"Walking Dead" Lives up to Expectations

When I first saw the promotions for The Walking Dead, a drama that premiered on AMC on Halloween night about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in the United States, I was excited. Zombie movies are cool. They tend to have similar themes (survival, trust issues, government conspiracy) but they are always entertaining and they all bring different things to the table. I was curious to see how they would expand a story that is usually told in two hours or less into a multi-season television series. I was curious to see if main characters would be protected for the sake of continuity (will season two have a completely new cast of characters like 28 Weeks Later did?) or is nobody safe (in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a character shield cannot protect you from Roman rule). For now, I am not concerned with stuff like that. I am just enjoying the ride.

The pilot episode begins with deputy sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is shot in the line of duty and goes into a coma. When he wakes up, the state of Georgia (and presumably the rest of the country) is overrun with a virus that kills a person with a fever but causes their dead body to keep walking around and biting and infecting others. This start to the story is a lot like 28 Days Later except in that movie, Cillian Murphy's character is not a police officer trained to use firearms. Rick Grimes is later reunited with his family and a group of other survivors as they try to wait out the epidemic.

My favorite part about this show is their attention to detail. A lot of TV dramas since Lost have tried to get more of a cinematic feel while keeping the weekly cliffhanger effect that TV brings. Much like Mad Men, which airs on the same channel, The Walking Dead is very well written and the acting performances are not what you usually see on TV.

Wherever this zombie saga takes us, I cannot wait to see. It has already been picked up for a second season (consisting of thirteen episodes instead of six), and there is certain to be more twists along the way.