By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
There are few shows that capture my heart and attention from the very first episode. I can literally count them on one hand and have stayed with me to this day. The Walking Dead is one such show.
I had never heard of the Walking Dead comics. I wasn’t even aware they existed and this new zombie show had come out of nowhere. Little did I know but I am glad I came to the show with eyes not tainted by the comic version. Now years later, it remains one of my favourites ever and my family are all fans of the show. We have visited Walker Stalker and my son volunteered at a convention where he worked with Steven Ogg all weekend. It is a love that has never died and why is that? Because I fell in love it from the first episode but not for the reasons you may think. Read on.
I was already familiar with Andrew Lincoln’s work from various British television shows so automatically I had a point of reference. All I knew was that this was a zombie show.
The opening scene hooked me straight away. A clean, neatly dressed Sherrif whom we later learn is Rick Grimes gets out of a cop car with a petrol container. There is utter silence bar the chirping of birds and as viewers we take in his surroundings. The road is filled with abandoned vehicles and on closer inspection there are children’s bikes and shoes littering the ground in places. Flies buzz in swarms and there is no gas at the gas station. Something big has occurred and Rick suddenly sees the feet of a little girl walking along. He sees her lean down and pick up a cuddly rabbit. When he speaks to her, she turns and we see the full horror of this world. She is a zombie which launches at him. He shoots her through the head and cue the theme music. I’ve always wondered why a zombie would pick up a cuddly toy unless there was still some residue of that human remaining.
That is a strong opening for any show as it opens the door to the disaster but also opens more questions. It also shows us that there will be no hold barred in this show and that not even kids are safe. In every disaster we instinctively protect children so for a child to be the first monster we see is jolting. Her pale skin and bloodied mouth stand to this day as pop culture and we would return to this image as would the zombie kid actors at later date.
We flashback to when the world was normal when Rick and his deputy and best friend Shane are caught in a shootout. Rick is hit and rushed to hospital. They discuss global warming and women which to us is a big threat to the planet. A zombie apocalypse is not even something we conceived of beyond movies. Rick’s marriage to wife Lauren is on the rocks opening threads for the future as Shane fancies Lauren.
When Sheriff Rick Grimes wakes up in a hospital after a shooting gone wrong, he is alone. The empty corridors strewn with debris and chained doors with the words, “Don’t Open. Dead Inside” sprayed on them evoke mystery from the start. There are dead bodies and partially eaten ones too. Something groaning tries to push the doors open from the other side scaring Rick. The scare factor continues as he walks down a dark staircase with only a lighter. Is there a chance that this is some type of nightmare of illusion created by the injured Rick’s mind and medication? There are so many questions that the audience ask as Rick ventures into the outside world.
The grounds of the hospital are lined with covered bodies and the sight of a crashed Helicopter alert us that even the military was taken down by whatever has happened. The direction evokes the sale of the disaster via long shots of deserted streets.
Desperate to get home, Rick finds a bicycle and a zombie ripped in half tries to attack him. In a webisode we would met this woman on the bike as it reminds us that these creatures were human once. Reaching home, Rick is devastated to find his family gone presuming them dead, yet hoping they are alive somewhere and wonders if he is dreaming this whole thing.
He sees a lone man walking down the street dressed in a suit and waves to him hopefully. It has been a silent world and suddenly the seeds for the future appear in the form of Morgan and his son, Duane, who hits Rick on the face with a shovel. Morgan takes Rick of the street and cares for him and we learn yet more when Morgan questions the typ of Rick’s wounds asking if he was bitten as well as shot. Morgan’s kindness is baanced by putting a knife to Rick’s face and warning him Morgan will have no hesitation in killing Rick. Rick relaises they are in a neighbour’s house and that the gunshot has drawn more of the dead to the area. They must hide here quietly to stay alive.
Morgan tells Rick what happened and all about walkers and the consequences of being bitten. Morgan’s wife is a walker too. We get to see the full horro of it all when we get a scare jump when a car alarm goes off bringing more walkers in. And we witness the horror of losing loved ones when Morgan’s wife comes to the door and tries to open the door after looking in the spyhole. She died in the house so again we wonder if there anything left of the person in the zombie body.
When daylight comes they go to Rick’s home where he realises that Laurie and Carl may still be alive as clothes and family albums have gone. There are refugee centres and rumours they are working on a cure. They head for the sheriff’s station where they shower and clean up. Rick decides to head to Atlanta to find his family leaving Morgan and Duane behind. Rick arms them and leaves them a walkie talkie promising to call in every day. As we know now Morgan would be back in a couple of seasons and eventually end up the lead in Fear The Walking Dead.
The world is now a scary place where death walks the streets. The human cost is once again demonstrated when Rick has to put one of his deputies down. This is important as it shows Rick stands for morality in this world. He cannot leave a colleague a zombie and gives him a merciful death because it’s the right thing to do even if Rick didn’t think much of him as a man. But more importantly this is the moment I fell in love with this show. While Morgan looks through photos of his late wife, Rick returns to the half zombie and sees her in a different light.
She was a person one but somehow became this thing to be feared. She is as much a victim of this nightmare as the rest of the world. He tell her he is sorry for this happening to her snd puts her out of her misery. You can almost feel that it is a relief for her. At the same time Morgan has his dead wife in his rifle’ sights. She looks up at him and he cannot bring himself to kill her. It is beautifully done as Morgan’s wife looks like a lost child. She has a wide eyed look as if asking why this has happened to her.
I felt sorry for the zombies too. For a show to make me see zombies through a sympathetic light is a show with very special writing. Zombies are victims just as we are.
We meet Shane, Carl and Laurie with a group of survivors. Shane and Laurie kiss but have no idea that her husband is on his way.
There have been many iconic images over the years but Rick riding into Atlanta on horseback is one of them. So far we have seen single or groups of zombies so the full horror has not been shown to us. How could these slow moving, brain dead corpses who cannot even run take down society? If the viewer thought the little girl zombie being shot in the head was horrific then they are to get a whole new world of terror.
The streets are quiet just like the world. The new background track of life is the buzz of flie and the chirping of birds. The stench of rotting corpses is the new aroma.
Rounding a street corner, avoiding a few zombies, Rick finds a tank and bodies being eaten by crows. Upon hearing a helicopter, Rick is suddenly faced with a zombie horde. The street is wall to wall with them and Morgan’s words come back to haunt us about how deadly they are in large groups. The horse rears throwing Rick off as the poor animal is ripped apart by te dead. He crawls under the tank. He is about to shoot himself when he sees the hatch in the underbelly. He shoots a zombie soldier but is deafend by the gunshot.
Again the zombies seem more intelligent as they crawl in after him and discover the top hatch. They seem to be trying to figure out a way in. Trapped, a voice comes over the walkie talkie. It is Glenn and we are left with the horse being devoured and the zombies trying to open the top hatch of the tank as the camera pans up into an overview.
This is a perfect opening for what would become a phenomenon. The story is opened layer by layer yet a lot is not unanswered. We meet some of the main characters but not Daryl. Frank Darabont does a great directing job evoking horror from every scene. The mass of bodies lying in the grounds of the hospital and on trucks amid wrecked vehicles is the stuff of nightmares. As I said this is the first time I have ever seen zombies through new eyes cementing my love for the show. I still didn’t know about the comics until about five episodes in. I never read any until several seasons in until the temptation to see exactly how the show deviated from the comics.
The source material was good allowing the show runners to build upon them and give us a special treat to something that would run for years allowing spin offs too. If ever you want a lesson on how to start a legend this is it.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 