Review: THE WALKING DEAD Premiere

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed THE WALKING DEAD premiere tonight.  I absolutely loved it.  A lot of the things that had bothered me in the first season were absent in this episode and what I had liked in the first season was back in spades.





WHAT I LIKED

The Zombies
The zombies were amazingly well done just like they were in the first season.  Gruesome, terrifying,  and deadly, their mere appearance is enough to make me want to look for shelter and weapons.  Seriously, the zombies in this TV series are just the best zombies I have ever seen.  Tonight's "herd" was perfect.

The Characterization
I finally felt like I actually got to know the characters.  Last season they felt superficial and not well-drawn out except for a few that weren't mainstays of the series (Duane, Morgan, Jim).  There was a lot of exposition from the characters that never revealed who they really were.  In this episode, I finally felt connections to these characters.  A good example of this was Carol and Rick's prayers in the church.  This was a great way to peer into their souls.  Shane's conversation with Lori was also well done because it gave us a clear idea what is going on in both their minds about their situation.

Andrea was the best of the lot tonight.  She was so amazing in her confrontation with Dale.  I really liked how she stood up to him and called him on the B.S.  he was dishing her. The way she said "gratitude" sounded like a curse, which was just great acting.

I also liked how we got a glimpse of Dale's penchant for manipulating situations to get his way because he really does believe he knows best.  I'm curious to see how this plays out with Rick.

Plus, the women were treated like actual people and the sexism that plagued a few episodes in the first season wasn't present.

The Plot
The story line actually progressed in a way that made sense. No more tents, cans on strings, sitting around campfires talking about watches when in full view of downtown zombie-infested Atlanta.  This time around the survivors were being proactive and actually doing things that made sense: trying to make it to a safe place, scavenging for supplies, repairing vehicles, cleaning weapons.  Even Sofia getting lost felt like something that could really happen and opened up a great opportunity to explore group dynamics.

The Gore
Any zombie story is going to be gory.  It just has to be considering the dynamics of a zombie-infested world.  The gore on the show was so well done it made me squirm.

WHAT I DIDN'T CARE FOR


T-Dog and Glenn
Both of these characters were given very little to do in this episode.

T-Dog (I hate that name!  C'mon, give him a real name!) somehow managed to survive despite slicing through his artery when trying to escape the zombie herd.  As Evil Ed of THE WALKING DEAD Podcast said tonight while we were taping the new show, T-Dog is the clumsiest guy in the world.  He drops the keys in the first season and nearly kills himself in the second by being a klutz.

Glenn really didn't do a damn thing in the whole episode.  I barely remember him being in it.

So the sexism was absent in this episode, but so were the minority male characters sadly.

Zombie Rules
The zombie rules in the show continue to be inconsistent.  I noticed in the first season that the zombies couldn't climb ladders, but in the same episode could scale fences.  In one episode we were told that the zombies mostly came out at night. Yet all the following episodes had the zombies very active during the day until the last episode of season one when they went to the CDC when again zombies were not active during the day.  Last season the zombies ran, this season they shamble, sometimes very quickly.

Tonight, again, the zombies seemed to be either extremely fast, or very slow, super stupid, or scary smart.

They really need to make a zombie bible and stick to it.

FINAL THOUGHTS


I loved it.  I really did.  The show held my attention and had me jumping.

I'm definitely on board for the rest of the season.