If you missed AMC’s The Walking Dead premier, do yourself a favor and catch one of the encore presentations I’m sure they’ll be showing. As many people expected, series developer Frank Darabont did a great job of preserving the feel of the comics
The zombie effects were terrific. They went all-out with the make-up, and though some of the gore was added digitally (such as the splashes from zombie head shots), it was better than I expected for a television series. Same for the sets: I don’t know how they pulled off the war-torn look of Atlanta, but it worked.
It’s tough to talk specifics without spoilers, so I’ll just say Darabont does a good job of delivering both tension and chills. When a certain character’s wife comes under the crosshairs is a good example. And the scene where Rick turns a certain corner on the horse? Wow.
All in all, I think AMC’s got another winner on their hands. With Breaking Bad and Mad Men already big hits, they’re shaping up to be a real powerhouse for original programming. I love it that they’re not sticking to the formulaic crap on the major networks, and tonight’s teaser for yet another series called The Killing already has my attention.
I have a feeling this will keep the zombie craze going for a while. While I’d love to see a new monster take the lead (*cough*werewolves*cough*), I’m just glad to see some good horror on television again. That’s definitely a trend I can get behind.
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. He is currently hard at work on the werewolf noir series The Pack for Evileye Books.
