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Max Braden: It's Justified meets Dawn of the Dead! I think I'm already 10% more desensitized to violence because all the headshots. But I'll stick with the series for a while because like any post-apocalyptic movie, it teases the questions: What would you do? Where would you go? How would you survive? But then again, Lennie James was also in the post-apocalyptic series Jericho, and I gave up on that one quick.

Tom Houseman: I don't care about this show, so I'm gonna hijack this topic, and ask something else instead:

What were you for Halloween? I was The Bear Jew, and was very pleased with my costume, even though most people didn't recognize who I was without being told... uncultured Philistines.

Matthew Huntley: A fantastic debut episode. For me, one of the most refreshing aspects of the series (so far, anyway) is the characters are written as smart and cautious (who wouldn't be during a zombie apocalypse?), so it's clear Frank Darabont is taking the premise seriously. However, I do think the sheriff should have immediately shot the dead soldier in the tank (he waited too long), but the payoff made up for it.

Some of the writing - like the dead flowers, or the picture of the family hanging from the sheriff's sun blocker, etc.) - does a good job of filling in information without being blatant. And for an AMC series, the special effects are quite good (how about that half-body zombie crawling its way across the lawn?). Some good emotional moments as well that aren't overly predictable (will the father eventually shoot his wife?). Bring on the next episode!

Tom Houseman: Thanks for making me look stupid, Matt.

Kim Hollis: The Walking Dead is one of the few shows I was really anticipating. Unlike a lot of BOPers, I haven't read the source material, but I did think that the commercials looked fantastic.

Yet, I was pretty much bored. While I understand that there is a need to establish the "rules" of this universe, I felt like the premiere episode lingered too long on too many things. Edit that sucker and you could have had a tight, suspenseful debut that still got all of that out of the way. There were also a couple of things that annoyed me - the first scene with the little girl (there's no way he would have been surprised that she was a zombie - it's not like she was the first one he had actually ever seen) and the need for them to show him pulling the picture of his family out of his visor just in case we're so stupid that we can't figure out that was them in the previous scene.

And finally, I was looking for more originality. Yes, I realize that I watched Zombieland, 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead this weekend, giving The Walking Dead some high standards to live up to. Even so, I don't think I saw anything here that I've never seen before. Ho hum. I'll watch another episode, but if it doesn't grab me, I'm not going to keep wasting my time on it.

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