The First Season is all around amazing. We find ourselves thrown into the world of some very strong characters and great writing. In this short and absolutely awesome season you will probably find yourself attached to over half a dozen characters. The interactions between our players comes off as real and it doesn't take much to become invested in them.'

The effects are great. A lot of attention and detail went into the zombies (walkers), and things didn't come across as over-done. It looks like real make-up and prosthetics were used and there isn't a lot of crappy CGI to pull you out of the zone. The music, when used, is good, but there are a lot of silent parts too in which you get a sense of what the atmosphere would really be like. Sometimes less is more and this show made good use of that. They didn't take the shaky-camera cop-out, they also didn't exaggerate things to the point it looked unbelievable. They kept it honest - as if they sat around and thought - "what would this actually look like" and then showed it to us as realistically as they could! I was able to suspend my disbelief and get lost in the story!

Another thing I appreciate is that in this season they did not go out of their way to try to make ruthlessly pick on religion. A certain survivor and his son say a prayer over their meal after rescuing a stranger - its fast, short, and too the point. That was appreciated - that a family that just so happened to believe in God was able to keep to their faith and it was no big deal. It wasn't done from a standpoint to try to prosyletize, it was simple just in the show because that was that family's beliefs. Too many new shows I watch go out of their way to make cartoonishly awful religious characters when its CLEAR it had nothing to do with the story line and was just some crack-pot writer standing on a soap box who wanted to throw his or her opinion in your face - so really - it was really refreshing to watch something that was simply about what it claims to be about - the Walking Dead, and how a group of very like-able characters come together to manage in the face of that.

I really don't understand the popularity of this series. IMO, it's incredibly slow in the action-department and spends WAY too much time on the touchy-feely BS with the characters.

Who cares about character-development when the Zombies are probably gonna eat 'em all in the end, anyway?

I watched the first season to the end since I'd already paid for it, but for no other reason. No interest in what came afterward.

Not recommended.

My favorite TV series of all time! I am 44 years old and this is easily, by far, the best TV show I have ever seen! Vanity Fair says "The Walking Dead is the best new television show of the year". AGREED. DreadCentral says this is "The greatest zombie epic of the last three decades". After waking up out of a coma, a police man finds that he is in a nightmare world. Atlanta, Georgia is deserted and he finds that zombies have taken it over! He soon finds some human survivors in a camp outside of town that are barely surviving the zombie apocalypse. This is a story of human survival against cataclysmic odds. This TV show airs Sunday nights on AMC network and is directed and made by the same people who made The Shawshank Redemption, The Terminator, and Aliens. It is based on the comic book/magazine of the same name. VERY, VERY GRAPHIC. THIS IS NOT FOR CHILDREN. I would rate this TV show R or MA for violence, gore, blood, occasional cussing, occasional nudity, and intense action.

The zombie as reimagined by George Romero in 1967 was a remarkably potent monster that seemed to reach the deepest levels of primal fear. Yet it was a remarkably limited monster. It wasn't intelligent and even romantic like a vampire or even a werewolf when not transformed; not coldly intelligent like an evil space alien, or able to crush cities like Godzilla. Within the short time span of a movie, everything that could be done with them was essentially done in the original Night of the Living Dead. You might change the location to a shopping mall or whatever, but the setup was always the same: a group of people were trapped somewhere and the zombies were trying, always relentlessly, to get at them. It didn't help that the numerous films that followed usually had miniscule budgets, poor writing and minimally talented actors.

Then The Walking Dead showed the way. With a TV series there was time to do more than be trapped in some building. You could develop characters, move around, show interaction between groups of survivors, open the whole thing up, and this is what the Walking Dead staff and actors have done with great success. It's still a bit limited. You can go into the primary group's relationships and dynamics and this can develop characters, but too much of this and it can turn into a soap opera of who's in love with who or whatever and lose its way. Or, you can introduce the possibilities of conflict with other groups or villainous leaders of groups which creates opportunities for action beyond zombie killing. A few people have complained that it is getting somewhat repetitious by the end of season five, but it is still a somewhat limited template. I don't think those fans would want a full season of peace and happiness which is about the only alternative.

The Walking Dead has tried both directions with maybe a bit too much soap opera in the first half of season two and maybe too long of a single villain arc in season three, but each time has pulled back and brought the show back on track. Mostly it explores human nature when the protected life we knew that allowed us to be ultra-nice people disappears and the world becomes a hostile and dangerous place where niceness doesn't suffice any more and we have to bring out the tougher, harsher side of ourselves.,

The show does this wonderfully well and this is where you start. Be forewarned that the show can be pretty ruthless about killing off major characters. But if the primary characters were always safe like in older TV fare, it wouldn't be very unsettling and would become a bore. Like any of the better series coming out of cable these days it can be addicting. ENJOY!

