With an original series line-up including Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Killing, cable channel AMC has proven itself undisputed champion of television dramas. The newest addition to its repertoire is the zombie-apocalypse series The Walking Dead, the second season of which began in October. The show continues in the vein of gritty, high-art fare, but also diverges from previous AMC series by introducing elements of science fiction and horror. Although not as deeply endowed with narrative genius as either Mad Men or Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead is a sincerely engrossing television show, full of the thrilling twists and turns we have come to expect from the network.
The Walking Dead is based on the comic book of the same title by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard, and retains many of the stylistic aspects of that medium. In the beginning, protagonist Rick Grimes, a southern sheriff, awakens from a coma to find the hospital, and all of Atlanta, ravaged by man-eating zombies. The sheriff bands together with other survivors, and the group succumbs to and struggles to resist the pressures of the zombie apocalypse. The show does not immediately offer an explanation for the disaster. The “walkers” wander dumbly about the city, looking for humans to eat and convert to their zombie ranks. As can be expected from AMC, the costume and make-up design are impeccable, surpassing the work of the majority of Hollywood screamer-flicks.
Gruesome, but still familiarly humanoid, they are perhaps a mid-point between the ravenous zombies of 28 Days Later and the lethargic in Dawn of the Dead. The craft of the actors is similarly excellent. Michael Rooker is fabulously deranged as the hard-edged Merle Dixon, and the ensemble cast of characters work wondrously together. Writer Frank Darabont chooses to leave in many zombie clichés that remind the viewer of the story’s comic-book origins. These comic-book characteristics may detract from the experience for some viewers, but they also distinguish the program from other AMC original series, intense and literal portrayals of American life.
Although it is perhaps not as seriously mature as some of the network's harder content, AMC’s The Walking Dead is still above and beyond what any other network has to offer.
The Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 9:00 PM on AMC, and 6:00 PM on AMCHD.