The Walking Dead - Season Two Review

Would you prioritise character development and sacrifice a compelling story? This is what happened in season two of The Walking Dead.  

Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller

Created By: Frank Darabont

Cast: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Chandler Riggs, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yeun, Norman Reedus & Melissa McBride.

Network: AMC

Average Runtime: 45 min.

No. of Episodes: 13

Release Period: 16 Oct. 2011 - 18 Mar 2012

Rick and the group are back, after having survived the self-destruction of the CDC building they are wandering around Atlanta’s highway. Welcome back to my review series for The Walking Dead; after having reviewed season one early this month, I decided to review the second season at the end of this month. Now this was by far the weakest period of the series (at least until now), but it was at least an entertaining one.

---WATCH OUT THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS---

The second sequence of this program heavily focuses on the second volume of the graphic novels, titled “Miles Behind Us”. It changed some parts here and there, such as Shane’s final demise but for most of the time it stays surprisingly true to the comics. This is one of the reasons why I appreciate this series so much; it respects the original medium while finding a fresh way to retell it.  

When Carol’s daughter Sophia runs away into the woods after a horde of “walkers” attacks the survivors, Rick and the group follow Sophia but Otis (a hunter from the Greene Farm) accidently shoots Carl down. Rick and Otis bring a heavily injured Carl to Hershel Greene’s (Scott Wilson) home, where the group is allowed to reside until Rick’s son recuperates. In the meantime Glenn gets closer to Maggie Greene (Lauren Choan) and learns that Hershel is keeping “walkers” in the barn, while Shane plans to kill Rick and take his spot as group leader and husband to Lori.

My main issue with season two is that it stretches out the search for Sophia over half of its runtime, which stalls the pacing of the series heavily. I know a lot of people who gave up on this series after watching a couple of episodes of this season, because barely anything was happening during the first part and while I appreciated how the producers tried to stay true to the source material, I need to agree with a lot of the viewers who found it partially boring. Having said that, the pacing was my only issue with the second season because the rest was fantastic.

Despite the fact it being one of the more boring sequences of the series, I appreciated the larger focus on character development. Rick, Shane, Lori, Glenn and co. where profiled psychologically, showcasing how the new dystopian world triggered changes in each of the characters. Due to that focus, the cast were able to display fantastic performances that topped those of the first season, making the second phase of this TV adaptation more personal even though it dragged on during the first couple of episodes.

Character wise not much has changed, Rick is still leading the group and trying to do good by everyone, while Laurie has guilt issues because she slept with Shane and didn’t tell Rick and is now awaiting a baby, not knowing if it’s Shane’s or Rick’s. Shane becomes more of an ass and turns completely evil and unforgiving, and Andrea is still a bitching, incompetent fool.

We also get a whole new load of people to root for! Among others one of my group favourites: Daryl, played by Norman Reedus. This guy was just a supporting character in the first season and made his first appearance in episode 3. Daryl is Merle’s younger brother, but with Merle gone he finally gets out of his shadow and becomes a valuable member of the group. The first half of this season focuses heavily on Daryl’s humanity as he is looking for Carol’s daughter Sophia. Reedus does an amazing job at displaying Daryl’s emotional weakness as well as his strength.

Further characters we get to know better are Carol Peletier, widow and mother to Sophia. She is a fragile and insecure woman, who slowly starts building up her confidence, especially when interacting with Daryl, as both seem to have a similar background. This season also treats us with a bunch of new characters, up front and leading the farmer family is the wise ex-veterinarian Hershel Green (Wilson). His daughter Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is a strong independent woman and love interest to Glenn.

The effects in the second season have improved since the first instalment, with the costume design and make up looking incredibly realistic and the zombies looking different from one another. This is what I really appreciate about this television programme, because each zombie has a different way of decomposing, which makes him or her feel as if they are characters in this show. Finally, I thought that the extras that were picked to play the zombies were impressively good and epic to look at.

Verdict: The Walking Dead season two contained some of the best character developments of this series matched to some of the best performances by Lincoln, Bernthal and company. At the same time though, it suffered from a painful and boring first half that simply dragged on for no apparent reason other than character profiling and that was by far the weakest aspect and the reason why I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much as the other seasons. For that reason I will give The Walking Dead s.2 a 7 out of 10, being the weakest entry of the series so far.

So, here is my question to you TWD fans, which season is your favourite and do you agree with personal opinion? Leave a comment if you wish to discuss, other than that I thank you all for reading my review and if you are interested click here for my review of The Walking Dead season one.

The Walking Dead - Season One Review

What would you do if the world would come to an end tomorrow? If the dead would rise from their graves and society collapsed, would you stay and fight or run away and hide?

 

Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller

Created By: Frank Darabont

Cast: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies,
Chandler Riggs, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn & Steven Yeun.

