Season 1 wasn't written or acted any better than other seasons, it just had the benefit of being a new show at the time and there was no choice but to move things forward. If they made every season like Season 1, this show would be another Z Nation. It was a great season for it's purpose of introducing the show, but you can't expect longevity out of that.

 

I personally like Season 1 and love Darabont, although I will concede the title of best showrunner to Gimple, but only because he's actually had a chance to...Y'know, run the show. Darabont got about 6 episodes to figure out what he even wanted to do with the show, and then just as he started to understand the reigns, he got booted out. Seasons 4 & 5 have been the show's best seasons to me, because I like the way Gimple tells stories, but man. All it takes is one look at Darabont's plans for the original Season 2 premiere and his ideas for the episode that explained the origins of the tank walker in the pilot to know what type of man we were dealing with.

An episode with early apocalypse cameos that basically amounts to "Black Hawk Down" with zombies? We'd have a totally different show right now on our hands if Darabont was still here, and I'm willing to bet that Darabont's more ambitious scale and wider sense of scope would've resulted in a better show, or at least a better second and third season. I feel like he gets a bad rap sometimes because even though he had to start from scratch and basically set the tone for the whole show, he had a mixed first season because, well, it was the first season. Those are almost never good. And I think WD's first season still holds up relatively well, all things considered.

 

The most memorable part of season 1 for me is from Vatos, when Daryl began to cooperate with both Glenn and Rick.

 

I really need to go back and watch Season 1 again. As I recall there were some pretty cool episodes. I wonder if AMC will do a "Dead White and Blue" July 4th marathon like they have done in the past?

 

It's not Scott's fault. It's AMC's fault. This a scheme for people to just watch 701. It's how to make money in the business