From A to Zombie: Everything you need to know about The Walking Dead

Brought to you by Sky Box Sets.

“You kill or you die. Or you die and you kill.”

If you’re not watching The Walking Dead, you’re probably sick of listening to your mates talking about the show. But there's a reason they can't shut up about it. It’s one of the best shows on TV right now and it shows no sign of losing its touch with the second half of the seventh season returning on 13 February. If anything, it just keeps getting better. Fans recently went into a frenzy over the events of the mid-season cliffhanger. We don’t know about you but that’s the kind of show we want to watch. Every episode from the previous six and a half seasons are now available on Sky Box Sets so you can enjoy a good binge and catch up on all the action from the very start. It's perfect if you want to see what all the fuss is about or to recap on older seasons! Here’s everything you need to know about The Walking Dead and why you should get on board.

It’s not just a zombie show

The whole zombie apocalypse may be the first thing you notice but there’s much more to the show than that. What makes it so compelling is its portrayal of people trying to survive while their world collapses around them. Death waits around every corner. The hordes of undead might focus the mind but the biggest threat to our heroes can often be the other survivors. This is a dog-eat-dog reality, where trust only extends to the next meal and that’s what makes the show so intriguing. Sure you get zombies but you also get drama, love triangles, morality tales and personality crises. It’s a survival story and we all love survivor stories. It also makes you wonder how you would fare in a similar situation.

Who is Rick Grimes?

The show follows Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), a police officer who wakes up from a coma to discover that zombies have taken over the world. Now that’s what you call a real mixed bag of a day. The show captures Rick’s evolution from a law-abiding family man to a single-minded survivalist. The jury’s out on whether he’s technically a hero but he knows a thing or two about unleashing hell when someone gets in his way!

The characters

People have different ways of dealing with a zombie apocalypse so the characters on the show are a complex and compelling bunch. They’re constantly evolving to deal with their new reality, doing their best to remember who they used to be, and trying not to get shafted by their fellow survivors. These are strong characters who grow and develop over time and you really start to care about what happens to them. This makes it even worse when your favourite character inevitably gets beaten to a pulp by a bad guy or eaten by the undead. Noooooo!!!

The villains

This is a world when humanity is reverting to its base instincts and civilisation is slowly breaking down. Many of the “heroes” in The Walking Dead are morally bankrupt so you can imagine how unhinged the villains are! The bad guys in the show are darker than a black pearl that’s been dipped in a tar pit during a total solar eclipse. Pretty dark, in other words. Still, great villains make for great drama so it ultimately makes for some brutal but brilliant storylines.

Twists and turns

The Walking Dead is renowned for producing tense cliffhangers, dramatic twists and some serious shocks. It also kills off major characters without missing a beat so no one is safe. This is the televisual equivalent of shock and awe. It’s got that amazing ability to destroy your night with its latest development and to keep you coming back for more. “So you killed my favourite character. Then you made me endure an hour of tension and misery before killing off my new favourite character last week? Well, now I’m going to watch this week’s episode. That’ll show you!” So why not find out what you're missing by checking out the previous seasons on Sky Box Sets? The Walking Dead is available now on Sky Box Sets so there's still time to catch up before watching the second half of Season 7, which lands exclusively on Sky Atlantic on 13 February. With over 350 box sets to choose from, Sky Box Sets have something for everyone.    Brought to you by Sky Box Sets.