Some people have zombie fatigue.

I don’t. Not now. Not for awhile.

In fact, I was utterly horrified by all zombie flicks until I became a fan of movies like Shaun of the Dead, Evil Dead, 28 Days Later and Resident Evil. This year the zombie craze seemed to have hit a fever pitch with things like organized zombie walks, zombie musicals, heck even Sears zombified their website! The biggest treat this year is the comic book turned TV show The Walking Dead. I didn’t get to join everyone else on Halloween night to watch the premiere because I was at Evil Dead: The Musical but I saw it the next day and it was just as good. Me not catching it live didn’t matter because 5.3 million viewers tuned in on premiere night!

The pilot starts off like an normal day in Sometown, USA. We get to see two cops engage in witty banter then thrust into action. Our hero, Rick Grimes is shot in the line of duty and falls into a deep coma. When he wakes, he finds the whole town has gone to crap and even more, there are dead bodies everywhere. This opening was so much like the beginning of 28 Days Later that I begin to worry about the future of  the show. I was afraid that the whole show was going to be reminiscent of something that I’ve seen before. Not only that, some shows try to be dark, edgy and create a sense of drama and they don’t quite pull it off? The Walking Dead *is* dark, edgy and the drama was almost tactile. It is definitely pulling off drama and horror. It’s raw, it’s disgusting, it’s creepy and I’ll be damned that underneath it all, The Walking Dead is a love story.

I’m reserving my judgment in full until a few more episode air because of how badly AMC  bombed with The Prisoner remake. I’m leaning in favor of forgiveness and open-mindedness because The Walking Dead premiere looked so good. It’s very high quality and it looks like AMC respected the property, the genre and the fans enough to give this show an adequate budget.

Speaking of The Prisoner remake, Lennie James (as Morgan) was in it and Jericho. He’s good in everything he does so I’m hoping this show will be good as well. His story with his son was very touching. He lost his wife to the outbreak and he and his son has to contend with seeing their dead loved one walking the streets as the living dead. Morgan tries to kill her but just can’t bring himself to do it. I liked that a lot. Overall, the acting in the episode felt natural and I wasn’t distracted by any rookie actor mistakes. I feel like we have a real treat on our hands. The quality of the sets and make-up was absolutely phenomenal! The zombies made me jump, yell out loud and want to barf. I call that a success!

The best part of The Walking Dead is near the end. Rick confidently strolls into town on his horse in to what he thinks is a deserted downtown Atlanta. He thinks he has to outrun a handful but turns a corner and has a million-zombie march on his hands. That scene was executed well. I was genuinely surprised and I actually felt the panic. I miss this in modern TV shows.

The Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.