Photograph: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC/PR Spoiler alert: this piece discusses the first episode of the new season. Don't read on if you're waiting for it to show on FoxTV in the UK
You think you watched The Walking Dead fifth season premiere on Sunday night, don't you? Well yeah, you did - but what you really watched was the fourth season's finale. You finally found out how Rick and company would get out of that train car in Terminus - when a more conventional show would have revealed that last March, when the previous season ended. Since when does this show play by the rules? Never. And this latest stunt continues its streak as one of the best and biggest dramas on television.
We've come to expect a season finale to wrap up the events of the preceding episodes and point to the direction the show will take next season. Just look at Game of Thrones. At the end of last season, Arya Stark finally freed herself from the clutches of the Hound and embarked on a journey to a mysterious land. Or think of The Good Wife (which had great fun skewering The Talking Dead during its own episode last night). On its most recent season finale, Alicia was asked to run for state's attorney; this season has been busy setting up the storyline for her candidacy.
The second half of season four of The Walking Dead saw the crew scattered after the attack on their prison and each member making their individual ways to Terminus, a place they thought would be a haven. When they finally arrived, their reunion was interrupted when they were locked into a train car and prepared for slaughter (come on now, we all figured out the denizens of Terminus were cannibals).
That storyline concluded last night: Carol happening on to Terminus, going all badass-one-woman-army on them, freeing Glen and Maggie and Michonne and (ugh) Carl and everyone trudging on down the train tracks to whatever the next adventure would be. Making us wait seven months to get to that conclusion is groundbreaking. By contrast, at the end of The Walking Dead's third season, the Governor was defeated, Rick took in the refugees from his camp, and they settled down to life in a prison.
Season four's cliffhanger accomplished two things. First, we were all left to linger on a very definite set of problems: our heroes trapped in a train car with cannibals outside and the threat of certain death. We were thinking, very specifically, 'How are they going to survive?', which is essentially the very question that every episode of The Walking Dead wants us to ask. And on a show like this, where no character (except maybe Rick and fan favourite Daryl) is sacrosanct, the idea of one or more of the regulars not surviving isn't beyond the realm of terrifying possibility.
Second, we got one humdinger of a premiere episode. The start of season five was a mini-action movie with suspense, explosions, a daring rescue (I'm #TeamCarol), and blood swirling down the drain. Traditionally, the first few episodes of a show's new season are a little bit slow as it struggles to set up the narrative. The Walking Dead managed to go out on a bang, leave viewers staring down the precipice for half of the year, and start off with another bang as it slowly pulled us away from that cliff.
At the end of the episode, the Terminus storyline concluded and the group starts their own mysterious journey. Episode two might be a little bit of a snooze, but after the adrenaline high of the first hour, The Walking Dead has earned a rest. But with the new season off to an off-kilter if incredibly satisfying start, hopefully it will keep breaking the rules all season long.
Post By http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/oct/13/the-walking-dead-rips-up-tv-rulebook-season-five-opener
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