Fear the Walking Dead

[Hydra009]

This spinoff series premiere was the most viewed TV pilot ever at over 10 million viewers for the premiere.  Did it live up to the hype? 

Quoth wikipedia:  "Fear the Walking Dead has received generally positive reviews from critics."  And it has a 77% rating on rotten tomatoes with a 71% rating from the audience.  Okay, so there are few negative nellies out there, but it's still decent, isn't it?  Well...no.

Letme tell ya, I really, really wanted to like this.  But the pilot was an unmitigated disaster.  It was such a disappointment.  Any Walking Dead episode is better than this Fear the Walking Dead episode.

What's wrong with it, you might ask.  Essentially, the characters are extremely bland and didn't even seem come across as real people (which is absolutely disastrous in a character-driven show like the Walking Dead) and nothing happens on the first episode.  Except for the first and last couple minutes, basically nothing happens.  Nothing memorable, anyway.  It's boring.  Dreadfully, dreadfully boring.  I couldn't even persuade my roommate to sit through the whole thing.  He walked away within the first 10 minutes and I was sorely tempted to after 20.

If it weren't for the occasional zombie, this would be a family drama.  Almost everything that the Walking Dead is known for isn't present here.  The Walking Dead has this great aesthetic exemplified in the intro, shots within abandoned and decaying homes and these panned-out shots of desolated urban areas.  And here's the spinoff's intro.  It wouldn't be so bad if only the intro was a downgrade from the parent show, but everything else is just like that - just a poorly put-together mess that doesn't come even close to the original.  Granted, those are tough shoes to fill, but this wasn't even close.  Like Phantom Menace not close.  The kind of not close where you wonder if there was ever a sincere attempt.

Here's the plot of The Walking Dead:  Rick is a cop.  Rick gets shot.  Rick wakes up in the hospital.  Don't dead, open inside.  A confused Rick encounters zombies.  He hightails it out of there.  Finds Morgan, who sort of fills him in on recent events.  Goes looking for his family.  Iconic shot of Rick riding a horse down the highway into a ruined Atlanta.  Zombies attack.  Rick is forced inside the tank and is surrounded by a horde of zombies.  Roll credits.

Here's the plot of Fear the Walking Dead:  drug addict wakes in a flophouse to the sounds of someone getting eaten by a zombie.  He investigates the noise and finds a zombie.  He hightails it out of there and into the street, where he gets hit by a car.  Family worried about him.  Family talks and talks and talks with subtle hints of some incipient zombie activity (subtle as a 2x4).  Drug addict finds dealer and asks him if he got some 'bad stuff'.  Drug dealer says don't worry about it, drives him over to cap-a-snitch lane, and pulls out a gun.  Shockingly, addict tries to grab the gun.  Gun discharges and dealer dies from bleeding about 10ml of blood on his otherwise pristine shirt.  Family finds addict, addict confesses to killing the dealer.  Family drives back and shockingly, dealer is zombified.  Family kills zombie dealer and collectively wonder wtf is going on.

In the first pilot, we have a well-paced and interesting show about a guy trying to find his family after a zombie apocalypse.  Decent acting, good writing, good atmosphere, etc.  You care about this guy and whether or not he accomplishes his goals.

In the second pilot, we have a poorly-paced and uninteresting show about a guy and his family encountering the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse (which could been good if the initial encounters were more interesting, but falls flat here).  The zombie outbreak surprises them but the audience already knows all about it, so there's nothing very exciting or memorable.  And worse, it's impossible to care about any of these people.

I've heard it gets better in the second episode, but man, this first episode was such a huge disappointment that I'm not even sure I want to see any more of it.  And I'm not at all a difficult guy to please.  What do you guys think?

[TomFoolery]

Letme tell ya, I really, really wanted to like this.  But the pilot was an unmitigated disaster.  It was such a disappointment.  Any Walking Dead episode is better than this Fear the Walking Dead episode.

Yeah, even the whole second season which consisted of nothing but conversations with Dale, Andrea, and Hershel and searching for Sophia was more watchable than the ninety minutes that was that.

Essentially, the characters are extremely bland and didn't even seem come across as real people (which is absolutely disastrous in a character-driven show like the Walking Dead) and nothing happens on the first episode. 

Yeah, the characters felt forced together. It was sort of like Thanksgiving at an airport.

Except for the first and last couple minutes, basically nothing happens.  Nothing memorable, anyway.  It's boring.  Dreadfully, dreadfully boring.  I couldn't even persuade my roommate to sit through the whole thing.

When it started with a junkie eating another junkie in a church, it definitely had my attention. What a bait and switch.

I've heard it gets better in the second episode, but man, this first episode was such a huge disappointment that I'm not even sure I want to see any more of it.  And I'm not at all a difficult guy to please.  What do you guys think?

The trailer for the first season that aired seems very promising. It's just the complete breakdown of society, which I think is a fascinating angle. I feel like if the first episode had to be slow in order to "set the scene" they definitely failed miserably. I'm going to give it a second chance on Sunday, but meh.

[Hydra009]

The trailer for the first season that aired seems very promising. It's just the complete breakdown of society, which I think is a fascinating angle. I feel like if the first episode had to be slow in order to "set the scene" they definitely failed miserably. I'm going to give it a second chance on Sunday, but meh.

