Written by: Frank Darabont Directed by: Frank Darabont But nothing can quite top the pilot. The Walking Dead has flirted with greatness on and off for the past four years, but never has it reached the level of perfection of its own first episode. "Days Gone Bye", allegedly written as one episode with Guts, then cut in two and drastically expanded, shows a cinematic attention to character detail and methodical pacing, which somehow works perfectly with the discovery of a completely devastated world. Frank Darabont's script and direction here are impeccable, as the episode takes a screeching (but at the same time quite gradual) left turn from cop drama to zombie drama within the first act. The sequences with Rick discovering the decimated world he has woken up into contain more palpable dread and growing horror than anything television has seen in years (or ever since then, to my knowledge). While many TV pilots rush to quickly establish their world and characters, The Walking Dead takes its time - knowing just how riveting an aesthetic it has established - with gruesome zombie effects, pitch perfect atmosphere, and washed out 16mm film format. This was one of the most audacious pilots produced in recent memory, jumping up to proclaim that this was a show worth staying around for. Ironically enough, Darabont was fired only a year afterwards, but Gimple's team seem intent on capturing that initial greatness. Let's just wait to see how they fare in season five!
Self-evidently a man who writes for the Internet, Robert also writes films, plays, teleplays, and short stories when he's not working on a movie set somewhere. He lives somewhere behind the Hollywood sign.
