The Walking Dead season 1, episode 1 – entitled Days Gone Bye – was better than 99% of the horror movies currently in theater. I have to hand it to Frank Darabont and AMC: the production value on this TV show really shows. This does not seem like a regular TV show at all but rather segments of a movie. Great title sequence.
Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) reaction to all the dead bodies outside the hospital was pretty much what anyone’s would be under those circumstances. I also liked how he walked through that white, pure light – innocence – and then was enveloped into that nightmare.
The father and the son added the most heart to the episode and I hope they show up again in the series. I have not read the comic so I am not sure if this happens or not. I’m guessing that it will. The father not being able to pull the digger on his zombie wife was good.
Grimes is one unlucky guy. His wife thinks he is dead and is now in a relationship with his old partner. That spells trouble in the future.
The part with the horse and the tank were great. When those “walkers” saw that horse, it was like a dinner bell had been wrung. It was good to see that zombies go after all mammals – not just humans – for a change.
During the tank sequence, I was surprised Grimes missed the open hatch on the bottom of the tank when he first crawled under it but it was more dramatic the way he discovered it.
One of my favorite parts: “Hay dumbass. You in the tank. You cozy in there?”
One aside: AMC has been running Halloween films – specifically Friday the 13th films – but censoring the violence so that it is not even present on screen yet they show a little zombie girl taking a single round to the head, blowing her brains out on The Walking Dead. So new violence is OK but old violence isn’t?
What did you think of the first episode of The Walking Dead?