The TV Column

Evil bikers create new treachery on Dead opener

Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) ponders a heavily armed motorcycle gang’s roadblock on tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead. The second half of the season promises to be even more gripping.
Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) ponders a heavily armed motorcycle gang’s roadblock on tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead. The second half of the season promises to be even more gripping.

Silence those cellphones and lock the doors, the most thrilling drama on TV is about to begin.

The Walking Dead returns at 8 p.m. today to AMC with the second half of Season 6. I've seen an advance preview of the first of eight episodes (ominously titled "No Way Out") and it will have you screaming at the TV. Trust me on this -- it's a real nail-biter.

When last we saw our heroes on Nov. 29, they were scattered and holed up in the former haven of Alexandria. The walls had been breached when the church tower came crashing down, and hordes of walkers were lurching down the street.

Not only that, but Maggie (Lauren Cohan) had barely escaped a grisly death to scramble to the top of a shaky watch platform. All this while Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Enid (Katelyn Nacon) looked on helplessly from a tree outside the walls.

Rick (Andrew Lincoln) had a plan to smear everyone with walker guts (the disguise had worked before) and quietly shuffle their way to the armory where they could mount a defense.

But as the episode ended, Jessie's (Alexandra Breckenridge) psychologically damaged son, Sam (Major Dodson), had zoned out in the street and started calling, "Mom?"

No! Nothing will get you eaten quicker than sounding human among a horde of walkers.

That's where the episode ended, but there was more.

After the credits rolled, viewers got a cliffhanger teaser from tonight's episode. Daryl, Sasha and Abraham (Norman Reedus, Sonequa Martin-Green, Michael Cudlitz) are somewhere out there in a truck on their way back to Alexandria when they round a curve and encounter a roadblock of eight heavily armed, leather-clad bikers.

Longtime fans know well that the greatest danger on The Walking Dead does not come from the walkers. They're fairly predictable. It's the brutal Mad Max-ish human element of scofflaws and ne'er-do-wells who lurk beyond the walls who are the greatest threat.

There were Joe and the Claimers from Season 4, the cannibals of Terminus, the Governor and his colony at Woodbury and the Wolves gang that attacked Alexandria and brought down the steeple that opened the wall.

Now we encounter Negan's "Saviors" blocking the highway. (Negan will be played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, currently on The Good Wife.)

"Won'tcha come on out. Join us in the road," the head biker calls. "Step 2, hand over your weapons."

"Why should we," Daryl growls (see photo).

"Your property now belongs to Negan," the leader says with a smirk.

This is only the first of a half dozen seriously tense scenarios in this episode.

In an AMC interview, co-executive producer Greg Nicotero says, "It's a tremendously exciting juncture that we've come to on The Walking Dead, which is this crossroads. Our story's about to take a dramatic turn."

In the same interview, Reedus puts it more bluntly: "We don't all survive."

Fans will want to stay tuned for The Talking Dead at 9 p.m. Host Chris Hardwick will serve as our designated grief counselor as we seek catharsis and ponder the future.

I realize there are viewers who don't want to break the fourth wall, who avoid The Talking Dead so as to preserve the illusion of the drama. But I enjoy the behind-the-scenes features and the insights and interviews about the episode we just watched. Besides, Hardwick always welcomes the most recently deceased cast members so we can bid them a proper farewell and thank them for their service.

Finally, the last Walking Dead episode earned about 14 million viewers. The series has been TV's No. 1 show in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic for three years running. If there was any doubt, AMC long ago renewed the series for a seventh season.

Better Call Saul. AMC is on a roll. Not only is The Walking Dead must-see TV, but Season 2 of the marvelous Better Call Saul premieres at 9 p.m. Monday. There will be 10 episodes.

The series may not have the same ratings (Season 1 averaged 5.9 million viewers), but it is outstanding drama in its own right -- drama with a healthy dose of humor.

The series, a prequel to the incomparable Breaking Bad, follows the adventures of struggling lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) as he bounces from one moral dilemma to another while trying to escape the shadow of his older brother Chuck (Michael McKean) and make a name for himself in the legal community.

Season 1 ended with Jimmy (the future Saul Goodman) facing a dilemma. AMC asks, "Will he take the straight and narrow path with a safe corporate job or will he fall back into his con-artist ways?"

Breaking Bad fans know the answer, but it'll be fun watching it unfold.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 02/14/2016

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