Yeah, I'm kind of an AMC fan boy (see: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Rubicon coverage). And why not? Breaking Bad and Mad Men are both at the least very strong and reasonable contenders for best show on TV right now (and over last few years) while Rubicon is settling into a very promising groove in its own right.
So, that means that The Walking Dead, a very different kind of show for the network due to its zombie quotient alone (and that quotient would be on the crazy high side), needs to be given a solid look see ahead of its premiere on Halloween, October 31st, on AMC.
And at the very least, an expertly produced trailer makes me believe that AMC is going to continue to lock down my attention on Sunday nights for the foreseeable future.
As The Inquisitr points out, there are some fairly well trodden zombie movie themes baked into the plot right from the outset (guy wakes up in a hospital to find the world zombiefied, and must go on a quest to a city, Atlanta, for some reason or other). I think Zombieland worked so well as a smart and ironic and funny film because of the expert way in which it played off these established themes.
That said, I see no reason why The Walking Dead can't be fresh and original and scary and intriguing on its own terms. After all, Night of the Living Dead is perhaps the greatest zombie movie of all time, but interest in zombies and their doings still thrives some four decades later.
Check out some additional clips that AMC has made available:
Hospital Corridor
Darkness
Rick's Gun
Here's the official show description from AMC:
AMC has greenlit The Walking Dead as a six-episode series based on the comic book written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics. The Walking Dead tells the story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, traveling in search of a safe and secure home. Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Teachers, Strike Back) will portray the lead role of Rick Grimes while actor Jon Bernthal (The Pacific, The Ghost Writer) will portray the character Shane, who worked with Rick in the police department before the zombie disaster. Other cast includes Laurie Holden (The Shield), who plays Andrea, one of two sisters who join the survivors of the zombie plague, Steven Yeun as Glenn, an expert scavenger and Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), who plays Rick's wife Lori.
