'TS-19' - The Walking Dead, Season One

The Walking Dead

Season One

Episode Six

'TS-19' - 9.0

This is like a role call for the show, with all but six of the thirteen characters seen here no longer with us. 

You can tell from any specific episode of The Walking Dead that this show is not the cheeriest piece of popular culture. Every one of the last three parts of this season has featured the death of at least one of the group of survivors. In 'Vatos' we lost Amy and Ed, 'Wildfire' left Jim on the roadside and 'TS-19' sees another of the group bumped off, along with new character Dr. Jenner.

But death and misfortune aren't in the focus until the last twenty minutes of the season finale, with the rest being oddly optimistic and happy. This doesn't include the out-of-place flashback which opens the episode, focusing on Shane as he tries to rescue a still comatose Rick from the hospital. At the time the hospital was being overrun by soldiers and zombies, and Shane's determination and desperation to save his friend juxtapose nicely to what he is today. He even braves the military as they begin to massacre the people still located in the building, staying long enough to search for any vital signs of Rick's, only to come to the conclusion that he's already gone. Deciding to protect his friend, despite his apparent death, Shane places the gurney seen in 'Days Gone Bye' in front of his door, to prevent the walkers from getting in.

What a lot of shows like to do is redeem a character who is originally portrayed as a villain to main heroes, but while Shane's actions are commendable, in my view it highlights how far he has sunk because of his relationship with Lori. I'm not overly sure what the intention of the flashback was, whether we are supposed to like Shane now or if we are supposed to still despise him. I just don't know. Nonetheless, it is the most action packed location of any scene to that point, presenting a chaotic, foggy mess of blood and pain and death, and our first look at the world during the actual spread of the infection, rather than what happened immediately before or after it.

Once the credits have rolled and we get into the present day, we cut to the point immediately following last episode's ending; the group entering the CDC near Atlanta. Rick and the other survivors are slightly disconcerted by the lack of staff located at the facility, with Dr. Jenner revealed to be the only scientist remaining, though you could have assumed that from 'Wildfire'. Soon enough though, everyone decides to enjoy the food, the power and the hot water provided, but to the viewers it is implied that something is very much amiss.

As the survivors acclimatise to a normal existence of bathing, reading and sleeping for entire nights, we spend about fifteen minutes exploring who these characters are once the horrors of the outside world behind them. Dale comforts Andrea more as she continues to struggle with the death of Amy, as well as her assumption from Jenner's words and mannerisms that the whole of civilisation has crumpled in its entirety. I like Andrea, if only for Laurie Holden's gripping performance and delivery, and how easily she turns from strong to broken.

Andrew Lincoln gets to portray a different side of his generally strong character, as Rick admits to Dr. Jenner that he had begun to lose hope in his and the others' survival. It is the first time we have seen the weaker side of our protagonist, and this is something I am very eager to see more of. Unflappable, honourable heroes are seriously dull. Watch Terra Nova for an example of how not to do a main character. In fact, I've had minor issues with the stereotypical way in which Rick Grimes was presented earlier in this season, but he's improved on a deeper level to become a very multi-layered hero, with both potential for good and bad under the surface.

The most powerful pre-disaster development at the CDC belongs to Lori and Shane. Shane demonstrated last episode how he feels about Rick's return, coming very close to putting a bullet in the man he tried to rescue only a few months ago. His relationship with Lori, if I were to make a guess, is the only thing that Shane can accept as a benefit from the destruction of life-as-he-knows-it, and thus the only thing that needs to be held on to. Of course, I could be reading into something that is just supposed to be a point of conflict, with no great underlying meaning, but the way in which Shane confronts Lori in 'TS-19' is almost brutal. Finding her alone in the recreation room, the very drunk man begins trying to explain to her why he thought  Rick was dead. There's a possibility that the flashback at the start of the episode was only there to give this scene sense and a context. After Lori refuses to accept that Shane told her that her husband had died in order to get her out of their town, he resorts to telling her how much they are in love with one another, cause that always works in the movies right? Soon enough, it gets worse once Shane starts literally forcing himself on (and maybe in) a frightened Lori, who manages to give her former lover a nice big scrape with her fingernails, thus ending the conversation. It was intense for a show I had thought would be just an action-horror when I first tuned in, and a brave move by the writers. The attempted rape doesn't really lead to anything in the episode, since problems quickly arise that are more pressing matters for the pair, but I can tell this is going to end very badly for someone.

