My problem with the first season of "The Walking Dead"

Recently, I have talked with a few of my friends about what they thought of the first season of AMC's supposed "hit" zombie-drama "The Walking Dead."  The thing that I keep hearing from the majority of them, and the thing that continually stuns me, is that they actually really liked it.

Zombies.  How could they do it wrong?

Now, let me be clear.  I did not like this show in the least when I first saw it.  I thought that it was poorly done, ill-staffed (both in regards to the actors and the writers) and a general waste of my time.

However, I decided that mayhap I had been too harsh with the fledgling TV series.  After all, the graphic novels of "The Walking Dead" are absolutely awesome and some of my favorite things to read, and zombies have always held a special place in my heart when it comes to my entertainment love.  Much as those macabre shamblers ravenously devour flesh, I too have consumed hundreds of hours of zombie media, be it in the form of literature, movies or video game.

Honestly, I know that I can tell a good zombie story from a bad zombie story.  Rather than doubting myself, though, I decided to watch the entire "Walking Dead" first season again, now with a critical eye to not only the  show but on my attitude itself, to make sure I was not just being some rare breed of zombie hipster elitist.

After watching the series again, and taking a look at the graphic novels, and analyzing what it is exactly that so bothered me the first time I saw it, I've made a few conclusions about the show.

WARNING:  SPOILER ALERT.  I'm talking about a lot of junk from the first season, so if you don't want anything spoiled, then I suggest you leave now.  And preferably read the graphic novel to catch up...



1.  The first episode is good.


I liked the first episode the first time I saw it, but now I can see why after a second viewing.  It's not great because of how closely it sticks the first section of the graphic novels, although it does.

It's great because of how the story deviates, and because of how it all translated to the television screen.  The zombies are well-made, with flies buzzing around them and chunks of skin missing from their faces.  The cinematic shots are great.  There is real pathos in protagonist Rick's face (Andrew Lincoln) as he discovers the world that he inherits after he awakens from his coma, and from the heart-breaking story of the father-son couple that he meets, the father unable to literally or figuratively destroy the specter of his wife's death.  At the same time, though, there is also a very nice brevity and succinctness in the emotions expressed in the episode.  These characters have their own demons and problems to work with, but they pale in comparison to the looming zombie threat that everybody faces, and so they must move on despite their own troubles.

This is in stark contrast to the rest of the episodes in the series, where the spotlight is focused on most of the characters silly disputes with each other, rather than an advancing of any unifying thematic elements or even the narrative itself.

2.  The series cannot decide what it wants to be:  an emotional drama or a B-grade zombie movie.


Sadly, this is the problem that most prevents "The Walking Dead" from actually becoming something good.  The portions of the show that involve Rick and his band of survivors fighting zombies are actually not bad:  split-second decisions are made that have real-seeming emotional consequences.  Zombies slobber and wheeze and chase and devour the humans.  Their heads are blown off in neat little clouds of gore.

However, it is in lull between action (which often lasts far too long) that the show falls flat on its face.
The actors, doing their best with the script given them, spew melodramatic one-liner or non-sequitor after another.

Here are a few examples.

-“All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that's gonna get in the way of that is gonna lose.”

-After checking to see how many round are in a gun:  "four men, four rounds, right? What are the odds of that?"  *awkward pause*  "Well... let's just hope that four is your lucky number"

-After chopping up a dead guy to use his organs to cover their bodies with to hide their scent from the zombies: *checks dead guy's wallet, sees the guy's name is Wayne* “If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne. One more thing.. he's an ORGAN DONOR."  Note:  He never tells his family about Wayne.

-A white supremacist-like character named Daryl asks a black character named T-Dog why he would help out his racist brother:  “you see anybody else stepping up to save your brother's cracka-ass?”  “why you?” “you wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language.”

Those are just a small taste of the brilliant dialogue.  Drama is constantly sparked between the characters, but it always seems so artificial, mostly because of the lack of backstory and information given to the viewer about the minor characters in the show.  Which leads me to my next point...

3.  The minor characters in the show that were added in the transition from the graphic novel to the TV show mostly suck.  Also, melodrama.

Yes, sadly, a great deal of the characters that were invented in the production of the script for the show have very little importance on the plot as a whole, or are so two-dimensional that it's hard to care a lick for them.  For starters, the sole black man in the group is only ever referred to as T-Dog, which, I mean, is fine if he goes by that moniker, but it never really seems like T-Dog has much depth aside from "stereotypical zombie movie tough guy."  He is given no backstory, and seems to have no motivation for actually being with the group of survivors.  

