Stunning. Epic. Gut-wrenching. Sorry about that last one. Arguably the best pilot episode since Lost.
The long opening scenes of absolute quiet and stillness represented by abandoned cars and trucks… the great surprise in finding a survivor, a little girl … who turned out to be a walker, “put down” by the deputy… was an astounding way to begin the series. It truly set the tone of horror, not in the genre sense, but it the general-use sense; real horror at the situation.
Perhaps the most effective tool for supporting this atmosphere was the near-complete lack of background noises and incidental music. No pop songs, no emo, not even much of a soundtrack. THANK GOD. The pervasive and intrusive use of music in many series in recent years has been a giant bête noir for me. This exceptionally courageous refusal to fill the quiet is becoming a hallmark for AMC, the American network for whom this series was produced. The quiet means that gunshots are extra loud, and the splatter of blood when walkers are put down is clear as a bell.
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Thanks again to Simply Television and editor Tom Wilson for sharing this review!