Eventually the survivors begin demanding answers about the disease, it is the CDC after all. Dr. Jenner shows the group a video of the death and reanimation of TS-19. It's difficult to describe without seeing it, but the entire sequence of the subject's transition is absolutely perfect. There is no sound from the video itself, but there is a terrific score and Jenner's narration is reflective and beautiful. Hell, the whole thing was beautiful, colours, acting (especially from Andrea), script, lighting, every damn thing is immaculate.

From the video we lead directly to the big problem of the episode - when the power in the facility runs out, the building blows itself up. It's a great plot twist, though it was an obvious next step to keep the characters running. It also gives them all a chance to make a choice - eventually Jenner gives them the option of staying or going, with everyone but Jenner himself, Jacqui and Andrea deciding to make a run for it. With Andrea staying, Dale refuses to leave as well, forcing her to choose between surviving or killing them both. Dale's lecture of her was a marvellous performance from Jeffery DeMunn, and hints at a possible romance between in the two characters in the future, even if it is a little creepy.

Luckily Andrea relents and the two make it out of the CDC, just as it goes up in a massive ball of orange fire and black smoke that rises above them all in a glorious mushroom cloud that sends out the first season of this impeccable drama.  Sure, the CGI was a little wonky, but it still looked good and was as spectacular as they intended for it to be. I did like how they seemed to decide not to end on a cliffhanger, choosing instead to have the group simply moving on from another tragedy, and back into the real world.

I guess that is the final notion of the Walking Dead; the horrors are inescapable, and the only options you have sometimes are to survive, or to not. So 'TS-19' continued the groups constant fleeing from the end of the world, and even if it had a bit of a slow start - or middle, the flashback cold-open was pretty awesome - the episode was as softly spoken yet loud and callous as the show loves to be. There was the lovely mix of characters and their gain and loss that will definitely not end, and it was a fine instalment to go out on, leaving any viewer fervent for the show's sophomore outing. 

'Wildfire' - The Walking Dead, Season One

The Walking Dead

Season One

Episode Five

'Wildfire' - 9.5

Best day to be an extra ever. 

The Walking Dead doesn't have main plots or subplots, instead it really is just documentary-like A-B storytelling. That is reductive, of course, because it is a complex show underneath, with some of the best characters on screen at the moment. What I find is best about them is that they aren't just likable or not, they have personalities with negative and positive attributes. Rick has detractors, and Daryl has benefits, for example.

After the horrors that drew 'Vatos' to a thrilling and distressing end, 'Wildfire' opens with a slow, reflective tone as the survivors deal with the zombie attack on the camp. Of course the most poignant of the characters right now is Andrea, who is mourning the death of Amy, who died of her bites in her sister's arms. As the episode begins, morning has broken on the camp and Andrea has knelt over the corpse for the entire night, without doing anything to prevent her from rising again. Lori, Rick and Dale all attempt to comfort the grieving woman, but the former two don't get any edgeways. Lori is entirely ignored as she tries to convince her to let Amy be disabled, while Rick gets a gun pointed at him before he could finish a sentence. Dale has more luck, relaying the sad tale of his wife's gradual passing to cancer, and he and Andrea have a sweetly written and very true - if a little trite - conversation about whether either is to blame for their respective loved one's deaths.

Something we learnt in the second episode 'Guts' was that Amy's birthday was coming up, and if you can remember Andrea took a small mermaid necklace as a present. Well of course, this very day is the poor girl's birthday, and Andrea chooses to be uber depressing by solemnly draping the pretty thing over her sister's blood-stained neck. It is touching, but I'm a bit tired of shows making sad events more tragic and cruel by ruining happy days.

Other characters get a little screen time to deal with the previous night's disaster as well. Carol says goodbye to her abusive husband the nicest way she can; by desecrating his remains repeatedly with a pickaxe. The onscreen destruction of the man's skull - a man we kind of met, no less - was incredibly gross, and even I have my limits. Sure, we aren't supposed to like this guy, but it is just plain disrespectful to anyone to show their brains exploding again and again all over the camera. DEAR GOD NOW IT WON'T GO OUT OF MY HEAD.