And it's not just poor T-Dog either.  There are quite a few other characters, some of which who aren't even given names, who are set up from the very beginning to become Star Trek-esque "redshirt" deaths or departures from the story.  The problem is exacerbated even more when the show seems to dwell when these characters do die, despite the fact that most of those characters had no effect on the overall plot of the story. 

Sadly, most of the side-characters represent an aggravating road-block to any real emotional connection that can be had with the drama aspects of the series.  Who cares if Morales and his wife and children decide to leave the party to seek better fortunes elsewhere?  He never says anything interesting, the rest of the members of his family don't even have names and he was in only a few actual scenes of action. 

At the same time, the other characters in the show are often prone to huge bouts of melodrama.  The racist set of good 'ol boy brothers (their last name is "Dixon."  Big surprise.) are brash and evil-tempered, the elder going so far as to beat up T-Dog while spewing racial epithets at him.  Abusive husband Ed beats on his wife.  Backstory-less sweetheart Jacqui takes care of everybody, but then eventually decides to commit suicide by staying in an explosive blast radius.

While it's good to have polarizing forces in a cast of characters, it is stupid to have a set of characters be evil or good for absolutely no reason in a piece of fiction that is supposed to be all about emotional complexity and the human condition in an apocalyptic setting.  Why would Ed beat his wife?  Why are the Dixon brothers so intolerant?  Why would Jacqui, after helping out her friends for so long, decide to end her life at that specific juncture?  These things have not been explained, and I highly doubt they ever will be, especially considering how Ed was killed off very neatly in a zombie attack on the camp.

4.  There are a lot of close-ups of characters faces.

I know that it must be tough to find enough material to fit in a 45-minute episode, but there are seriously far too many lingering shots on the actors' faces on this show that reveal absolutely nothing integral to anything.  Often, too, these close-ups reveal some pretty goofy attempts at expressing an appropriate emotion for the moment at hand.

5.  Plot holes/dumb things.


While I was unable to find specific video clips for these two, I always have to laugh and shake my head whenever I see them.

In the end of the fourth episode, when the survivors' small campsite is overrun by zombies, there are multiple members of the party who get killed or bitten.  The problem is: only two of them had ever been introduced or actually seen in any prior episodes  If this isn't another case of "redshirt" deaths, I don't know what is.

As well, another glaring error (this one my personal favorite) showed up towards the end of episode five.  In the scene, Dale's camper breaks down, and two of the characters, Shane and T-Dog, say that they are going to go to the gas station down the road to get parts to repair the vehicle.

However, for the rest of the scene Shane and T-Dog are present while Jim,  a member of their party who had been bitten, was taken out of the caravan of cars so that he could die in a peaceful location away from the group of survivors.

As soon as Jim's goodbyes are said, the IMMEDIATE NEXT SCENE shows the entire collection of cars driving away down the road, the not-two-seconds-ago-broken camper driving with them.  I mean, I understand that some time could have passed between the two scene breaks, but come on.  This weird discrepancy is one of the dumbest things that I've seen in any kind of television show that wishes to be taken seriously in a long time.

Okay, so enough of my ranting.  The degree to which this show bothers me is only exacerbated more so by the good things that I see in it as well.  Some of the emotional moments are actually touching and well-acted.  For example, when Rick first sees his family again and realizes that they are, in fact, alive and unharmed, the expressions on he and his son's faces seem genuine and carry the proper weight that relief after months of fear and sadness should have.

For those of you that like it, by all means, don't let me dissuade you from your appreciation of it.  There are a great deal of positive things about the show.  The action-centric parts of the show are generally good:   the zombie hordes' make-up and acting is often awesome and there is plenty of well-done gore and gunplay.

As well, another thing to consider for those that did not like the first season as I did is the fact that after show ran its course, the entire writing staff of "The Walking Dead" was fired by showrunner Frank Darabont.

Stranger still, though, is the fact that Frank Darabont himself was recently fired from production of the show by AMC.

Depending on how you view the situation, one can see this as either a tremendous loss or a tremendous boon to the future of the show.  On one hand, Darabont has directed some absolutely killer movies, like "The Green Mile" and "The Shawshank Redemption," and his disappearance from the show could mark its ultimate demise without such a dynamic leader.

On the other hand, Darabont himself has never directed any kind of zombie-flick aside from "The Walking Dead," and so whoever fulfills his role could (hopefully) have a lot more experience with the specific subject matter and could bring in some serious changes to the already hamstrung plot.

Regardless of internal struggles, "The Walking Dead" will continue on, and is set to premiere this fall on AMC once more.

I hope to god that it doesn't suck.