THE WALKING DEAD: SEASON ONE

Movie:
 

A small-town sheriff awakes from a coma in an abandoned hospital to find that practically the entire planet has been overrun by zombies.

He joins up with a group of survivors, but the problem isn’t merely surviving the undead – but also each other. After all, whatever your religious convictions might be, you must admit that the Bible got human nature spot on: there were only four people on the planet and one were already killing the other . . .

Based on the acclaimed graphic novel and developed by Frank Darabont (The Mist, Shawshank Redemption) much in The Walking Dead would be familiar to both horror and sci-fi genre fans, right from the patient awaking from a coma to a post-apocalyptic future (28 Days Later . . ., Day of the Triffids) to a planet overrun by zombies.

Still, The Walking Dead manages to inject proceedings with unexpected emotion. Particularly touching, for instance, is the husband who can’t bring himself to kill his wife even though she has joined the ranks of the undead. It also feels uncommonly epic for a TV series: locales and special effects are of motion picture standard. It doesn’t feel like television. Acting is decent too.

The Walking Dead takes a few bumpy detours though. Episode two veers right into with soap opera territory with the whole clichéd wife-who-thought-her-husband-was-dead-and-now-has-a-relationship-with-his-best-friend plotline. It reeks of writers being lazy and compares poorly to the dazzling first episode.

Some scenarios will also seem over-familiar to viewers who have been bombarded with zombie and post-apocalypse flicks throughout the years. Still, the good outweigh the bad and The Walking Dead is a welcome addition to both subgenres.

Sadly the whole season consists of a mere six episodes – hardly a full season – but fans will be galvanized to learn that more episodes are on their way.