Review

Having been cornered in a storage lockup unit by three zombies Chase must be relieved when an unseen gunman shots them in the head in time honoured fashion. He's less relieved when the gunman orders him to show his hands and come out slowly. Turns out B.J is the gunman and he's last employee of the storage facility hanging around, he also doesn't want company. He orders Chase out of the building and isn't about to give him any leeway in vacating.

Chase is able to convince B.J to allow him to stay by promising to fix the generators to increase power in the building. B.J takes him on a short tour and points Chase to a lockup unit where he can get a change of clothes. The unit was formerly rented to a police officer. While changing Chase hears loud bangs that aren't being caused by B.J, either someone or something is behind the closed door to unit 326.

Episode two starts off immediately after events in the first episode and pretty much sets Chase up inside the facility with only B.J apparently for company. And that's about it for the episode besides throwing a mystery at us to ensure we're back for episode three. With only twenty odd minutes total running time Cold Storage no doubt has a twist waiting till the fourth and final episode but at the moment I've got no idea where that's going to come from.

Nice touch to have the contents of the unit Chase investigates for clothes rented by a major character in the television series. Maybe slightly too long in the execution and a tad twee for mine but otherwise solid tie in to ensure we know we're in the same world.

With a third webisode series announced and going online, AMC look to be making this a regular feature.

While Keys to the Kingdom moved things along, introducing B.J and ensuring we know the rules have changed, there wasn't a hell of a lot to get excited about. There's zero in the zombie attack stakes, besides the opening few seconds that we already saw in the first episode, and to be honest this episode felt like it was a bridging exercise to the second half of the webisode series. I would have liked a bit more meat on the bone, but to be fair the situation is set up, dudes trapped in a storage facility by zombies, and now we're ready for the punch line that is headed our way. I'm assuming B.J has closed and locked the door Chase used to get into the facility here.

Director Greg Nicotero has the episode working for him with attention to the exact right things without being sidetracked. The episodes might be short but Nicotero shows he has complete control over the content, the point of view, and finishes Keys to the Kingdom with a solid hint at what we might be seeing next episode. Two thumbs up to the Director, he is simply nailing the story requirements without needing to resort to anything approaching camera shenanigans. Also helping is the low requirement for CGI, a welcome change. Nicotero is a former make-up artist who learnt his trade under genre legend Tom Savini.

Last review I complained about the acting seeming slightly wooden, thankfully the two shot cast have improved on that in Keys to the Kingdom. Josh Stewart (Chase) and Daniel Roebuck (B.J) are over their characters like white on rice making me a believer. Stewart in particular nails Chase's lost soul in a new world who finds comfort in the mundane of someone else's abandoned photo album. It's a solid performance that helps elevated the episode to a new level. Roebuck didn't get enough screen time to really shine on through but isn't letting the side down delivering on a believable performance.

Season three of the television show has been delivered, but it'll be a while before I get around to that goodness, still a couple of episodes of season two to talk about and then a bunch of other shows. In the meantime Cold Storage is delivering exactly what I need, new Walking Dead to be going on with. Rumour on the street is there's a third webisode venture coming down the line, hell I'm there baby, if it's as good as Cold Storage then sign me on board that groove train to paradise. Slight digression there, full recommendation on Keys to the Kingdom, once again AMC know how to throw on an excellent show, and I'm intrigued as to where it's going to go from here. As always zombies are probably not the greatest dangers survivors have to face, I'm expecting a nasty twist in Cold Storage, question is just how far are AMC prepared to go with this one?