The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
The Walking Dead tells the story of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse and follows a small group of survivors traveling across the United States in search of a new home away from the hordes of zombies. The group is led by Rick Grimes, who was a police officer in the old world. As their situation grows more and more grim, the group's desperation to survive pushes them to do almost anything to stay alive.
Which is worth more in a hypothetical "zombie apocalypse:" firearms or humanity? Guile or compassion? Heroism or common sense? Or is
the
answer really balance, a tightrope walk between understanding the moral cost of both fighting and living in a zombie world and maintaining
humanity in the absence
of it? The zombie
genre, at its core, isn't about zombies. It's about people and the way they adapt to a radically new way of life that's thrust upon them with
no
warning, instantly and forever altering the "facts of life" and immediately engendering a need for new skill sets, thought processes, and
habits. It's
about expectations
for life that change on a dime and rest on the fates and adaptability of both oneself and others. It requires of those who wish to live on --
not only in
the physical sense but from psychological and emotional perspectives, too -- to set aside all
that mattered in the world as it was and draw up a new plan of attack to survive not only the undead but the foolish amongst the living,
those who
would blindly hang
onto the past and try to maneuver into power, prestige, or wealth even though money and stature no longer hold value to the world at
large. It's a
two-front war, a
battle against both the undead and the
old way of life, fighting the former with weapons and the latter with brains and the right attitude. It's a moral quagmire: fighting the
zombies --
chopping flesh, shooting heads -- requires some detachment from basic human decency, to do unto others what no sane person would in a
normal
world, while also realizing that more than ever it's that core decency and the best of basic human qualities that are going to be critical
components within a
world, someday, hopefully, reclaimed by the living. The Zombie genre is one ripe for smart stories that balance basic action elements with
the greater understanding of what's really at the center of the best zombie tales. The Walking Dead walks that fine line fairly well; it
puts
its
characters and their struggles first and the grisly violence second. The series strays from time to time, but at its core lies a basic tale that's
about
humanity and the need to keep it when the world at large strips it away with every zombie put down, every friend turned, each loved one
lost, and
with
every glimpse into the farthest reaches of chaos.
Survivors.
Police Officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) has been wounded in the line of duty. He awakens in the hospital some time later, alone.
Flowers beside
his bed have wilted. The clock on the wall has ceased to operate. He pulls himself from his bed, in considerable pain, still connected to
monitors and
his IV. He searches the hospital for help; first his corridor, then, the hospital at large. Nobody's there; discolored, misshapen, and badly
wounded
arms attempt to break free from behind a chained and padlocked door. Half-eaten bodies line the hallways and a makeshift morgue in the
hospital
parking lot has long been
abandoned. Grimes returns home to find his wife Lori and son Carl gone, the house abandoned, clothes and family pictures
missing. He learns a painful truth: the dead have risen and are killing the living, devouring flesh and mindlessly meandering about the
streets,
looking for living tissue to sustain what life they have. Rick stumbles upon a kindly father (Lennie James) and his son trying to scavenge
what they
can while keeping
to the
shadows and out of the line of sight from the undead "Walkers." Rick, determined to find his family, sets out on his own when his wounds
have
healed and he's
armed himself and his new friends from the still-stocked police weapons locker. He sets out to Atlanta hoping to find survivors who can
point him
towards his family, but what he discovers instead is a devastated city, covered in blood, littered with abandoned military equipment, and
swarming
with
the undead. Only a miracle -- or a godsend voice over a radio -- can save Rick from the army of Walkers and his own uncertainty about
what,
exactly, has happened to the world he once called home.
The Walking Dead's opening minutes may be influenced by 28 Days Later -- the sudden, unaware thrust into a world gone
mad and
the confusion that follows -- but AMC's show quickly proves to be its own entity, not merely a rehash of that or other, similar genre
pieces. The series focuses on a band of survivors and the challenges they face that are not only a result of a world populated by the
walking dead
but varied problems of their own making that threaten to destroy them from the inside out. Whether that's personal maneuvering, old
beliefs that
didn't apply in the old world and certainly have no place in the new, or the introduction of the all-too-personal realities of life after death's
reanimation, The Walking Dead covers all the thematic and emotional bases necessary considering the series' peoples and places.
