Days Gone By - One More Walking Dead Revisit (5/5)

 You'd think with all these Walking Dead shows and such a recognizable IP, the brand would be killing it. But after, what, eleven seasons of The Walking Dead, they can barely hit 2 million viewers and the key demographic has really dried up. I can recall in 2013 my lead at work telling me she just spent the weekend marathoning The Walking Dead and there were actual in-depth conversations about story arcs and characters. While you have like three or four shows right now, I don't think very many of them crack a million viewers per show except the flagship. I think I just read this afternoon that yet another show was getting the AMC+ treatment, an anthology series called Tales of the Walking Dead. I guess you can say are sandblasting the well in the hopes of some wet that might still be there.

About two years ago, I picked up a four disk set for the first four seasons of the series because, from what I can remember, the series was considered at its best at the very beginning. I watched the Pilot, Days Gone By, and it was a stark reminder of just how damn good this show was indeed back in 2010. I think the pilot really seemed to keep it simple and yet feature some really well done dramatic moments. I really felt there was this energy of what could be possible with the show. Yes, much like the later reputation of the show, Days Gone By had lots of dialogue. You have Rick and Shane discussing women leaving the lights on, while Rick discusses trouble in his marriage with Lori. Later Shane is kissing Lori after she takes him to task for not leaving signs to anyone who might be traveling through not to go to Atlanta...where a recently recovered Rick is driving (and eventually riding horseback) towards. One of the key questions I can remember with the early part of the first season is how could Rick have been left behind like he is? Why would Shane do that to him? Did Shane have designs on his wife and purposely leave Rick behind? Shane sure has supplanted himself as "head of the household", while Rick awakens in a local hospital still a bit sore from being shot by some goon in a car after a shootout with deputies. God, that remains such a potent scene: Rick awakening in the hospital, finding a mutilated nurse on the floor decaying while zombies outside this barely contained door (locked with a chain and shaking metal bar between handles) try to get in. He goes a different direction, biking to his home in a neighborhood not yet overrun with the undead. This is where he meets Morgan and Morgan's son -- before Morgan has become a polarizing figure in the Walking Dead brand, having become a bigger character in "Fear the Walking Dead" -- eventually recovering from wounds thanks to Morgan's redressing his bandage. Morgan is Rick's way of learning of what has happened since he was out of it due to recovery. You can see lots of dead bodies in bags outside the hospital to inform all of us of just how bad it had gotten. Atlanta, later on, reinforces that when plenty of city folks are now hungry for flesh and organs, bloody read meat, and Rick's horse can provide a lot of that!

Morgan can't shoot his undead wife, attempting to as his rifle is locked and loaded. His son is downstairs holding his ears. I do admit that I really like Morgan and Rick in their scenes together. Morgan was very popular during this period of time. I can peruse "Fear the Walking Dead" among other Walking Dead subreddits and Morgan's presence seems to have strained that popularity. But I haven't watched a lot of "Fear", so I can't really comment one way or another. In the episode he shoots a zombie in the head, with Rick smacked upside the head with a shovel by Morgan's son, Duane. Rick has yet to realize exactly what is going on. Morgan and Duane have experienced this madness firsthand, while Rick was out cold.

Rick following a deteriorating zombie, with no lower torso, crawling on the ground without a waist or legs. Part of her spine sticking out, a mouth that barely has any jaw, and yet this zombie still wants to tear into Rick. Rick tells this poor creature he's sorry this happened to her before plugging the zombie compassionately. This was still at a point where the zombies weren't all just ducks in a shooting gallery...though Morgan does plug a few with his rifle to prepare himself for his wife. Rick, at the beginning in a real dazzler, is looking for gasoline, walking amongst abandoned cars scattered about, eventually locating a little zombie girl with the teddy bear. He briefly looks at her as a little girl in need of help, until she turns around to remind him of his new reality. Great stuff.

*** I forgot the moment Rick locates the horse while passing through, having abandoned his police car due to gas. He finds the owners dead inside, the husband having shot his wife and turned the gun on himself. In perhaps his wife's blood, he asked God to forgive him. With the flies buzzing about, a visual CGI motif leaned on for dramatic effect, I could just smell the rotted flesh reeking from inside that house. And Rick head-shotting a deputy he knew from before the plague, before him a zombie, provides particular effect, as intended. The CGI blood leaves much to be desired.***