The Walking Dead.

HAPPY OCTOBER!  October is my favorite month of the year.  Why?  Because the whole month is dedicated to celebrating Halloween!  Halloween is my favorite holiday!  There is just something about Halloween that makes me extraordinarily happy.  The decorations, the celebration, the costumes, and of course the candy.  Also, with October comes Autumn, my favorite season of the year.  I live in Maine and Fall in Maine is gorgeous!  Fall in Maine means cooler weather, beautiful changing leaves, and pumpkin flavored everything.  What's not to like?  So, dressed in plaid flannel and boots all October I will be writing strictly about horror!  I'm hoping to write a new horror post each week of October in celebration of Halloween!  So, to start us off I bring you The Walking Dead.

I admit, I was late jumping on this bandwagon.  The Walking Dead series has been in my Netflix instant queue for at least a year, maybe more if it's even been on Netflix that long.  Finally last week I decided it was time to give it a try.  I'm not really sure why it took me so long to watch but it just never felt right.  But holy-moly I'm glad I finally gave it a shot.

The Walking Dead is AMAZING.  There is so much to talk about and I know I won't even be able to touch on it all.  First of all, let me start by saying how great it is to have a gory horror television series.  Besides American Horror Story, there really are no other horror shows out there.  Which is too bad because horror is a wonderfully disgusting and much loved genre that could be touched on a bit more on television.

This horror/drama series follows a group of people led by former Sheriff Rick Grimes.  I suppose Rick is the main protagonist of the show, as the series started with just him and he is the leader of the group.  The rest of the group does question his authority and decisions from time to time, including his own wife and son, but I find Rick to be a solid leader and his choices for the group usually have a way of working out.

For those of you unfamiliar with the AMC original show The Walking Dead, let me offer a little plot.  The series was created in 2010  by Frank Darabont and is basically about a zombie apocalypse.  Though, in the show no one ever refers to them as zombies, they call them "Walkers" and also one group calls them "Biters."  The world, or at least we assume the entire world, somehow gets overtaken by Walkers and most people either die or get turned into a Walker.  It is a creative take on the whole zombie thing, which is a popular topic in horror right now.

The show is totally gruesome and graphic, so if you don't like gore than this is probably not the show for you.  There are some heavy zombie head bashing moments but also quieter human interaction moments.  The acting on The Walking Dead is superb!  The intense fighting or conversation moments between characters are just so well written and acted.

Because there are so many main characters I will list them to help you get a clear picture.  Now, of course with a show like this there are many casualties!  So, some of these characters last a long time, some a short time, and some are not introduced for quite a while.  Here's the main players:

• Rick Grimes: Played by Andrew Lincoln, is the leader of the group, a decent father and husband though he does like to go off and save the world, and an all around nice guy.
• Lori Grimes: Played by Sarah Wayne Callies, is Rick's wife, she's kind of annoying but she's a good worker and a solid character.
• Carl Grimes: Played by Chandler Riggs, Carl is Rick and Lori's son.  He's pretty young but he carries a gun and wants to help, almost to a fault.
• Glenn Rhee: Played by Steven Yeun, Glenn is one of my favorite characters.  He's the token Asian and a very good guy.
• Daryl Dixon: Played by Norman Reedus, is my favorite character and will probably be yours as well.  You want to hate him at first but quickly learn he's a super dude.
• Dale Horvath: Played by Jeffrey DeMunn, is the voice of reason and understanding in the group.  Dale is the group mechanic and is an excellent and willing lookout.
• Andrea: Played by Laurie Holden, Andrea is kind of annoying and does not listen to people.  She gets herself into trouble by not listening to people like Dale and Michonne.
• Shane Walsh: Played by Jon Bernthal, Shane pretends to be a good guy but is he really?
• Merle Dixon: Played by Michael Rooker, Merle quickly gets cut off from the group (get it??) but I always knew he'd be back.  No body, not dead.  That's my slogan for The Walked Dead.
• Carol Peletier: Played by Melissa McBride, I weirdly really like Carol.  She's a little pathetic at first, well kind of the whole show.  Her husband is a jerk-face but Carol makes it through.  I'm rooting for a relationship between Carol and Daryl.  I'm pretty sure it will happen.
• Sophia Peletier: Played by Madison Lintz, Sophia is Carol's daughter.  She gets lost in the woods and Daryl stops at nothing to find her.  That's why I think he and Carol will get together, because he cared about Sophia so greatly.
• Maggie Greene: Played by Lauren Cohan, Maggie is Hershel's daughter and Glenn's love.  She and Glenn immediately fall in love, it's pretty sweet.  She's one of the few female characters I like in the show.
• Hershel Greene: Played by Scott Wilson, Hershel is cool!  At first I wasn't sure about him, he seemed kind of mean and harsh.  But he quickly becomes a total bad-ass.
• Beth Greene:  Played by Emily Kinney, Beth is Hershel's younger daughter.  Her character is fairly minor but she's always there.  I have a feeling she'll somehow become more focused upon.
• Michonne: Played by Danai Gurira, Michonne is AWESOME.  I liked her the second the saw her slice a Walker's head off with her sword.  Oh yeah, she carries a SWORD.  It does not get any cooler than a sword.
• The Governor: Played by David Morrissey, this guy is a total DB (douche bag, for those of you who don't know what that stands for).  I hate him because he's crooked but pretends to be perfect. 
• T-Dog: Played by IronE Singleton, T-Dog is just a good man.  Super nice, puts his life in jeopardy for others and has a very unfortunate nickname.  I mean, T-Dog, really?  How much more stereotypical can you get for the token black man of the show?  Geesh.

I hope that's everybody important!  There are tons of characters, as you can see.  Something neat about The Walking Dead, if you look at the cast on IMDB, it lists people as "Walker" and they'll be in like thirteen episodes which I think is super cool.  They don't just have random people every single time they need Walkers, they use the same actors over and over.  How cool must that job be?  Sit around for a few hours, get made up into a zombie, then walk around making gross noises!  Sounds fun to me!

The Walking Dead can be complicated and there is a lot of story-line that happens fairly quickly, so I don't want to go into any more detail on the show.  I suggest you check it out if you haven't already.  The first three seasons are streaming on Netflix!  Netflix actually just added the third season a couple days ago, I'm assuming because the fourth season will be starting soon on AMC.  So you better get caught up now!  I'm almost finished the third season and I KNOW a lot will happen.  I honestly cannot rave enough about his awesome horror show.  Go check it out and as always, enjoy!  Here's a clip about season four!