The Walking Dead is Trying to Fix a Common Complaint

Over the years, The Walking Dead has seen a large a portion of its scenes take place a night. Whether those scenes are in the woods or at the Hilltop, the dark setting sometimes proves to be a challenge for the filmmakers bringing the apocalypse to life an AMC. As a result, viewers are sometimes found complaining about not being able to see the action taking place on their TV screens. It’s an issue Game of Thrones notably ran into with their Battle of Winterfell sequence in its final season. As the conversation about scenes being too dark for TV becomes more common, The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang admits it is something the team is aware of and is working to combat.

“We do consider darkness when we go through lighting on set or the final color process on the episode before it airs,” Kang told Insider. “Our [director of photography] conducted camera tests on the caves and our post production team (in conjunction with the DP) created test looks for the final color/darkness levels. I reviewed both and hope/believe we came to a good balance of darkness and visibility.”

Sunday night’s Episode 10×09 (Squeeze) was big on the dark scenes as much of the episode took place inside of a cave. For the most part, the episode was easy to follow and well lit to create the treacherous setting – unlike a battle at the Hilltop back in the show’s eighth season which was prior to Kang’s tenure as showrunner. “We have received occasional complaints throughout the years that certain scenes are too dark for some people, but I swear we’re not trying to make anything too dark to enjoy,” Kang ultimately concluded.

Impressively, the team behind Sunday’s episode managed to make some sequences look as though they were lit only by a match. This should take fans back to the show’s very first episode where Rick Grimes was navigating the hospital in which he woke up and found himself using a match to get through a stairwell before finding daylight outside.

Do you think The Walking Dead is doing a good job at lighting its darker scenes now? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter!

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC.