Television

Walking Dead Premieres on AMC

Zombie show doesn’t shy away from violence.

Fans of AMC’s Mad Men were treated to something entirely different—but just as good—in its time slot on Sunday night. The network premiered The Walking Dead, its new zombie drama. I09 compliments the show for not “pussyfooting around zombie violence.” (It opens with its main character, Rick Grimes, shooting a zombie child in the head.) Still, the show is not “shaping up to be a buckets o' blood grindhouse affair.” Unlike a horror movie, the show's serial format allows for long, agoraphobic shots of Rick wandering alone and searching for supplies—the show's zombies have more in common with a natural disaster than any Universal Studios monster. The Los Angeles Times disagrees, apparently: Gina McIntyre writes, “it was the copious amounts of blood and brain matter that left perhaps the strongest impression.”