TIME OF THE ZOMBIE! "THE WALKING DEAD" SEASON ONE REVIEW

Race for survival! Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) leads the charge in the Season One finale of THE WALKING DEAD. Image: AMC.

Hailed as the best new TV series of the 2010 Winter season by the US ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY magazine, and a sure-fire hit on both sides of the Atlantic (thanks to an equally impressive advertising and promotion campaign by its makers), THE WALKING DEAD TV series, brought to the screen by acclaimed film-maker Frank Darabont, from its equally acclaimed comic book pages created by Robert Kirkman, certainly proved itself with an enjoyable first season run, premiering on the US AMC channel, but it soon became apparent that, as the series progressed, the regular episodes themselves didn't quite live up to the superb opener with its strong and highly satisfying balance of horror, humour and cinematography, and proving an uneven bunch, despite many fine moments, with regards to storytelling pace and structure. I'm wondering if six episodes really was enough to cover the shows early ambitions.

Though the usual strong characters realised by Darabont remained consistently interesting throughout, and were nicely cast with a fine mixture of new and old acting talent, the overall storyline did seem to run out of steam a little when the series main antagonists, the infected (?) human Zombies, weren't around to challenge them. It also seemed to me that that black comedy dried out towards the end of the run, too, and some important questions posed in the opening episodes, which I thought would be answered, were never fully resolved.

As for those all important zombies, well, they were brilliantly brought to life by the series make-up teams, but perhaps due to budgetary reasons it looked as if they were being used sparingly in the later episodes, though when they did appear it was well worth the wait. In particular, their attack on the heroes base camp in the countryside in the mid-season mark was very impressive, scary and shocking as they decimated half the series background cast in one swift surprise swoop of cannibalistic carnage, including Laurie Holden's poor sister, Amy (Emma Bell), whom she then had to promptly blow the brains out of when she became a member of the undead in the next episode showing the aftermath of the battle. 

Having the finale episode set within the interior confines of the Centre for Disease Control was an intriguing idea but it ultimately restricted the show in terms of scope and may not have proved an effective conclusion that the producers and overall audiences might have hoped for, despite the impressive big CGI bang at the end. And just what exactly did Dr. Jenner (Noah Emmerich) whisper to Sheriff Rick at the end of the episode? I was hoping it was something majorly important revelation-wise that would end the series on a cliffhanger note, but that didn't happen surprisingly -perhaps that information will launch Season Two later in the year (And I think its a fair bet that nasty Michael Rooker, as racist psycho Merle Dixon, previously left to die at the top of a deserted building surrounded by Zombies, will return at some point wanting revenge on the human survivors-probably picked up and rescued by that helicopter that no believes the Sheriff saw from the opening pilot!).

So, despite the slightly unsatisfying season finale, I think THE WALKING DEAD, with its fine ensemble and heaps of future potential linked to its flesh eating legions of Zombies, did live up to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY's proclamation, and I look forward to seeing its continuing evolution.

I think its safe to say that there will be more days of the (un)dead for a long while to come!

KOOL TV OVERALL SEASON RATING: 3.5 out of 5

As for Year Two, WALKING DEAD comic creator Robert Kirkman recently talked about his long running comic, and the TV series he's been involved with, to USA TODAY. Here's the link:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-12-28-WalkingDead_N.htm