The Walking Dead: Seasons 1-3
The Walking Dead is almost over with the final episodes of Season Eleven dropping soon, so I felt that now would be the perfect opportunity to go back and revisit the series for all of its ups and downs. Normally with series retrospective reviews I would lump all of the pre-existing seasons into a single review, but due to the fact that I’ll be covering ten seasons (and The Walking Dead has a history of fluctuating quality) I’ve elected to split this into three parts. This first part, which I refer to as The Rise of The Walking Dead, charts the first three seasons of the show when it was climbing the ratings charts and gaining incredible popularity as well as critical acclaim. So, without further ado, grab your survival gear and let’s get ready to kill some walkers!
After waking from a coma, Deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) makes the horrifying discovery that whilst he was asleep the world has ended. Desperate to reunite with his wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and his son Carl (Chandler Riggs), Rick ventures into ‘walker’ (zombie) infested Atlanta to look for them. Meanwhile on the outskirts of the city, Rick’s colleague Shane (Jon Bernthal) is keeping Lori and Carl safe with a small group of survivors. But when Rick arrives on the scene tensions begin to run high as opinions differ on how best to stave off unwanted undead intruders, and so the group agree to travel to the Centre for Disease Control in the hope of finding answers there.
After waking from a coma, Deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) makes the horrifying discovery that whilst he was asleep the world has ended. Desperate to reunite with his wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and his son Carl (Chandler Riggs), Rick ventures into ‘walker’ (zombie) infested Atlanta to look for them. Meanwhile on the outskirts of the city, Rick’s colleague Shane (Jon Bernthal) is keeping Lori and Carl safe with a small group of survivors. But when Rick arrives on the scene tensions begin to run high as opinions differ on how best to stave off unwanted undead intruders, and so the group agree to travel to the Centre for Disease Control in the hope of finding answers there.
Season One is arguably the strongest season of the show and that mostly boils down to the fact that because of network AMC’s hesitancy to commit to a full length season, it’s just six episodes long. It’s understandable why AMC weren’t exactly throwing money at the show, I mean it was a gory zombie show that was adapted from a comic book. On top of that, this was before AMC had become a huge network, with it’s other hit show, Breaking Bad, only on its second season at the time.
The Walking Dead was a huge gamble and so a six episode miniseries was the safest course of action and it resulted in an extremely tight and well-paced narrative with just the right amount of characters, and stakes grounded enough in our understanding of reality that viewers of any background (zombie fans or not) could get on board with the show. It was all about the survivors, with Rick at the centre of all of that trying to hold on to some semblance of law and order in a world that has left it behind.
In fact, I have very little negative to say about Season One of The Walking Dead and I’ll even go so far as saying it’s one of the best seasons of a TV show I’ve ever seen. But there is a chink in the armour and that’s the final episode of the season. It’s not bad by any means, in fact it retains the same high quality that the rest of the season had. But the problem lies in the fact that by ending Season One the way they did, Frank Darabont and the rest of the minds behind the show set The Walking Dead up for inevitable failure by removing the illusion that the show was ever going to work towards something other than our characters just aimlessly wandering from one settlement to the next. Creator of The Walking Dead comics, and executive on the show Robert Kirkman stated that The Walking Dead was a story that would never end and he would just keep writing it until either people got sick of it or he ran out of ideas; and by ending the first season with the destruction of the CDC and any chance that a cure might be found for the apocalypse going up in flames with it, the show was doomed to continue aimlessly forever just like one of its zombies.
The Walking Dead was a huge gamble and so a six episode miniseries was the safest course of action and it resulted in an extremely tight and well-paced narrative with just the right amount of characters, and stakes grounded enough in our understanding of reality that viewers of any background (zombie fans or not) could get on board with the show. It was all about the survivors, with Rick at the centre of all of that trying to hold on to some semblance of law and order in a world that has left it behind.
In fact, I have very little negative to say about Season One of The Walking Dead and I’ll even go so far as saying it’s one of the best seasons of a TV show I’ve ever seen. But there is a chink in the armour and that’s the final episode of the season. It’s not bad by any means, in fact it retains the same high quality that the rest of the season had. But the problem lies in the fact that by ending Season One the way they did, Frank Darabont and the rest of the minds behind the show set The Walking Dead up for inevitable failure by removing the illusion that the show was ever going to work towards something other than our characters just aimlessly wandering from one settlement to the next. Creator of The Walking Dead comics, and executive on the show Robert Kirkman stated that The Walking Dead was a story that would never end and he would just keep writing it until either people got sick of it or he ran out of ideas; and by ending the first season with the destruction of the CDC and any chance that a cure might be found for the apocalypse going up in flames with it, the show was doomed to continue aimlessly forever just like one of its zombies.
