As Robin pointed out on our most recent podcast, I diligently reviewed every episode of season 1 of The Walking Dead and heaped the show with glowing praise, but I haven’t resumed my reviews of the series with the start of season 2. Why is that? Well, to put it simply, the show has gone downhill severely. For a series about zombies, there haven’t been many zombies in this season (most likely due to the same budgetary slashes that led to Frank Darabont’s dismissal from the program), and most of the drama has been soap-operatic in style. Will X tell Y that Z is doing something bad? Will they leave the farm or won’t they? Does anything that has happened this season even matter to the show as a whole? The Walking Dead was supposed to be a show about surviving in a zombie wasteland, but season 2 has basically been Melrose Place on a farm with the occasional zombie thrown in. I don’t feel like anything of real consequence has happened since the end of season 1, and that’s why I haven’t been reviewing each episode. I will, however, do a review of the season once it concludes.
All of that to say that this VFX reel is awesome. It doesn’t change my opinion of the content of the show, but much like when I viewed the Boardwalk Empire VFX sizzle reel, I find myself blown away by the way the special effects blend with reality. This is CGI used to spectacular effect, and even if I think The Walking Dead has started sucking in a lot of ways, the special effects remain terrific. If only they were backed up by similarly great plot arcs and multi-dimensional characters.