THE WALKING DEAD
TV SERIES REVIEW

		Review by E.C.McMullen Jr.
THE WALKING DEAD - 2010 USA Release: Oct. 31, 2010 Valhalla Motion Pictures, Circle of Confusion, AMC Studios, Darkwoods Productions Rated: USA: N/A

I'm writing this for any wannabee writers, comic artists, movie directors, whoever has an interest. If you are before an editor, producer, publisher, and they tell you in their expert opinion that "This zombie thing" is done?

Get away from them. They aren't experts, they have no idea what they are talking about, and if you talk them into it, they piut it on TV, and its a hit? They'll take all the credit away from you and [pretend it was their idea.

They said it to George Romero in the 1980s while zombie interest was clearly growing both in film and comics. Look for Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith's DEAD WORLD series.

They, meaning those who don the misnomer of "expert", said it in the 1990s while zombie games from DOOM to RESIDENT EVIL to HOUSE OF THE DEAD took off.

These experts said it in the 2000s to director Zack Snyder when Universal Pictures wanted to release DAWN OF THE DEAD 2004 direct to DVD instead of in theaters.

Snyder and Gunn's DAWN OF THE DEAD made 3.7 times its Production budget back in its first release. Add in its estimated $60 million in domestic home video sales in the first year alone, and it made just over 6 times its Production budget. No way it would have brought in that much in Direct to Video.

It's not how you fall down, it's how you get back up.

"This zombie thing is over. It's played out."

The self-anointed experts said.

But the hits kept coming.

In the hottest, bestselling arcade and video games throughout the 1990s and into the new millennia (HOUSE OF THE DEAD, WOLFENSTEIN, DOOM, RESIDENT EVIL).

Books like John Skipp and Craig Spector's BOOK OF THE DEAD and Joe Lansdale's DEAD IN THE WEST (1990).
Tony Burgess best selling, THE HELLMOUTHS OF BEWDLY trilogy (1997 - 1999), which was made into the 2008 movie PONTYPOOL.
S.D. Perry's popular novel adaptations of the RESIDENT EVIL video games from 1998 thru 2004,
David Moody's bestselling AUTUMN series of zombie novels that ran from 2001 to the present, James Lowder's THE BOOK OF ALL FLESH anthologies that ran from 2001 to 2003.
Max Brooks THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE (2003).

In Comic books Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith's long running DEAD WORLD (1987 - Present. The world's longest running zombie comic book series), Robert Kirkman's THE WALKING DEAD (2000 - Present).

In hit movies like Paul W.S. Anderson's RESIDENT EVIL franchise (2002 - ?).
Danny Boyle's Pandemic movie that many wrongly thought was a zombie movie, 28 DAYS LATER (2002).
Gore Verbinski's PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL (2003).

By 2004 the hit releases of Zack Snyder and James Gunn's DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, Edgar Wright's SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and all others ever since, grew from the 10+ years of fertile soil created for Zombie horror: well and firmly established by such madly popular and influential titles, and a proven global audience willing to spend billions on it all.

In fact, I'm writing this knowing that a wholly original tentpole zombie feature film will begin shooting this year - 2011.

In 2010, Writer, Producer and Director Frank Darabont's THE WALKING DEAD began. Working at his best as both an adopter and adapter of other people's creations, Darabont (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3, THE BLOB [1988], THE FLY II, FRANKENSTEIN [1994], THE GREEN MILE, THE MIST) discovered Robert Kirkman's hugely popular comic, and with the help of long-time Hollywood power broker and top SciFi Horror mistress Gale Anne Hurd (THE TERMINATOR [all], ALIENS, ALIEN NATION, TREMORS, CAST A DEADLY SPELL, THE RELIC, VIRUS, HULK) - the woman who gets it done in Los Angeles - brought it to the television screen. Frank did this, while rocking the look and feel of it like a cinematic feature film.

.001 seconds after the door opens on Black Friday

Horror movie and television fans can't watch the opening of THE WALKING DEAD without remembering the identical opening for Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 28 DAYS LATER. Often mistaken for a zombie film, 28 DAYS LATER is a plague film (and don't you forget it, punk!). They make it clear in 28 DAYS LATER that most of humanity is sick, like the sickos in RABID or THE CRAZIES: Not dead but animated like in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. That said, its important to remember that the launch scene of a man waking up in a hospital from a coma, to discover his world destroyed by a novel disease, began years before 28 DAYS LATER with Kirkman's THE WALKING DEAD comic in 2000.

So THE WALKING DEAD starts the same as the comic. A man wakes up out of a coma in a hospital and has no idea what is going on. We are introduced to the apocalypse through his eyes. His name is Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln: AFTERLIFE [TV]) and we learn through his memories how he came to be in the hospital. It's in these memories that we meet his wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies: WHISPER), his young son Carl (Chandler Riggs), and his law enforcement partner, Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal: EASTWICK).

Another five miles and I'm gonna really wish I knew how to shoe my horse.

Weak, on foot, and easy pickings, Rick is lucky enough to be rescued from the approaching zombie hoardes by Morgan Jones (Lennie James: SNATCH, THE PRISONER [TV]) and his son Duane (Adrian Kali Turner). Little by little, Morgan and Duane reveal the true, awful nature of the zombie apocalypse. Worse, Rick becomes aware of his place in it, as the living are intractably connected to the dead. Morgan proves this to Rick by revealing his wife (Keisha Tillis), who isn't who she used to be since the zombies took over.

Anchor Bay Entertainment finally returns to the quality we came to expect of them in their 1990s heyday when their business model meant releasing superior prints of movies for home video.

Not only is the BLU-RAY of THE WALKING DEAD of the finest quality in sight and sound, but I was surprised to find that the DVD set - while not as high - was the best DVD quality I've ever witnessed on a 1920x1080 HD widescreen TV. And the sound was warm and crisp.

On top of that, you get 17 quality DVD extras!

Thank you, Anchor Bay! We've missed you!

On both a Horror level and a human emotional level, THE WALKING DEAD is a staggering piece of work. Each episode leaves you ever more amazed at both the emotional power of it which is actually equal to the seemingly unrestrained blood and guts gore of it until you realize that, for television, only AMC would dare to take the risks required to make such a series.

Like all good zombie tales, THE WALKING DEAD is a story about traumatized people coming together and trying to find the strength and humanity within themselves to survive and at least hope to rebuild humanity. Whether they succeed by the end of the story is never the point. The point is always in the effort.

The six episodes of Season One, which began on Halloween Night, 2010, end on a cliff hanger, every one.

And every one was at least a 4 Shriek Girl hit.

This review copyright 2011 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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