The reviews are uniformly positive, and nearly all of them are reviews of the pilot rather than the run. Most critics agree that Frank Darabont’s 90-minute opener looks and moves like a film rather than an episode of television, and that this is what sets it apart from the usual zombie fare. The praise clusters on the direction, the effects and the decision to build dread slowly, with Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes and Lennie James singled out as the performances that carry it.
The reservations are mild and the spread is narrow. Several critics note that the series presses familiar genre buttons and that it is grisly enough to put off the squeamish. Empire, the only publication reviewing beyond the first episode, finds that later instalments do not match the pilot and that the slow pace frustrates as often as it holds attention. Nobody dislikes it; the question is whether the opener’s promise is kept.