The Walking Dead Season 5
Created by Frank Darabont, US 2015
Entertainment One, £29.99 (DVD), £39.99 (Blu-ray)
The first episode of Season 5 of The Walking Dead begins with the horrifying reality of Terminus, the supposed sanctuary toward which Rick’s scattered group of survivors had been heading at the end of Season 4. The clue was always in the name: Terminus – not as in Roman god of protected boundaries, but as in the end of the line. The summary throat slitting in a human abattoir of rows of bound victims – Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Bob among them – is a suitably shocking opener.
One thing The Walking Dead manages to achieve in its ongoing series format is to effect a negative transformation of core characters yet still take you with it. Rick, ironically, becomes increasingly inhuman as he strives to protect what he sees as the human heart represented in his ‘family’. Glenn and Maggie have their do-the-rightthing outlook severely tested. But for the reappearance of Morgan (more about him later) you might begin to question the transformational story arcs of the black cast members: practically sidelined in Michonne’s case; two others eaten alive, and only one of them by zombies; Sasha become a reckless nihilistic assassin; and last but not least, there’s Father Gabriel
64 Stokes, whose self-serving cowardice makes the snivelling Dr Zachary Smith in Lost in Space look like Captain Kirk. The Washington pilgrims from Season 4 provide some reassurance; as does Daryl, forever the lone wolf, gradually coaxed to the campfire of civilisation but now going walkabout again. This time, he’s a rebel with a cause: to find Beth, last seen being driven away by abductors unknown. Nor is Daryl the only one on the prowl. The ‘Wolves’, child-men without their gaming consoles to desensitise them, seek out humans as their source of sadistic amusement and are a lurking threat.
Beth proves herself a resourceful survivor in Grady Memorial Hospital, run by cops with an attitude that would do the late Governor himself proud (our way or the lift shaft). The quest for Beth and a bloody climax alternates with unfinished business involving the butchers of Terminus. This leads to the mid-season finale and the discovery of Alexandria – a wouldbe idyllic condo, walling itself off from reality and attempting to reinstate First World problems of the middle class Mumsnet variety. Even Rick appears to succumb, donning freshly starched sheriff’s attire once more while he patrols the place. Morgan Jones (the survivor Rick encountered way back in Season 1, now a gnomic and Ninja-like badass) turns up just in time to discover how far Rick has descended in his scramble for survival, and witnesses his summary execution of an Alexandria inhabitant. It’s all set up for Season 6, with further ructions among the rhododendrons to come, never mind those Wolves prowling the big bad zombie real world beyond its walls... admitting patients displaying bite marks and erratic behaviour. Contracted deals with what might have happened before we got to that point. So, in a neat twist, it takes ‘Day 0’ as its end point and begins back at ‘Day -3’.
The characters are vapid, but fortunately the acting is good. Najarra Townsend wins this week’s Tom Hardy Award for most alarming physical transformation, and Caroline Williams (memorable as the heroine of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) as Samantha’s mother effects an equally disturbing change of her own, from concerned parent to horrified Christian zealot. Safe in the knowledge that he has a good cast, writer-director Eric England is content to let the actors do the work and avoids unnecessary camera histrionics. He must also have had a good effects team, because some of poor Samantha’s symptoms are genuinely repellent.
In terms of a date movie – on a scale between zero and Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible – this is almost off the chart, being principally about the traumatic effects of a nasty sexually transmitted disease. However, viewed in the confines of your own home, where a good scrub-down is readily available, it’s very watchable indeed. Should you require a further dose, if you’ll pardon the expression, the sequel Contracted: Phase II is on the way.