The Walking Dead: Pilot (Review)

AMC is the best network on commercial television. They may not have any sports or news programs, but they supply series of HBO/Showtime quality at a higher rate than either HBO or Showtime (or any other network). With the recent loss of Mad Men due to series finale, AMC has stepped up with one of the most interesting choices for a comic adaptation ever put on film, The Walking Dead. The series revolves around a police officer who awakens from a bullet wound/coma to find that the world as he knows it no longer exists. It’s a series about survival, loss, and most importantly… Zombies!

The first episode begins with one of the quietest opening scenes I’ve ever seen for a television series. With the lead character Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) strolling down a street filled with destruction, only to find a little girl zombie all by her lonesome. The scene epitomizes everything this series, and zombie fiction in general, are going for. The loneliness, the grizzly horrors, the silence, it’s all there. From there the series goes back to the start of Rick’s encounter with the new world. The scenes are very similar to 28 Days Later’s opening, but both were originally being written about the same time, so who is to say which came first. There’s definitely a darker spin on Grimes’ trip out of the hospital, which adds quite a lot to the atmosphere.

I enjoyed how the pilot used one of my favorite apocalyptic story devices, which is the use of notes from previous survivors. Games like Left 4 Dead make great use of these, and The Walking Dead seems to be on the same track. The way just a few simple words painted or carved into a wall can tell a whole story has always interested me. The very first time Rick encounters such a message, he also encounters the zombies, and the whole scene is just perfect. Later in the episode an entire couple’s suicide is explained through one of these messages, as the aftermath is strewn across their living room. It’s like a modern day take on hieroglyphs, as people use their last moments to send messages to whoever comes next.

The acting was surprisingly solid. When the first scene between Rick and Shane occurs, I thought I was going to be annoyed by the acting. As the show progressed, so did the acting. I loved seeing my boy Lennie James (Snatch/Hung) as one of the survivors. He’s a solid character player, and I’m hoping we see him featured more throughout the series. I’m not sure how I feel about the rest of the Grimes family, as their parts were super small in this pilot, but I imagine the whole cast will remain strong.

The story is the strongest asset this zombie show has going for it. I can’t think of any other zombie story where survivors felt so compelled to release the undead from their zombiefied state. It’s almost as though the survivors feel so guilty, that they kill zombies for compassion not aggression. I really cannot wait to get more into this show, and I await the coming weeks (and hopefully years) eagerly.