Things don't look good for our deranged psychic Jim either, who is discovered to have been bitten by some zombie in the attack. He seems OK at first, but it doesn't take him long to deteriorate, the effects of which are shown through sweat, retching and frightening Exorcist-like flashes of disturbing images. I don't know why this is, but flashes make scary scenes infinitely more frightening; i.e. the slow exploration of the abandoned space ship in the sci-fi Sunshine. And they were just flashes of pictures featuring the ship's original crew! Anyway, Jim's condition is a catalyst for Rick's idea to take the camp and go to the CDC, which is apparently near Atlanta. This sparks a debate amongst the entire group, with Shane and Rick both wanting to go completely separate ways from one another, but it is poor Lori who winds up in the middle of the alpha-dog humping match. Of course she ends up siding with her husband, but that isn't without a good talking-to for Rick. To be honest I don't really like Lori much, she seems a bit moralistic and pushy.

Rick and Shane's disagreement comes to a subtle head as they go to scour the woods for any lost zombies. With Rick up ahead, Shane spends a brief moment with his sights set literally on his former friend and colleague, and it is kind of tense for a second. While I never expected Rick to end up dead at this point, I wasn't sure if Shane would try or not, and it was pretty touch and go for second there. In the end Shane does come to his senses and lower the gun, but not before being spied by a very confused and concerned Dale, who doesn't really make a big deal or anything, but it does hint towards problems for Shane down the line. This short lapse of judgment is the first clear and explicit depiction of his growing anger towards Rick, and it looks like this is only going to get worse as things go on.

In my favourite scene of the show so far, Amy does finally rise from death. It is quiet, without music and scored only by the soft sounds of her body reanimating. I was infinitely impressed by the show's ability to turn such an iconic zombie-film trope into a scene of true cinematic beauty, and the shot of Amy's eyes slowly opening to reveal the pale, dead stare of a walker is absolutely stunning. This single event is what the episode had led up to, with most of the sequences involving Andrea keeping her dead sister just in frame, if only to make us tense while we wait for her to leap up and eat somebody, but her real rise from the dead is so anticlimactic, it's almost sweet. Laurie Holden is perfect, like really perfect, as she says goodbye to what her sister has become, before putting the gun to the side of Amy's head and pulling the trigger. I wish the zombie-genre did more amazing scenes like these, because it is a disturbing but oddly heartwarming  depiction of human emotion and love.

As the group finally agrees to head to the CDC (well, most do), we flash to the very place in question, where scientist Dr. Jenner gives a video diary about the spread and status of the disease. I don't know if he actually named it 'Wildfire', but 'Wildfire' was declared 194 days prior, but that would be like saying 'Cholera was just declared'. Do they say that? Anyway, what really interested me was that whatever-it's-called went global sixty-three days ago, which means it was contained for what, 131 days? You couldn't kill all the zombies in like four months? Seriously?

Jenner is a clearly disheartened individual, obviously stumped by the disease and unable to find a cure, or a reason to keep searching. His last specimens are destroyed when the lab goes into 'full contamination' and he is also left without a way of researching it further, and in presumably his last webcast he describes his desire to end his own life, maybe.

Meanwhile, Jim finds himself unable to take the voyage, and asks to be left on the side of the road to die. If there is one thing to love about this show, it's its characters. We only really met Jim last episode, but in just this one scene he makes his farewell from the group a memorable one, if not for shocks or twists, but for the emotion of it all. Most members of the group say a final, heartfelt goodbye to their friend and leave him under the shade of a tree as they drive into the distance. I did remember for a second that Jim was psychic last episode? Maybe he knows what's waiting for them at the CDC? I don't know.

Something that seems to prevail this episode is guilt. Rick is clearly guilty over his late arrival to the camp the night before, and he asks many other characters whether he did the right thing or not, and you could argue that guilt is fueling his need to try and save Jim. Jim himself notices Rick's tendency to blame himself for everything that goes wrong, and in a sweet piece of dialogue attempts to absolve him, explaining that he is being left behind according to his own wishes. Andrea is also incredibly guilty, describing to Dale how she had never been there when her sister needed her, and as Amy rises again all she says 'I'm here now' repeatedly before putting her down. Even Jenner seems a bit of a slave to guilt, and there are implications - not that he caused the disease, mind you - but that he at least feels like he could have done more to slow the spread of the pandemic. I don't normally like themes, unless they are as seamlessly integrated as they are in 'Wildfire'. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was always good at burying its themes and messages deep enough so that you could ignore them if you wish, and 'Wildfire' manages that type of thematic content immaculately, and it ends up adding to the story rather than detracting from it.

