The fact that writer/director of the first season of "The Walking Dead" Frank Darabont won't be returning for the second season obviously made no difference when the show premiered last night on AMC to a record breaking 7.3 million viewers for its first showing (over 10 million total after the second showing). The show's finale last December had approximately 6 million viewers, so its no wonder that most fans returned -- and the kick-off to season two did not disappoint.
The viewing experience, in general as far as the tone is concerned, is consistent with the last season; something which may be attributed to the fact that although the show lost Darabont shortly following San Diego Comic Con this year; according to a source much of the planning for the series' second season had been completed.
== TEASER ==...Quite a few episodes of the upcoming season [season two] were already completed, by Darabont himself. Even though we’re unable to speculate what the episodes without Darabont’s involvement might look like, all of the footage that we’ve seen so far comes from the episodes that he’s had control over
After watching the first episode into the second season of The Walking Dead, the story does seem to follow along where we last saw the cast of characters at the end of season one, and the overall tone of the episode remains consistent with the previous season's. So far, it's not easy to tell whether or not the fact that Darabont will not be involved in the second season makes a difference, but only time will tell.
The story picks up following the CDC explosion. Rick's leadership abilities are tested from the get-go, and the start of season two doesn't skip a beat. Like we saw in the first season of The Walking Dead, the second season continues to move in a different direction than that of the comic series, which is rather consistent with what we saw during the first season of the series. The Walking Dead season two will consist of thirteen episodes, but if you missed the first one, you can watch it above. What did you think of the first episode of season two of The Walking Dead? Did you like it? Do you feel that the story kicking off season two is consistent in tone and context with what we saw in the first season?
If you watched the episode last night or watched it above, feel free to have a spoilery discussion below. Apologies if the above episode is not viewable in your area.