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AMC's 'The Walking Dead' exceeds first season, some thoughts, preview

By April MacIntyre Oct 14, 2011, 16:38 GMT

The series is even more frightening this second season than the first, and that is a credit to the writers and Greg Nicotero\'s amazing makeup effects crew.

On Sunday (Oct. 16), "The Walking Dead" returns to AMC with a 90-minute season premiere.

The series is even more frightening this second season than the first, and that is a credit to the writers and Greg Nicotero's amazing makeup effects crew.

'The Walking Dead' artfully blends psychological tension with the supernatural action, and takes the story deeper, giving this excellent cast plenty of room to flex their thespian muscles.

Notably, Norman Reedus, Andrew Lincoln and Jon Bernthal are the alpha male trinity that lead the survivors, each with their own agenda. The beauty of this series is the intelligence in the writing, the psychological sparring and the adrenalized action that each castmember faces. It is smart gore, high brow horror, and reveals the best and the worst in humanity when life is on the line. Zombies, though well turned out by Greg Nicotero and crew, are incidental.

Genre bending, "'The Walking Dead' is an example of when horror employs the best in dramatic character development, giving as much heft to the story as visual eye candy for the gore freaks.

A great popcorn thriller for smart people.  It is one of the best series on the air for this reason.

In a new sneak peek below, Andrea (Laurie Holden) chews out Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) -- who saved her life in the season 1 finale when he prevented her from a suicide attempt by sitting in an exploding Atlanta CDC headquarters.

"The Walking Dead" premieres Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. For me, this AMC effort is in the calibre of "Breaking Bad," "Sons of Anarchy" and "Homeland."

A no miss series.