The Walking Dead's first season is good television, if not perfectly written. This show has figured out how people react in dire situations, but in between those situations, it's not the strongest. Whereas they seem to nail scenes that are difficult to write, they hit as much as they miss in the "down time" scenes.
The pilot episode was about as perfect as a pilot episode can get written. Lost is the only other show I can think of that had such an engaging pilot that made you want to watch more. Unfortunately, it is far and away the best episode to date that I have watched.
The first scene sets the table about how awful the world has become when Rick needs to shoot a little girl zombie. The natural sound they had was amazing and the scene was extremely tense. Another thing they got right was skipping the part where the zombies overtake humans, which has been well-explored. This series deals with the aftermath. The way they accomplish this is by having Rick Grimes be our guide, with him jumping into the zombie world.
The episode continues strongly as Rick realistically makes his way to his home while he and the viewers are taking in the destruction that has happened. I cannot praise Andrew Lincoln enough in this role. He really sells everything. The scene where he breaks down and cries when he can't find is family is heartbreaking.
He is saved by Morgan Jones, played by Lennie James, and his son. James was probably the best part of that first episode, which is a shame because we don't see him for the rest of the season. He can't bring himself to kill his wife, who is now zombified.
The ending of the episode was not as good as the first half. The farmhouse he visits has a bloodily written "God Forgive Us," which is purely for thematic value and doesn't really make sense if you think about it. Why would you take the time to write that as your life is winding down?
Then when he is escaping the zombies in the street in Atlanta at the end - which was well done - he crawls under the tank and it looks like he will shoot himself.... except no one would buy that the main character would commit suicide in the first episode so that was a cheap ploy. The ending with the "Hey you dumbass" and the last song finished the episode strongly though.
A part of the show I entirely dislike is the Lori and Shane relationship. It feels contrived to me to create drama. I buy that Shane would want to get with Lori, but I don't see the motive for Lori here. Yes, her husband is apparently dead, but we're still talking a month or so that's passed. I just don't buy that relationship and am not a fan whenever that gets brought up. (The first scene of "Guts" when Shane scares Lori is bullshit. Manufacturing tension, because in that world, nobody sneaks up on anybody ever or you might die.)
In the third episode, Rick reuniting with his family was well done. I am not sure how they pulled that off, but boy did they. I also liked the comment from Dale about how words can't accurately capture what's happening.
I mentioned the writing for the "in between" scenes before and an example is the "evil characters." It's in quotes mostly, because they aren't characters. They are caricatures. It's a joke. Ed, the wife-beating misogynist, is one of the most poorly written characters I've ever seen. There is nothing likable about him.
As far as characters that are well-written, I'd say that comprises the people who took most of the screen time in the last few episodes. Andrea and her sister share a touching moment in the boat that made us care about them. Jim's heartbreaking story about how he escaped only because his family was being eaten. Dale's story about how he was angry when his wife was taken away from him and now he had Andrea. Shane is a dick, but at least he's a human being. Glenn, Merle, T-Dog, and Daryl are not really that well-written, but the actors make the most out of it.
This season is just too rushed. I know that's AMC's fault, but I don't understand why. They could have easily stretched out this season while fleshing characters. We experienced the CDC for a single episode. (Speaking of which, Noah Emmerich is impressive in his short time). They just needed more time to make these storylines work better.
Overall, the season is rushed, which largely causes a lot of the character problems. They don't have enough time to make us care so they need to create some caricatures that are easy to kill off. They barely get enough time for us to even remember half of their names. (Do you know who Jacqui is, because I needed to look up that she was the one black woman?)
Season Grade: B+
Playlist
1. "What They Do" - The Roots
2. "Miracle Mile" - Cold War Kids
3. "Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden
4. "Do You Realize?" - The Flaming Lips
5. "Immortal" - Kid Cudi
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