The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Review

The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray ReviewThe second season of AMC’s The Walking Dead is a tale of dualities. Rabid fans of the enormously successful serialized zombie apocalypse drama almost began an Internet apocalypse of their own when news broke that creator and showrunner Frank Darabont was fired about midway through production on the season. The new showrunner, Glen Mazzara, dramatically changed the tempo and pace after taking over, creating what is – in effect – two different seasons compacted into one with the break coming almost right at the midpoint. More than one character ends the season in a completely different mental state of mind than they began.

Season 2 picks up shortly after the CDC blew up in the Season 1 finale with Rick, Shane and their group of survivors headed away from Atlanta and into the countryside. They come upon a traffic jam of abandoned cars and then, quite foolishly and unbelievably, are caught off guard by a massive herd of zombies that cause young Sophia to run off into the woods and become lost.


Sophia’s disappearance was written uniquely for the show and not taken from Robert Kirkman’s inspirational comic series of the same name. That’s why it’s somewhat bizarre that the search for Sophia, which leads the group to take up shelter at Hershel’s Farm, drags on for half the season.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Blu-ray Review

The payoff of finding Sophia is an extraordinary moment and one of the best of the series. To get there, Darabont guides his cast through a series of slow dramatic beats that almost remove zombies and fear entirely from the equation. Hershel’s Farm feels like an oasis in the desert, as it should, and zombie sightings and confrontations take a backseat to confessions from the heart and squabbles amongst friends and housemates. Soap operas would be jealous of the amount of talking that transpires.

Characters do evolve during this downtime, as painfully slow as these first episodes are to endure. Carl becomes more man than boy after experiencing something his father had firsthand. Andrea sheds her suicidal tendencies and learns to accept her predicament and direct her fate on her terms. Dale steps forward as a voice of reason, while Shane increasingly becomes more psychotic after an early incident with a member of Hershel’s group leaves a man dead. Daryl starts to feel like he belongs. And Glenn finds love and a reason to live.

Not everyone gets the love their fans might feel they deserve. T-Dog’s use in Season 2 is a hair above cameos appearances. Any upgrade in his role in Season 3 might as well be considered a prelude to death. Carol is allowed to grieve for her missing daughter and not much else. Lori only seems to be around to make extremely poor decisions or set off the two men fighting for her affections. The handling of Hershel’s various family members and entourage is uneven at best.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Blu-ray Review

These character evolutions carry forward into the second half where Mazzara’s influence is immediately felt. What was once maybe one zombie attack or sighting per episode turns into a waving of the green flag after half a season of running under a yellow caution flag. Unexpected deaths occur, Shane and Rick clash like never before, and the once idyllic setting becomes an absolute hell on earth.

After six brisk Season 1 episodes set in multiple unique locations and never feeling pinned down, Season 2 spends its entirety at a serene and frankly boring farm in the middle of nowhere. In hindsight Season 2 was a necessary step into Season 3, but it will likely be remembered as the weak link. You know what? Despite its flaws, The Walking Dead: Season 2 is still better than at least 95 percent of the other dramas out there, and you won’t find more compelling or frighteningly realistic zombie attacks anywhere else.

High-Def Presentation

Unlike most productions nowadays, The Walking Dead was shot on film and not digitally. There’s grain just like you see when taking a trip down to the local multiplex. Like much of the show’s camera direction, The Walking Dead: Season 2 often feels more like a feature film than its television-based counterparts.

I watched every episode of The Walking Dead: Season 2 as it aired on AMC and the results were average at best. The use of film combined with compression from the satellite signal made for a somewhat choppy experience. I watched knowing it would clean up on Blu-ray in glorious 1.78:1 1080p video, and sure enough it does.

