The first episode starts off good and keeps you hooked from the beginning. The opening scene with the girl has been talked about in class as setting a good tone for the series. Also I want to mention one thing that has always been one of my favorite parts of the show and that is the cold open. It is often a scene that is very mysterious and dark and will hit you with something shocking right before the credits and music. The music in the opening credits combined with the opening scene always gets me in the mood for this show.
I never really noticed any of the negative characterizations of women on this show before the first time I watched it but I wasn't really looking. One thing I noticed in the opening conversation is when Rick says "One difference between men and women is that I would never say something like that in front of our kid." I feel like that is an arbitrary statement and gender doesn't matter there so that is something that kind is negative toward women, unless it is supposed to make Rick seem to have a certain characteristic but I don't think so.
When Rick wakes up in the hospital that whole scene is very well done and creepy. It feels like you are watching a really good zombie movie. Seeing it for the first time and not knowing what is going to happen is very fun and it is still good on repeat viewing. The audience is kind of in the dark like Rick but unfortunately some of the suspense is gone because we do know that ultimately it's a zombie apocalypse. The first corpse he sees that is totally grotesque looking is a good way to introduce things. It doesn't really tell him anything other than things are very bad. The hospital is abandoned and what looks like a half eaten corpse is lying in the hall. Then he sees bullet holes on the walls and more blood on the ground. It would be crazy if you went from normal life to waking up and experiencing that.
I noticed a difference from the comic is that instead of opening the doors and seeing all the zombies he sees the locked doors with the warning written on them. Then he sees the zombies hands through the cracks. I thought it was interesting that he didn't even say anything. The doors were locked and he couldn't have known about zombies and would've wanted to talk to someone. But he could tell the hands were not normal and listened to the warning.
There is the scene where Rick gets a bike and sees his first zombie up close. This show does a good job of making the zombies distinct and graphic. Also the actor playing Rick is a good actor. I was just watching season four and five and now watching the first episode he feels like almost a different character. He does a good job at that role of slowly changing who Rick is as a person.
One thing that bugs me in this episode is how Rick asks like no questions to the guy with a kid who takes him in. Like at the dinner table he still hasn't asked anything but is completely in the dark, so the other guy has to ask him questions. I don't understand why he would be so quiet, he doesn't have to trust the guy to just ask him what in the world is happening. This series has many moments like that where I can't find any logic in the characters actions.
It's really sad to empathize with the kid when he sees his zombie mom and is crying. It gives a complexity to the show that is more than just fighting and surviving zombies. I feel like it's obvious there is and will be a lot of that stuff in this series, and some of the scenes with the father and son especially show other aspects that are taken seriously like trauma and grief and helping your loved ones live with the situation. The scene where Rick goes back to kill the zombie by the bicycle, intercut with his friend trying to shoot his zombie wife, is really good and sets this series apart from typical zombie fare. There is sad music playing in the background while the two characters set out to kill a zombie out of sympathy. The man is struggling to shoot his zombie wife and the difficulty is obvious. The more interesting part is with Rick. It is a bright sunny day in the park and he is alone with a crippled half zombie that poses no threat. He stares at it trying to empathize with it or see if any humanity is left. He says "I'm sorry this happened to you." and then shoots the zombie. I think this is the best scene of the show, because it actually works and the you are looking at the zombie like Rick and trying to see it for what it is and where did the humanity go. That is pretty unique for a zombie movie or show to do that and do it so well and from the start you can tell The Walking Dead is a quality show if you don't mind zombies.
Also as a final comment I watched the first episode of season five of this show recently. It was really brutal and unsettling, the one scene with the guys in the slaughterhouse at the beginning especially. Not much bothers me but that was not fun to watch. I find it interesting that this show was the highest rated cable premiere yet I didn't hear too much talk about this violent scene. I feel like even twenty years ago there would have been all sorts of conversations about airing that on cable but now it barely registers. Overall I liked the episode and am not for censoring or anything at all. I just thought it was of note that such a violent scene reached so many young viewers and no one was very surprised.
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