When the pilot episode premiered last October, AMC knew they had a huge hit on their hands, drawing in over 5.3 million viewers in it's 10pm slot. Directed by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist), the pilot largely followed Robert Kirkman's original comic to the letter. Casting British actor Andrew Lincoln in the role of good-guy Rick Grimes, audiences were sucked into this small-town sheriff's struggle for survival in a post apocalyptic world. While the pilot was loved by both critics and audiences alike, nearly everyone could see the immediate dip in quality once the reigns had been passed from Darabont for episode two, titled 'Guts'. In the season's second episode, we met a huge group of survivors, consisting of many races, ages and religions. It's here that we realized there will forever be two types of characters in The Walking Dead; the three-dimensional and the cardboard stereotype. Rather than touch on each character so as we can get to know them, each week the team of writers ignored everyone but Rick, Lori, Shane, Andrea & Daryl. Who is Jacqui? Who is Dale? Who are the Latin-American family? What are their stories? Apparently, they don't have any.
An error in the writing team then seemed apparent to the show's network, as rumors swirled of Darabont firing the entire writing staff in favor of a freelance team that would scribe each episode individually. While these rumors were eventually quashed, it didn't help the fan's view of the show. 'Is The Walking Dead in trouble?' seemed to be question of the week, as both AMC and the show's producers failed to respond to the media. Eventually, news spilled that season two was underway and everything was going great behind the scenes. Until Monday, July 25th, 2010. Late on Monday news leaked to the internet that the show's creator had been fired and escorted off set. The rumor mill once again cranked out stories that Darabont and particular actors weren't getting along and that the director/produced couldn't handle the pressures of a television schedule. But nobody seemed to be able to explain his involvement in the show's Comic-Con panel just two days before. Could his actions have been so bad that he was fired in just two days?
The thing to remember here is that regardless of the quality of season two thus far, I'm almost certain most of what we've seen in the last five weeks deviates wildly from Darabont & co's original plan for the season. Originally, the season premiere was to be a two hour episode, with Gwyneth Horder Payton (Sons Of Anarchy) directing. Now that it's all come out, we know that Payton turned in footage that Frank found to be unusable, to such an extent that he deemed it necessary to go back and re-film certain scenes. This must have infuriated AMC (who were rumored to be looking for budget cuts to afford Matt Weiner's return to Mad Men), hence you have his firing and the sneaky manner in which it took place.
This is all public knowledge now, but it's interesting to see some of Payton's unused footage in the original Comic-Con trailer for season two. In it, we can see various locations not shown in the premiere episode, like the make-shift nursing home from season one's 'Vatos'. Did Rick travel back to the home? We'll never know. And a quick glimpse of Shane gunning down a herd of zombies teases us with some much needed action, but this was eventually cut too. So in a bid to save the show's reputation of high quality television, the show's team chopped bits & pieces together to create the 63 minute episode, 'What Lies Ahead'. And while I enjoyed it personally, the level of disappointment and anger throughout the internet was startling. Fans rushed to internet message boards to proclaim the show had 'jumped the shark' after only 7 episodes and that Darabont's departure was the kiss of death for the show. But to that I say this; season two has been on par with season one. There are many problems with the second season (the over-drawn search for Sophia, under-written characters and a meandering pace) but these are problems the show faced in it's initial run, too. Some poor decisions were made in the early days of the show's creation and they have yet to be rectified, so it will be interesting to see how Kirkman et al will confront them. And with the show's new head, Glen Mazzara, publicly declaring he will be deviating from the comic books even more, will The Walking Dead retain it's viewership? One thing is for certain, there has never been a television show with this many internal problems in it's first 12 episodes.
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