Indeed,
the show is built around real emotions and the all-too-real people who harbor them; separated families, confused relationships, uncertain
futures,
and general chaos shape every action while bending -- sometimes breaking -- both strong and fragile relationships alike. The series revels
in the
challenges of a world gone mad; its best sequence sees a husband and father faced with the opportunity to put down his zombified wife.
Oh
how difficult it would be, her face once a radiant and beautiful example of God's handiwork suddenly and menacingly altered by Satan's
sinister
brush; her
once glowing eyes now aimlessly blank save for the basic hunger behind them; and now, the crosshairs of a rifle aligned over her temple for
her own
sake and that of her soulmate on the other end, her fate sealed but his humanity rightly telling him that "killing" her is both the right and
wrong
thing to do.
The Walking Dead is both challenging and smart, a chronicle of everyday people forced into extraordinary lives and constantly dealing
with
realities that days before were not even fantasies but instead true, unspeakable horrors the likes of which only seemed to exist in fiction.
The best zombie films, series, books, whatever do seem to require a hard look at humanity as a primary focus to succeed, but they also
need a
counterbalance to round them into form. Of course, that comes in the form of violence, gore, and perhaps most importnat, an adherence to
realism,
at least insofar as man might conjecture what would likely happen in the event of an all-out zombie apocalypse. The Walking Dead
delivers
all three in spades in a secondary role to the show's lifeblood drama; it's a hardcore, grisly, and an oftentimes emotionally challenging
venture that
dares to not only personalize the action but show the results in the gruesome detail, the final piece of the puzzle to creating a truly "real to
hypothetical life" venture. The show opens with lead character Rick Grimes unflinchingly shooting a young girl of but nine or ten -- zombified,
of
course -- through the head. It's a signal that the show means business, that nothing is off-limits, and the scene plays as infinitely more
genuine
than the
baby zombie killing in the violent and grisly but generally heartless remake/re-imagining of Dawn of the Dead. Just as enticing, the show is nearly as gory as
anything zombie-related out there; bodies are seen hacked to pieces, a torso crawls through a grassy field trailing intestines and a rotting
bone
where a fleshy leg once resided, and gunshots seem to be met with realistic results. The show, by extension, is gloriously bleak; not only
does the
gritty 16mm shoot lend a dirty, grimy feel to the proceedings, but the realism of the violence and gore combined with the emotional turmoil
and
inner and outer devastation of the characters and the world around them really brings the series together as a hallmark Zombie event that
may not
top the original Dawn of the Dead as the genre's best, but one that certainly resides
near the top of the heap.
The Walking Dead debuts on Blu-ray with a deliberately rough and series-accurate 1080p Blu-ray transfer. Though modern convention
calls for
television
series to be shot on HD video, The Walking Dead was captured primarily on 16mm film, giving the series a gritty, unkempt façade that
lends to
it
a unique texture in support of the series' dark themes, grisly violence, and general sense of despair. Though the image occasionally goes soft
and never
appears razor-sharp, Anchor Bay's transfer nevertheless sports high-quality details as evident on police uniforms and patches, building textures,
natural
greenery, and all of the series' realistic gore. Colors favor a faded, worn appearance, but green foliage; a bright sports car; or other, flashier
hues are
handled with ease and displayed with a fairly natural tone. Blacks are deep, nighttime shots are absorbing and true, and crush is minimal.
Though a
touch of banding and a few bouts of blockiness are evident from time to time, the transfer captures the depressed look of the original elements
quite
well. It's a good look that's handled with much accuracy on Blu-ray.
