Zombies, post-apocalypse and horror, oh my! That’s what keeps the legions of fans tuning in each week (Sundays, 8 p.m. on AMC) to The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead, an American television drama series developed by Frank Darabont that is based on the comic book series, The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, combines all the trending genres into one. It premiered on Oct. 31, 2010 on the cable television channel AMC.
It tells the story of a small group of survivors living in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. The series’ main character Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, the group leader and sheriff’s deputy, awakens from a coma to find the world dominated by flesh-eating “walkers.” He sets out to find his family and encounters other survivors along the way. Most of the story takes place in the Atlanta metropolitan area and then the surrounding countryside of northern Georgia. The survivors search for a safe haven away from the shuffling hordes of predatory “walkers” (as the zombies are referred to in the show), who devour any living thing they come upon, and whose bite is infectious to humans.
The plot focuses primarily on the dilemmas the group faces as they struggle to balance their humanity with their survival against the zombie population, and later, how they deal with members’ being murdered along with other human survivors they encounter, many of whom are hazardous and greedy. The group is always dealing with horror of the walking zombies, the transforming perspectives of the group, and hostility from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace who are focused on their own survival now that the structures of society have collapsed.
Season three, as in the comics, is set in both an abandoned prison and an active rural town of survivors. A cluster of new characters have joined The Walking Dead series. Producers have said season three will be 16 exhilarating and exciting episodes.
The series has earned several award nominations, including: two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup, a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Television Series for Drama, and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Writing Derivative New Media. The series also received strong Nielsen ratings and at least 10.9 million viewers for its season three premiere. It has grown to be the most-watched basic cable drama telecast ever.
