Two Days

Uncle P's Sister After Baking One Too Many Cakes?

This Sunday sees the 90-minute  Season Two premiere of AMC's groundbreaking series "The Walking Dead." You know when even Uncle P's mother is excited for the return of a series about zombies, it must be good. 

Of course, "The Walking Dead" is only nominally about zombies. Mostly it's about people trying to survive a cataclysmic event that turned their lives upside down. And that's what makes Robert Kirkman's graphic novel (and the series) so compelling. Sure, the zombies are horrifying and disgusting; yes, the special effects are gross and even a bit titillating and of course, the suspense of  trying to escape a hungry horde of zombies is exciting. But without characters we care about, it's just crunching and munching; buckets of fake blood and exploding heads. That gets boring, after a while. What makes "The Walking Dead" work so well are its characters. Real people responding to an extraordinary situation, reacting in the only ways they know how. And of course, amazing performances by an excellent ensemble cast don't hurt.

When we last saw our rag-tag band of survivors, they had barely escaped the about-to-explode CDC, after the suicidal Jenner whispered something obviously important into Rick's ear. I'm guessing that Rick's wife is pregnant, but with whose baby? Of course, I could be wrong. If you haven't seen Season 1 of "The Walking Dead" (and shame on you if that's the case), you can stream it from Netflix or watch the inevitable marathon this Sunday on AMC, before the Season 2 premiere. Or you can search "The Walking Dead" and "recaps" on this blog and read my recaps of the first season's 6 episodes. AMC has ordered a full 13 -episode season for this year. Seven episodes will air this fall, starting this Sunday, with six additional episodes starting in February.  Here's the official Season 2 trailer, which had Uncle P's sister gripping the arms of her chair as she watched:

I am very psyched for this Sunday, and will post my recap on Monday.

In other zombie news, my buddy Pax Romano at Billy Loves Stu, posted a link to this review of the upcoming African zombie movie The Dead on Facebook. It's one of several International zombie movies (including the Cuban zombie movie Juan of the Dead) that Uncle P is excited to see. I mentioned both of these films over at the now-defunct Zombie Zone and m glad to see they're getting more attention. Here are their trailers:

More, anon.
Prospero