IAR's 'The Walking Dead' Season 2 Preview

Friday, 14 October 2011 13:04 Written by Jenni Powell

Add new comment

Rate this item

(1 Vote)

IAR's 'The Walking Dead' Season 2 Preview

When Image Comics began publishing a series authored by Robert Kirkman that followed the story of a group of uninfected trying to survive after the zombie apocalypse, it was less a matter of "if" it would be adapted to another medium but rather "when" and in "what" format. While many of the novels written in the zombie genre seem to lend themselves to the movie format (such as the upcoming World War Z), the scope and visuals of The Walking Dead clearly would have been better served in the television format.

Luckily, AMC did not disappoint. Their first 6 episode season of the television adaptation perfectly captured the tone of the Kirkman comics. A huge reason for that was bringing Kirkman into the production not only as an Executive Producer, but also as a writer. The high production value and impeccable makeup effects (actors playing zombies had to attend "Zombie School" in order to accurately move and walk like zombies) only served to push the envelope for the zombie genre.

The story of The Walking Dead follows police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) as he tries to lead a group of survivors to safety after awaking from a coma to find that the world he once knew is no more as the dead have risen to begin consuming the living. The survivors come from all walks of life and have to learn to collaborate as survival depends on their ability to work together. It's the human struggles that truly push the meat of the story forward, while the scenes integrating "Walkers", "Geeks", and "Test Subjects" (as the zombies are referred to for the majority of season 1) brings the suspense and terror. It's a heady and addicting combination.

Season 2 of the series picks up where Season 1 left off: the group is dealing with losing another member and have discovered that the potential cure they were searching for does not exist. And yet hope remains. The show continues to take a divergence from the comic series, introducing several new survivors not seen in the comic. There is also some amazing ancillary content being hosted on Machinima, which explores an intriguing backstory from season 1.

Season 2 of The Walking Dead premieres on Sunday October 16th at 9/8c on AMC. Season 1 is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Netflix and if you haven't yet had a chance to get caught up, do so now before the Walkers catch up to you.