Sundays 10 pm AMC
Despite my aborted attempt to review Boardwalk Empire on a weekly basis, I have higher hopes for my reviews of The Walking Dead. With a first season of only six episodes and source material that I have a pre-existing affection for, I don't see this being a problem. As a general rule, assume mild to heavy spoilers for each episode I review and mild spoilers for the length of the comic covered by the show. If you'd like a hint of where things are going (although not necessarily, apparently the show plans to deviate considerably from the book), you can pick up the first trade of the comic on Amazon for what I would call a very reasonable price.
The Walking Dead is described by writer/creator Robert Kirkman as "a zombie movie that never ends". Both in concept and execution, the comic book lends itself very well to being adapted into a TV series. And now, given both the ability of premium cable television to produce movie-level shows, in terms of both artistry and production values, as well as the fact that zombies rank just under vampires in terms of current widespread popularity, an adaptation of this seems to be the obvious choice. The story follows Rick Grimes, a sheriff's deputy in rural Georgia who is shot on the job and awakens from a coma about a month later to find that the world has been devastated by a zombie apocalypse. His quest to find his wife and son takes him on a disturbing road trip to an undead-infested Atlanta where things quickly go from bad to way fucking worse.
That blurb pretty much covers the entirety of the plot of the ninety minute premire, as well as the two first issues of the comic (which, despite being slowly paced for a comic, moves considerable faster than the show, at least so far). That said, it is to the great benefit of all involved that the show is on AMC and being executive produced by Frank Darabont. It's often said of AMC's other critically acclaimed shows (Breaking Bad and Mad Men) that the plots are slow burn tension, with weeks worth of episodes consisting of conversation and schemes until something finally gives. Although The Walking Dead premire doesn't skimp on the gore (seriously, so many headshots. The fact that this was only rated TV-14 is frankly unbelievable), it is extremely muted and contemplative by the standards of a zombie film. Barring the opening ten minutes and one other brief scene in the last act, there are only three speaking parts in the entire episode. The show cultivates a feeling of emptiness that, while less viscerally terrifying than say the opening of Zach Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead remake (which also featured a zombie infested suburb, but with way more car crashes and explosions), goes a long way toward making you share in the lonliness of someone like Rick, who has managed to survive a brush with death only to end up losing everything anyway. This can all be summed up in what I found to be the most frightening scene of the premire, in which Rick must make his way down a pitch black flight of stairs using a book of matches to light his way, the darkness as one burns out and he struggles to light another striking a far deeper cord than any of the zombies.
My roommates and I rewatched The Mist last night (which I love) and even thought I was never a huge Frank Darabont fan before that film (holy crap is Shawshank Redemption over-rated), he really seems like the perfect person to be running this show. Two things The Mist does well is unnatural horror in a mundane setting and extremely engrossing scenes of people sitting around talking about what they need to do, both of which a Walking Dead show requires in spades. He also brings an (admittedly very grim) sense of humor to the proceedings, something the book never succeeds at on the rare attempts that it tries. I'm thinking both of the scene where Rick commandeers a child's bicycle to get home following his escape from the hospital and a great moment during the climax which manages to successfully 180 from horrifically bleak to amusingly triumphant in about .7 seconds flat.
Although the comic book has a deeply engrossing plot and a satisfyingly varied cast of characters, Robert Kirkman's dialogue is far too utilitarian and flat to translate to a TV show. His attempts to keep things realistic result in almost every character sounding the same, which makes it harder than it should be to sympathize with them as individuals. Even if the writing for the show doesn't end up being a big step up, the addition of actors to the mix can only help. Andrew Lincoln, the relatively unknown British actor portraying Rick Grimes, is already positive proof of this. Rick is very much an audience surrogate in the book, and although after almost 80 issues, he has developed into a well-rounded character, Lincoln manages to do more with him in 90 minutes than Kirkman was able to do in several years. He's believable as a modern cowboy, riding a horse down an empty freeway with shotguns sticking out of his duffelbag, as well as during the more vulnerable sequences, particularly the one where, upon finding his home empty and family missing, he completely looses his shit and tries to slap himself awake. It's powerful stuff and very important given the depths these characters must display if the plot goes where it's supposed to.
Any worries I had about this show finding an audience were obliterated by today's Nielsen rating reports, which placed the premire at approximately 5.3 million viewers. By way of comparison, the highest rated episode ever of Jersey Shore came in at around 5.2 million. So fuck you, Jersey Shore. Fuck you. Assuming they can continue to meet the extremely high production standard they've set with the premire (which will probably become less of an issue once the show moves to other locations), I think we can expect to get a good long run of this series. And rather than being upset at the clear intention of the show-runners to take liberties with the source material, the comic definitely leaves room for improvement in a number of areas. I look forward to seeing how they work it all out and to writing about it here. Thanks for reading. Catch you next week.
Random observations:
- The realistic attention to mundane details present in the comic is on full display in the show by way of the last gunshot fired in the episode. Yeah, that would totally happen and yeah, it would totally suck.
- The rest of the heavy lifting in this episode (acting-wise) is done by Lennie James, another British actor, who knocks the role of Morgan Jones right out of the park. Morgan is a fairly minor character in the book, but I would be more than fine with them making him a regular in the show. Dude just killed it.
- Major props to Greg Nicotero (of Day Of The Dead and Evil Dead 2 fame) for some of the coolest looking zombie makeup I've ever seen. The zombies have tons of personality and a gaunt, old-school look to them, like the ones from those 70's horror comics I used to read as a kid. And seriously, I can't believe how many headshots they're letting him get away with. Just...awesome.
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