Frank Darabont WALKING From DEAD Running

After an off-season of turmoil and trouble, AMC TV's hit The Walking Dead appeared to be back on track, with the cable channel teasing Season 2 and hitting Comic-Con last weekend to promote it, with creative force Frank Darabont front and center. Now comes word from Deadline that Darabont is out, at least from his position as showrunner.

Talks are reportedly ongoing about Darabont staying on in some capacity, even as the show is still in production, with its Season 2 premiere set for October 16. Hitfix reports that Darabont "had trouble adjusting to the pace of a weekly TV series after spending most of his career making movies."

After a promising first episode, written and directed by Darabont, Season 1 quickly went downhill, offering little beyond the novelty of zombies on a weekly television series, but it was an instant ratings smash for AMC, which very quickly renewed the show. Season 2 will be 13 episodes in length, more than doubling the 6 episodes of Season 1. Though I don't know how many episodes are completed so far, it may be that AMC saw that the show was falling behind schedule and decided to stop the bleeding by bringing in a TV veteran to get the episodes done on time. 

The more optimistic may see light at the end of a tunnel, but I'm forecasting that the light is a runaway train and Season 2 may be a disaster. Perhaps a new showrunner will get the show on track, but if all the same aggravating characters return, making the same stupid choices, I'm not sure where the show can go, unless there's a change in creative direction.

And are we that desperate to see zombies on TV, anyway? Aren't there any better alternatives for horror fans?