I was looking on Twitter after the episode and saw someone complaining that the second episode of The Walking Dead was inconsistent with the first because Frank Darabont didn't direct it. What this keen observer failed to notice is that Darabont write the episode, though Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad) did quite capably.
For those of you that watched Episode 1 remember that Rick (Andrew Lincoln) ended up in the tank in the middle of downtown Atlanta at the end of Episode 1. Episode 2, titled "Guts," opens back at the survivor camp, where Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) continues her tryst with Shane (Jon Bernthal). The infidelity storyline is ripped straight from Robert Kirkman's comic, and works to add instant dramatic tension to the series.
Back in the tank, Rick gets help from Glenn (Steven Yeun) and meets up with a group of survivors holed up in a department store. Among them is Dixon (Michael Rooker), a racist, drug-abusing redneck who takes out his frustration on T-Dog (IronE Singleton) and attempts to put himself as the leader of the motley band of survivors. Once Rick subdues him and cuffs him to a pipe on the building's roof, a plan is hatched on how to escape.
Now I almost didn't notice this, but to many the plan to cover themselves in blood and entrails and walk through the zombie masses (again, taken from the comic) didn't seem gruesome to me, but I watch zombie movies all the time. I had to remind myself that this is happening on a TV show. With this much time invested so far in a zombie movie, there should be several neck bites and at least one disembowelment, but this is a TV show, and one that has obviously made the characters the priority and not solely pleasing zombie fans.
In fact, bringing down the number of survivors and letting the zombies do some nasty work isn't the show's priority right now. Getting audiences interested in the characters is the focus, and it's the reason why The Walking Dead could work as a long-running TV show.
