very mature series like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. While both shows explored very mature and dark themes it’s only in some episodes of the latter title that very violent scenes were shown. In something like The Walking Dead the show is about violence and how it’s now the primary rule of the land. It’s a kill or be killed world and it’s not even the zombies who would be the most violent encounters Rick and his group would run across.

It’s safe to say that AMC has been true to their word that they would have a hands-off approach to how Darabont and compant will deal with the violence and gore of the series. They seem to understand that this is a zombie story and zombie stories have inherent in their genetic make-up violence and gore. The pilot episode showcases both in plain view with some of the best zombie make-up effects work from Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger of KNB EFX fame. I’ve seen hundreds of zombie films and I will say that the make-up work this pilot episode is some of the best ever done. The so-called zombie bike girl still impresses me everytime I see it on my tv screen. As for the gore well all I can say is poor Seabiscuit.

I would say that the pilot episode of The Walking Dead was a success in more ways than one. It was a success in that for the first time in American tv history we had a genuine zombie show on tv and the kind fans have been wanting to see for years. It was also a success in that fans of Kirkman’s book who were still leery about how well it would translate to live-action should worry no more. Darabont and his writers were true to Kirkman’s vision while still able to deviate here and there from the comics to help strengthen the dialogue and the story as a whole. Critics of Kirkman’s writing style should be loving just how well the series writers have worked out some of the heavy exposition from the comics to create what really is a leaner, but better story.

Here’s to hoping that AMC sees the numbers and general positive reaction from critics and audiences alike and do the right thing by greenlighting a second season with more episodes. The six for this first season is definitely enough to whet the appetites of old and new fans but we want more. The dead have come to to tv and I don’t see them going away anytime soon.