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Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale), Steven Yeun (Glenn), and Chandler Riggs (Carl)

The Story

Rick Grimes wakes up after a gunshot wound coma only to find himself in an abandoned hospital. Later on, he finds out that not only that his wife, Lori, and son, Carl, are not at their house anymore, there are a bunch of “Walkers” or the living dead roaming around the streets. An encounter with a father and son prompts Rick to go to Atlanta city to find his wife and son. Rick soon realizes that zombies have overtaken the city and is forced to take a refuge inside an abandoned tank.

The World

In general, the premiere was successful in establishing the world that the characters inhabit. This is a depressing, barren and desolate world filled with nothing but the undead. The best decision the writers and directors made was to keep most scenes silent, without any kind of background music. The silence really adds to the isolation that the series’ main character, Rick, feels as he navigates his way out of the hospital and back into his home. Some people feel that the jazz-like music towards the end was inappropriate but at that point, the episode was about to end so the music was useful in implying that the terror is almost over and also in softening the gruesome scene of the zombies eating the horse’s remains.

The Mood

This is a somber, slow-burning piece of drama. While the zombies provide some tense sequence, this series is far more about character interaction and drama. There’s a sense of sadness pervasive throughout the episode. This is demonstrated well when Rick apologizes to a crawling female zombies that this awful thing happened to her. The father/son subplot was especially interesting in highlighting the pain of losing a loved one to death only to find said person roaming back to live as the undead.

Characters and Actors

There are several characters introduced in the premiere. Andrew Lincoln portrays Rick in a convincing understated manner. Rick’s disorientation as he wakes up in the hospital, for example, was realistically done. The trembling body, the look of confusion and terror as he witness his new surrounding, and his inability to do much were shown in subtle manner. Having said that, one can’t help but question Rick’s judgment at times. He doesn’t seem to think much before doing something. He actually went down a dark stairwell with nothing but a match and later on, just ride into an ambush even after being informed to avoid large numbers of undead. Hopefully this is something that his character needs to improve upon and becomes his character’s growth.

Shane, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be as good of a friend as one might think at first. It’s likely that he’s been having affair with Rick’s wife even before the zombie apocalypse happened. Similarly, Lori doesn’t exactly portray herself as a sympathetic character. This episode showed snippets of other characters, notably Amy, Carl and Dale but none of them did or said enough to reveal their characters. Although I think Glenn would be an interesting character to see after his voice were heard through the speaker at the end of the episode. Seeing Glenn would also mean that we’d be introduced to Andrea in the second episode so there’s a lot to look forward next week. Hopefully the others would also be more fleshed-out by then.