The Walking Dead: Season Four Premiere Non-Spoiler Review

AMC’s Image Comics adaptation The Walking Dead comes into its fourth season in about two weeks with a lot of baggage.There’s the baggage of being TV’s highest-rated series last year. There’s the baggage of being the first “milestone” episode of a major show on AMC since the end of Breaking Bad last week. There’s the baggage of dozens of new characters and a finale that, let’s be honest, didn’t thrill the audience to its core last year.And there’s a total lack of reasonable expectations on the part of the audience going in. Which version of The Walking Dead will we see? Will it be the pensive, character-driven version that Frank Darabont gave us in season one (and left us with in season two) or the frantic, plot-driven version that Glen Mazzara transformed it into beginning about midway through season two and into last year? Since neither of those guys are around anymore, it’s tough to gauge.