'The Walking Dead' Season 10 premiere roars with fire and death

The Walking Dead has returned for its 10th season, and right from the start it's abundantly clear how things have changed from just a year ago.

Last year we had Rick, we had the Kingdom, and we had what looked like peace. Society — what's left of it — was being rebuilt after a long, drawn out period of war against the Saviors. The show felt like it had run out of steam completely, rehashing the same ideas over and over.

As Season 9 progressed, so much changed and The Walking Dead got its spark back, growing into an exciting fire thanks to a terrifying new threat in the Whisperers and the departure of Rick to shake things up. That fire continues to burn in the premiere of Season 10, "Lines We Cross."

The episode opens with some of the grossest walkers that walk the post-apocalyptic landscapes of the South: waterlogged zombies. A group including key characters Michonne and Daryl are training on the beaches near Oceanside, opening up  ships full of zombies and practicing attack formations with spears and shields and arrows.

It's a great scene to get back into the swing of things as zombie heads get sliced in half in slow motion by Michonne's trusty katana.

Bubbling beneath the sunny shores of Oceanside is the dormant threat of the Whisperers. Both sides have respected the border between them, but a zombie mask showing up near Oceanside hints that something could be afoot with the zombie-skin wearing group of violent survivors. That lingering is tension is great and gives each scene a bit more excitement.

There are dark, uncertain times ahead

But the most interesting moment comes when what appears to be a meteor streaks across the sky in a fiery blaze. It's no meteor though, it's an old Russian satellite falling out of orbit. It lands close to Oceanside, setting the woods on fire. As the gang tries to manage the fire with water, dirt, and salt, what shows up? 

You guessed it, walkers.

Fire, smoke, and undeath abound; it's thrilling. The action in the episode delivers so well, and there's one particularly great scene where Carol cuts the throat of the zombie and sprays the blood onto another zombie that's on fire. I mean come on.

Amid those thrills, there are good snippets of character development and human moments, something that The Walking Dead sometimes struggles with but seems to handle (mostly) well in this episode.

The relationship between Daryl and Carol is explored as the two venture out alone, talking about friendship and plans of running away together to New Mexico. Anywhere sounds better than the hell of Georgia, but who knows what's really out there.

For now, they are respecting the border between themselves and the Whisperers to avoid antagonizing those sociopaths. Looking out over a cliff, Carol spots the leader of the Whisperers, Alpha, and Alpha looks up at Carol.

There are dark, uncertain times ahead, and that makes for good TV.