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Of course, Darabont’s fingerprints are still all over The Walking Dead, but the first two episodes are a reminder that the initial mix, the first shot of freshness that The Walking Dead had in it, remains. And that winning combination from Season 1 is a foundation that just may be too firmly established for anyone to muck up. What that means is that nobody should be looking for failure in Season 2. They should shake off the worries that popped up between seasons and off camera and just focus on the series. In Season 1, the zombie apocalypse was at hand – the series began with Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) shot, then waking up in the hospital as seemingly one of the last people standing in rural King County, Georgia. He led a rag-tag group of survivors on a search for – what? That was always a key mystery at the start. Mere survival? Friends and family? Answers to how it all happened? An understanding that might ground the survivors somehow – such as knowing how widespread the events were? Of if there was a cure for whatever toxin turned people into zombies? Or if there was a concerted government response? STORY: 'The Walking Dead' Coming Exclusively to Netflix Under Multi-Year Streaming Deal That the answers to those questions were often murky was part of the allure. Because all of those questions and concerns had hope as a foundation. People’s will to survive, to believe things were going to get better, was a core of the show. By the sixth episode – the Season 1 finale – the Center for Disease Control was destroyed and so was hope. In Season 2, the early themes are, not surprisingly, hopelessness and doubt. That’s human nature – and thus real. Mixed in is an exploration of faith – one of those new twists that have broadened the scope of the series. Rick is still in charge. But his partner from the Sheriff’s department, Shane (Jon Bernthal), is feeling like a third wheel. In Season 1, he thought Rick had died from a zombie invasion at the hospital where he was recovering and subsequently started up a relationship with Rick’s wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and mentored Rick’s son, Carl (Chandler Riggs). Rick’s reappearance has left Shane feeling like he might be better off on his own, a feeling that also crops up in Andrea (Laurie Holden), still recovering from losing her sister to the zombies and hoping to die in peace at the CDC, before Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) stepped in to save her life. One of the ideas inherent in pack-survival is how to keep everybody together and even if doing so is a good idea. It’s natural to the storytelling, then, to have Shane and Andrea contemplating leaving. VIDEO: 'The Walking Dead' Season 2 Will 'Blow Your Face Off' Also feeling antsy is T-Dog (Robert Singleton) who tries to convince Dale to leave as well. “Why are we on the side of the road like live bait?” he says at one point. Feeling antsy and vulnerable is a key underlying element to The Walking Dead, because the group of human stragglers begins to run into ever larger packs of zombies. That feeling of being outnumbered, of struggling with futility, is ever-present. So are the requisite chills and pulse-raising moments (the series is particularly good at shocking the viewer without always illustrating it – a blood soaked and splattered baby seat, for instance). Join discussion...

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