The Walking Dead: Episode 2

What with the huge online buzz and pedigree of talent involved, it’s hardly surprising to hear this week’s news that Frank Darabont’s TV serialisation of the cult graphic novels by Robert Kirkman has been commissioned for a second season just one episode into its UK run. After last week’s dazzling, grimly atmospheric opener, this highly entertaining second episode proves this was no fluke.

Episode 1’s cliffhanger saw our noble-if-a-little-dumb hero, Deputy Sherriff Rick Grimes, stranded inside an abandoned military tank, surrounding by the marauding undead. Played convincingly by Brit Andrew Lincoln (perhaps better known over here as football-obsessed Egg in This Life or immature teacher Simon in Teachers), Lincoln plays Rick straight, solid and with a decent American accent. Another notable addition to the growing list of UK actors making it big in US drama, including the likes of Hugh Laurie, Joseph Fiennes, Ian McShane and Anna Friel, he’s not really stretched by the role, but then your average zombie narrative isn’t overly about characterisation. A likeable good guy and many impressive bad guys combine, then, to striking effect.

Without giving too much of the plot away, Rick finds his way out of his particularly unpleasant pickle with the help of sarcastic Glenn (Steven Yeun), who then introduces him to your standard rag-tag group of post-apocalyptic survivors. Satisfying the textbook horror criteria for potential zombie-fodder, we have various stereotypes ticked off, albeit done less crudely than normal, marking out potential for some decent plot twists and eventual character insights, perhaps more important than sheer gore in keeping the audience interested over a prolonged period. A stand-out character is the gruff Michael Rooker playing Merle, the redneck bastard he was perhaps born to play; he’s a joy to watch as he barks his lines and out-baddies the brain-hungry.

But let’s not underestimate the importance of The Walking Dead’s blood-soaked action scenes. On a par with some of the more impressive efforts in the zombie canon, the show’s key strength is that it is sparing with its use of violence, though ladles on the gore when it does come. The isolated horrific incidents, helped along by Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McReary’s unobtrusive score, are all the more shocking for the long periods of tension-building.

More than worth the wait (and the wait has surely felt very long for the hordes of comic geek fans of the original books), it’s safe to say there will be more blood to come, and lots of it.



Airs at 10pm on Friday 12th November 2010 on FX.

Reviewed by Nick Aldwinckle.