Part One: A review of The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season on DVD

Because I'm only allowed so much time on the apartment complex's computer, I had to write out my review of the new disc set of The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season in longhand in my apartment. It took five pages of notebook paper, which is a lot longer than I anticipated. I'm therefore going to break up the review into three or four parts. I'll put up a part each day until it's completed.

First thing is the title of the disc set--The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season. I'm not sure why someone thought it was necessary to put the word "complete" into it. After all, the season only comprised of six episodes, not thirteen or twenty. Did the person in charge of coming up with the title believe we might think there was a possibility of the set being cut an episode or two? I don't know. Maybe one of the zombies added it as a last thought, wanting us to know we were getting the whole deal and not a partial one.

Now, as far as new television series go, the praise for The Walking Dead is justly deserved. This was not only one of the best shows for 2010, but also for the decade. Nothing like The Walking Dead had ever been done before, and I sincerely applaud AMC for taking a chance with it. It took a lot of courange on their part to go with the show and to let Frank Darabont do it the right way.

The first thing that drew me to The Walking Dead was the attachment of Frank Darabont to it as Executive Producer, writer, and director. This got my attention big time. I've been a fan of Frank's since The Shawshank Redemption came out. Add to that, The Green Mile and The Mist, and you know that this man is a genius when it comes to film adaptations from the horror genre. Like Stephen King, Frank Darabont can do no wrong in my opinion. Once I began to see the trailer for the show on television, I instinctively knew it was going to be a great series. I wasn't wrong, either. I'm not really a big fan of zombie movies. I've seen a few good ones and a lot of bad ones. The trailers told me that this series was going to be something very special, and that's exactly what it proved to be. It's enough to say that the pilot episode blew me away with its high production values, quality filming, and superb acting.

A lot has already been written about the show, but for those readers who are unaware of the plot, allow me to give you a brief summary.

It starts out with Sheriff's deputy, Rich Grimes, getting shot in the line of duty. He ends up in the hospital in a coma. When Rick wakes up two months later, life as he knows it has changed for the worse. Everybody in the hospital is dead but him and the "walkers". The "walkers" are the living dead. They're humans who have died and then come back alive to hunt for the flesh of living survivors. Leaving the hospital, Rick makes it back to his home to discover that his wife and young son escaped. He knows this because the picture albums are missing. Rick's mission in life is to now find them, and he soon leaves his hometown to head to Atlanta, Georgia, where the military is supposedly protecting a settlement of survivors. Wrong! Atlanta has been taken over by the "walkers" and Rick quickly finds himself trapped by them. It is only through the help of a Korean pizza delivery boy named Glenn that he doesn't die. Glenn takes Rick to the rest of the group that's with him. In time they make their way back to their encampment outside of the city near an old rock quarry. It's there that Rick finds his wife and son. It turns out that they were saved by his police partner, Shane Walsh, who thought Rick was dead. In the two-month period of time, Shane and Rick's wife began an affair, but she puts a halt to it once she sees her husband alive. From that point, it's all about survival as the people head for the Center for Discease Control and hopefully salvation, but everything is not as it appears and salvation is a long ways away.

Okay, Part One is over with. I'll discuss the actors in Part Two.