About 16.1 million people tuned in on Oct. 13 to see the fourth season premiere of “The Walking Dead” — and it’s easy to see why. The show’s successful combination of genres has made it incredibly popular, despite setbacks in storytelling during the second and third seasons.
The first season of the show featured brilliant acting and excellent pacing. In the second and third seasons, however, “The Walking Dead” hit a rut. The travails of the zombie-fighting group within the series became increasingly static, as the characters were stuck in a farm and then in a prison. There were also conflicts behind the scenes, as an ever-rotating list of executive producers helmed the second and third seasons. For the past few years, it seemed that “The Walking Dead” was a good show struggling to be great, but not quite hitting the mark.
But new executive producer Scott Gimple seems to be bringing “The Walking Dead” back to its roots, with character-driven plotlines and more “walkers” (the zombies). The brilliance of the show has always been its attention to character development in the wake of the apocalypse, and this has never been more noticeable than in the first two episodes of the fourth season. One especially impressive performance can be seen in Melissa McBride’s Carol, a woman who was previously in an abusive relationship and is now a leader of the zombie pack. Her transformation from fragile to strong is one of the series’ most beautiful character arcs. Andrew Lincoln also delivers a wonderful performance as sheriff Rick Grimes, who has always been the emotional soul of the show. Grimes’ progression from the moral voice of his group of survivors, to their dictatorial leader, to a quiet and broken farmer has been another stunning character development over the course of the series. It will be interesting to see Rick confront his past, as he becomes a leader once again in the face of new enemies.
This season, “The Walking Dead” seems to focus especially on fear, with threats facing the group from every front. Though the show is still set in the prison, there are enough elements to keep it exciting and fresh — for example, a new virus that is spreading throughout the area leads to tension and trepidation among characters and viewers alike.
But what is most thrilling — and terrifying — thus far is the influx of walkers. The second and third seasons chose to concentrate more on the human, rather than zombie, threat of the post-apocalyptic world. Although this often provided interesting moral dilemmas, not even the sinister presence of the Governor (David Morrissey) can elicit the same fear that the walkers do. In the first two episodes alone, there have already been several epic battles between humans and walkers — one was memorably set in a grocery store. These brilliantly directed scenes get viewers’ adrenaline racing and remind us that “The Walking Dead” is a horror show as much as a thought-provoking drama.
The fourth season is shaping up to be excellent in every way imaginable, from the writing to the acting and special effects. The show’s stellar viewer ratings prove that “The Walking Dead” is not so much a television series as a weekly event that provides the audience with blood-pumping action and moral conflicts. If the season progresses with episodes similar to the first two, it will definitely be the show to watch this fall.
