The Walking Dead Season 1 Retrospective: The Defining Season of the Zombie Genre
Subscribe to help me reach 200K!
Looking back at The Walking Dead Season 1, a season which now premiered over a decade ago, hits me with a wave of nostalgia. Not only is it cool to see the beginning of a series that would go on for many more years, spawn many different spinoff shows, and still have, at least a bit of success to this very day, but it’s also strange to see just how different the show was back in 2010.
0:00 - 1:58 - Zombies in 2010
1:59 - 5:41 - Days Gone Bye
5:42 - 7:05 - Guts
7:06 - 11:26 - Tell It To The Frogs
11:27 - 13:37 - Vatos
13:38 - 15:49 - Wildfire
15:50 - 17:51 - TS-19
17:52 - 20:00 - The Beginning of a LONG road
20:01 - 22:33 - The Identity of Season 1
Become a member of the Channel!
/ @thethriftytypewriter
Join My Discord!
/ discord
Outro:
Late Night Driving - Broke In Summer
Lennie James in the pilot had one of the most emotional and well acted scenes in the entire walking dead universe.
Totally agree
Yh it's a shame what happened to his character
I found him really cringe like amateur dramatics
@@grottybt5006 🤡🤡🤡
Lennie James ?
It's crazy when you think about it. If glenn did not return for the hat, it would sadly have been lost
Season one is by far the most solid story telling in tv I’ve ever seen. Rick’s immediate panic when he wakes up, the way the zombies act, the group.. everything was perfect. Morgan was perfection as well, and led to the wonderful exposition through the walkie-talkie throughout the seasons, and most of season one just hits. The setup of the show during season one didn’t feel like it was dragging either, there was always something happening. God, I love the early seasons of this show.
Frank Darabont getting fired after season two is such a tragedy
After season one actually, he negotiated for a higher budget for season 2 and they sacked him
@@kurt4Think he managed to film 1 or 2 episode of season 2 before he was fired
@@conner1260 I’m not sure I saw him in the credits for any episode but I may be wrong, what I heard is that his script was used but he wasn’t there anymore
During season 2
I loved Frank’s work. Very much!!
The scene of Rick and Carl reuniting gets to me this day. Carl yelling _"Dad!"_ and Rick crying, it was such a beautiful scene acted out very well by both of them. Makes me tear up every time.
I honestly miss “that feeling” of when your watching the intro getting so excited to watch the new episode if you know want I mean you know, this feeling stopped by season 7/8 for me
It did for a lot of people. The quality dipped drastically during this time and never recovered. People say seasons 9 and 10 and 11 are so good blah blah but they aren't anywhere near the quality of the earlier seasons. The number of viewers from then to now proves my point. Back then it was extremely rare to run into a person who hasn't watched or at least heard of The Walking Dead. But now they look at you with a deer in the headlights look.
@@BrandonFlint-ro2nsnobody really says they’re good except season 9. Most would say 10 and 11 were meh or bad
Stopped for me when Negan showed up. Also, Morgan. For me, those two characters made me stop watching.
For me it was season 2 and beyond. They all became soft and got their butts kicked a lot
The fact Rick will become an operator in MW3 is hilarious
Really?
not hilarious its just awesome
@@Tactical_autist its been in specultation for a while but they just confirmed it today. its cool af.
*Capture B Flag Coral*
@@idkwhattohaveasausername5828lol
I like how Glen calls the walkers “geeks” homage to the comic deadworld
I never watched the Walking Dead as it came out. I recently started watching it back in mid-December and am currently on Season 10. Despite having binged that much in that short amount of time, Seasons 1 and 2 are so unexplainably nostalgic. Maybe it’s the lighting and grainy resolution of the camera or the believability and realism of the early apocalypse, when the zombies were the biggest threat.
Oh how I feel you there and I watched season 1 and 2 back in like 2012, the nostalgia is insane
My husband and I just finished it on Sunday
Same! But I started it last October and watched episode finale this weekend :)
I didn't start watching it until Telltale's Walking Dead game first came out (in 2013 I think). The game really got me into the universe and the show was so much better than I expected it to be. To this day, the first 4 seasons are so nostalgic to me, because season 4 was premiering by the time I caught up, but 1 and 2 especially.
It was the producer’s preferred choice of filming, which really added to the realism
13:07 I think that it was played at a good time, because there is a deleted scene where the return a few days later and the Vatos are all dead. I think the plan was to show how in the apocalypse, no one can stay as a good guy forever. Season one is the only time that makes sense for them to meet an old folks home that has been protected.
