TV REVIEW The Walking Dead 1.2 "Guts"

None

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

In which Rick makes some very unconventional fashion choices... WARNING: CONTAINS DETAILED SPOILERS

Writer: Frank Darabont
Director:
Michelle MacLaren

THE ONE WHERE Rick, trapped in Atlanta, teams up with a group of scavengers. Together they devise a plan to escape, which involves wearing coats smeared with zombie guts…

VERDICT Tense and bleakly funny, with some satisfyingly gory axe-to-head action and a punch-the-air climax, this is another terrific episode. Although it has to be said that there’s something a little ludicrous about the subplot which gives it its name. As our heroes start lurching down the street, doing their best zombie impersonations, it’s hard not to think of Shaun Of The Dead .

Still, it’s clearly meant to be humorous - albeit comedy of the blackest form. In particular, the moment after Rick’s moving eulogy to the stranger they’ve just chopped up with an axe, where someone points out that he was carrying an organ donor card elicits a sick snicker.

Even this delightfully edgy fare is topped by the introduction of Dixon (the superb Michael Rooker), an unapologetic racist with a line in snarled put-downs – kinda like Sawyer from Lost , if he’d been a white supremacist asshole. He’s a fascinating character that we could really grow to love… to hate.

A SUGGESTION If zombie guts are such an effective camouflage and the only problem is rain washing them off, why not move somewhere sunny, like California? It’d be worth a bit of stink to be able to walk around in the streets safely, surely?

BEST LINE Rick: “All I am any more is a man looking for his wife and son. And anyone who gets in the way of that is gonna lose.”

Ian Berriman

More info

Available platformsTV
Less
Deputy Editor, SFX

Ian Berriman has been working for SFX – the world's leading sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine – since March 2002. He also writes for Total Film, Electronic Sound and Retro Pop; other publications he's contributed to include Horrorville, When Saturday Comes and What DVD. A life-long Doctor Who fan, he's also a supporter of Hull City, and live-tweets along to BBC Four's Top Of The Pops repeats from his @TOTPFacts account.