“It’s all about slim chances now.” – Rick
“What Lies Ahead” introduces Season 2 as a tighter, pared down version of The Walking Dead.
A lot what didn’t work well for me in the first season was either stripped away or minimized in the Season Two premiere. The show is at its best when it focuses on the drama and suspense inherent in a zombie apocalypse survival story. It’s at its worst when characters are babbling to each other about their motivations, fears, hopes, etc. One the biggest things “What Lies Ahead” has going for it are the prolonged stretches of zombie-related tension with very little dialog crammed in.
Andrew Lincoln, who plays the main character Rick, puts on a hell of a performance when he’s running scared through the woods with a zombie hot on his tail, or when he’s smashing a walker in the head with a large stone. But as soon as he opens his mouth and starts speaking with that laughable, forced Southern drawl, he stops being an effective leading man. This is to me is The Walking Dead in a nutshell. It has the potential to be a fun, scary, tensely dramatic show, if it would just keep its mouth shut.
One of my main issues with the first season was that it seemed like the show was building toward something, only the big payoff in the finale was something of a dud. Much like the characters themselves, the viewer is left feeling like a rug was pulled out from under them. But now that the hope of a miraculous savior has been taken off the table, the show can focus on the tough decisions that go along with staying alive in a zombie apocalypse.
The first hour of the 90-minute premiere dealt solely with the disappearance of Sophia (Madison Lintz), one of the two surviving children. This was by far the superior portion of the episode. The wheels completely fall off in the last half-hour when the zombie action stops and the characters spout a series of eyeroll inducing monologues.
The episode begins with a scary, edge-of-your-seat sequence that represents The Walking Dead at its most effective. The survivors are on the move, attempting to make the 125-mile trip from Atlanta to Fort Benning, when one of the vehicles in their caravan breaks down. The Winnebago goes on the fritz at the worst possible moment: when the group is navigating through a traffic jam of abandoned cars. The freeway littered with motorists is a pretty incredible set piece and provides the setting for some of the episode’s scariest scenes.
The premiere’s most tense moment occurs when the survivors are approached by a platoon of walkers (zombies) scavenging the empty cars for fresh meat. The group is forced to take cover under the vehicles. The scene is shot from the point of view of the humans as they huddle under the cars, silently waiting in terror. It’s a smart directorial decision. The camera is stationary as the grotesque feet of the zombie horde lumber past their position.
Sophia jumps out from her hiding place under the car and takes off into the woods. Rick, in his familiar role as the group’s resident hero, gives chase. When he catches up to her, he stashes her under a tree while he goes off to do battle with the walkers. We are treated to a pretty badass zombie death when Rick repeatedly smashes a walker in the face with a rock. By the time Rick defeats his undead foes, Sophia is nowhere to be found. A search party is formed, but the little girl cannot be located.
Sophia’s disappearance forces the rest of the group to confront an interesting ethical dilemma. How long should they hang around and search for Sophia? The longer they stay in one place, the more danger the whole group is in. How long will the “needs of the few” trump the “needs of the many”?
The episode ends with a big cliffhanger. I won’t spoil it for the folks who haven’t had a chance to see the episode, but I will say that it certainly caught me off guard. Ending the episode the way they did, the writers have given themselves a chance to give the characters something to do other than aimlessly moving from place to place. That in itself gives me hope that this second season will be an improvement over the first.
Some stats and info about The Walking Dead, “What Lies Ahead”
TV SHOW – The Walking Dead
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 1
AIRED ON – October 16th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – AMC
GENRE – Horror, Drama, Zombies, Thriller
CREATED BY – Frank Darabont
CAST – Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Christian Serratos, Josh McDermitt, Danai Guria, Seth Gilliam, Andrew Lincoln, Ross Marquand, Chandler Riggs
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.