This time of year marks the proliferation of posts about The Walking Dead on my Facebook memories. The sentiments run the gamut of “this is amazing” to “Why am I submitting myself to this torture?”
In 2025, we the pop culture collective, look at this series with eyes rolling and a scoff emitting from our mouth. Visions of repetitive storylines and characters getting killed off for hollow shock value bounce through our memories. It’s wild how this series went from being adored to abhorred. At one point, this series aired the most watched episode in cable television history and now when we hearing the name we treat it with a thought of “Are they still going with this franchise?” (If you’re wondering, AMC airs two TWD spin-offs currently Dead City starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan, and Daryl Dixon starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride).
The shame of all this negativity — which is completely justified in this writer’s opinion — is that we forget just how audacious it was to make an episodic series based on a zombie apocalypse. Also lost in this sea of negativity is just what a phenomenal episode of television the series premiere, “Days Gone Bye” really is.
In 2009, zombie media was relegated to the George Romero fans, horror mavens who cherished straight-to-video B-movies, or comedy nerds who loved Shaun of the Dead. So, when it was announced that AMC would be adapting the popular Robert Kirkman comic to the small screen, most looked at AMC with a side eye. However, at the time, AMC was known for bold moves as they had found success with Mad Men and Breaking Bad, shows that on paper should never have become as big as they did.
The concept of bringing zombies to cable television, while head scratching at first, was too much to deny for so many, this writer included. While not the biggest horror fan in the world, this writer’s overwhelming curiosity of just how AMC would pull off this seemingly impossible feat needed to be satiated
“Days Gone Bye” immediately grabs you by the throat with the cold opening. Our hero, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln then only know for Love Actually) is in an abandoned gas station and he hears a noise. It’s a little girl, still dressed in her pajamas and clutching her teddy bear, with part of her face ripped off, growling and slinking towards him with ravenous intent in her eyes. Grimes, in absolute tears, decides he must kill this entity in front of him for his own preservation. It’s a shocking, harrowing, emotional and unforgettable cold open that set the tone for the series. We then cut to Bear McCreary’s haunting opening score which creates this perfectly uncomfortable air of anxiety, fear, and terror.
The premiere shines largely due to the plot. Georgia Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes (Lincoln) is shot in the line of duty, slips into coma, and when he awakens he finds himself in the zombie apocalypse. Rick, for this episode, is our audience proxy, because like him, we’re dropped into the midst of this apocalypse without any context outside of a battle-torn hospital riddled with bodies, bullet holes and the infamous chained double door with the now legendary phrase “Don’t Open. Dead Inside.” sprayed on it. We’re consumed with fear — how is our hero going to get out of this situation? We then watch as he fumbles his way out until we run into Morgan (Lennie James). James is brilliant as a father trying to keep himself and his son alive — all while his now zombie/walker wife lurks outside his home torturing them psychologically. Morgan’s situation is such a palpable situation. If a zombie apocalypse truly did break and our partner was turned — how could we cope with any of it?
However, the most iconic part of the episode is Rick Grimes’ march to Atlanta. Morgan hears rumors of a refugee encampment, so Rick rides out to find his wife and son. He loads up a bunch of guns in a bag, finds a horse (after his cruiser breaks down), and rides into Atlanta like John Wayne. The way the shot of Rick on his horse is framed is breathtaking. He’s alone on a highway, astride his horse, cars abandoned on the other side of the highway, and a bombed out Atlanta in front of him.
This shot would go onto embody Grimes perfectly. He’s equally a tough guy, a fool, a hero, and mad man all in this shot. Does he really think he can just be an army of one against a city potentially filled with zombies? And when he’s overwhelmed by walkers, his horse is killed and he’s flung to the ground it hits so hard. It’s the humanity of the situation that makes it work. This isn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger in the ’80s taking out walkers Commando-style. No, this is an injured man. He’s a Deputy Sheriff, not a killing machine.
We are then treated to the excruciating sequence where Rick escapes the horde by crawling under and then into a tank, where he must kill a walker at close range. He’s utterly surrounded until he hears a voice come over the radio, “You comfortable in there?” Episode end. The episode leaves you on such a terrific cliffhanger — as you need to know if our hero survives, and who is exactly going to help him (of course this would be Steve Yuen’s Glen). We want to know if he’ll find his family, and is there really a cure for this outbreak?
Rewatching “Days Gone Bye” is a reminder of the absolute craftsmanship that was put into this episode. From the score to the makeup to the set design to the script to the performances. Yes, it is a horror story, but it’s one grounded in a terrifying sense of reality. Our heroes are everyday people who are struggling to survive the physical and psychological dangers presented by this apocalypse. The first season presented danger at every turn. It bred mistrust, anxiety and wonder into the audience. It left audiences wanting for me, and some even scared to put the garbage at night after the episode (just me?). It was a huge risk taken by AMC and paid off, for years and years.
The Walking Dead was not a perfect series as clearly evidenced by multiple seasons of just unforgivably bad writing, character development, and creative decisions. However, this Halloween, or any Halloween for that fact — go back and rewatch The Walking Dead Premiere, and remember just how scary, and just how good this series once was.
The Walking Dead is currently streaming on Netflix.
