Latest Walking Dead Promo Stitches Together Intense Bits Of Action And Drama

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

If you feel like you’ve already seen this latest promo for season four of AMC’s hit horror drama The Walking Dead, it’s because you have. Sort of. Over the course of the last few months the network has taken to hyping up the October 13—that’s a Sunday if you’re wondering—return of the ratings juggernaut by releasing quick, ten or twelve second snippets of intense action and high drama. What this new video does in large part is stitch these fragments together while throwing in just enough new footage to keep you interested.

As troubled as my relationship has been to The Walking Dead over the years, even I have to admit that AMC has done one hell of a job pumping up the new season. Starting with that fantastic trailer they unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con back in July, they’ve unleashed a steady stream of intriguing clips, casting news that hints at the future direction of the show, and cryptic hints at impending threats. And the cast and crew are all saying the right things, the things you want to hear them say to indicate that the show is on the right track. At the very least they’ve managed to instill hope that maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a consistently solid season instead of bouncing from great to absolute garbage week to week.

One of the things I’m super curious to see in season four is this new, tougher version of Carol (Melissa McBride). Over the course of three seasons, she’s taken more crap than almost any other character. She’s been beaten and belittled by her husband, had her daughter wander off and get zombified, and been locked in a closet, left for dead, among other things. The Walking Dead has basically rained shit on her for three straight years, so it’ll be nice to see her grow a spine and stand up for herself. We’ve seen peeks and glimpses of this already, but we get a little bit more here. It is a surreal experience to see Carol, of all people, tell someone else they need to be strong. Then again, if she can stand up, so can anyone. I wonder if this has anything to do with her awkward, burgeoning relationship with Daryl (Norman Reedus).

Like I said, there’s not a ton of new information here. This video reiterates what we already know. Things have been going good for a while and everyone feels safe and almost normal, but the situation takes a turn for the worse. As usual, there’s more ominous “we’re being attacked” rhetoric, as well as playing the “everything we tried to keep out got in” angle. There are some looks at new additions, like Lawrence Gilliard Jr.’s Bob Stookey, and, of course, more than a couple flesh-hungry zombies.

We won’t know if The Walking Dead will actually live up to the potential they’ve shown recently for a few more weeks. If nothing else, they’ve created an uncanny level of hope in my otherwise pessimistic heart.