This was without doubt the best season and one of the best shows of all time (IMO).
Lost, Sopranos, TWD, and Breaking Bad... to be able to watch them again for the first time lol
I know right? I was just saying this morning how much I'd love to watch Breaking Bad for the first time again but now I want to watch The Walking Dead for the first time again! I haven't seen The Sopranos though, how is it?
@cinemattic_multiverse slightly dated at this point, but phenomenal. SO many drama tropes were created or perfected by that show
I love going online and seeing lost appreciation no one ever talks about it anymore it’s literally one of the best shows of all time
And game of thrones
@@TimSedai I'll have to give it a try then! I might upload a review on each season as I watch it. Sounds like a great opportunity! I bet that show is used as an example in film classes from the sounds of the tropes it started!
The Walking Dead is a fantastic show and the first season is one of the best starts to a show I have ever seen
TWD had a perfect pilot; Breaking Bad had a perfect finale.
Agreed @@thepyramidschemepodcast
Me too❤ I'm rewatching for the 11th time and I've played the tell tale series too❤
@@CelestialSims333 awesome haha and I haven’t played those how are they?
@cinemattic_multiverse amazinggg my favorite season is 2🩷 clementine is my baby girl lol
As a person who watched this show back when it actually aired on AMC in its prime, oh man what I wouldn't do to go back and re-watch every episode for the first time and be blown away by all of the various moments❤
I get that feeling completely I started watching it when I first came out on our box tv and I was 6 I fell in love with the zombie genre
October 2010 saw both The Walking Dead start and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare release. Was one my favourite Halloweens I can remember.
I always hear “season 1 has the funniest scene”, “season 1 has the scariest scene”, etc. and that’s literally because frank darabont is the goat
@SaraLanc3🤡
no u dont
Nothing beats t-dogs “i thought you was bein eaten by dogs man!” And then they proceed to show cute lil puppies barking
The best part of season 1 is the scene where they show Merle's hand. Whatever music plays during that is haunting yet epic.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928it’s called “the hand”. It was actually played at the beginning of this video in the background.
Character conversations in seasons 1-3 always felt so much more realistic and grounded in reality, I don't know if anyone else experienced this but starting at season 4, certain lines felt like just lines, instead of two real people having real conversations
1st season is my favorite for the Rick and Shane interactions alone, and young Daryl is always nice to revisit lol
When Shane was still sane.
19:20 I noticed that Morgan called them “walkers”, so that’s what Rick calls them too since it’s the first name he hears for them. But when Rick meets the Atlanta survivors they all call the zombies “geeks”. It’s not until Rick shows up and calls them “walkers” that they follow his lead and do the same
Not true, I thought the same thing but Shane calls them “walkers” right when Glenn shows up with the Challenger in episode 3. Might just be a slight lapse in the writing, but it’s still in there.
Having recently started TWD back to s1, I personally love how early after the collapse of society it takes place, I believe its been like a month ? People are not sure what to call the zombies, or even how to kill them, some still expect the millitary to return and help and everything just feels 'uncertain'. It's not ten years into the collapse where a new generation grew up in that new world and those that lived in the 'old' world have forgotten about it to move on
I think it takes place 6 or 8 weeks after Rick gets shot. The timeline of The Walking Dead is not exactly easy to map out. There's so many time jumps and points where multiple episodes take place over a single day or a couple days. But yeah it's amazing to see how things progressed from then to now.
Honestly what most shows don’t capture is that tense feel. The amount of school yard talks or talks with the homies “bro t dogg is gonna make it hes my favorite” now show hits that kinda camaraderie
Can't wait to see you dissect the rest of the seasons!
Amazing video and also something about Merle I can’t believe flew over my head after rewatching this show so many times. I was rewatching from the beginning and noticed finally that In season 3 episode 13 Merle tells Michonne that he has a couple of calls he and Daryl would use when hunting that can give Daryl a heads up while Rick is out negotiating with the Governor. In later seasons Rick and Daryl both use whistles or calls to see if somebody near their group if split up is friend or foe or to just call something out. Such as season 5 episode 11. When Daryl and Rick recognized each other via Whistles in the Ally when they got split heading for Alexandria. Meaning Daryl probably taught Rick and probably the others the calls.
lm
i will never get over "don't dead open inside" 🤣🤣
2:30 This score from the first episode is just incredible.