In the final scene Rick and the survivors arrive at the CDC, which is pretty dead. There is a brilliant performance from Andrew Lincoln, as Rick bangs on the doors of the building as a horde of walkers begins to move in while darkness begins to fall. Jenner watches from his security cameras, but for whatever reason is reluctant to allow them in. It is very tense, and for a while it begins to look like there might be another massacre on the cards, but we wouldn't have met Jenner unless he was going to be a little important. In the end he opens the doors for the screaming Rick and the crew, bathing them in a brilliant and poetic white light as the episode draws to a close.

I think a two and a half page review indicates my feelings towards this fantastic, touching episode that manages to mix action, emotion, a great script and some perfect performances effortlessly and subtlety. My  only concern is small, in that I found the pick-axe brain fuck of Ed by his wife very cathartic, but also entirely too long and disgusting. It was important for Carol, but the extent of the violence was too much, and rids 'Wildfire' of the perfect ten the episode should deserve. 

'Vatos' - The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead

Season One

Episode Four

'Vatos' - 9.0

At least he was decent enough to prepare.

Compared to the calm, character-based last episode, 'Vatos' is a cornucopia of chaos, destruction and so much plot it feels like it could have been its own season. A couple secondary players bite the dust in the final minutes, both of whom have direct connections to other members of the group, and that has little to do with all that went down in Atlantic City.

Before the Walking Dead's boring-as-hell title sequence rolls, we are showed a nice, serene moment between sisters on the lake in the quarry. It is a good scene, with the acting by both Emma Bell and Laurie Holden easily able to hold the realism and believability; we are supposed to believe that this is how we would live after the apocalypse. Amy and Andrea lament their missing parents, as well as come to realise that their father loved them both equally, catering to the different personalities of his incredibly dissimilar daughters with variations in his fishing methods. It sounds like a bizarre thing to spend a while discussing in a zombie show, but it is touching and wonderfully composed, and once you've seen the episode you know why it's there; Andrea and Amy are having their final sisterly conversation.

The opening credits now over, we switch to the four guys in Atlanta, where we pick up right where 'Tell it to the Frogs' left off; Merle has sawn off his own hand to escape the rooftop he was left on by Rick and T-Dog, and Daryl is understandably pissed. I'm surprised how effective Norman Reedus is as the agro redneck, and I'm just as surprised to find that I actually find him oddly likable. His character may be an over-the-top stereotype, but I respect his devotion to finding his brother, and I get why he's unhappy with how Merle was handled two episodes ago.

The group begins a slow, tense search through the department store following the trail of blood left by Merle. Of course, in this universe it would be hard to go anywhere without the trip being fraught with suspense, and part of the draw of the show lies in its constant threat of violence and/or zombification. Nonetheless the four of them encounter only of couple walkers, none of whom put up much of a fight against Daryl's crossbow, but in the end Merle is found to have escaped into the city and out of their reach. I didn't like Merle as much as Daryl, but with him out in the wild the show has obviously made it open for his return, but this being the Walking Dead, they could be smart enough to know that his survival is expected, and thus his death would be more of a surprise. However, assuming he is dead, how could anyone discover this?

There is a man back at the base camp named Jim. I hadn't really noticed him in the couple of episodes we've spent at the camp, but he certainly makes an impression tonight. Andrew Rothenberg plays the quiet, clearly depressed or manic man, who reveals not long into this episode that his survived a zombie attack due only to the zombie's preoccupation with devouring his family, i.e. his wife and children. It is a disturbing thought, but this show has never really shied away from making viewers uncomfortable. The gore and the silence see to that. Anyway, Jim spends the first part of the episode seemingly digging graves a little while away from the centre of camp, for reasons he can't remember after Shane forces him to stop. Seems his actions were scaring the other survivors, though to be honest I didn't really get this storyline. It has its eerie relevance at the conclusion of 'Vatos', but it still seems a tad too supernatural for the show's strict keepings to a sense of realism in its storytelling. Similarly, I had issues with the group's decision to actively prevent Jim from digging his holes, as it wasn't that freaky, was it?

