"The Walking Dead" returned to form tonight with a third season premiere that resurrected the magic of the first season, and even added more. I'd give this a 10 out of 10, and I was a guy who complained about Season 2. It's better than ever.
With this opening episode, all the second season's problems seemed to disappear. Our friends ARE OFF THE DAMNED FARM, and on the run, in a fast-paced horror story instead of a weird postapocalyptic milieu- type drama starring Old MacDonald, Good Cop and Bad Cop. There's action, tension, scares, mood, setting, atmosphere and decent characters – not another episode of "The Waltons," in which zombies occasionally visited.
Every major character is imperiled and has to fight. Even young Carl wields a gun and racks up a few kills. And it's a smart script, with just enough expository dialogue to explain what they're trying to do.
Seriously, for a horror fan, there's damned good fun here. The makeup and special effects are f***ing incredible. (Greg Nicotero is a genius.) There's also a few very nice creepy touches connected with the setting – including one group of zombies that are a little harder to kill. (I'm not sure if the writers knew this, but that device was also used by Dave Wellington in his "Monster Island" zombie novel.) And there are a couple of nice touches lifted straight out of the comic.
Rick used to be a boring boy scout and generic good guy who only seemed interesting as a foil for Shane. He's much more interesting here as a fallible, darker character. Carl, previously an annoying and redundant plot device ("Where's Carl?"), is damned cool this time out. Michonne, maybe a more difficult character to write and play, is just perfect.
Hell, this was better than one or two of the George A. Romero movies. Seriously, nice work, AMC!
https://ericrobertnolan.wordpress.com/
With this opening episode, all the second season's problems seemed to disappear. Our friends ARE OFF THE DAMNED FARM, and on the run, in a fast-paced horror story instead of a weird postapocalyptic milieu- type drama starring Old MacDonald, Good Cop and Bad Cop. There's action, tension, scares, mood, setting, atmosphere and decent characters – not another episode of "The Waltons," in which zombies occasionally visited.
Every major character is imperiled and has to fight. Even young Carl wields a gun and racks up a few kills. And it's a smart script, with just enough expository dialogue to explain what they're trying to do.
Seriously, for a horror fan, there's damned good fun here. The makeup and special effects are f***ing incredible. (Greg Nicotero is a genius.) There's also a few very nice creepy touches connected with the setting – including one group of zombies that are a little harder to kill. (I'm not sure if the writers knew this, but that device was also used by Dave Wellington in his "Monster Island" zombie novel.) And there are a couple of nice touches lifted straight out of the comic.
Rick used to be a boring boy scout and generic good guy who only seemed interesting as a foil for Shane. He's much more interesting here as a fallible, darker character. Carl, previously an annoying and redundant plot device ("Where's Carl?"), is damned cool this time out. Michonne, maybe a more difficult character to write and play, is just perfect.
Hell, this was better than one or two of the George A. Romero movies. Seriously, nice work, AMC!
https://ericrobertnolan.wordpress.com/