The Walking Dead is the new series from AMC, the people who brought us Breaking Bad and Mad Men.  It’s based on the legendary comic book by Robert Kirkman.  Frank Darabont who’s best known for his brilliant Stephen King movie adaptations is the guy who is responsible for bringing this to the screen as well.  The premise is pretty simple: a small town sheriff (Andrew Lincoln) awakens in a hospital after being shot and discovers the world has been taken over by zombies.  He sets off on a search for his wife and son.

I’m a big horror fan.  Unfortunately it’s easy to make a bad horror film and hard to make a good one.  And on TV horror is pretty much non-existent due to the “mature” subject matter.  It’s far too rare to see a good horror film these days.  If you agree with me and you have a true love of the original Romero “Dead” trilogy you will love this show.  This is the best pilot I’ve seen of a show since LOST.  It’s crazy good.

Like the Romero films it’s about the living more than the dead.  The series focuses strongly on the survivors and how their lives have changed and what they need to do to survive.  It’s slow paced and really builds up to it’s moments.  There’s a wonderful sense of suspense throughout the entire episode.  Despite it being slow paced I never found myself bored.  Every second you’re either holding your breath waiting for the other shoe to drop or you’re learning more about this new world and the characters.

The acting is brilliant and if this show doesn’t win a pile of Emmy’s there’s just something wrong.  The look harkens back to the Romero films as well, specifically Dawn of the Dead.  This really fells cinematic and not like an episode of television.  And then we get to the gore.  The Walking Dead is not a show to be watched while eating.  This show is filled with violence, gore, and general ickyness.  There is blood, lots of it.  And there should be.

The Walking Dead manages to combine everything great about zombie movies including the fun with a wonderful amount of suspense and real human drama.  This is the show of the year for sure and I can’t wait to see how this progresses.  Watch it.

It premieres October 31st on AMC.