The Walking Dead, S1, Ep1 – “Days Gone By”

Some spoilers below:

The last shot of “Days Gone By,” the first episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead, is of the living dead swarming and coagulating on a dead horse, the camera rising steadily into an aerial shot high enough that the throngs of the undead become maggots wriggling on the grey flesh of the rotting corpse of the city of Atlanta that itself is now suffering a living death. Yet the effect is diluted, damn near sabotaged, by the juxtaposition of the Wang Chung song “Space Junk (Wang Chung’97)” playing over the sequence. This encapsulates my feelings about the entire episode; it’s a Frankenstein monster of mismatched and sometimes incompatible and irreconcilable parts stitched together to create something that’s neither alive nor dead itself, a patchwork thing that’s both fascinating and repellant in equal measure.

The opening sequence where Rick (Andrew Lincoln) explores a nest of rusted cars and abandoned family artifacts is scored by the hum of electrical wires and the crunch of feet on gravel, and it effectively establishes the apocalyptic setting and tone for the series. Unfortunately, the post credit scene flashes back to a poorly written (“Royale with Cheese,” this ain’t)  and, yes, undeniably misogynistic conversation between Rick and his fellow police partner and best friend Shane (Jon Bernthal)  that purges any goodwill the opening sequence engendered.  The choice to introduce the two character’s friendship with this particular conversation is doubly odd since it manages to make both men look dimwitted and out of touch with the world as it truly is. I think it would be giving Darabont too much credit to suggest that he’s slyly trying to imply these guys were metaphorically the walking brain dead prior to the end of all things.

Having said that, the pilot picks up considerably once Rick wakes up in the hospital to find himself alone in a strange new world. Here, the metaphor is sharp and clear – Rick has been in a coma for over a month and walks about the hospital like a zombie himself. His family and the hospital staff have left him for dead (something I’ve always found odd, both here and in 28 Days Later), and he doesn’t look all that out of place wandering the halls of the decimated medical ward.

This sequence is really super, giving us some really masterful images of real power. The chained double doors with “DON’T OPEN. DEAD INSIDE” spray painted on them is wonderfully evocative, particularly once the doors part and the fingers of the living dead begin to writhe through. I liked the ambiance of the hospital scene in general, enough so that I could overlook the obvious questions like “How did Rick survive a month in a coma with no one caring for him?” I was also struck by how Darabont moved Rick through the space of the hospital, having him ultimately come out to the loading dock loaded with shrouded corpses. Very well done.

There are also scenes of honest-to-goodness emotional texture and depth, like when Rick crumbles on his knees in the front room of his now-empty home and pleads to a deaf God to let him wake from this nightmare he’s found himself in. Similarly, Morgan’s (Lennie James) painful deliberation regarding whether or not to take the shot that will finally lay his marriage to rest has the weight of authentic human suffering behind it as well. These are great scenes buoyed by strong direction and some raw performances, and I hope that we get more of them as the season progresses.

What I could use less of are moments like the one in the roadside camp between Shane and Rick’s wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies). The less said about how this scene is written and performed the better, suffice to remark that it felt oddly like something  lifted from one of those fifties B-movies starring Richard Carlson or John Agar, where men get mileage from being stern and logical, and women are alright letting them run the show. Lori’s a bit stronger in the comic and I hope subsequent episodes paint her, in particular, in a better light.

At this point, the series hasn’t sold me that it has the clarity and focus to join the ranks of great riveting dramas like Deadwood, Breaking Bad, or even the new HBO series Boardwalk Empire. These series had first episodes with great, tonally consistent storytelling and characters that felt like they had some history prior to the first episode. What Walking Dead’s pilot did deliver, however, is something just as valuable, and maybe even rarer in a television production: moments of authentic horror. We’ve gotten some of that in True Blood, and I’ll knuckle box anyone who talks shit about Tobe Hooper’s television adaptation of ‘Salem’s Lot. This episode can hold its head high with those as far as giving us some truly disturbing and memorable horror images. That alone makes the Walking Dead interesting, even if it means enduring the less than desirable misfires in character and story – something horror fans should be used to, in all honesty.