In an attempt to salvage a rather fruitless trip to Atlanta the group plans to retrieve the guns Rick dropped in the overrun streets at the end of the first episode, but the plan goes awry when another group of survivors intervenes, failing to steal the guns but taking poor Glenn away. As anything with a brain would do, this new group - full of the titular 'Vatos' - promises to trade Glenn for everything in the bag, or die guns blazing. The 'Vatos' have more men, and apparently more thirst for blood, but looks are deceiving. Turns out after an effectively stereotypical Mexican stand-off situation this new group of annoyingly evil Latinos just... aren't. They are actually protecting an old folks home, and their leader Guillermo is the former janitor at the facility. I appreciate the contrast between our first impressions and the reality, but it did wrap up all the issues that arose with the bag of guns really nicely, maybe too nicely. It also managed to make Rick look more noble and kind, which is really annoying in a protagonist. We have enough noble protagonists, mate, be bad!

On the way back to the van they took to Atlanta, our four guys come across one more obstacle - someone has stolen the van. It's Rick who jumps to the conclusion that it was Merle, and for a brief moment we are anxious at the thought of an enraged Merle arriving at the survivor's camp and wreaking havoc on the innocents. It's a nice little red herring, although nothing really comes of it tonight except it slows Rick and his friends down significantly, forcing them to make for the camp on foot. Perhaps one day Merle will return and take his revenge.

Back at the camp, the delayed return of Rick with the new weapons has serious repercussions for some of the survivors. While for a while everything seems fine, we are waiting for Merle to emerge from the woods brandishing some deadly piece of hardware, or worse simply roar through the lot of them with the van. Alas, the show chooses to slow the worst down, having nice old guy Dale describe his habit of winding his watch. It is a well written little monologue, but it is only an entree compared to the main course.

Everything goes to hell quickly; a beaten and bruised Ed awakens alone in his tent to the sounds of rustling outside. Irritated as he usual is, he decides to zip open the door and confront whoever's there, only to be confronted himself by a very hungry zombie. Seconds later a whole hoard of the creatures are making their way into the tent for a meal.

Back at camp, little sister Amy comes out the RV after going to the toilet. Unlike Ed though, she is given no warning when a zombie appears from the darkness and bites into her arm. What follows next is the most muddled and bloody three or four minutes of a television show I've seen. Zombie's heads a blown clean off, their blood staining the camera lens, extras are torn limb from limb and Amy gets another, fatal bite to her neck and Andrea rushes to her side. It's over almost as quickly as it began, when Rick and the others finally return to the camp, their new guns hot in the arms, zombies falling left and right.

Once the worst is over, we exit the chaos and find ourselves back on Earth, and The Walking Dead reasserts its statement; Death matters. Andrea mourns her sister's fatal injuries while the rest of the group can only watch in a particularly bloody goodbye for Amy, who succumbs to her wounds without any sort of final words, only a meaningful touch to her sister's cheek. It really is beautiful, but the final words go to Jim, who states that he now remembers why he dug the graves.

The thought of a psychic is a bit much for me, but it depends on how they handle it over the rest of the show that matters. If they can make it similar to the mysterious River Tam of Firefly or Olivia Dunham of Fringe I'll be happy, but if they turn him into some sort of constant Deus Ex Machina like Bonnie of the Vampire Diaries I'll be pissed. That's if he really is psychic, he might just be nuts.

The end of 'Vatos' is dramatic and almost distressing, with how suddenly everything changes being the most affecting aspect of the entire experience. It will no doubt expand on the prevailing feeling of suspense and dread that we already felt, but here we have proof that it can happen at any time, presumably to anyone. In this world the zombie invasion is real, as are the people who won't survive it, and The Walking Dead wants us to always remember that.

'Tell it to the Frogs' - The Walking Dead, Season One

The Walking Dead 

Season One

Episode Three

'Tell it to the Frogs' - 8.0

Along with zombies, there's also a serious sentimentality epidemic here. 

Despite sounding to the uninitiated like a dumb, shoot-'em-up zombie flick, but made a couple times longer and with commercial breaks, The Walking Dead continues to establish itself as something much more complicated; a character drama.

