I enjoyed the series premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead. A couple observations:

  • The initial scene was reminiscent of the the beginning of Dawn of the Dead. Both have a little girl that looks innocent enough until she reveals herself to be a flesh-eating zombie.
  • The intro was a direct copy of the intro from 28 Days Later. Guy wakes up in a hospital bed after a long period. Guy finds hospital trashed with evidence that something “very bad” has happened. Guy limps out of hospital to find world has been turned upside down and the apocalypse has arrived. Guy runs into survivors and acts incredibly clueless about it all.
  • Besides the 28 Days Later vibe, there was a strong Jericho vibe as well. There were 2 reasons for this: 1) Post apocalyptic world. 2) Lennie James starred in Jericho and plays almost the exact same character (anxious, distrusting) in The Walking Dead.

So plenty of shameless copying of previously-successful post-apocalyptic zombie shows. Nothing wrong with that.

I’m a little concerned about the longevity of the series. There needs to be a strong human component and it appears they’ve got the beginnings of one with the love triangle between the husband (and main hero), his wife, and his police partner who’s having an affair with said wife. But a post-apocalyptic world needs to be grounded in reality to keep the audience on board. I hope the writers can pull it off. My bet is it will last a couple seasons.

Note: In my previous post I called the show “The Living Dead.” My bad.