Walking Dead returns with new gore, guts, glory
The are few TV programs that have more passionate fans than The Walking Dead. Justifiably so. The fervor begins anew at 8 p.m. today on AMC when highly anticipated Season 4 shuffles onto the screen.
There will be 16 episodes divided into two parts this season. The first eight run until Dec. 1; the second batch begins in February.
There seems to be no middle ground in the reaction to The Walking Dead. It is, after all, full of scores of grotesquely decaying zombies moaning and groaning and stumbling around trying to rip the throats out of the human survivors.
Sometimes the zombies win. Usually, however, they are creatively dispatched in a squishy, splatty and gooey manner that’s a testament to the skill of Hollywood’s special effects artists.
Non-fans find the subject matter distasteful and can’t get beyond the superficial premise of a grim post-apocalyptic world with its dystopian society. To make matters worse, beloved characters do die, frequently in most graphic and unpleasant ways.
But there are legions of devoted fans who see the series for what it truly is — a celebration of the indomitable spirit of man and the hope that virtue will triumph against all odds.
Devoted fans? Last season’s finale drew 12.4 million viewers, capping off a season that made the series the most watched drama in basic cable history.
Not bad for a little show that had its origins in Robert Kirkman’s geek-beloved comic books.
What Kirkman and the producers of the series have accomplished is one of those magical circumstances — like AMC’s just-wrapped Breaking Bad — that combines the perfect cast with inspired writing and a strong visual element to create truly memorable television.
It’s rare when it comes along and it’s to be celebrated.
The series has won a couple of Emmys — not for acting, directing or writing, but for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup. I would be surprised if the show is ever recognized for nontechnical Emmys. Some series, especially those in the science fiction genre, never get their proper Emmy kudos anyway, and that seems to suit the fans just fine.
No amount of praise in this space, no matter how deserved, is going to overcome genre bias. My own mother, for example, adamantly refused to watch anything whatsoever connected with outer space. It could have been the most magnificent drama ever penned, but if it was set on board a space station, she wouldn’t watch.
So, if The Walking Dead is, as one of my co-workers says, “just not your cup of tea,” then there’s always ABC’s soaper Revenge on at that hour, or The Good Wife on CBS. Maybe NFL football on NBC, Homeland on Showtime, or even Keeping Up With the Kardashians on E!
But for those who appreciate satisfying character-driven drama with plenty of action on top, The Walking Dead is your series and the live The Talking Dead with fanboy host Chris Hardwick following at 9 p.m. is the place to get all the inside goodies on the episode that just aired.
Note: If you want to warm up for tonight’s new episode, AMC is airing a marathon of past episodes that began Saturday and will run all day today until 8 p.m. Some episodes are rated TV-14, but most are TV-MA.
What can we expect in Season 4?
When last we saw our intrepid (and dwindling) band of survivors, The Governor (David Morrissey) had led an attack on Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the survivors at the prison. It was repulsed, then The Governor gunned down his own Woodbury crew before he and two henchmen sped off into the wild.
Alas, back at Woodbury, Andrea escaped the zombified Milton, but was bitten in the process. She shot herself before she could turn.
Rick and the remaining Woodbury residents then returned to the prison to try to build a new community.
In the new season, the prison seems to be thriving at first but, as AMC says, “happiness is short-lived as walkers and outside threats are no match for danger brewing inside the fences.”
At July’s Comic-Con convention in San Diego, Lincoln said fans will see a completely new Rick from last season.
“You find him in a new place at the beginning of the season,” he said. “He’s trying to repress his brutality and he’s renounced quite a number of responsibilities in terms of the leadership for the sake of his children.”
Kirkman added, “Things are definitely going to be way crazier. It’s an escalation. People are getting more ragged, terrible things are happening and people are having to deal with it.”
Finally, about The Governor, Kirkman teased, “He is still out there. And how he returns, when he returns, and what he’s doing when he returns is going to be a pretty big mystery this season.”