What is important to note about the premise here is that any single character can die at any point, because they effectively live in a world largely populated by danger. Unlike the universes of almost any other show there needs to be no motive or opportunity, rather death can happen whenever the writers want it to. Oddly that isn't that important in 'Tell it to the Frogs' since no one dies, but the constant threat does open the stage to an intriguing character study.

The cast of this post-apocalyptic tale is surprising extensive. Aside from Rick, his wife and son, Shane and the few Rick met in Atlanta, there are whole mess of people we meet at the survivor's camp outside the city, which our protagonist arrives at in the early scenes of the episode.

It is impressive how moving Rick, Lori and Carl's meeting was, considering we hadn't actually seen these people as a family yet, but it managed to be incredibly touching. I can't really give credit to the writers because the scene was largely dialogue-free, but the composers and actors clearly worked hard to make it relevant and realistic. Obviously Andrew Lincoln is especially good; his bewilderment and happiness are palpable and stirring, while Sarah Wayne Callies manages to appear conflicted in one of the few times I've seen an actor actually accomplish conflicted.

Laurie Holden is also a significant player as Andrea, who oozes the much needed feminine strength amidst an environment inhabited by male leaders and soldiers. I'm no feminist, but when a cast only has well developed male characters, people will notice; like me. It is something that is clear in the first few seasons of Lost as well, and you can often tell the target demographic through the number of strong women on the series. Before you ask though, Lori doesn't count. Anyhow, Andrea comes through the best during the clothes washing scene, which ironically deals explicitly with the role of women in this new society. She challenges misogyny itself when she gets between the prick Ed and his wife Carol, and even earlier breaks feminine convention by explicitly talking about her love for her long-lost vibrator. I like this woman, which undoubtedly means she won't last much longer - not a spoiler, FYI, I don't actually know if she survives.

Jon Bernthal does a terrific job playing a character who effectively falls from grace. In his first scene of the episode he is almost joyous to be inducted into his believed-to-be-dead best friend's family, a status that changes only a few minutes later when Rick arrives in his rescue vehicle. Just one moment destroys everything he had gained, and you can see it in his face then, but he really shines in the scenes at the quarry, first with Lori and then with Ed. Lori reveals that Shane had said her husband had died - an obvious move by the writer's to ensure that we don't dislike Lori for her actions - and makes it clear and plain that he can have nothing to do with her family. Bernthal is near silent during Lori's confrontation but his acting is effective enough to not need him to speak; we know how he feels about all this. Only a short while later, a frustrated Shane takes out his agitation on Ed in an incredibly brutal beat down that says to me that Shane probably won't live very long. It was a good scene, yeah, and very affecting, but in most television shows characters who severely assault anyone for no terrific reason, not a long time after doing the protagonist's wife aren’t particularly popular among audiences. It doesn't help that he isn't the most original creation, nor does he add anything to the group now that Rick can fill the role of former-policeman current-leader.

It might not make sense to you, but I watch way too much television and I'll be surprised if Shane makes it through too many more episodes. I won't really miss him if he dies, but I know my tropes and it isn't looking good.

'Tell it to the Frogs' only features a handful of zombies over the course of the episode, and none of them do anything except die and eat deer. Oddly enough however, it doesn't feel like it matters too much, and the characters of the show manage to hold it up without blood and guts with the help of terrific acting and a fine script.

'Guts' - The Walking Dead, Season One

The Walking Dead

Season One

Episode Two

'Guts' - 8.5

I'm certain that zombie bitch has just uttered a horrible ethnic slur at poor Asian Glenn. 

I can imagine what the description of 'Guts' would be like: We open as Lori, our hero's wife and mother to their son, decides to take an impromptu walk through a possibly zombie-infested woodland. She is alone, with only the trees around her. A rustle grabs her attention, footsteps, maybe? Perhaps she isn't quite alone as she thought. The sounds approach, the camera jumps back and forth as Lori twists and turns to find her unknown pursuer. There is quiet, a still moment that tells the viewer something horrible is about to happen. Suddenly, in this tense, nail-biting scene, there is SEX.

