The Walking Dead

The original review: it was supposed to be one of the major horror events in recent years, but unfortunately, it was bitter disappointment. Darabont failed to look after the project and, instead of a proper zombie carnage and tense dramatic events, we got lots of lifeless chatter among unlikeable characters. Only the pilot episode is worth some attention. Hopefully, something (anything!) will happen in the second season. Update 2016: I stopped watching the series early in the second season, but I’ve returned to it and watched it in the course of several weeks. The short first season turned out to be the initial flaw in something beautiful. What hurt it the most was that it didn’t have time to get anything proper going and you couldn’t bond with the characters. Fortunately, that gradually improves in the second season and the unexpected deaths of (even popular) characters begin to hurt. The best season for me is the third (thanks to the strong antagonist, the Governor), and then the fifth (the hopelessness of the first half and the drastic change of the situation during the second). Unfortunately, the latest season, the sixth, is a bit worse. I didn’t like some of the questionable decisions characters make that get them in trouble through their own fault, the incomprehensible screenwriting of some of the characters (WFT Carol?!) and that every new character that a little interesting doesn’t survive for more than a couple of episodes (there’ve been at least three deaths this season that really pissed me off, because they could have developed those characters much better). (19/05/2011)

As Romero has proved more than once, the zombie genre can be approached in all sorts ways. But definitely not as a campfire idyll where a group of unpleasant, screenplay-rustling characters drink beer and discuss “problems" that seem to come straight out of a bad telenovela. Nobody shuts up for a whole forty minutes without saying anything at all. The characters lost everything and all their loved ones just a couple of days ago. There are millions of (un)dead all around them. A battle to protect basic values rages daily. They have to risk their lives for a stale slice of bread. Despite all this they long to survive, to have at least a grain hope. Great material, but nothing comes of it. In fact, this all appears in Darabont’s pilot in large portions and then what happens? Nothing. This makes it all the more painful that after the splendid introduction there follow five episodes of cruel and tedious disenchantment. It doesn’t manage to retain the pulp atmosphere of the comic it is based on and so the only good thing that came out of this “study" (literally) of (jack) shit and the “interactive series game" of the same name from Telltale. Season two came along with more episodes and a smaller budget, but the result is absolutely identical to what we got in season one. In other words, absolutely excellent opening and closing episodes with characters still full of telenoveloid stuffing, paper-rustling dialogs and relationships depicted in a way that even many a terrible Mexican soap would be ashamed of. | S1: 3/5 | S2: 3/5 | (06/12/2010)

Season 1: well-done work that has issues mainly in melodramatic dialogues, but otherwise excels in weedy Atlanta and excellent twists (home for the elderly, digging graves, etc.). Some conflicts between characters are defined as bearable, others are completely forgettable, but the atmosphere is daunting enough for a person to go through the first season in the pleasant tension that similarly realistic visions of the end of the world evoke. [75%] Season 2: phenomenal start, the atmosphere of the first two episodes whipped to the max. Then, unfortunately, the redneck syndrome begins, and all the characters (with small Daryl-sumps) degenerate into rednecks chasing their own tails and saying the same things all the time. It’s been a long time since I've hated anyone as much as Dale and his skunk suffering. What would be enough for three episodes is stretched to a good 7 episodes (not counting the strong start and solid ending). Even new acquisitions will have to be defended in the next series, because almost nothing works out here. A very “dead" experience. [55%] Season 3: or how interest became passion and quite sympathetic characters become regular family members. Compared to the second season, everything is good - the beginning is not overdone, the individual situations are played out, the chemistry of the characters is variable, the situations and dilemmas are repeated only minimally (they benefited a lot from the removal of the love triangle), the return of Merle confirms the greatest foreign exchange of WD: the ability to unpredictably change attitudes towards the character on a very small area. The poetics of post-apocalyptic disruption go much further in psychological and ethical depth than any similarly oriented film. The way walkers become more of a facade in the conflicts of extinct civilization is chilling. If it wasn't for the fact that the last episodes of the series sometimes "pull time" a little (13 would be just right), I'd go into euphoric turns. Even so, WD is becoming something I enjoy, and Rick and Daryl are some of the best characters in current TV. [85%] (10/11/2010)

Season 1 - 70% - The only way to win me over in this genre was through storytelling purely through the main characters. Forced shootouts in seemingly peaceful moments or unexpected deaths are pleasant spices, but since I don't particularly like zombies, I just wanted to fall in love with Rick, Shane, and the rest. And I did. It's a shame that most dilemmas are projected through secondary characters that I know for about five minutes and whose doubts and suffering I honestly don't care about. After an excellent finale (29/11/2012)

The first episode sets up the entire vision and then the group of survivors move on. And meanwhile, we get four episodes in which nothing happens! Only the pilot, charged with emotions like Remington ´870, and the finale, which brings something new, are slightly above average, the rest of the episodes are unwatchable boredom. What takes an hour could be done in half the time. In retrospect, I can't remember what it was all about when family squabbles are resolved in a flash, and the shooting of the perfect (phenomenal make-up work!) zombies takes minimal time. Such a sparse plot wouldn't even make a feature film, let alone a six-part series. I actually watched it because I was waiting for "something." This is the biggest trap for TV audiences in a long time. The audience success overseas is a mystery to me, but in any case, I can understand why Darabont fired all the writers in the run-up to the second season, even though I actually don't care much about its origins. (07/12/2010)