“The Walking Dead” makes up for flaws with drama, tension

The Walking Dead premiered its fourth season on Oct. 13.

“The Walking Dead” premiered its fourth season on Oct. 13.

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Like most television fans, the recent ending of the AMC series “Breaking Bad” left me without my weekly fix of heart-stopping action and suspense. However, I was able to find solace in another wildly popular AMC series, “The Walking Dead.”

Based on a series of graphic novels published by Image Comics (of “Spawn” fame), the television series fallows a band of survivors as they navigate the broken no man’s land that is the zombie apocalypse.

The series centers on tough but honest southern sheriff Rick Grimes, portrayed by Andrew Lincoln. Rick boldly leads his wife and son, along with several other survivors, deeper and deeper to what he hopes is salvation from the hell they are living in.

One of the survivors in this group is Shane Walsh (Joe Berthenal), Rick’s partner from before the zombie apocalypse. Rick and Shane come to represent contrasting methods of surviving the zombie apocalypse. Rick is careful and compassionate, while Shane is mechanical and brutal. Seeing Rick’s ways as ineffective, Shane constantly calls Ricks leadership into question. Rick worries that adopting Shane’s method of “Survive by any means necessary” will cost the group their humanity, which is the only possession they have left. As the two men fight over leadership, the group itself begins to question the point of life in the undead-infested world, wondering if a barbaric life focused on violence and survival is a life at all.

The cinematography could not do a better job of portraying a realistic post-apocalyptic America. Scenes are often shot with a handheld camera to achieve a sort of real life/documentary feel, greatly adding to the unsettling nature of the show.

While the camera work is almost always exceptional, the series is not without its shortcomings. The show’s dialogue can be downright laughable and certain character’s acting can seem a bit forced at times. If you’re a fan of bad southern accents, then you are in for a treat.

Despite its minor shortcomings, “The Walking Dead” is overall a solid series. In a culture where zombies dominate every form of media, “The Walking Dead” manages to individualize itself from a mass of mindless zombie flicks by focusing on the psychological toll the zombie outbreak has on the living, leaving the viewer to question what it truly means to be human. With the third season recently being added to Netflix instant and season four having premiered on Oct. 13, now is as good of a time as ever to join the hoard and get infected with “The Walking Dead” mania.