Yeah, so Lori and Shane are getting it on as passionately as you can in the forest, completely allowing themselves to forget that there are zombies now. Would you wanna be caught with your pants down by something that wants to eat your brains? Anyway, this will no doubt be a problem later down the line - does Lori even know that Rick is alive? Or is that information Shane didn't give her? Who knows yet, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Either way, for a false-scare it was well filmed, and there was no jump music which is always a plus in these cases. I find an abrupt, deep booming sound designed to make us start at a point in a horror when nothing bad is actually happening kind of... condescending? I don't know, it's like the movie is screaming 'GOTCHA DICKHEAD!' then laughing and showing us boobies. But not here! The absence of boobies is noted, though it has little impact, but the fake-out is not taken all the way so viewer trust is not dumped in a puddle and stomped on. Hoorah!

In the midst of ‘geek’-infested Atlanta, our protagonist is rescued from his tank-prison by the meddlings of Glenn. It is good to have some new meat on the scene, and Glenn seems somewhat alright. Adept at climbing and escaping, he's Asian for no reason what so ever - which is a plus, by the way. Race shouldn't be relevant at all, and it isn't. There is also a black guy and a black girl, neither of whom are really referred to as such - except by me and that annoying redneck guy. There is also another woman and another guy other than the aforementioned redneck. I don't remember anyone's names, and none of them were particularly captivating. It looks like the show is focusing on the white girl, whose sister is at the base camp with Lori and Shane; which means this group in the abandoned store are really just a vehicle to reunite our main character with his wife. Fair enough, but it does make everyone of them fodder essentially.

The most notable moment - and I'm sure all will agree - is the dismembering of a walker that begins Rick's plan to escape from Atlanta. It is raw and nauseating, but the acting from all involved is reasonable, and makes the scene even more realistic. Rick's words of reflection on the dead man they are about to tear open with a fire axe are a tad cliché, but still relevant and a little moving, a total juxtaposition to the literal carnage that follows a few seconds later. We don't get shots of the axe flying into the air with blood splattering, no, we get shots of the torso being demolished and limbs being amputated. Well then, alright. You've got my attention, but was that really necessary?

The point was to have Glenn and Rick covered in zombie guts (hey look, a reference to the title!) so they didn't smell like living human beings anymore and could safely navigate the busy streets of Atlanta. Remind me never to visit this city, I don't like the smell of rotting flesh that much. Anyway, the plan is quite effective at first, and the slow shuffle through the horde is suitably tense and long. My only complaint would be the frequent shots of the rest of the crew watching from the roof top cause I seriously didn't care. The only characters I liked were currently walking through a death zone and I'm looking at the spectators?

Guess what? As our friends carefully navigated the street in fashion's new shade of red it began to rain! Apparently the stench of zombie is easier to wash off than mud, and the water reveals our heroes for who they are - alive! Next thing I knew, there are axes dividing skulls in half and our two friends running for the lives they just attempted to hide. Oh well, it had to happen our that entire traipse would have been far too boring, apparently. I've heard things need to fail or viewers get bored; I wouldn't know though, cause TV-plans NEVER work the way they are supposed to. All ends for the best though, as Glenn and Rick steal a truck, manage to distract the walkers and save the crew.

Unfortunately for redneck guy, he was a complete asshole and tried to seize control of the group earlier in the episode. Rick, being our boring-as-fuck, moralistic cop-protagonist stifles his coup and handcuffs him on the rooftop of the building, and this proves a disastrous decision when the black guy loses the key. They are forced to leave redneck jerk alone up there, essentially a pre-brought snack for the dead. Alas, watch me care for that guy, my only regret is that we didn't get to see him chomped to bits.

As the episode ended, our new group of survivors made their way out of Atlanta, presumably towards the 'safety' of the sex forest and its nearby base camp.

Should I mention the quality of the episode? Sure! Way more happens in this episode than in the last, and there is so little time spent on exposition that I have no clue at all who anyone but Rick and Glenn actually are. That's a negative right there, though I never really expected a zombie show to be a character drama. The violence, though way, way over-the-top was actually pretty standard for the zombie-genre, so I didn't really have that big a problem with it. I had to turn away from the screen during the dismemberment (only to rewatch it so I could talk about it), but I guess that's just effectiveness. Acting; well as I said I don't know who these characters are so I can't say much. Nothing hit me as particularly good or bad, though the work of the white girl was pretty good, as well as (I hate to admit it) redneck guy. To be honest though, acting didn't really matter. It's a horror film essentially, and who cares about how relatable the characters or their portrayers are? We just want fear, violence and suspense, and 'Guts' definitely delivers.

