The Walking Dead: Season One

Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) responds to a police call as a mild-mannered deputy sheriff with marital problems. After taking a bullet in the line of duty, he wakes up from a coma months later in a world overrun by flesh-eating zombies. Bummer. While last year’s AMC show The Walking Dead offered a watchable seven episodes, it was not the transcendent horror series that the heavy hype, high-production values and vetted source material (an award-winning comic series) should have allowed. Despite the high ratings, producer Frank Darabont fired the entire writing staff after the first season, an unexpectedly lucid move from the man who made The Majestic. There is good reason to hope that the nest-egging AMC will nurture The Walking Dead into working out its kinks, so you might as well get caught up before the presumably superior Season Two starts in the fall. (Daniel Barnes)