The second-season premiere of Walking Dead last night set a record for basic cable drama viewing, with 4.8 million viewers in adults 18-49 and 4.2 million in the 25-54 demo. According to AMC, it was the #1 series for the 18-49 category for the night.
Although cable ratings are a bit of a fluid thing, and records are a bit hard to pin down, it’s clear that Walking Dead is still a hit. And people like zombies.
The successful launch is in spite of offseason drame with show runner Frank Darabont getting booted, despite cast member wishes.
It will be in the coming weeks after a few more episodes we can see how Frank Darabont’s lack of presence is felt. If the quality can hold up and keep the ratings, or if it will suck like Heroes did in the later season and the ratings dive?
I doubt the show will ever suck, unless the budget cuts reach a ridiculous level. On the other hand, THE WALKING DEAD in both TV and comics probably benefits more for just not sucking than it should. In the nearly 50 years the modern zombie apocalypse genre has been around, how many really good zombie stories have been made? Most folks probably wouldn’t even say all of Romero’s movies qualify as really good. I’d say the vast majority of zombie movies, books and comics have stunk, but their existence has created a fairly large number of folks who are familiar with the conventions of the genre, which is a big advatage when something like WALKING DEAD comes along.
Mike
I can’t say I cared much for that long 90 minute premiere. It just wandered around aimlessly with the thinnest of plots and then a shock ending which I found pretty annoying.
I’ve been watching the first season on Netflix this past week, and I really really like it. Well, I like all the stuff with the normal humans. I kinda hate it whenever the zombies show up. For one thing, they just look fake… like people in makeup… in a way that would never happen in a comic book.
I thought the first season took a strange and badly-executed turn at the very end, but the show seems to be back on track now. Loved last night’s episode–lots of tension, a couple of really disgusting gory bits, some thoughts about faith, and lots of interesting character interaction.
I just wish the ladies in the show would stop saying the most morally ridiculous things in their situations. Everyone’s trying to survive so of course the stupid wife has to be like ‘omg we shouldn’t touch all these supplies guys, this is like a cemetery.’ Are you kidding me? It was bad enough when zombie apocalypse was happening and she stopped to grab the framed photos. Then she got mad at the guy who tried to force himself on her like, 2 days previous, for not coddling her kid!? What! And don’t get me started on other useless mom being mad at the only guy who went after her daughter to save her. The women in this show are ruining it for me. They are all so stupid and say the dumbest stuff and they’re all useless. I don’t understand how anyone thinks these are appropriate reactions for these people to have.
For me, the dumbest part of the episode was the little talks with Jesus at the church.
Fist of all, it would probably hamper quiet reflection a bit to be in a room strewn with fresh zombie entrails, but that aside, why prey to God? It seems he just unleashed Hell on Earth for some reason. Begging for relief by prayer is probably not going to yield much.
In addition, I was surprise that the heroes of this show were so reverent to Jesus. Did they not notice the blood streaming down his face? How come it didn’t occur to them that they were praying to the WORLD’S FIRST ZOMBIE!
Just watched season one straight through a couple of days ago, and if you played a drinking game where you knocked back a shot every time one of the characters sticks a gun in someone’s face to prove his moral superiority, you’d be face down in a puddle of puke by the end of episode two.
I thought one talk with Jesus was sweet. Two talks with Jesus? And you’re just fishing for a soliloquy. You already had Rick rambling into a walkie talking at the beginning. What’s next? An unplugged telephone…?