The Walking Dead is a tv series about life after a zombie apocalypse. It is based off of a comic book series of the same name and premiered Halloween night on the AMC network. The first season, comprised of six episodes, recently finished airing. Because I only got around to watching the show this past weekend, I thought it would be a good time to review the first season.
While drawing its name from the undead creatures that permeate the series, The Walking Dead is really about the human survivors trying to stay alive in a world that has changed dramatically. The main character of the show is Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) who was a Sheriff's deputy before the dead rose. After being shot in the line of duty, Rick falls into a coma. When he awakens, he finds himself in a much different world. All of his loved ones have fled town and apparently left him for dead. After receiving some help from another survivor (played by Lennie James), Rick leaves his home in search of his family.
Before anyone thinks that The Walking Dead is about a man searching for his family all by himself, it is not. Rick encounters other survivors early in his journey. These survivors have built a small community just outside of Atlanta, GA which includes Rick's wife and son as well as his former partner. Once Rick joins these survivors, things start to get really interesting as Rick and his former partner, Shane (played by Jon Bernthal), begin to clash over leadership of their small group. That conflict kind of drives the last few episodes of the season.
I quite enjoyed these six episodes as a lot of story and character development got crammed into a small number of episodes. The acting was sharp and the writing was excellent. However, the season felt kind of lacking because of so few episodes. Also, very little happened in the last two episodes so they detracted a bit from a strong debut season.
Aside from these gripes, The Walking Dead is a very enjoyable and gory series. The first season may be over, but all of the episodes are available online at AMC's website. Unfortunately, it seems like season 2 will not be airing until late 2011 so you may want to make those six episodes last. That is, if you can.
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