I always think it’s helpful to give a little context of the reviewer. I’m in my late 20’s, live and work in a city with a high stress job, and have little time to watch TV so I tend to not watch shows in real-time but wait for recommendations and then get them on Amazon. And I have seen very few zombie films/TV shows if any – It is not a genre I typically seek out. But wow – I feel head over heels for this show with Season 1 and have not been able to stop watching since.

When I first heard the premise for the show – a group of survivors fighting to stay alive after the entire world has been consumed by a disease that reanimates the dead and causes them to become vicious, blood thirsty, zombies – I thought no way would I enjoy this. But after several friends kept pushing, I finally caved and watched.

The show is of course violent and gory but all of that is really second to the characters themselves who make this show so amazing. The show makes you question values, human morals, and you find yourself rooting and cheering for these people through the screen.

Season one follows Rick Grimes as he travels to Atlanta and then the countryside to try and find his son and wife. This season is really focused on Rick’s rise to group leader and the dilemmas he faces in this new world. It is definitely worth watching!!

I thought this was going to be just another Zombie show..... I saw it spoken of on Fox-News and decided to give it a try. If you can get past the gore there's a story there unfolding that not just touches but "Strike's" home real heard for every human on the planet. It's about life, the choices people make (write-wrong, good and bad).
It give as true an example of what the author see's (and has every right to believe) the world will be in the event of a complete system Melt-Down in ours and every country. Humans are just that, human. God gave us all free-choice to decide how we want to view life and it's reason, and worth. God also left us with instructions that fewer and fewer humans take time to even look at. With this series, set In a society that has fallen apart, one see's all the choices and there reason's played out in short and long term. Do I believe in "ZOMBI'S", heck-no. Do I believe in the desperation of humans, and there different ways of responding to tragedy? "Heck-Yes"! In real life I'm a paramedic of 20+ years.
I also know we live in a society that has had it so-good for so long that what-ever happens to our structure and the survival of all people will be defined by every-one's understanding of the value of life and what "we" rear our offspring to understand. This "SHOW" is well worth the time it takes to watch, but.... Not as much as reading (And Studying) the Holey Bible. After all? The show isn't real but all who endure it see that the stories in it are much like what we face on a very minute level every day with life, work, home, and simple survival....But Life, Choices, and Gods word very much are-real. I suggest Both for all. After all, how much time do any of us really have?

B-asic
I-nstructions
B-efore
L-eaving
E-arth

THE WALKING DEAD is an exciting, innovative and very original series. High kudos to AMC. THE WALKING DEAD takes the zombie theme and brings it to a brand new level with intense drama and characters with depth and feeling the viewer can relate to. The show sucks you in from the first second of the pilot. And rest assured, there is blood and guts and gore galore but even with how great those scenes are it is the rest of the show that rules. The story is more about the survivors. It is thru their stories and interpersonal relationships that the heart and also true suspense and drama of the show lives.

The blu ray is amazing. The video presentation is superb. The picture is intentionally a little grainy which adds to its effect while the clarity and sharpness of the picture brings everything to life. Colors are bright and realistic. Close-ups are very crisp and flesh tones very realistic. The scenes with the dead are mezmerizing as the colors of their lifeless walking bodies mesh with the realistic blood and gore in the action sequences. And the audio is also superb. Dialogue is strong and the menacing scenes come to life utilizing all surround speakers. It's a whole other dimension from watching it on tv or dvd. Bottom line, this is a scary zombie series that comes to life due to the heart and soul of the human characters. It is about survival, love, acceptance and trust. Writing and directing are of course superb. Highly recommend this series and the blu ray transcends it to a new level.

Just the best, the whole show. I'm awaiting season 6 anxiously. Season one has some extremely strong episodes. This show isn't a one trick pony. It has depths that continue to amaze me, and while it's an ensemble drama, the characters are allowed, encouraged, shoved into complexity, and it seems so perfectly well done. The morally weak character develops into a better person--but slowly. The virtuous get darker. The saints....start to understand the sinners very, very well. So to speak.

If you like a zompoc with a clearly defined cause, Walking Dead doesn't have one. Neither does the graphic novel. We do know it's very likely viral. It seemed to overcome the populace rapidly. The zombies are indeed reanimated dead. They are similar to Romero-type shamblers, although they do move faster when prey is sighted.

In general, as the seasons go by, there's an alternation between what's the bigger danger...humans or the walkers. The word zombie is never used btw. Could go on and on. Watch the first episode. Some episodes are draggy, and that holds true throughout all 5 seasons. There are "setting and establishing" episodes that always, always have huge, so-satisfying payoff episodes down the road.