The Walking Dead: Episode 1
The Walking Dead has been on our must-watch list ever since the transition from comic book to television show was announced last year.
To fans of the graphic novel, no introduction is necessary - however, to the uninitiated The Walking Dead became the definition of where the zombie structure could be taken outside the confines of a production budget. The imagination behind the continuing series created by Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore (the latter giving way to British artist Charlie Adlard from the 7th issue onwards) was so broad and the characters so engaging that you cared for them deeply and bites or deaths to leading protagonists would render you as numb as a 24 silent clock.
So the opening episode of the FX show couldn't be more anticipated by fans of both the horror genre and the source material alike, which is why it pains us to say that it is not an unqualified success, even under the watchful auspice of Shawshank’s own Frank Darabont. The opening scene, whilst obviously out of sequence within the show itself, plays a bog-standard and generic card, whereby the "reveal" is entirely expected, and questions how Officer Rick Grimes would have survived for so long if he is able to make such an elementary mistake.
However, we soon return to the linear structure of the first book, with the shoot-out which incapacitates Grimes and places him in a coma, from which he awakes to begin the nightmare of seemingly being the only man still alive and human in a hostile new world. Why so many have been killed within the hospital walls whilst he has remained untouched goes unanswered. It’s here that the antecedent of 28 Days Later works against the show getting a firm footing in it’s early minutes.
Grimes soon encounters other survivors (in this first episode; the father and son team of The Jones’s) and the acting, akin to other AMC shows, is universally strong - the British duo of Lennie James and Andrew Lincoln as Morgan Jones and Rick respectively are boons. However, the thornier issues come when the show deviates from the sparse and direct story-telling of the comics - the introductory conversation between Grimes and his partner being particularly poor writing. The culmination of the episode in a seemingly deserted downtown Atlanta is similarly an excellent set-piece, but is rather set-back by the use of an over-literal Wang Chung song. These are minor points that take the gloss off an otherwise impressive under-taking.
Nevertheless, it speaks volumes when a fan made title sequence (recently shown on Ain't It Cool News) captures the true spirit of the comic and is infinitely better than the actual one. One wishes for an HBO style True Blood/Carnivale/Treme distillation of ideas and images rather than the pat ones we receive here (empty shops, abandoned teddy-bears, deserted highways), but alas this is AMC and such basic openings are expected - look at Breaking Bad or Mad Men as reference.
Thankfully the effects are superb, as this opener begins to find its feet when Rick encounters his first fully-fledged zombie (apart from the flash-forward in the opening scene). The reliance on physical effects by Greg Nicotero's KNB EFX outfit is a definite feather in the show's cap.
Ultimately, the episode is a work-man-like introduction rather than a fully-fledged disappointment, and perhaps with so much hype this was only to be expected. However, as these six episodes in the first series play out, The Walking Dead will need a creative shot in the arm to keep up with Kirkman’s original work.
Airs at 10pm on Friday 5th November 2010 on FX.
Reviewed by Simon Cole.
