The 'poignant and gory' Walking Dead premiere

AMC's hit zombie apocalypse drama launched its second season Sunday night. Will season two be as successful as the first?

Season two of "The Walking Dead"
(Image credit: Gene Page and Greg Nicotero, TWD Productions LLC)

AMC launched the second season of its ratings juggernaut, The Walking Dead, Sunday night, continuing its steady rotation of critically-acclaimed dramas (Mad Men, Breaking Bad). Though its first season was limited to just six episodes, Dead, a Lord of the Flies-like account of a band of survivors weathering a zombie apocalypse, became a water-cooler staple thanks to its riveting attack sequences, boundary-pushing gore, and insights into human nature. Ten months after the last episode of Walking Dead aired, season two picks up right where the action left off. The caravan of survivors is fleeing zombie-ridden Atlanta for safety at Fort Benning, and the action, critics say, is "simple, poignant, and gory." Will the show's sophomore season further raise expectations?

Yes. The show is better than ever: This season is just as addicting, says Hank Steuver at The Washington Post, and yet "somehow sleeker and better paced." The characters are more developed, making the show "less predictable and more frightening." A highway-side zombie attack in the premiere is "thrillingly scary," and a sequence during which a child goes missing is "murder on your stress level." The end result is a series that has found "the right mix of believable terror and goopy gross-out" — making for a fantastic evening of television.

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