31 October 2015

The Walking Dead S06E01–04 (AMC, 2015)

I'm a big fan of the comic: each month's issue is devoured with equal parts zombie blind-hunger and the gut-churning fear of a lone survivor. Creator Robert Kirkman's desire to explore a post-zombie-apocalypse world is producing a work that's as soulful, ruthless and savage as Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It's awesome serial story telling that I dread but look forward to each month.

Then there's the television show it inspired. The intelligent promise of Frank Darabont's first season was not delivered in the following two seasons. That was mostly because broadcast AMC dumped Darabont after S01, and S02–03 were other people trying to pick up the mantle and resorting to things I hate about zombie film and television (for example, the characters' terrible habit of not paying due attention to their continuously hostile environment). The seasons following Darabont's departure were also boring as, man. So I gave up after S03.

In the years since, I tried the odd ep, watching as much of a random ep or season opener as I could stand (because it was usually boring, stupid, or both). The comic is so good — I know they're very different beasts, the comic and the television show — but somehow I guess I thought that surely the show might reach some kind of parity in its quality of story telling.
Which brings me to S06. I've devoured the first four eps in short order, and it hasn't been boring. The main characters — those that've survived from S01 — have changed and grown so much and in such different ways as to be rivetting to watch. The show has captured the essence of What are you prepared to do to survive? and the cost that that entails.

I'll keep watching this season. Even if it deteriorates into standard zombie tropes and cliches and I don't finish the season, it'll be interesting to drop in on the show next year or the year after, to see who's still alive, and what they've become.