I started The Walking Dead about a week after this past Thanksgiving and im actually watching the season 7 finale right now and wow. This is my #1 show and nothing tops it. The realism, immersion, and lines in the show are unmatched. I have yet to see a bad season in this show. Maybe the latter half of season four (besides when Rick bit that guy's jugular out). It shows how people would act if we lost everything that made us comfortable. The intro is also one of a kind.
The lion is a bit overkill though.
tiger@@omgyodj
@@omgyodj It's a tiger... and it was a key part of the source material, so had to be included. I think they did it well, in the show, and made it a whole lot more credible. But, hey! Zombies...and you're upset over a tiger?
The best pilot for any show I've ever watched.
Well that was until TOWL aired!!
Season 1 is still my favorite partially due to how it feels/looks the most cinematic.
please keep doing these twd videos their awesome
Facts I love videos like this. The Walking Dead needs more appreciation imo
The pilot episode was some of the best piece of writing and acting I’ve seen in a show.
Looks like Thrifty in his Korotos Mystery Shack arc with this one 😂
I liked zombie media before watching The Walking dead, this show was what made me LOVE zombie media.
This was fantastic. This is my favourite genre and my favourite tv programme. Like the premier of Lost....which was just incredible when it first aired...the first episode of TWD was brilliant. I'm really looking forward to your retrospective reviews for the rest of the seasons. I love all your TWD content and will often re-watch them, they're that good. Thank you from the UK 😊
Great video, I look forward to the rest! I love the first two seasons so much. The Rick and Shane storyline is one of my all-time favorites
I’m so excited for this series of videos. I hope you give seasons 10 and 11 a chance. So many people write them off as bad despite they being pretty solid episodes.
No thier Pretty bad
The scene that shows Morgan trying to put down his wife was definitely one of the most emotional scenes in the first season Lennie James deserved atleast an emmy nomination of best guest actor
Season 1 of TWD is always a blast to rewatch! Even if not everything holds up well, most of it really still does, and I'll always maintain that the first season is arguably one of the best first seasons ever made for TV. Not to mention with hindsight it's just insane how different the show was then compared to what it eventually became. Complete whiplash every time! This video perfectly explains why I love it so much still, and I can't wait for the rest of your TWD retrospectives, Thrifty! :)
There's just something special about Season 1. It's the closest thing to a perfect season of television along with every season of Breaking Bad. P.S. Sad that the Rick&Andrea set up never went anywhere I liked their chemistry in that one scene and I'm a big fan of them in the comics.
Seeing the first season back 2010 still feels like it yesterday to me, coming home from trick R treating, I was in high school at the time, the moment Glenn radios Rick in the tank I remember thinking to myself “ I found my new favorite show”
Only on season 4 got to watch one season a month
I hope you enjoyed what you've seen so far!
@@cinemattic_multiverse oh trust me I have such a great show
@@yigaboii2254 I know right?! I love almost every episode that I’ve seen
@@cinemattic_multiverse Ong I love the Darryl Beth duo
@@yigaboii2254 me too their scenes are some of my favorites in the entire show.
I rewatched the whole show for the first time a year or so ago and let me tell you my perspective on season 1 reaaally changed on this rewatch. I love the show and always have but when watching it as it came out in my teens i always got excited as the scale of the show seemed to get bigger and bigger. I remember thinking back on the first 2 seasons as a boring watered down version and i never understood why people picked season 1 as their favourite. On my rewatch though i found myself being really fond of season 1-2 especially season 1, it just feels so quality and you could really tell a filmaker like frank darabont was behind it. There was a sense of horror with the soundtrack and the vibe that left when everyone seemed to become a badass. I really cant truly put my finger on the change of quality/vibe the show lost when frank darabont left and i still love the show after it but it was just different.
