2011 TV Preview: Season 2 Of “The Walking Dead”

The only one that could top the list for 2011, was also this years' best show on television. It came late in the year and won everybody over in its short six episode first season, of course I'm talking about "The Walking Dead".

#1. The Walking Dead: Was there ever a doubt that this would be the number one on my list? I had been asking (seriously, I called this about two years ago) for a hard-edged television series about the zombie apocalypse and Frank Darabont delivered. From the first I heard about AMC picking up the series based on the Robert Kirkman graphic novels, I knew this would be a hit. I just wish AMC felt that way because we'd still be in the midst of Season 1 instead of weeks past  the finale. They were unsure of the legs this show would have and gave them very little time to produce the first season (hense the six episodes).

Frank Darabont is an incredible director and a long time fan/veteran the of horror genre. He is also a huge Stephen King fan and has adapted 3 of his books into films (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Mist). Darabont also worked on some old school horror flicks such as " The Blob" (1989), "The Fly 2", and was one of the writers of  "Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors". There has been a lot of internet speculation about the quality of the second season of this show. Some of the writers left the project about a month ago and it was rumored that they were fired by AMC, which caused a major backlash on the internet. While it is true that some writers have left to pursue projects of their own, I remain optimistic about the future of "The Walking Dead". Darabont and Kirkman will be doing the majority of the writing for next season and plan to start pooling ideas in January. Honestly you couldn't ask for two better guys to be driving the direction of this project. Darabont was the champion for this show since day one and had to work for years to write, shoot, and get a network to agree to let him make it. Robert Kirkman is the creator of the source material and without him, there would be no show at all. Dont worry, Season 2 will probably be BETTER than the first.

The second season of the show is set to once again premiere during AMC's Fearfest in October and this time will have a longer season (13 episodes). All major charcters from season 1 are signed on to return as well as guest spots from Thomas Jane (who was attached to star when the show was pitched to HBO) and Charlie Sheen. Sheen is such a big fan he wants to cameo as a zombie, good luck getting him to sit still in make-up for seven hours (sniff-sniff). This show is going to be around for a long time and spawn a lot of clones, but we do need more horror on TV so I'm all for it. Anything to get those network execs to loosen up and try new things is a step in the right direction. Check out all the kills you missed in the short first season (I just hope that next season they lose the digital blood and go old school w/ corn syrup)...