I have just seen episode 3 of series 2 of the walking dead and I thought it was about time I wrote a review about it. The first series, which was on tv last year, was pretty good and I was looking forward to series 2.
For those that done know the walking dead is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series based on the comic book series “The Walking Dead”by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. I have not read the comics myself so do not know how close the tv series is to the comics.
The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes who wakes up after being in a coma to find the world dominated by zombies or “walkers”.
In series 1, acting on a rumour from a fellow survivor, he arms himself and begins a perilous journey to Atlanta, Georgia, where the CDC is said to have set up a quarantined “safe-zone” in the city.
He sets out to find his family and other survivors along the way. During his journey, Rick sees the devastation to both society and infrastructure left by the disaster. Upon reaching Atlanta, he soon discovers that the city is overrun by the undead and is no longer a safe zone. Even the CDC is not the safe haven it was expected to be. And at the end of the series the CDC is left destroyed with the survivors depleted and with nowhere to go.
At the start of series 2 for Rick Grimes and the rest of his rag-tag band of survivors, there’s doesn’t seam much hope on the horizon. Episode 1 begins with Rick and his group of survivors escaping the CDC. They decide that Fort Benning would be their next destination. Along the way, they come across a traffic jam of abandoned vehicles on Interstate 85. The group loot several vehicles and, as a large horde of walkers approach, are forced to hide under the vehicles. Sophia runs off into the woods to escape a walker.
The search for missing Sophia happens for most of episode 1. But at the end of the episode Carl (Rick’s son) is accidentally shot during the search. At the start of episode 3 Otis, the man who shot Carl, leads Rick and Shane to a large, isolated farm owned by a veterinarian named Hershel Greene.
Hershel attempts to treat Carl but cannot remove the bullet fragments as they are embedded too deep. Shane and Otis volunteers to go to a nearby medical centre to retrieve some essential medical supplies so that Hershel can treat Carl. Only one problem, it’s been over run by, guess what, loads of zombies. To be honest not much else happens except the remaining group deals with interpersonal relationships while various searches for Sophia are performed.
In Episode 3 we have the continuing search for Sophia and battle to get medical supplies. Why oh why are they spending so much effort and putting themselves in more danger pursuing these 2 activities. And as I suspected Shane and Otis, both get injured, and run out of ammo. With Carl’s life is hanging in the balance. Shane has to do a terrible but necessary action. If Shane and Otis both die, Carl’s dead. If one of the makes it back to the farm with the equipment, Carl lives. And so Shane does what he needs to do. Shane returns alone to the Greene home with the critical medical supplies just in time for Carl’s surgery. Whether or not he can justify that to other people is a different matter though.
And that’s it, after three episodes very little has happened so far.
With what I have seen the special effects and make up have been pretty good. The acting has been excellent. And there have been some pretty good moments. The zombie being killed with a screwdriver in episode 1 was excellent and the zombie autopsy in the same episode was particularly gruesome with the cut-open zombie and its entrails.
But I have to say I am not enjoying this series as much as the first series. Maybe I’m just getting bored with all the zombies and to be honest lost interest in whether they survive or not. I don’t think I will be watching any more, we shall see.
What do you think?
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Blog of Darren Derbyshire 