Network: AMC

Average Runtime: 45 min.

No. of Episodes: 6

Release Period: 31 Oct. 2010 - 05 Dec 2010

Hello and welcome to the first review of my The Walking Dead series. Currently on its sixth season, today I’ll be reviewing season one of this zombie-drama that started way back in 2010. The Walking Dead counts as one of the most popular and successful TV shows and had been nominated for the Best Television Series Drama in the 68th Golden Globes Awards.

This series is one of the few TV shows that airs true quality television episodes, which had become rare when it first launched and is one of the series, next to Breaking Bad, that got me interested again in television productions. The Walking Dead’s first season garnered universal acclaim, with critics praising the intelligent spin on the zombie genre of horror.

---WATCH OUT THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS---

When Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Grimes (Lincoln) wakes up from a coma, he finds himself in an abandoned hospital. Making his way back slowly, he shockingly finds out that the dead have overrun the world. When he reaches his home, his wife Laurie (Wayne Callies) and son Carl (Riggs) are nowhere to be found; instead he crosses paths with Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and his son Duane, who quickly inform him about the latest occurrences.

Rick decides to make his way to the Atlanta safe-zone, where his family was probably heading when they left. Outside of Atlanta, Rick’s old partner Shane (Bernthal) started a romantic relationship with Laurie and plays father to Carl, when Rick reaches the camp, to Laurie’s shock who though he died, things get complicated between the three.

The camp consists of former pizza delivery boy Glenn (Yeun), tough girl Andrea (Holden) and her sister, older gentleman Dale (DeMunn) and former mechanic Jim, the redneck brothers Merle and Daryl, as well as the Pelletier family and finally T-Dog and Jacquie. The group informs Rick that the safe-zone was overrun by zombies and that they have been hiding outside Atlanta in the woods ever since.

Let me tell you this right up front, this is one of the best TV shows out there! This is not one of these brainless zombie apocalypse stories, the gore, blood and rotting flesh are not the main focus but serve as the mere environment the group finds themselves in. The true core of The Walking Dead is all about the nature of the human being. How will people behave once society fails? Who is the hero that will stand up for others and who the villain that will kill innocents for his own survival?

This creates for a very human and dramatic story, that at times stretches out a little long but never fails to entertain. Since this is the first season it does take a little time until the wheels start properly spinning and things start happening, but once it gets going and the stories start unfolding, The Walking Dead turns into one of the most jaw dropping television dramas I have seen in a long time.

The plot was of course taken from the source material but it still stands on it’s own, depicting events from the comics as different situations and adding characters that were not included in the graphic novel. That is something I absolutely adore about this series, because it respects the source material but tells its own story.

One of the biggest positives of this series are the characters and the leader of the group Rick Grimes is by far my favourite one. Yes he makes stupid decisions at the beginning and goes a little nutty later on, but he literally was thrown into a world he has little to no knowledge about. Once he starts to learn about things (and her learns pretty quick), he becomes the group's most valuable asset.

His family, consisting of wife Laurie and son Carl, give him hope and something to fight for. He is also very humane and helpful, a character the viewer is able to relate to. Andrew Lincoln gave the performance of his live and I was really surprised by Wayne Callies.

Dale and Glenn are further characters the audience can cherish. Glenn is a young man who just got out of his teens. He is curious and somewhat of a daredevil, but still keeps his eyes open and does not commit to much of a risk to stay alive. Dale is an old but wise man, with high moral values and a big heart.

Shaun is the hothead of the group and played by Bernthal, who also gave a grand performance. He is somewhat of a troublemaker and his friendship with Rick soon turns sour, once he decides that Laurie should be his. Andrea was the weakest character in the group! I hated her from the beginning; she is whiny, bitchy and ungrateful.

The series not only proved that it was able to tell a compelling story, but also features good cinematography, with wide panoramic shots (especially in the pilot episode) and a couple of unique camera angles and shots. The colour palette used for the film was a very light brown/bronze that suits the end-of-world theme very well.

My only complaint when it comes to effects is during the last episode that features one of the worst CGI explosions. I am talking about when Dr. Jenner (Emmerich) decides to blow up the Centre for Disease Control.

Verdict: This TV-drama had me longing for more since the first episode Days Gone Bye. Does it stretch out its stories sometimes a little too much? Sure, but it does not hurt the outcome, because what we obtain is a heavy and emotionally rich story about the human will to live and how the mind adapts to life threatening situations. With groundbreaking performances a mind-blowing plot and fantastic cinematography, The Walking Dead belongs to the best in television and I give the first season an 8.5 out of 10.

This review series will be an ongoing one until the end of season six. My next review for season two will be uploaded by the end of the month. So do you agree with my review of The Walking Dead’s first season? Leave a comment below and if you enjoyed this review click like and share it! Thank you very much for reading.