The Walking Dead Episode #2 – Review

The Story: Rick has to escape from a downtown Atlanta that is swarmed by zombies.

What’s Good: The pilot episode of TWD was interesting in how much it followed the comics.  It was nice that they started out with a pretty faithful adaptation of the comic (as a nod to us comic fans) before going off the reservation with the helicopter right at the end.  This second episode follows the original comic much less.  You can see where they got some of the ideas, but they are adding a LOT to the story.

This episode very quickly found Rick rescued from the tank by Glen.  But from there the story changes completely.  In the comic, the duo climb up to the top of one building, jump to the roof of another (b/c zombies are swarming the original)  and jog out of town.  Here they get boxed in a high rise department store with a lot more people.  We meet Andrea (Laurie Holden, who is recognizable from her time on the X-Files) but there are also ~5 other completely new characters.  From there the story is pretty basic zombie fare: escape from swarmed building.

This show is nailing Rick’s character.  This is clear when he busts the racist redneck on top of the building.  And it was reinforced in another way when Rick took a moment to say a few words about the zombie they were going to use for perfume.  It is so promising that they seem to have Rick’s voice because he is the central character to this show: he is the natural leader that the group needs.

Of course, the big thing that folks are going to be talking about is the GUTS scene.  Stealing a scene from a future comic issue, Rick and Glen smear themselves with zombie guts (so the zombies won’t smell them) in an attempt to steal a getaway vehicle.  The scene is seriously nasty.  Much more graphic than the comic depiction, especially that Rick is wearing a few loops of intestine like they’re Mardi gras beads.  Yuck!

As for the tempo of the episode, it was pretty fast paced.  I’m sure the creative team faces a problem.  Fans know that TWD isn’t really about zombies at all, but the human drama that happens when civilization falls apart.  But if folks are tuning in, expecting zombies and they immediately get talking heads, they may tune out.  So, this approach is acceptable while they’re making us care for the characters, but we hope they’ll ratchet the excitement down at some point because there is only so far you can take an “escape from zombies” show.

What’s Not So Good: Not a big fan of all the new characters.  It is almost like someone looked at the early cast of the comic and said, “Is this supposed to be about how white people survive the zombie apocalypse?”  That is actually a pretty good criticism to have given that the show is set outside Atlanta (which is a pretty diverse area).  If it were in Fargo, it might be realistic to have a bunch of white folks.  The problem is that the new characters are going to create a LOT of people once they get everyone together.  That means many are destined to be zombie food and since the creators cannot simply feed all the new minority characters to the zombies, they had to add even MORE white folks.  Those new white folks are major Redshirts IMHO.

The other complaints are just nitpicks.  I hate how 28 Days Later ruined zombies for us.  Now they all have to run and be able to climb ladders, scale fences, use rocks to smash windows, etc.  The problem is that zombies aren’t supposed to be that viscerally scary. It is more of the fact that there are MILLIONS of them and that they keep coming than the fact that they’re scary one-on-one as these zombies are.

Was there a point to the exploration of the sewer system?  “Let’s check it out, we could escape from the building this way!”  “Oops.  Turns out there is a sewer grate blocking our path and a zombie eating rats.  Nevermind.”  That was just 5 minutes wasted.

Also not a huge fan of how hot and heavy Lori and Shane are.  The comic hit that relationship pitch perfect: Shane taking advantage of a vulnerable woman.  Here they’re like 2 teenagers, running off to hump in the woods. So she’s just a hussy having an affair on her brave and decent husband.  Not good.

Finally, the guts + rain scene was lifted straight from the comic, but doesn’t work nearly as well when you can really see just how much crap Rick and Glen smeared on themselves.  You couldn’t get that off in a million cycles through the washing machine much less getting caught in a rainstorm, especially when you have intestines around your neck.  Let’s just hope that all the people hoping for a perfectly faithful adaptation of the comic see this as a reason why you cannot just copy the story verbatim.

Oh yeah! almost forgot to mention it.  Do we really need white/black racial anger in this show?  Granted that was a big part of Night of the Living Dead, but that took place ~40 years ago.  We all know that there is a terribly small minority of closed minded people, but this plot element is really played out at this point.  We get it!  We’re all “humans” now and skin color doesn’t matter.  🙂

Conclusion: Exciting and nicely done.  A few problems, but the show is headed in a positive direction.

Grade: B

– Dean Stell

Random Thoughts…

Dale seems to be more of a “man of action” than he was in the comics.  He’ll “come a running.”

I like how they have no music in the tense scenes.

Whoa! Shane & Lori’s relationship has a lot more heat than in the comic.  Belly licking!?!?  Doesn’t look like a reluctant one night stand.

Tense scene with Rick & Glen getting away from zombies.  Hmm…  Zombies climbing ladders??

Whoa!  The rescue party is in riot gear.  The rescue party is very different than the comic.  Also, new characters: a couple black folks and a Hispanic man.

Zombies using rocks to break the window?  Dixon?  Holy white trash!  I like how Rick takes charge.  They really got his character nailed already and that’s a key.

Good to see Laurie Holden as Andrea.  Remember her from the X-Files.

Like what they’re doing with Glen’s character although he’s a bit more take charge than in the comic.

Why the hell are they hanging out in front of the store windows and taunting the zombies??

Guess the sewer escape won’t work, huh?  Thanks for wasting our time with that.

Where do they keep finding faceguards in abandoned buildings?

I like how they pulled out the zombie’s wallet and read his name.  Nice.

Interesting how they’re kinda doing a smash-up of the first couple of Atlanta scenes with the zombie guts all over them.  That was a pretty graphic scene.  Nice to see AMC isn’t shying from the gore.

I assume all these new characters are just going to be zombie food.

Of course, when is the last time rain washed off stink like that?

Zombies that climb fences?

I call bullshit on how the handcuff key got lost.  Nice Dixon got locked up on the roof.

And they’ve smashed into the store.  Will every episode feature a “by the skin of their teeth escape?”