Finally seen it and yes, it's fantastic. Surprised at the few departures from the comic, but they were all positive. As I said earlier I'm not a big fan of the comic as Kirkland's writing is dreadful most of the time and his pacing is utter shit, but they really built on his structure for this and I got a real 'Western' vibe off a lot of the scenes. Loved the way they established the tone for the show in the first scene - no music or fancy camera moves, just shoot a little girl in the face. Easily the best pilot since Lost (or maybe Boardwalk Empire?), dying to see the next one right now as that was brilliant cliffhanger. Pleased to see it got very impressive ratings so a second series is all but assured.
I really wish Lenny James was playing Tyrese instead, the guy is a class act and it's a shame we won't see more of him. Loads of great moments and some of them were really powerful, the half zombie reaching up at Rick was surprisingly poignant, and the rest of the emotional moments, like Lenny James' last scene were really well handled.
The whole last ten minutes in the city were just amazing, when he turned the corner into a huge crowd of zombies I think I actually said, "oh fuck" out loud, then the tank scene, I don't think I've ever been so worried about a protagonist who is obviously going to survive. The moment where he noticed the hatch was brilliantly paced and shot.
I still get irrationally wound up by CGI blood squibs though, it just doesn't work, and this was no exception. I hope the rather lame love triangle thing plays itself out as quickly in the comics as well. But apart from that it was perfect.
And the horse was ok, right?