Days Gone Bye

The first episode of The Walking Dead is the definition of a perfect hook, as it despite its 1 hour runtime, leaves you desperate for more!

Of all the different Zombie apocalypse introductions, this stands to me as one of the best one! Rick waking up in a hospital bed, and slowly discovering the state of the world, is so brilliante and full of atmosphere! It allows for the viewer to sink in what is happening as we are probably just as shocked and confused as Rick is!

The very first scene is equally iconic!

Everything this episode does, is some of the things this show does BEST! It will leave you on edge right till the credits roll! It has everything you would expect balancecing great atmosphere with horror, gore and great characterwork and storytelling!

We can all argue how the show turns out, but the pilot here is PERFECT and remains one of the best episodes in the series!

I rewatch this episode, and all this season, and it is perfect, really perfect, its the best start in any Tv series, even better start that Breaking Bad, all the episodes are excellent, but in this episode, you can see all the potencial that The walking dead have, if Darabont would have continue as showrunner this could have been another big success for AMC like Breaking bad, and seeing this 1 season again was excellent, but it also was sad, because all this great work, all the seriousness, darkness and even realistic that this season have, vanish forever in the next seasons, the second could be boring for a lot of people (for me no), but it still have that darkness, and realistic events, that the first season have, not a the same level, but still there, but in the third season, there was not more of that, it was a joke, and it gets worse and worse in every season, really so sad, because this could be an authentic masterpiece, from the beginning to the end, of course only if Darabont have been the only showrunner for The walking dead, this is for me the biggest mistake of AMC, they have breaking bad, but still being a huge mistake, not only for the fans, even for TV, but we still having this first season, if all would have end in this first season, and they wouldn't continue doing the second, the third, etc. This would be the best Tv Mini series.

Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes and his partner and best friend Shane Walsh are summoned to form a police roadblock to stop a runaway car. Rick is shot by one criminal and goes into a coma. When Rick awakens in the hospital, he finds that he is alone in the abandoned hospital and sees several bodies disposed everywhere.

He wanders along the empty streets trying to find his wife and son and stumbles with Morgan Jones and his son Duane that explain him that the world has ended and now there are only walkers, zombies that are attracted by sound and smell of the survivors. Rick heads to Atlanta in the police car to seek out his family but he runs out of gas on the road. He sees a horse in a farm and rides to the city. Out of the blue, he is surrounded by walkers that eat his horse. He seeks refugee in a military tank and he hears a message on the radio.

I have glanced at many good reviews about "The Walking Dead" and I have finally bought the Blu-Ray with the complete First Season. This first show or pilot is one of the best zombie films I have ever seen and this is my favorite horror genre. The plot is very well constructed through a good story, great performances and stunning special effects. Now I am going to see the next episode, hoping that keep the same level of this pilot. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Days Gone Bye" (1.1)

Note: On 08 April 2016, I saw this show again.

As far as season openers go, the first episode of AMC's The Walking Dead wastes no time in setting the time for what is to follow.

Plot In A Paragraph: Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes wakes up in the hospital to find his town overrun by flesh-eating zombies. After making friends with Morgan and his son Duane, they fill him in on what he had missed. So Rick sets out to find his wife and son.

Andrew Lincoln does a superb job as Rick, and he pretty much carries most of the episode on his own. Lennie James as Morgan has a heartbreaking scene towards the end of the episode, but other than that it's Lincoln's show.

Scary, heartbreaking and harrowing. A great start.

Had heard nothing but great things about 'The Walking Dead' from friends and IMDb reviewers. It took a while to get round to watching, both from being busy and also not being sure whether it would be my cup of tea. Finally getting round to it a few years ago and slowly working my way through it, having had a very long to watch and review list, 'The Walking Dead' turned out to be very much my cup of tea and as good as the hype made it out to be, have found it extremely addictive.

"Days Gone Bye", having now decided to review all the episodes, is an absolutely brilliant start to 'The Walking Dead', and one of the strongest reminders of how Seasons 1-5 of 'The Walking Dead' to me were absolutely brilliant and seeing the show in its full glory days (Season 6 was uneven, Season 7 was a huge disappointment and am still debating whether to watch Season 8).

Other reviewers have hailed it as one of the best first episodes ever, definitely agree with this. It still shocks me at how an intelligent, well-made (so much so that it is easy to mistake it for a film) show about zombies could be made when so many films have tried and failed abysmally to do so.

Like all the episodes of the show, "Days Gone Bye" is incredibly well made in the production values, with gritty and audacious production design, photography of almost cinematic quality, effects that look good, have soul and are not overused or abused and pretty frightening make-up which helps make the already freaky zombies even freakier. The music is haunting and affecting, having presence but never being too intrusive.

The writing is intelligent and thought-provoking, with lots of tension and emotional resonance and already showing signs of character complexity and multiple layer storytelling. The more eventful scenes are thrilling and terrifying as well as uncompromising.

It's all thrilling and tautly paced without rushing through the more important parts. The world building is already stunningly immersive and effective. Direction is smart and atmospheric while the show throughout has been strongly acted especially from the two leads playing particularly well-crafted characters.

All in all, brilliant start. 10/10 Bethany Cox