The Walking Dead And The Awesomeness It Could Be

Contrary to what these actors believe, accents do not equal acting.

 This Sunday marks the return of the second season of The Walking Dead, arguably one of the several shows AMC has to offer. It’s currently the best show featuring survivors of a zombie apocalypse on AMC right now. Possibly ever. It’s a bit of a bittersweet return, coming back after a brief midseason holiday hiatus. Fans of the show, this writer included, spend much of their time trying to either defend it, denounce it, or both. Its fan base could be considered one of the more loyal fan bases around, because the thing about the Walking Dead is not that it is necessarily good. Calling it that would be a bit of a stretch. Its fans stick around because they really, really want it to be good, and a couple pinpoints of shimmering hope show that it really does have the potential to be good, but it’s got a lot of work to do get there, and it’s very quickly running out of time. 

Accurate representation of the show's current status.

The debut episode of The Walking Dead was an incredible cinematic debut. It was something that almost could have worked as its own movie. It threw the main character and the viewers head first into the zombie-plagued world of the show with great moments, breathtaking cinematic views, and one of the most impressive displays of television make-up and special effects wizardry in the groaning, shambling undead themselves. It also focused almost solely on the protagonist, sheriff Rick Grimes, as he awakes from a coma into a whole new nightmare altogether. Fans of the comic book series who had been worried the show would not do the comics justice rejoiced, as they saw their beloved series come to life on a channel known for its reputation of high quality television series like Breaking Bad and Mad Men. 

Then the series continued, and as it did so, more characters were introduced. And herein lies one of The Walking Dead’s biggest problems, both in the book and the television show. There are so many characters. When the first season of the show is only six episodes, characters need to be introduced slowly. All the characters converged by the third episode, and were barely given screen time to do anything that could be remotely considered character development. With such little time, it’s hard to pull that off. Lost had tons of characters, but also started out with 24-episode seasons back when serialized dramas could get away with that. The second season was picked up for a much longer season, but the first half of it was wasted on a plot that really should have lasted only two or three episodes. 

However, all of this could have been fixed or improved if the writing had been better. Fans of the show probably know about the troubles plaguing the writing staff, with show runner Frank Darabont firing the entire writing staff after the first season and hiring freelance writers in their place, then ultimately leaving the show after creative and financial disputes with AMC. The results of this are evident in the show, due to the fact that virtually none of the characters are likeable, save for maybe two or three characters, and plots that stretch out far too long to maintain interest. The first half of season two would be the prime example of this, especially the latter. Even though the twist at the end of the last episode shows that the writers at least have an idea of what they’re doing, they’ve still got quite a few kinks to figure out. 

This.

There is one thing the writers do have going for themselves. From the outset, Darabont and Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman have stated they’re interested in straying from the comics plot-wise in order to explore some new possible plot lines in the show, but this hasn’t completely worked in their favor. Since the show has been picked up for a third season, it’s not too late to go back and stick to the source material. The books have some of their own flaws, but they’re never afraid to take risks with the plots and do some insane and dark stuff to prove that absolutely nobody in the comics is truly safe, which combined with decent character development, makes the comic book series that much more devastating. One setting in particular (and those who have read the books know what I’m taking about when I say “Bring on the prison and The Mayor”), could give the show writers more than enough awesome moments for an entire season. The third season has the potential to be great. All the writers need to do is just stick to the source material. But until then, only time and the rest of this second season will be able to tell if The Walking Dead can become the show its fans know it can be.