The Walking Dead: Every Season Ranked Worst To Best

This will be too low for many fans, but in the grand scheme of The Walking Dead, its first season is too slight to compete with what would follow. It's obviously not bad, but it's also table-setting, creating a foundation for bigger things.

Starting with the show's stunning pilot Days Gone Bye, the season thrusts moralistic sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes into a desperate race to find his family in a world bafflingly overrun by the undead. Sombre and patient, it paints a frank portrait of our innate need to survive and find connection.

From the rising intensity of Shane Walsh to its horrific opening moments -- where a conflicted Rick is forced to kill a child walker -- The Walking Dead's six-episode debut is a bracing set-up to a troubling world, promising plenty of heartbreak.

After this, The Walking Dead would tackle its themes of survival, hope and humanity with more confidence and depth, but it would rarely tell its story with such economy again.