Season Two picks up with our survivors on the road. Stopped by a blockade of abandoned cars and a herd of walkers the group flees into a nearby forest. In the chaos Carol (Malissa McBride) loses sight of her daughter Sophia (Madison Lintz), and Carl is shot by a hunter. Rick and the hunter take an injured Carl to a nearby farm run by veterinarian Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson) who advises that the group stay on the farm until Carl is nursed back to health.
The first half of the season sees the group concerned about the whereabouts of Sophia, as well as spends time establishing newcomers Hershel and his daughters Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Beth (Emily Kinney), with the former engaging in a romantic relationship with Glenn (Steven Yeun) from Rick’s group. The midseason episode reveals that Hershel has been capturing walkers and locking them in the barn in the hopes of finding a cure for the disease, among them is Sophia.
The second half of the seasons deals with the fallout of this discovery, with Shane and Rick coming to loggerheads about how the group should be protected. In her grief Carol is comforted and becomes close to fellow survivor Daryl (Normal Reedus) who until this point had been an antagonistic presence among the group following his altercations with Rick in Season One. It all builds to an epic finale where Shane is killed by Rick, and the gunshot draws a herd of walkers to the farm. With the farm razed to the ground and in desperate need of shelter, Rick takes charge of the group to lead them to safety.
Season Two is more than double the length of the first season and that’s the biggest problem with it. Season Two is often criticised for spending a lot of time doing nothing and I feel like all of that falls down to the fact that the show should never have had seasons more than ten episodes in length. From here on out, every single season has multiple episodes where nothing happens and it really is just because of the way network TV operated in the early 2010’s. Seasons needed to last a long time to keep people coming back to the channel, and so the episode count was upped to thirteen, still short in comparison to the number of episodes seasons would have later down the line, but enough to cause the pacing to be detrimentally affected.
That being said, what was good about Season One is very much present in Season Two, and thanks to the introduction of some great new characters in Hershel, Beth, and Maggie, the show continues to grow at a steady rate. It keeps things interesting enough for you to stick around despite all the waiting, and particularly once the second half of the season rolls around the pace does pick up significantly. Whilst this season definitely isn’t perfect, it retains what worked and builds on it. But Season Two would stand as a warning for those who stuck around long enough as to what kind of direction the show would be going down following Season Three.
The first half of the season sees the group concerned about the whereabouts of Sophia, as well as spends time establishing newcomers Hershel and his daughters Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Beth (Emily Kinney), with the former engaging in a romantic relationship with Glenn (Steven Yeun) from Rick’s group. The midseason episode reveals that Hershel has been capturing walkers and locking them in the barn in the hopes of finding a cure for the disease, among them is Sophia.
The second half of the seasons deals with the fallout of this discovery, with Shane and Rick coming to loggerheads about how the group should be protected. In her grief Carol is comforted and becomes close to fellow survivor Daryl (Normal Reedus) who until this point had been an antagonistic presence among the group following his altercations with Rick in Season One. It all builds to an epic finale where Shane is killed by Rick, and the gunshot draws a herd of walkers to the farm. With the farm razed to the ground and in desperate need of shelter, Rick takes charge of the group to lead them to safety.
Season Two is more than double the length of the first season and that’s the biggest problem with it. Season Two is often criticised for spending a lot of time doing nothing and I feel like all of that falls down to the fact that the show should never have had seasons more than ten episodes in length. From here on out, every single season has multiple episodes where nothing happens and it really is just because of the way network TV operated in the early 2010’s. Seasons needed to last a long time to keep people coming back to the channel, and so the episode count was upped to thirteen, still short in comparison to the number of episodes seasons would have later down the line, but enough to cause the pacing to be detrimentally affected.
That being said, what was good about Season One is very much present in Season Two, and thanks to the introduction of some great new characters in Hershel, Beth, and Maggie, the show continues to grow at a steady rate. It keeps things interesting enough for you to stick around despite all the waiting, and particularly once the second half of the season rolls around the pace does pick up significantly. Whilst this season definitely isn’t perfect, it retains what worked and builds on it. But Season Two would stand as a warning for those who stuck around long enough as to what kind of direction the show would be going down following Season Three.
Speaking of which, Season Three picks up eight months later and Rick has discovered a prison which the group can use as a permanent shelter and build a community safe from the undead. The only problem is that the prison is overrun with walkers and needs to be made safe before they can move in. Meanwhile Andrea (Laurie Holden), who was separated during the farm fire, has been surviving with a woman she met on the road, Michonne (Danai Gurira). The two of them discover a community safe from walkers, Woodbury, that is led by a man that calls himself The Governor (David Morrissey). Whilst all seems well at first, The Governor has only managed to secure Woodbury’s safety by pillaging other settlements nearby.
