What a show to premiere on Halloween night. I'm not much for the zombie shows, and I originally thought this would be better as a movie than a TV series, but I will admit I was completely mistaken. There is only one word to describe this show: fantastic.
Officer Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) comes out of a coma (induced by a gunshot wound) to find a demolished hospital, decomposed/eaten bodies covered in flies, and no one else around for miles.
Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed.
One of the things I like most about this plot is that they didn't waste episodes explaining how zombies come to be. There is mention of being bit, dying, returning to "life" as a zombie. There, now you're caught up on how this all happened. Moving on...
Once he gets up from the his hospital bed, the cop makes his way towards his house, only to find his house abandoned by his wife and young son. I could see this leading to what was to come - I knew they would be alive somewhere and something scandalous would arise. Sure enough, she is later seen kissing his colleague at a camp they set up away from the zombies in Atlanta.
Officer Grimes encounters another man, Morgan (Lennie James), and his young son, Duane (Adrian Turner), and stays in seclusion with them for a while before he makes his way to Atlanta. Morgan's wife was bit by a zombie and it's like she has a memory because she often returns to the house as though she is looking for her family. Morgan is faced with a painstaking decision if she should eliminate her and put her out of her misery or not. Ultimately, he's unable to put her out of her misery but still can't leave her behind to go to Atlanta with Grimes. I think this added a personal angle to the story and the zombies - they aren't all just these random beings roaming around with their arms in the air. This is the shell of a loved one.
This episode ran for an hour-and-a-half and when it ended, I couldn't believe the suspense I had just endured and couldn't believe it was already over.
And then there's the cliffhanger - the mystery voice that comes across the radio inside the tank saying to officer Grimes, "Hey you, dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank. Cozy in there?"
If you haven't watched this episode yet, let me forewarn you: the graphic nature is not overly extreme, but there is the death of a horse. :(
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