The Walking Dead

Hubby and I have found a new show to watch on Sunday nights - "The Walking Dead" on AMC.

We first heard about it several weeks ago while watching the Scream Awards on SpikeTV as it's based on a comic book of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. They showed a clip of the show and it seemed okay.

Since summer is over and there's no True Blood and Entourage airing til next summer and VH1's Sunday night lineup hasn't had much worth watching for nearly a year now, we figured we'd check this one out.

The first episode premiered on Halloween and was 90 minutes long, setting up the series. Smalltown Georgia officer Rick we learn is having trouble with his marriage and also has a young son. While responding to a call, a shootout with criminals occurs and Rick is shot and rushed to the hospital. While he is in and out of a coma, his partner stops by regularly to visit him, but then that suddenly stops and Rick comes to, stumbling around the now empty hospital, wondering where everyone is.

He wanders outside and to his house, looking for his wife and kid, when he comes across a man and his son who almost mistake him for Dead. They take him to safety and being to explain to him what has happened the past few weeks - The Dead have come back to life, feasting on the living. Eventually they part ways and Rick continues to search for his wife and kid, leading him to Atlanta which he learns was a mistake.

We are also introduced to a caravan of survivors who have a camp set up not too far from the city and by episode 2 Rick comes into contact with some of them.

It's basically an ongoing zombie movie, as the characters get themselves into jams where it seems they have no way out and have to work together to survive and get away from the zombies.

It's also amusing that so far, just in the first 2 episodes they've worked in elements from zombie movies such as 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead, as in the first episode, Rick wakes up in an empty hospital and has no clue what has occurred much like Cillian Murphy's character does at the beginning of 28 Days Later, and then in episode 2, much of the episode takes place inside a department store similar to the movie Dawn of the Dead where much of it takes place inside a shopping mall.

I am a bit surprised though at how much they seem to get away with for being on basic cable. Both episodes so far have a few "gross out" gory moments that seem more like something you'd expect to see on HBO or Showtime, and then last night we saw several middle fingers being thrown as well as the "n-word."

If you like zombie movies and a clever storyline, but sure to check out The Walking Dead which airs Sunday nights at 10/9c (with several encores throughout the night) on AMC.