What’s great about The Walking Dead: Season 2 Blu-ray transfer is you still get that film-like look and feel without the over-the-air compression issues. Nothing on the show will knock your socks off visually, nor does it need to. All of Greg Nicotero’s wonderful visual effects work on the zombies and gore looks just as real with the increased clarity in 1080p. Nothing ever jumps out as problematic.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Blu-ray Review

Though a lot of The Walking Dead: Season 2 takes place at Hershel’s farm, there’s still a good bit of exploration and action in the woods. When you’re in the woods there are all kinds of directional effects; from branches and leaves moving in the wind, to critters and wildlife living their lives, to zombies on the hunt.

Few television shows really demand a surround sound mix, much less one in 7.1 channels. Yet Anchor Bay and AMC have mixed The Walking Dead: Season 2 for Blu-ray in 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. The result sounds better than seeing eight discrete channels printed on the package. Those surrounds get to put to use, especially during any zombie scene or treks into the woods. And the bass reaches levels some feature films would be jealous of. I suppose if The Walking Dead: Season 2 was shot to look like a film then it should sound like one, too.

Beyond the Feature

The guts of The Walking Dead: Season 2 bonus features are a series of 11 featurettes that when combined make for a fairly robust documentary on the making of Season 2. All-in-all Anchor Bay and AMC have come through with an above average offering of supplements for a television home video release

  • All the Guts Inside (5:34) – A closer look at the zombie autopsy scene where Daryl and Rick tear into a recently neutralized zombie to see if Sophia is inside. It’s always weird to see an extra in full zombie makeup start talking normally, and disgusting to see the fake guts up close and personal.
  • Live or Let Die (6:51) – The Walking Dead takes some deviations from the comic book in terms of who dies and when they die. This featurette explores the big deaths that differ from their comic counterpart.
  • The Meat of the Music (7:54) – Sitting in on recording sessions with Bear McCreary with interview snippets strewn throughout.
  • Fire on Set(6:10) – A closer look at the selection of Hershel’s farm, construction and deconstruction of the barn that plays a pivotal role in the season.
  • The Ink is Alive (9:06) – Robert Kirkman admits he’s the first one in the writer’s room to suggest changes to the comic that he wrote. He discusses the synergy between the comic and the series, and why changes have to be made from the comic book translation to the big screen.
  • The Sound of the Effects (4:32) – The title is a play on the words but the substance is straightforward. See how the sounds from the show have been brought to life.
  • In the Dead Water (5:05) – The zombie in the well was one of the more memorable scenes from Season 2, broken down in this featurette.
  • You Could Make a Killing (6:20) – Greg Nicotero is the man on The Walking Dead in terms of his overall responsibilities. In Season 2, he directs his first episode and gets his hands dirtier than just playing with zombie guts.
  • She Will Fight (5:40) – Andrea takes huge strides in Season 2 toward becoming less suicidal and more warrior. Watch this journey summed up in 5 minutes.
  • The Cast on Season 2 (4:50) – Cast interviews pumping up Season 2. As self-congratulatory as you think it would be.
  • Extras Wardrobe (2:48) – A look a clothes, hence this is the shortest featurette.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Blu-ray Review

Also included are six Webisodes; commentaries on episodes 1, 7, 8, 11 and 13; and eight Deleted Scenes (29:14) with optional commentary by Glen Mazzara, the latter of which is better experienced not knowing what they include. All I will say is there are all-new scenes worth watching and not just a few extra lines from scenes that appeared in the broadcast version. Some of these scenes had a lot of effects work put into them, though it’s easy to see why all didn’t make the final cut.

Uneven pacing plagues the second season of AMC’s The Walking Dead. There’s no getting around it. Beyond that and some uneven character development, these 13 episodes contain some great moments and some truly stellar and sometimes unexpected character evolutions. It gets better as it progresses and Sophia’s disappearance is solved, which is a heck of a lot better than tailing off. As far as gritty zombie entertainment goes, the runner-up to The Walking Dead is a distant second.

– Dan Bradley

Shop for The Walking Dead: Season 2 on Blu-ray for a discounted price at Amazon.com (August 28, 2012 release date).

The Walking Dead Season 2 Blu-ray Review

TheHDRoom may be paid a small commission for any services or products ordered through select links on this page.

TheHDRoom