The Walking Dead” Episode 4”

• AMC
• Hunting the wily Atlanta hipster, with your guides Officer Rick and Klansman Jr

This week, the world of The Walking Dead gets a bit fleshed out (so to speak!), going a smidge deeper into the lives of some of our principles—most notably Jim, the Tall One, and Andrea, the One with the Sister—as well as introducing us to the Real Refugees of Atlanta. It also continues to explore ideas of leadership and family, in particular the role of the father, a theme that was especially prominent on Lost, but which gets lots of play on TV dramas in general (someone on the nets recently said, in reference to Mad Men, that it seems healthy father figures do not a TV scriptwriter make).

We also get some horrific zombie action, a big downer of an ending, and a subtle hint of the supernatural at work—a touch that may owe more to Stephen King than Robert Kirkman (like I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’ve not read the graphic novels), but that suits me just fine: showrunner Frank Darabount, who adapted The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, knows his Stephen King better than just about anybody (including, arguably, King himself).