Have a wonderful, safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

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My husband and I watched the first season of AMC’s Walking Dead out of pure dedication to the comics that he loved to read.  Through his enthusiasm for the comics, I figured I would also love the series. He said some of the story lines were amazing, and he really liked how the characters in the comic were built.

With Frank Darabont at the helm directing, we figured how could this be bad or even average?  Darabont did some of my favorite movies.  For starters, there is The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption, both adaptations of Stephen King novels.  Then there is The Mist, another low budget adaptation of a Stephen King novella.

He did an excellent job on all of them.  However, the first season of The Walking Dead really was missing something.  The actors seemed wooden, the plot lines contrived, the dialogue ridiculous, and the characters were either over the top or simply not endearing or likable.  The zombie makeup was another story.

It was phenomenal. So there was sort of this disconnect on the actual characters and story and the phenomenal makeup and effects for the first season.

The second season seems to be making up for all the mediocrity of the first season in spades.  The first episode of the second season had me at hello. It was fascinating, gripping, edgy, and suspenseful. I actually began to – well, like the characters and care about what happens to them!

Characters that I formerly found annoying or nebulously uninteresting I now find interesting, and I actually care about several of them who I understand are supposed to be the core, main cast.  Three episodes in now, I actually look forward to this show as much as I used to look forward to Lost.

It is written more intelligently this season. I had heard that the writers were all replaced for the second season, and I’d be surprised if that’s not true seeing the huge improvement on the development of plot and more intelligent scripting.

Of course, the special effects and makeup are still excellent as well. One scene with zombies in wedding gear in a church was particularly haunting and disturbing.  I also like the fact that the threat factor is higher, with younger, fresher zombies able to move faster and be more agile than the older zombies who’ve been around a while.

The series is also going a bit darker, which I think is helping its credibility and realism. It’s definitely edgier, and I think it’s really going to pay off this season in higher ratings and more invested viewers.