Hey there Mr. Thrifty Typewriter. I totally agree with you on the that the first season was damn perfect. With Frank Darabont directing the first season you know something good was going to happen. I do not think we all realized at the time just how special and how good of a show TWD was going to be as with Frank Darabont being the Show Runner. AMC firing FD over creative differences and money discussions after Season One was a huge mistake. The lost potential will never ever really be known. AMC thought they would be saving money but after the court trial and having to pay Mr. Frank Darabont $200,000,000 USD I think we all lost. (except Frank.....) There really is no way of knowing just how good or Great TWD could have been if the folks at AMC kept Frank Darabont at the helm and allowed him to do his stuff for the entire run of the series............... What a missed opportunity that is lost forever. When Scott Pimple took over as the show runner that was the beginning of the downfall..........(HE WAS SO BAD AT HIS JOB AMC FIRE HIS SORRY ASS AND REPLACE HIM WITH ANGELA KANG.......but the damage had already be done and there was no going back or recovery from his mistakes....) AMC to Pay Frank Darabont, CAA $200M in Settlement of ‘Walking Dead’ Profits Fight The deal, revealed Friday in an SEC filing, resolves all litigation and buys the TV showrunner and his agency out of most of their rights to the intellectual property from the franchise. The long-running legal battle over Frank Darabont’s profits from The Walking Dead has come to an end, with AMC Networks making a nine-figure payout to the former showrunner and his agency, CAA. Darabont first sued in 2013, and the battle eventually spawned a spinoff in 2018. He and CAA claim the network had used shady accounting to short them on profits. The fight largely examined the dealmaking behind AMC’s hit and centered on how to calculate its net profits. While other hit AMC shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad were produced by other studios, Walking Dead was the first series that AMC both produced and distributed. So this dispute served as a test case on profit sharing and vertical integration, an increasingly relevant issue as self-distributed content is prevalent in the streaming world.
Oh yes dude🔥🔥 can’t wait for all the season recaps !!
This is AWESOME! I cannot wait until the next one! I watch a lot of videos like this, and I love Koroto’s retrospective (thanks for bringing him up; that’s how I found him). But your videos are always leaps beyond anyone else! Thank you for your hard work on these!
Excellent video my man. I can't wait to see the upcoming season retrospectives. You've got yourself a new subscriber.
Incredible video dude. Can’t wait to see the rest
Great video and love the concept that your doing with each season per month per say. Can’t wait for the rest!
Loving the retrospective! Keep them coming!
Love how everybody forgets that Rick dropped a hard N bomb in season 1
Cancel him now!!!
In defense of T-Dog while explaining to Merle not to call people that.. yeah
@@TheDIZZLER. god no its hilarious
Southern cop. It makes sense lol
crazy i forgot about that when he bit that dudes neck open
It’s always a treat to be notified of your walking dead videos!
The Walking Dead introduced great characters later on, like Negan, but it really feels like every subsequent season is worse than the previous one. Thankfully, it started so strong.
Watching S1 in black and white was awesome
I remember thinking they were setting up Andrea & Rick to be together, & then loved when they got together in the comics cause it made me think of the early days of the show!
been subbed since 56k i love to see how far you come with twd content its such a good show and every video you find something new to talk about. Great concidince keep it up!
I know I’ve said this before on another video but I really enjoy your perspective of the show! I’m a day one walking dead fan and I’m really kind of the only person in my circle that watches it so I don’t have anyone to talk to about it. I’m about to binge watch all of these episodes while I do my spring cleaning. New subscriber 👏🏽👍🏽
It wasn't the first episode that hooked me, it was the second. I loved it.
Great job!! This is a nice throw back to some better times for me.
Incredible & capturing season with great story telling/acting. It felt like Im there with them
I already know this is gonna be a W video
Love the Videos and Analysis mste. Keep it up
i liked vatos, showed that even when things go wrong, at least early on, there could be intimidating groups that are at their core, good and looks can be deceiving . . . which in later seasons, groups that look inviting are often deceiving and at their cores, they are broken and evil and their good looks were deceiving.
I'm really looking forward to your retrospective on the series for each season
Nothing will ever beat the scene where Shane starts beating Ed, and then it cuts to everyone on the roof discovering Merle's hand. The music that plays during that is just awesome and has yet to be topped imo.
You always put out fantastic content. I would love to see you do some Lost recaps!
Got a like and subscribe, can’t wait till next month. I never really watched past season 8 so those will be interesting
Cant wait for the season 2 retrospective. Definitely my personal favorite.
keep up with these retrospectives
It has a great start to introduce the show and the scenery is beautiful
Shane was right and wrong. And that's what made him excellent. The problem was he was always likely to fold into unsympathetic mad man. And he did.
i love this channel so much, i wish i could subscribe twice
EACH MONTH?? can’t wait that long damn 😢
I stand by my comment on it turning into a soap opera with zombies, i also agree with you that it needed to grow and change. I love this show nothing like it before and i like plenty of the later episodes as well it just got to outta hand at times and as you said before the zombies became Obstacles less than threats and thats a natural evolution and didn't bother me. Btw I've been watching all you video analysis its good watching someone with the same love for the show even still.
Great work, Thank You Thrifty.
