--- description: Spoilers for the debut of The Walking Dead coming up: As I wrote in my review and earlier on this blog, I really liked Frank... title: Talking Dead: What Did You Think of AMC’s Walking Dead Premiere? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b8c386b351ee24c/698a90ed011682341f98b9d2/walkingdead101_horseback.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Talking Dead: What Did You Think of AMC's Walking Dead Premiere? by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Nov 1, 2010 12:33 PM CUT  AMC by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Nov 1, 2010 12:33 PM CUT _Spoilers for the debut of The Walking Dead coming up:_ As I wrote in my review and earlier on this blog, I really liked Frank Darabont’s pilot for **The Walking Dead**; the second episode I liked not nearly as much, but the third episode was in turn an improvement on that. The bottom line is, I’m not sure I’m going to be doing a weekly Walking Dead Watch yet, but here are a few other observations about the pilot I didn’t work into my review, and then I’d like to know what Tuned Inland thought: more\* There’s been comment about how Rick is a bit of a blank as a protagonist, and that’s true (I’m told his character develops complexity further on in in the comic, which I haven’t read), but I did enjoy the moments, like his preparation for the shootout early in the pilot, that give a sense of the focus and determination that will help him survive. \* I’m not a huge zombie-movie aficionado, so maybe the having-to-shoot-the-body-of-a-loved-one trope comes up far more often than I know, but the way Lennie James portrayed trying to steel himself to put down his walker wife’s but was just devastating. \* The effective use of silence in the pilot applies to the music too; nothing against Bear McCreary, but the lack of soundtrack early on said more than any suspenseful music could have. \* Another thing that may be a standard zombie-flick trope for all I know, but was used effectively here regardless: the notion that the walkers, while not highly sentient, have some level of lingering memory of their lives. \* I know she was a zombie, but I was still stunned by having a young girl be our first glimpse of the zombies, and then seeing Rick (regretfully) put her down with a shot to the forehead. Which is not to say Walking Dead shouldn’t have done it—very early on, you saw that this show means business. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7126981/talking-dead-what-did-you-think-of-amcs-walking-dead-premiere/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7126981/talking-dead-what-did-you-think-of-amcs-walking-dead-premiere/"},"headline":"Talking Dead: What Did You Think of AMC's Walking Dead Premiere?","datePublished":"2010-11-01T12:33:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T07:22:25.873Z","description":"Spoilers for the debut of The Walking Dead coming up: As I wrote in my review and earlier on this blog, I really liked Frank...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7126981/talking-dead-what-did-you-think-of-amcs-walking-dead-premiere/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b8c386b351ee24c/698a90ed011682341f98b9d2/walkingdead101_horseback.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b8c386b351ee24c/698a90ed011682341f98b9d2/walkingdead101_horseback.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"WalkingDead101_Horseback","caption":"","creditText":"AMC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7126981/talking-dead-what-did-you-think-of-amcs-walking-dead-premiere/","name":"Talking Dead: What Did You Think of AMC's Walking Dead Premiere?"}}]}] ```