By: Mark Julian After watching the hook ending of the premiere episode of The Walking Dead, my first thought was, “Oh sh*t , Dick Cheney just shot that little boy!” All jokes aside, the ending was magnificent and practically guaranteed that you’d be tuning in next week to see what happens. The second episode opens with a flashback of Shane breaking the news to Lori that Rick was shot then we shift to Rick rushing Carl to Hershel's Farm to try and save his son from dying. Fans who follow the Robert Kirkman graphic novel know that this is a very important location but I won’t spoil that here. What I will say about the farm is that it's discovery and the new group of survivors introduced will be the most important aspect of Season 2.
Diving back into the episode, the first 30 minutes focuses on what’s happening on the farm and Carl being shot with a secondary focus on Daryl and the others continuing the search for little lost Sophia. This episode is light on zombies but delivers excellent dialogue between the characters before gearing up for a zombie-centric closer with Shane and Otis. The flashback of Shane breaking the news to Lori and Carl that Rick had been shot served as a nice juxtaposition to Rick now dealing with Carl suffering from a gun-shot wound.
Watching the Talking Dead aftershow with Chris Hardwick, I was treated to a line from Robert Kirkman where he stated that the show is about “the characters and what being in this world does to them”. That one line really cleared up some apprehension I’ve been having about the show. There are so many loose plot points running free in The Walking Dead that I go into each episode praying that we get some resolution only to be confounded by the fact that not only do we not learn anything but we’re introduced to new mysteries. However, I think I can set that aside now that I know what’s the thesis of the show ( I may catch some flack here but I hate when show's drag out mysteries. I have a fear of sub-par answers being presented. See Lost). After watching the episode the second time I realized that the reason why the show succeeds because it is abundant in realism with only one single aspect that’s surreal, the zombies. Even though there are dead people walking around eating those still living, the show never really gets too fantastical. This episode really highlighted that aspect of the show but expect that relationship to be reversed in next week’s show.
Minor complaints. There was no development of the Shane/Andrea subplot
introduced in the premiere episode which hinted at the two potentially sneaking away from the group. However, this theme was further implied in the discussion between Dale and T-Dog . I strongly suspect that we’re building up to a group split but I’m not going to say this is anything other than a suspicion at this point. We still don’t know what
Dr. Jenner whispered into Rick’s ear at the end of Season 1. On the aftershow, Kirkman did reveal that whatever was said had a profound effect on Rick. We also still don’t know what caused the zombie outbreak but I doubt we’ll become privy to that information anytime soon. There’s an interesting poll on AMC where you can vote about what you think the cause is if that’s been bothering you. Kirkman also revealed on the aftershow that there are no animal zombies. Bummer.
I rate episode 2 of The Walking Dead:
9/10
"Bloodletting" Zombie Kill Count: 1
Here's an inside look from the actors perspective courtesy of AMC.
Plus, here's a Sneak Peek at Episode 203
"Save The Last One".
The Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic horror television series developed for television by Frank Darabont and based on the ongoing comic book series, The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. The series centers on a small group of survivors led by Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes and his family.
The series premiered on October 31, 2010, and is broadcast on the cable television channel AMC in the United States.
The first season premiered to universal acclaim and was nominated for several awards, including the Best Television Series Drama at the 68th Golden Globe Awards. Based on its reception, AMC renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes which premiered on October 16, 2011.
The pilot received 5.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched premiere episode of any AMC television series The first season finale received 6 million viewers, a series high; with 4 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic, making it the most watched basic cable series for the demographic.
In the United Kingdom, it premiered one week after it did in the United States, on November 5, 2010 on cable channel, FX. The premiere had 579,000 viewers, almost double for any other show on FX that week. The viewership dipped during the season then rose to 522,000 viewers for the final episode. The terrestrial premiere on Channel 5 on April 10, 2011, averaged 1.46 million viewers.