It’s simply the zombie apocalypse.
The series takes a concept that we see so often in movies and introduces more emotionally complex ideas.
Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is a police officer that wakes up in a hospital bed in the midst of the zombie takeover. Upon awakening, Rick goes on the lookout for his wife and son, which he eventually finds along with a large number of other people.
Together they form a rag-tag group of survivalists, facing the zombies every which way. But zombies aren’t the only things the group has to worry about. Throughout the show, the group with Rick at the helm, encounter various obstacles that not only include zombies, but the differing views of other people outside the group.
Many members of the group die along the way as more are added. In the end, “The Walking Dead” is a story of a group’s strife to find someplace safe from the zombie dangers, and try to figure out how to live humanly in a zombie-filled world.