The Best of ‘The Walking Dead’ – Season 1

11/10/2022

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Episode 101: ‘Days Gone Bye’
Original Airdate: October 31, 2010

‘Hey Mister, you even know what’s going on?’
‘I woke up today in the hospital, came home and that’s all I know.’
‘But you know about the dead people, right?’
‘Yeah, I saw a lot of that - - out on the loading dock, piled in trucks.’
‘No. Not the ones they put down. The ones they didn’t - - the walkers, like the one I shot today.’

-Morgan Jones and Rick Grimes

On October 31, 2010… the horror world and the world of popular culture was transformed. For on that fateful night, AMC rolled the hard six and aired a prime-time zombie story. A series premiere that happened to be a grand adaptation of a wildly popular comic book entitled The Walking Dead. A show that would transform the landscape and make horror mainstream and give life to eleven seasons of wild storytelling and ratings that no horror story had ever enjoyed on television. In fact, to call the show a juggernaut would be nothing short of an insult, for it remains in fact, a phenomenon. One that changed lives and opened all kinds of doors for horror stories in prime time.

But alas, all good things must come to their end and in a couple of weeks, we will bid farewell to this iconic series since its final episode draws near. Bringing a close to a grand and sweeping and story that moved us and scared us and polarized us with bold storytelling and stunning moments. But before we say our final goodbye, the time has come to look back upon this grand journey and spotlight the finest episodes that this series has to offer. Simply because it deserves that reflection and respect for doing so much for the horror genre and for popular culture in general, and well… perhaps the best place to start in this grand retrospective of the best that this series has to offer… is at the beginning. For the series premiere of this long and winding journey was truly the best that season one of the show had to offer.

Mainly because ‘Days Gone Bye’ set the tone for this series through and through by introducing three key elements that the series would never deviate from. For instance, this is a premiere that made it clear the survivors of this zombiepocalypse, or ‘The Fall’ as it would be later coined, would always be the focus of the story. For a human story about a world full of inhuman zombies really hadn’t quite been done before. Not like this, anyway. And going that route, allowed for us to immediately attach ourselves to Rick Grimes and appreciate his plight and pull for him at every turn. And the honest nature in which he was presented was extended to the other characters as well as the series went along, allowing for more connection to take place. But it started here, with Rick. Whom we quickly came to learn was a good man and his fine intentions and noble quest to find his family, led to the second element that made this episode so good and so important to the future of the franchise.

In that, one might say the best parts of the human condition were found in this particular tale. Since a man that could go anywhere and do anything risked life and limb to find his family and/or the truth about their fate. Not to mention, we saw Morgan Jones risk a lot by taking him in, but he did it because it was the right thing to do. Also, watching Rick offer mercy to the living dead in that poignant sequence, really was something special and something never before seen in zombie fiction. For the threat of the dead always prompted immediate violence, so to see care and gentleness on display for an abomination set the tone for Rick’s quest for the future and later that of his friends. Where they would always try and be better than their enemies and the folks that lost their way in the hopes of creating a better world and that is a beautiful message that hangs heavy over the show even in its final days.

But the last element worth noting about this premiere, is that it also made sure to establish that this is a dangerous and scary, scary world. Where living death lurks around every corner, and it hammered that home by providing us with revolutionary walkers designed by horror effects legend Greg Nicotero. Who went all out to update the zombie for modern times and of course, their shockingly realistic appearance in this tale, combined with the stunning visuals and revolutionary gore, and spooky moments here… establish the terror of this world. In fact, there are many moments where you don’t know if Rick or Morgan or anyone, he encounters is going to survive because of the threat the walking dead poses, and that remains a big deal since it added a true sense of dread to this series, the kind that still leaves one uncomfortable and can still be found in its later seasons.

Plus, it also gave us a rare look at a full-on city of the dead. Something that only a handful of zombie themed movies and shows have ever put on display for budgetary reasons. But Rick’s ride through a ruined Atlanta, is truly the stuff of horror dreams since we get a truly devastated city that is indeed filled to the brim with starving zombies and well… all of those reasons are why this is hands down, the best episode of season one of this series and one of its best, period. Because it set the tone and it set the mood and it truly wowed us on that fateful night and drew people in because it delivered what it promised. A big budget zombie epic that was gory and horrifying and fun, and intense and without those elements… who knows if we’d be reflecting on eleven seasons of stories… or two… or three. But either way, ‘Days Gone Bye’ truly remains a keystone story for this franchise and now that we’ve properly reflected upon it, the time has come to turn our attention to season two’s finest episode, one that forced Rick Grimes to truly become part of a world that he barely understood. Until next time.

0 Comments