The Walking Dead is still alive and kicking with guts as it enters its fifth season running. Monday, the 13th of October saw the return of The Walking Dead to our screens once again, much to the delight of its loyal fanbase. But did the premiere drag its fans in or leave them screaming in the opposite direction?
The fifth season of The Walking Dead has been long awaited by its fans. The overload of publicity for this season has made the anticipation twice the more painful, as we all waited for our weekly fix of horror. To the appreciation of fans, the first episode really lived up to the hype. After the initial launch of The Walking Dead, the show has seen many ups and downs. In my opinion, the first two seasons of the show were the best, with the perfect balance of storyline and gore. Everybody and their mums (including mine) were watching this show when it launched and we all saw how zombie programmes can actually have incredibly well thought-out storylines.
The first episode of the fifth season was fantastic. Crossbow bolts were replenished, Andrew Lincoln’s ‘deep south’ accent was improved and Carol was finally reunited with the group. The show returned to its former, bloody glory in this first episode. We saw the return of a large group, whereas previously, there were many different storylines in various situations and settings. As a result, we saw the rekindling of character relationships in the show once again flourish. At many points in this episode, the audience found themselves asking the question ‘what would you do?’ and the whole episode made the audience reconsider what we would do to survive. Terminus made our survivors question what it is to be human and the cannibalistic undertones of the terminus residents made our survivors a little more human than the last season. Compassion and understanding remain one of the key themes, and the show in that respect harkens back to the initial few seasons.
With the hype of the fifth season, I was expecting to be disappointed. In the last few seasons, at points the storyline has lagged and the multiple storylines did not help this factor. The fifth season of The Walking Dead sees itself returning to its bloody glory and let’s just hope that the remainder of the season lives up to the quality of its first episode.
