Ten years ago, to the day, The Walking Dead premiered on AMC. It was, for a good while, a cultural phenomenon. The zombie genre had reached new heights, with it taking over popular culture for all intents and purposes. Truly, you couldn't find anything that didn't have zombies in it, from video games to cinema. George Romero was even making his film finale in his Living Dead film series. However, it was Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead which spilled the zombies onto the serialized small screen.
My first brush with The Walking Dead came from high school. I actually have fond memories of flipping through a friend's copy of the first issue of the comics, Days Gone By, as we excitedly chatted about the board game Zombies!!! and gushing over this comic series my friend had brought to our attention. I quite liked it and remember briefly borrowing them from him and drawing nostalgic connections to Issue 3, Safety Behind Bars, and events from Max Brooks The Zombie Survival Guide.
Having read the first few issues way back when, and now in 2020 having finished the series with the fantastic conclusion to Kirkman's comics in 2019, I've now re-watched the 2010 pop-culture phenomenon that is The Walking Dead. This is just my own reminisces from ten years on, and why I think this show managed to become so popular.
This story opens in presumably the not too distant future or past of our own world in rural Georgia. Sherriff Rick Grimes and his partner Shane are discussing life and Rick's strained marriage when they get a call about a high speed chase in progress, and along with other officers, respond. In the ensuing shoot out, Rick is shot and badly injured. He lapses into a coma.
Roughly a month or so later he wakes up in the hospital. He finds it abandoned, in a state of serious disrepair, and sees signs of fighting, badly mutilated corpses, and a field of bodies. Though first he stumbles on one of the major changes of the series, finding a door which reads, "DON'T OPEN DEAD INSIDE" which produced one of the most visually arresting shots in the whole show, which sticks out to to people who haven't even watched the series.
It's actually one of the first changes from the comics where Rick instead wanders into a cafeteria full of zombies and, through blind luck, manages to extract himself from a life threatening altercation with the undead.
Escaping to his family home, he finds it empty of his wife Lori and son Carl, instead he is found by fellow survivor Morgan and, after a brief interrogation, discovers the sudden fate of the world. The dead have risen to eat the living, civilization has collapsed, and his family has headed to what they hope is the safety of Atlanta where the government has tried to establish a safe zone for refugees. After arming up, he rides off into the new world, and is almost immediately nearly devoured by a horde of ghouls before hiding in a tank. On a walkie talkie he gets in contact with a survivor observing him from the outside and finds his way to, relative, safety.
Upon doing so he meets Glen, Andrea, Meryl, T-Dog, Jacqui and Morales. They devise a way out of the city, in a very good departure from the original comics which leads us to a more drawn out escape, but some clever looks at the fall of Atlanta and the dynamics of surviving the zombie apocalypse. And our first big plot conflict emerges as Meryl, an unrepentant asshole, is left behind in the escape.
When they do make it back to camp, they encounter the rest of the survivors. In a very heartwarming scene, Rick finds his wife and son, who have been protected by his former partner Shane. This little community manages to have a few good days, but are interrupted by the return of Darryl, a show only character and the brother of Meryl, which prompts another expedition into the city. Though a success, all good things come to an end when walkers attack and kill many of the survivors. In the aftermath, there is a dispute about where to go, and it's a toss up between Fort Benning and trying for the CDC headquarters in the city.
In a very different take from the comics, the show has a fascinating look at how the virus started, the failed study for a cure, and some interesting science behind how the virus is spread. It's a welcome change, which made for a very fresh take on the show and a fantastic final episode. It was quite ambitious for both a finale and in how bold the decision was to depart from the original material.
At only six episodes, the first season is extremely short and, I would argue, that's to its overall benefit. The Second Season, at the time almost universally hated, but in recent years remembered fondly, was stretched over thirteen episodes, which with only one location and a radically different cast and story was bound to frustrate fans and new audiences with its slower pace. The Third Season set things back on track however, hewing closer to the original story and then making it a massive television success. Though the shows viewership has declined markedly from Season Seven onwards. I'll personally say that I have only watched intermittently beyond Season Five.
This being said, the First Season was a real tour de force with an opening episode which really drives home the suddenly changed world. Gory visuals and some simply fantastic zombie killing action. The acting is wonderful, and the show was done in a way which turns your expectations from the comics against you so very well. Re-watching it I was struck by how much my initial expectations were happily raised by the departures from the original comics. Darryl became such a fan-favorite that he is the face of The Walking Dead now. In only six episodes we managed to get a great new story, some unexpected surprises, and no matter what you think of the show now, ten years later those six episodes still stand out.
Definitely worth a viewing this Halloween!
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