The Walking Dead arrives on Blu-ray with a high-quality Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This is an action-packed mix that's never
lacking
in either volume or space; blaring car alarms and police sirens penetrate the soundstage with ear-piercing ease, general directional effects are
splendid,
and the surrounds carry plenty of the action. Gunshots tear through the speakers with startling accuracy, but shotgun blasts are the most fun;
the
heavy booms lumber through the soundstage with a bone-rattling precision, a battle with zombies at the end of episode four really putting the
hurt on
both the undead and the aural senses. A .357 magnum round fired within the metallic and tiny confines of a tank brings a disorienting and
steady hum
of raw power that stretches the limits of the sound system for a good minute or so. General sound effects are also delivered with both an
effortlessness
and a fine sense of space, whether chirping birds and buzzing insects that live on in the zombie apocalypse or distant rolling thunder that
signals a
coming downpour at a most inopportune time. Music is spacious
and clear, the orchestral score finding a nice balance between excitingly bold and frighteningly intense. Dialogue reproduction never misses a
beat.
The Walking Dead sounds fantastic on Blu-ray; Anchor Bay's given the series the exact sort of high-caliber track it needs to really pull in
the
audience and more greatly personalize the experience through sound.
The Walking Dead lumbers onto Blu-ray with all of its extra content contained on disc two of this two-disc set. Though no audio
commentaries
are included, the set does contains a plethora of featurettes.
The Making of The Walking Dead (1080p, 29:53): Cast and crew -- including Producer Frank Darabont (The Mist) -- examine the series' themes, what separates it from other
filmed
Zombie stories, transitioning the comic series to the small screen, AMC's faith in the series, the process of shooting various scenes and
crafting CGI
effects, zombie design and
gore, and the camaraderie and quality of the cast.
Inside The Walking Dead (1080p, varied runtimes): Six short featurettes that take viewers behind-the-scenes of each of
the six
episodes.
A Sneak Peek with Robert Kirkman (1080p, 4:51): This piece plays, more or less, as a preview of the supplemental material.
Behind the Scenes Zombie Make-Up Tips (1080p, 6:45): Greg Nicoterro shows viewers how to apply zombie makeup at home.
Convention Panel with Producers (1080p, 11:32): Series producers answer fan questions at Comic-Con.
The Walking Dead Trailer (1080p, 1:03).
Zombie School (1080p, 2:59): A look at the process of training actors to portray zombies.
Bicycle Girl (1080p, 5:06): A focused examination of one of the series' trademark zombies.
On Set with Robert Kirkman (1080p, 3:07): The Executive Producer/Writer/Comic Book Creator takes viewers on a tour of one of
the
sets.
Hanging with Steven Yeun (1080p, 3:52): The young actors talks about life on the set.
Inside Dale's RV (1080p, 3:25): A tour of one of the film's sets with Actor Jeffrey Demunn.
On Set with Andrew Lincoln (1080p, 3:46): The series' star discusses his approach to playing the lead character.
The Walking Dead is the complete package, a show that moves fast, hits hard, and is built around drama first and grisly violence and
action
second. Needless to say, Zombie genre fans will eat it up and wonder what's taking so long to get the
second season rolling. Even non-fans might find an allure in the show for its good characterization and the overreaching theme that is humanity
--
saving
it and losing it at the same time -- and its place in a world following a devastating breakdown of civilization. AMC really hit a home run with this
show;
here's hoping the second season stays true to the goodness on which the first season has been so carefully built. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release
of
The Walking Dead features a strong 1080p transfer, a great lossless soundtrack, and a nice assortment of extra content. Highly
recommended.
Amazon's Blu-ray Deals of the Week affect both Twentieth Century Fox's The Coen Brothers Collection and selected The Walking Dead packages from Anchor Bay. These deals expire at 12 AM PST/3 AM EST next Sunday, November 18th.
In anticipation of the upcoming The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season and Sons of Anarchy: Season Four Blu-ray releases, Amazon's Blu-ray Deals of the Week affect both of Anchor Bay's The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season packages as well as Twentieth ...
Amazon's TV Deal of the Week affects The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season. This Blu-ray version of AMC's popular zombie television series presents all six Season One episodes alongside an assortment of bonus supplements. Through October 29th, Amazon is ...
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