REVIEW: The Walking Dead “Wildfire”

I must say that there is nothing quite like a juicy zombie to help ease the digestion process after an obscene carb orgy such as the one I participated in this evening. Since I am a child of divorce I have the pleasure of celebrating two of every holiday, tonight being Thanksgiving number 2. I managed to drag my grotesquely bloated body to the sofa to enjoy some television and I find a new episode of The Walking Dead with people driving pick axes through dead people’s heads. YUM!

The show opens with a nice shot of sunrise over Atlanta and Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is trying to contact Morgan on the walkie talkie. In the aftermath of the attack on their camp the survivors set out to bury their dead. Andrea (Laurie Holden) still has not left her sister’s side though and isn’t keen on anyone suggesting that they bury her. They also discover that Jim has been bitten. He seems okay for now but you know things will not end well for him. There they go again letting us get involved with a character and then giving him zombie disease.

Rick and Shane (Jon Bernthal) take a walk in the woods and argue about their next move. Rick wants to head to the CDC in Atlanta where he has been led to believe help awaits. Shane thinks that Fort Benning, 100 miles in the opposite direction, is a safer bet because the military always fares so well in these types of stories. Shane gets so mad at his old partner that he actually pretends to shoot at him, but the old hippie guy sees him.

Andrea’s sister Amy finally wakes up with full-on zombie attitude. For a minute it looks like Andrea might let herself get bitten as she apologizes to her baby sister for everything she ever did wrong, but then she puts a bullet in her head and burys her with the others. Way to go Andrea! Now it’s off the CDC, but not everyone decides to go. Morales takes his family to Alabama instead. They bring Jim along in the hopes that the CDC has a cure for zombie disease, but when the Winnebago breaks down he asks them to leave him behind. Something tells me we haven’t see the last of Jim.

At the CDC a man named Jenner is working on a cure. He tells us that it is day 194 since “Wildfire” was declared and 63 days since the disease went global. He spills a chemical on a brain sample and it creates a corrosive element that triggers the decontamination protocols and destroys his samples. What I want to know is does “zombie disease” have a name? I’ve seen a few zombie films and no one ever cares to name it. Zombificus Totalus maybe? Someone should come up with something. And what are the rules? Do the zombies die when the decompostion of the human body is complete? Or do they stagger on indefinitely. With no working stomach to sustain why are they eating exactly? I want to know these things. I HAVE VALID QUESTIONS!

Outside the survivors arrive at the CDC, which is actually Cobb Energy Center and is across the street from my office building. You can actually see my building in the background as they approach. Kind of cool huh? Things aren’t looking very good there though. Bodies litter the sidewalks and it doesn’t look like anyone is home. Inside, Jenner relays this joyous news of his monumental setback to no one in particular and notices our survivors approaching the front doors. At first he hopes they will just go away but Rick notices the security camera moving and Jenner eventually lets them in. Is the CDC safe? Probably a little, but not for long is my guess. With only one episode left in this season I can only guess what will go down once they get inside. I also want to know where Merle is. No good will come of that.

Entertainment Weekly featured The Walking Dead on their cover this week with the headline The Best New Show on TV so if you aren’t watching you should be. The season one finale airs next Sunday at 10pm on AMC.