'Days Gone Bye' - The Walking Dead, Season One

The Walking Dead

Season One

Episode One

'Days Gone Bye' - 7.5

'Days Gone Bye' goes through a lot of plot. We meet Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes, he is shot, he wakes up from a coma an unknown amount of time later, discovers zombie invasion, is taken in by a father and son, leaves father and son, heads to Atlanta, gets stuck in a tank. Still, the one hour episode doesn't feel like it covers a lot of ground.

It is slow. Like, say, Lost, The Walking Dead spends a long time simply having its characters talking to one another. That is certainly not a bad thing - in order for a viewer to care for someone, we need to get to know them, and short of them doing a voice-over this is the easiest way. Rick Grimes is a nice guy, very honourable, he has a wife and a child, you know, pretty much the description of any main character ever. Of course that trope of the goody-goody hero is tried and true, but it does get old. Grimes spends a large amount of the episode making sure that we all know he won't kill the 'walkers' unless he's sure they are dead - the rotting flesh isn't proof enough, it seems - and that finding his wife and son are all that is important to him. Cause you know, that's different.

I will compliment the writing here though, because it is not that simple. Unlike that unbelievable irritating protagonist from Terra Nova (can't remember his name), Rick Grimes has flaws. He does seem to have some small marital issues, he seems to be seeing the best in people all the time and did actually come close to topping himself at the end there. I don't dislike him simply because he is not perfect, as well as the fact that his actor; Andrew Lincoln; does a pretty damn fine job depicting Grime's terror and confusion as he comes to understand what has happened while he was dead to the world. Hopefully in the future he can become much less of a role model, and more of a human being so we can truly count him as a deserving protagonist.

I should stress I know nothing of the graphic novels the series is based on, and don't really want to. This isn't anything against comics, it's just that I prefer to be shocked by the events of a television show than be shocked by how badly a twist is executed as compared to how it was done in the source material. I'm the same with Game of Thrones. Anyhow, my pure lack of knowledge of the comics means I don't know who dies, I don't know what happens and I can't comment on how well the show is adapted - all I can say is whether or not I find the show itself entertaining and rewarding. And yes, for the most part I do.

The other characters were less interesting than our deputy. Dwayne and Dwayne's father (can't remember, sorry) were effective, if only as a device to humanise a zombie invasion and explain the circumstances in layman's terms to Grimes, and thus to us. What was impressive in regards to them was the way in which the show managed to peak our sympathy for their un-dead mother/wife. She never got a line in, she was a zombie from the get-go and we were forced to embrace her as a character of worth nonetheless. Well played, the Walking Dead, well played. I shall remain aware of your tricks from now on.

Aesthetically, my guess is that a lot of what we are shown comes from filmed versions of the frames in the comic, but I can't prove anything. The point is that it looks great - the hospital scene being a prime example. It was bleak and beautiful, with the only bright colours being the red of the blood which appeared wonderfully sparsely. It was scary, and in a show like this fear is the perfect emotion to evoke. My only complaint is in the lack of music. Yes, silence adds weight and makes us create our own emotional response, but it only works when it is juxtaposed against scored scenes. Here, I felt the lack of a proper musical score was simply lazy.

Something else that catches your eye will be the violence. The effects of the zombies are first rate jobs, if a little over done; missing limbs, rotted faces, slow-motion head explodings and close ups of violent death. I believe the most sticking image is that of the torso-zombie, the one near the bike - it was gorgeously grotesque, being only half a human, with its insides dragging along behind it as it pulled itself along the ground. So slow it is harmless, sure, but immeasurably affecting.

So that is the first episode of the Walking Dead, and while I definitely enjoyed it, I feel there are improvements that need to be made. First, it needs a score, second we need to develop the role of Rick Grimes considerably more and third, move it along. Yeah, atmosphere, but there is only so many well-crafted visuals I can take in before I start wondering what my dog is doing right now.  Despite those issues, it was a top-notch job by the effects department, and the casting seemed pretty on the spot. I'll definitely be tuning in again.