The Walking Dead Season 1 Review

The Walking Dead (2010-2022)
Season 1 - 6 Episodes (2010)

Buy The Walking Dead Season 1 (paid link) // Buy the comic (paid link)
Created by: Frank Darabont, based on the comic by Robert Kirkman
Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies,  Laurie Holden, Norman Reedus,  Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, Michael Rooker
Rating: TV-MA
Watch the trailer

Plot
Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma to learn the world is in ruins and must lead a group of survivors to stay alive.

Verdict
The first season captured how a zombie outbreak would feel. We see characters scared, hopeful, and somewhere in between. It helps this season is short. Characters argue to be heard and the question of what's best and what's right is constant. While I've watched the entire show, no season matched the first in focus and authenticity. It was full of potential that the show never could recapture.
Watch It.

Review
I've watched the entire The Walking Dead series but wanted to revisit the first season which is my favorite.

This opens with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) in a shootout with him later waking up in hospital bed in a sequence that's a lot like 28 Days Later that released eight years earlier. The hospital is deserted and Rick is left wondering what happened. It's an effective sequence as he sees destruction and plenty of bodies. It looks like a war occurred. The first episode is great as it effectively builds this world and captures the feeling of desolation. You feel Rick's fear and unease.

Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey DeMunn, Andrew Lincoln play Shane, Dale, Rick Grimes

Rick heads to Atlanta for answers and encounters a group of survivors that eventually lead him to discover his family and friend Shane (Jon Bernthal) are still alive. Unfinished business forces Rick to head back to Atlanta to save a guy that's not very nice all because it's the right thing to do even if it is detrimental. That's Rick, though that feeling only grew stronger once Daryl (Norma Reedus) mentioned it.

The trip back to Atlanta runs into a few issues. Rick and crew return to camp in time to help out, but not in time to stop an attack. That's part of what made the first season engrossing. No character seemed safe. In later seasons, certain characters seemed to have quite a bit of plot armor.

The conclusion to season one is Rick convincing the group to head to the CDC. Unfortunately, the CDC isn't the great savior they hoped. The first season was bleak. Every time they have hope, it seems to be in vain. They just want to survive, but in later seasons that became increasingly more convoluted.