Having survived his abandonment in Season One, Daryl’s brother Merle (Michael Rooker) kidnaps Glenn and Maggie and brings them to The Governor. Learning of the prison, The Governor sets about trying to claim the settlement for his own, whilst Rick’s group defend the home the have found for themselves.
Season Three is all round pretty great. Whilst it definitely suffers from some of the slow pacing issues that plagued Season Two (now with sixteen episodes in a season to add insult to injury), Season Three does manage to keep things considerably more interesting by breaking away from Rick’s group for large amounts of time to tell the story of Woodbury and The Governor. It introduces several new and interesting characters, as well as pulling off some bold and unexpected deaths for the first time in the shows history. It also presents a new angle for the show to explore and that’s about building communities, and what can happen if those communities are run by dangerous people.
This also marks the last great series of the show before its fall from grace. However, the storyline remains unresolved surrounding The Governor meaning that if you’re reading this review to work out if The Walking Dead is right for you, then it means you will need to venture into some underwhelming territory to see how that particular storyline ends. Season Three builds on what worked in the first two seasons and then tries to go bigger and bolder by introducing a lot of new elements at the same time, and for the most part it works. As I previously mentioned, there are definitely some pacing issues and there are episodes that waste a lot of time because the writers clearly didn’t have enough content to fill sixteen forty-five minute episodes; but for the most part Season Three manages to dodge around these problems to provide an experience that’s thrilling and engaging.
Having survived his abandonment in Season One, Daryl’s brother Merle (Michael Rooker) kidnaps Glenn and Maggie and brings them to The Governor. Learning of the prison, The Governor sets about trying to claim the settlement for his own, whilst Rick’s group defend the home the have found for themselves.
Season Three is all round pretty great. Whilst it definitely suffers from some of the slow pacing issues that plagued Season Two (now with sixteen episodes in a season to add insult to injury), Season Three does manage to keep things considerably more interesting by breaking away from Rick’s group for large amounts of time to tell the story of Woodbury and The Governor. It introduces several new and interesting characters, as well as pulling off some bold and unexpected deaths for the first time in the shows history. It also presents a new angle for the show to explore and that’s about building communities, and what can happen if those communities are run by dangerous people.
This also marks the last great series of the show before its fall from grace. However, the storyline remains unresolved surrounding The Governor meaning that if you’re reading this review to work out if The Walking Dead is right for you, then it means you will need to venture into some underwhelming territory to see how that particular storyline ends. Season Three builds on what worked in the first two seasons and then tries to go bigger and bolder by introducing a lot of new elements at the same time, and for the most part it works. As I previously mentioned, there are definitely some pacing issues and there are episodes that waste a lot of time because the writers clearly didn’t have enough content to fill sixteen forty-five minute episodes; but for the most part Season Three manages to dodge around these problems to provide an experience that’s thrilling and engaging.
I haven't really talked about the cast yet so I'll dedicate some time to the most standout performers for a moment. Andrew Lincoln is truly fantastic as Rick and handles the leading man role superbly, especially amongst such a large cast of characters that is continually growing. Steven Yuen and Lauren Cohen also stand out as great performers, particularly in Season Two onwards once they become romantically involved. Melissa McBride really starts to come into her own during Season Three and she remained a firm fan favourite ever since, along with Norman Reedus' Daryl. Jon Bernthal really gets to dig into Shane during Season Two and it's great to see the first antagonist of The Walking Dead get significantly more development here than in the comics. Laurie Holden is also an excellent performer who manages to become the show's main secondary character for a little while to take some of the load off Rick. Plus David Morrissey's Governor is arguably my favourite Walking Dead villain, and he brings so much energy to the role, as well as some unexpected emotional depth which really makes him quite frightening once he shows his true colours.
So that’s it for now at least. The first three seasons of The Walking Dead are still the shows all time high point, and whilst in the last few years the show has seen somewhat of a renaissance, it was destined to face several years of middling to low quality seasons that just seemed to be short on ideas and reluctant to try new things. But these first three seasons are absolutely worth checking out, there’s a reason why the show was the most popular TV show in the world for some time and it’s because of the legwork these three seasons put in to stand out from the crowd and draw in audiences who weren’t normally interested in horror. It’s just a shame that the showrunners couldn’t have maintained this level of quality all the way through.
So that’s it for now at least. The first three seasons of The Walking Dead are still the shows all time high point, and whilst in the last few years the show has seen somewhat of a renaissance, it was destined to face several years of middling to low quality seasons that just seemed to be short on ideas and reluctant to try new things. But these first three seasons are absolutely worth checking out, there’s a reason why the show was the most popular TV show in the world for some time and it’s because of the legwork these three seasons put in to stand out from the crowd and draw in audiences who weren’t normally interested in horror. It’s just a shame that the showrunners couldn’t have maintained this level of quality all the way through.