The runaway success of The Walking Dead has inspired countless articles arguing about the choices the characters have made, their reactions to each other and the consequences of those actions. Its the mark of quality storytelling when people are talking all about a television show the day after it airs. Season threes premiere episode, Seed, delivered on showrunner Glen Mazzaras promise for more action, after a lackluster season two sagged noticeably in the middle. Writing this episode as a commando raid into the heart of enemy territory, Mazzara and director Ernest Dickerson gradually build up the spookiness, with the discovery of the prison, a potential base for our heroes to finally settle down if they can clear it of walkers first. Ricks battered gang of survivors from season twos finale had managed to live through the winter by converting themselves into a hardened zombie-butchering hit squad, conserving ammunition (and keeping the noise down to avoid attracting more walkers) by specialising in risky melee kills. But this is something theyre not entirely ready for: completely new terrain, unmapped and filled from yard to cellblock with ravenous dead things. Throughout Seed, the gang steadily clear a path through the prison first the outer yard, then the inner yard, and finally a cell block of their own to sleep in. The highlight of the episode comes with the scouting mission through the remainder of the prison, encountering groups and clusters of walkers in the pitch dark: in cells, around corners, and behind doors, flashlights the only source of illumination. The Walking Dead has never been more claustrophobic and terrifying.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