I thought this was an old video. And I was gonna be able to watch through all the retrospectives. I am just now watching the show for the very first time and just started season 8. I'm surprised people are still making videos on it
TWD is my fave show just finished watching s1 again. S2 here I come
Amen to that! My mom & I LOVE watching Shane beat Ed!
I love this idea for a yt series! You can make 23 episodes on this series so far. +2 if you do "world beyond" but nobody watched that, or maybe just CRM and Jadis stuff. When you finished the 2 main shows, there will probably be more episodes of the 4 spinoffs.
Season 8 August I can’t wait. I’m gonna love this monthly series.
I personally don’t think the walkers acting different is that jarring. The CDC episode plus later on with Milton’s experiments, it hints that early on when someone turns some of their old self is still there. Walkers being able to open doors, Jenny herself having some of her old memories, Ann not attacking Andrea at first and instead trying to just touch her., Walkers using tools like rocks to break things. It shows that early on the brain was still there but as time progresses and the body continues to decompose because they are dead they lose a lot of those older functions, not being able to run, not being able to try and climb things, open doors, explore. I remember in Season 2 there was a walker who walked into the RV and looked around. It leaned into the idea that the person they used to be was still in there and gets backed up by characters bringing it up in season 2 with Hershel and Season 3 with Milton
I actually disagree about the Vatos storyline improving if they were villains. The fact that they turn out to be nice people helps with Season 2. If they were awful raiders, then the moral dilemma in S2 about killing Randal wouldn't be as impactful, because the characters could point out that their group was hurt in the past. Not knowing if Randal is just a kid caught up in things or if he's a murderous scumbag is part of the tension for that slower character-driven season. Plus personally, I liked the subversion of the group of Mexican guys/cholos actually being the good guys who are taking care of the elderly. It really plays into how people of racial minorities look after their own and put great value in the elderly as part of their community to be cherished, instead of just being burdens that are put into retirement homes. The Vatos were just workers at that place, but they stepped up when the elderly were abandoned.
I wish the series maintained the level of quality season 1 had. What could’ve been…
The Walking Dead couldn’t have done it without Frank Darabont. If only he had stayed and AMC wasn’t greedy, the walking dead would have been on the same level as Breaking Bad.
fun fact the actor who plays starkiller was in the tank with rick
Where have I seen this video before....? Joking aside, great video, can't wait for the next few months.
Love how this video references the 'zombie genre' around about the time of 2010. Especially if you were a gamer at this time, there was just such a strong zombie theme running though pop culture then, and it lasted for a few years afterward.
Point of order: some in the first group called walkers "geeks", too, but I know what you mean. I think it should be appreciated, though, that they took the idea of different terms for walkers, and ran with it (sic)! Frank Darabont deserves so much credit IMHO for setting this up in such a way that the cast and the production team were all one family set on telling this story the best way they can. The first season, even in retrospect, deserves a 10/10, for me, because I have not seen any other series set so many storylines with so many hooks in such a short time frame. I agree with the majority of your appraisal, here, so I'm interested to see how this develops. I suspect we will cross swords a bit after S06! 😁
I can't wait for December when I can binge all the videos on each season in a playlist
Keep going with all seasons!
That first episode with Morgan saving Rick was so good. Best season in my opinion.
Yes!!!!!!! I love your walking dead videos !!!!!!
YES keep this going! Do Fear the walking dead so I can watch chronologically!
dude please keep doing this
Can’t wait for the next vid
one of the things that made it harder for me to want to watch the later seasons is that, there's too many people. I enjoy the more smaller, tight group because it makes it more interesting to me. If there's too many people to follow it gets tougher to care cause we don't sit with their stories long enough.
Season 1 Characters: Rick Morgan Duaine Glenn Andrea Amy Shane Lori Carl Morales Dale Jim Daryl Merle Jacqui T-Dog Carol Sophia Ed Guillermo Jenner
I do love this season. Personally I’d say the fifth season edges it out for me, but that’s really because it plays off of so many things from this season to show how much Rick has changed. Shane really comes back to haunt him when he arrives in Alexandria, and I can’t wait to hear you talk about all of that.
Good time watching this show as a kid , it was and still is something special .Any plans for Fear The Walking Dead videos ??
19:10 I'm pretty sure that the survivor camp referred to the Walkers as "geeks" before Rick arrived.
I'm pretty sure most of us know this, but Rick's group, which was supposed to happen in Season 2, went back to the the vatos gang but they were all dead. This was supposed to happen before the highway, I think. The whole deleted scene is on KZhead.
Best pilot I’ve seen