The Walking Dead 1.02 : Guts
So this is the premiere I've been waiting for all year. Last week, the first episode of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead aired -- in the States, anyway. Over here, we had to rely on our friendly neighborhood Internet pirates to save us from being left behind, which is the worst thing that can happen to you on a zombie apocalypse so this metaphor is relevant.
Also relevant, the guy who plays our fearless leader Rick Grimes was the "To me you are beautiful" guy in Love Actually. Yes, that is relevant. Secret British accents are relevant.
Anyway if you ask anyone who's seen the first episode, you'll soon find out that Episode One was been phenomenal. I might have even squeezed out a tear or two, and was thrilled to see scenes from the graphic novel so excellently brought to life.
There was, admittedly, one minor hitch, and that was the scene where Rick fires a bullet into a zombie at the police station. The scene later on when he finds the mutilated zombie and kills her out of mercy would have been so much more powerful if he hadn't killed the station zombie. It also would have introduced the new morality of the world he now has to live in: mercy isn't an option when every bullet counts.
Still, I suppose that's two mercy killings, so that's double the character development?
At any rate, there are a number of television series have failed to rise above their pilot episodes (I'm giving you the stink eye, Glee) and doom their audience to an endless cycle of deception and disappointment. Can The Walking Dead keep up the momentum it's gained with its single gore-ridden, tear-stained, ass-kicking debut?
This week's episode answers with a resounding "holy shit yes arrrggghhhhh next week nowww."
Named "Guts," this week picks up exactly where we left off, which is trapped in a tank within a writing sea of the undead. Rick is saved by Glen (who was my favorite character in the whole series, except maybe for Michonne, who I demand will be portrayed as the rightful badass that she is), and the show proceeds to show me that not all adaptations of things I love turn out bad.
Because what happens in episode two never happens in the book. Rick and Glen make it out of Atlanta with relatively little difficulty, and soon meet up with the rest of the survivors. AMC, however, delivers us a first taste of what we've come to expect from zombie drama-rama. In the show, Glen is not alone in scavenging the city. I'm curious about these new characters and happy to meet Andrea in advance -- I'm really excited about getting to see her kick ass. Watching Rick teach her how to use the gun made me ridiculously happy, for such a small insignificant moment.
And I always did think that they got out of Atlanta too easily.
If you haven't seen this show yet, there isn't all that much you might not be able to figure out, if you go by genre. Zombies are everywhere in contemporary pop culture (a much more palatable fad than fancy brooding vampires, if you ask me. Not as fun to look at, obviously, but so much more fun), and stories about zombies inevitably share the same basic premises: zombie apocalypse that causes civilization to collapse on itself, small group of intrepid survivors who will eventually turn on each other and die one by one, lots and lots of gratuitous viscera, you know, all the usual zombie apocalypse trappings.
So here's the thing about adapting Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead for television. Being based on a comic book with a definite linear storyline, the people who have read the comic book expect that it might have to keep to a fairly strict sort of timetable. You only have to look at the promotional poster for the show, and you can tell that they're not going to pull a fast one on the fans.
Just look at it! If only other adaptations would give half as much attention to detail and accuracy as this show did! First time I saw this, I ran around the office making people look at it and agree with me that it was going to be awesome. Not at all like a crazy person, no.
It looks like the series is settling down for a nice long stay, because this week's episode deliberately swerved away from Kirkman's story, drawing the tearful reunion out even longer, and gave the audience a new and hair-raising adventure before the real trouble is even expected to start.
Goes without saying that next week's installment of The Walking Dead could not come soon enough.
This may be premature and overly optimistic, but I don't even think Frank Darabont is going to give purists anything to complain about, and that's saying something.