'The Walking Dead' Season 6 Episode 1 review: ‘First Time Again’

Coming off the back of a tepid opening season for spin-off Fear the Walking Dead, the original show’s Season 6 opener was an invigorating blast of large-scale spectacle and genuine substance.

The most intriguing addition to this premiere was the stylistic tic of a parallel structure that flipped between present day scenes in colour and black-and-white flashbacks. Undoubtedly, it’s a bit of a gimmick primarily created to give an obvious indication of which scenes are flashbacks, but it did provide a welcome, intriguing touch of visual innovation.

Likewise, the parallel structure really worked to this premiere’s effect, keeping the pace moving even during the more languid flashbacks due to the deft switching between the spectacle of the massive walker herd and the more thoughtful character material in the flashbacks.

It’s the walkers that many will remember from this episode, though, and the enormous herd depicted really is a fantastic achievement from the production staff, providing a sense of enormous scale, framing the walkers as a terrifying, unitary force of nature in a way Fear the Walking Dead only sporadically accomplished.

Despite the visceral thrills of the massive spectacle, however, the colour scenes began to flag towards the end as ‘First Time Again’ began to repeat the same visuals over and over to the point of slight boredom. A herd is undoubtedly a really exciting prospect, but the choice to consistently frame it through a hazy side-on view or through a car windshield slightly dulled the impact of what was still a hugely impressive accomplishment.

Back in the flashbacks, The Walking Dead capitalised impressively on the tantalising prospect of Rick and Morgan meeting each other again under very different circumstances. What ‘First Time Again’ provided was merely the foundation for what will presumably be a deep exploration of their complicated friendship this season, but the pair’s edgy reunion was consistently compelling to watch as their now notably disparate ideologies subtly clashed.

Thankfully, The Walking Dead seems to be avoiding the simplistic ‘Rick vs Morgan’ conflict it presented in the trailers – and the concept of Morgan as the conscience that could pull Rick back from his continuous slide into becoming something of a megalomaniac is far more interesting and nuanced.

The arc of an Alexandrian coup against Rick may have taken up an entire volume of the comics here, but ‘First Time Again’ introduced and wrapped this coup storyline up within minutes.

It’s a strong distillation of that storyline, keeping the impressive and meaningful set-piece moment where Rick brutally threatens Carter (Ethan Embry makes a strong impression here, and it’s a real shame that this marks his first and last appearance) and displays the growing streak of brutality within the newly minted quasi-leader of Alexandria, but cutting away the unnecessary fat from that storyline to create a streamlined but still interesting portrayal of simmering social tensions in the Safe Zone.

‘First Time Again’ also provided a doozy of a cliffhanger as the massive walker herd was diverted by a loud horn coming from within Alexandria.

It’s a fantastic, hugely mysterious conclusion that cleverly pulls back to reveal the walker plan as a mere prelude to the carnage that’s undoubtedly on the way. Just who attracted the walkers? It’s worth noting that the Wolves, who were set up to be a major villain at the end of last season, were nowhere to be seen during the walker plan… could they already have attacked Alexandria?