So, has the second season of The Walking Dead been living up to expectations after the excellent first season? Particularly now that it is 6 episodes into said second season (the same number of episodes the first season had in total)?

Not only has it lived up to expectations, it has surpassed them. And it has done so by taking the foot off the gas pedal, so to speak. The most recent couple episodes have been particularly excellent, and they have been almost entirely devoted to character development, with pretty sparse action material. This series is the real deal. Destined to be one of the best of its years on the air. At this point, I feel like it’s safe to say that The Walking Dead shares the top position with Community for my favorite in-production series. As always, I’ll stipulate the qualification of them being an American series – so that I don’t have to consider where Doctor Who would have to fit. And they don’t come as different from each other as Community and The Walking Dead.

If you haven’t checked out the show yet, by all means, do so. It’s not just “a zombie show.” It is FAR more than that. This is as good as dramas come. In as much as Battlestar Galactica is more than a sci-fi show, or Lost is more than a, uh, whatever-the-heck-genre-it-belongs-to show. These are just environments and frameworks in which to set fantastic characters.

I’ve been temped to read the graphic novel series, but given how much they seem to base the series on it I’ve avoided doing so to stay spoiler free. I will say that one of the more initially unassuming characters is turning into one of my favorites – the character of Glenn, played by Steven Yeun. I’m also convinced that Laurie Holden’s character is going to end up as another of my favorites. I’ve been a fan of her work previous to this series, and her role has all the earmarks of awesomeness.