The Walking Dead – The Complete First Season (2010/Anchor Bay
Blu-ray)
Picture: B Sound: B Extras:
B- Episodes: C+
The Walking Dead certainly started off with a bang. The show was hotly anticipated in the weeks
leading up to its premiere, and it managed to live up to the hype that
surrounded it. Some of the contributing
factors to the first episode going over so well are due to showrunner Frank
Darabont personally directing it and maintaining a strict adherence to Robert
Kirkman’s source material.
However, the series quickly began to take liberties with the content of the
original comic book. Adding characters
and moving around scenes is expected in order to better play to the television
format, but this habit became more excessive as the season wore on. By the time we get to the finale, certain
things are practically unrecognizable from the original story, and we are left
with a rather limp cliffhanger that left me feeling somewhat indifferent to the
fates of the survivors.
Too much time in this rather short season was eaten up by storylines that
piddled around, ultimately leading nowhere, while other episodes still managed
to deliver the goods. With only 6
episodes on order, the writers should never have to have resorted to the kind
of padding that made this season so uneven. I don’t want to say that they lost me
entirely. I’m still interested in where
the story will go from here - only less so.
Image is presented in 1.78:1 1080p digital High Definition that is to-notch,
largely thanks to the show being shot on the Super 16mm film format. The HD transfer looks great, and I can’t find
much of any significance to fault it with. Audio is also excellent, with a
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix that is clear and makes good use of surrounds.
Bonus content includes the excellent half-hour documentary, Making of The
Walking Dead. Among the additional
special features, we have a trailer, zombie makeup tips, a panel with the
producers from Comic-Con, as well as several short featurettes that go behind
the scenes of the show.
I have hope that the series will bounce back and regain my interest with its
second season. It certainly never took a
hit in the ratings, as the final episode landed even stronger ratings than the
initial broadcast of the first one. AMC
will likely be able to ride out the year of downtime and have something people
are eager to get back into, providing that interest in all things zombie has
not waned significantly by fall of this year.
- David Milchick