Yeah, I'll give it a second shot.  It's just...man, that's one hell of a bad start.  You'd think the end of the world would be less of a snoozefest.

Speaking of, the creators say they wanted to explore the initial outbreak and give the audience a better understanding of the how and why of the zombie apocalypse.  (which is strange considering how we've got bupkis so far and the zombie outbreak is already well under way)

But I'm not sure that's actually a good idea.  Sure, it'd be nice to sate our curiosity, but part of TWD's draw is that it's a huge mystery.  The characters don't know how the exact nature of the zombie plague or much about zombies themselves, and this ignorance adds another layer of frustration and uncertainty to their daily struggles.  It's also a plot point on more than one occasion in the comics.  Solving this mystery would remove some of the mystique of the setting.

[_Xenu_]

I liked the way it ended, but that was definitely a bit slow.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I've come to the conclusion that I don't believe in zombies and have ceased to be interested in the tripe around the zombie apocalyptic future

[Mike Cl]

I've come to the conclusion that I don't believe in zombies and have ceased to be interested in the tripe around the zombie apocalyptic future

Really?  Just wait until one of them starts eating your brain!  They have already eaten Trump's brain--and Sarah Palain--and Rubio---and loved Jindal's......and so on.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

My brain is going to be on Mount Rushmore..

[kilodelta]

West Coast... so surfing zombies that eat fish brain tacos?

[TomFoolery]

West Coast... so surfing zombies that eat fish brain tacos?

No, more like canned representations of everything that belongs on a modern family drama, such as the emo prodigal son who loves the smack, his intelligent overachieving sister who got into Berkeley and feels angry that her achievements go unnoticed amid her brother's routine fuck-ups, the harried mother who tries too hard, and the guy who likes to fuck her, with a complexion just dark enough to say to viewers "Yeah, we respect diversity."

[TomFoolery]

I watched this week's episode and it picked up considerably. Kind of an interesting take on how quickly civilization falls.

[drunkenshoe]

Enjoying this series would require leaving the usual frame of mind of TWD and start over with it. Which is probbaly hard to do for any fan. Because we know what happened. All those poeple we see are dead. Not specifically them of course. Just people. Except a few ones who'll manage to survive.

The mother series is about representing the evolution of what happens to surviving people in that environment; the weight of the circumstances; phases they go through and how they arrive to the same blind point over and over again. (Probably, why I love the show very much) Characters have changed, developed... got mature and have become 'proffesionals' in a manner with what they lost and gained and we along with them. To provide that sense of continuity, it is following a nucleur group with additons and substractions. 

[spoiler]However, in the spin off it hasn't even started...they are just starting; they are 'amateurs',lol.[/spoiler]

I haven't decided if I liked it or not yet. But I can't get over of any phase of a good made 'zombie' apocalypse, because let's face it, it is the best idea of a catalyst in a given story -even though a fantasy element- to make something what really human is and can be under extreme circumstances. How delicate our 'great' civilisation is. You can't provide that with wars or natural catastrophies on screen. Nobody would watch it.


[spoiler]I also like that while TWD startes with one man who has no idea what is going on while the reast did, FWD starts with a man who knows what is going on while the rest has no idea. Nice asymmetry.[/spoiler]

[TomFoolery]

Enjoying this series would require leaving the usual frame of mind of TWD and start over with it. Which is probbaly hard to do for any fan. Because we know what happened. All those poeple we see are dead. Not specifically them of course. Just people. Except a few ones who'll manage to survive.

I like the comics, I like the original show, but strangely, I think I'm coming to like this one even more. I don't know if it will stay that way, but I like watching how things fall apart. Right now everyone's just confused, and I think the transition is important, because they still feel bound by society's rules and don't know why their friends, family or neighbors are trying to hurt them or even really know that their neighbors are even dead. Most people's first instinct if someone stumbled up to them making breathy growling sounds wouldn't be to whip out a baseball bat and smash their heads in. I think it goes a long way toward explaining why there are so many sadists and psychopaths in the original series: because as the world fell apart, most of the people with any shred of decency were trying to reason with the infected or would refuse to kill them (like Herschel used to) because it was unknown what exactly was wrong with them. People that could more easily cut ties with friends and loved ones were more likely to survive. And as the teasers for the next season of the original series hint at, what's the point of rebuilding civilization if none of us are civilized anymore?

[SGOS]

Really?  Just wait until one of them starts eating your brain!  They have already eaten Trump's brain--and Sarah Palain--and Rubio---and loved Jindal's......and so on.

I recall a scene in one of the Night of the Living Dead sequel's.  It may have been the second one.  A boyfriend of one of the women turns into a zombie.  She's still in love with him.  He finally catches her and they are sitting on the floor together with his arm around her lovingly, and he says, "I want to eat your brains."  She was well aware at this point of the fact that zombies want to eat people's brains, and she shuts her eyes really tight, nods her head, leans over to him, and says, "OK, OK," and lets him eat her brains.  Such love and devotion was inspiring.  Well, creepy, actually.  The whole movie had this kind of slapstick horror throughout.

[drunkenshoe]

I like the comics, I like the original show, but strangely, I think I'm coming to like this one even more. I don't know if it will stay that way, but I like watching how things fall apart. Right now everyone's just confused, and I think the transition is important, because they still feel bound by society's rules and don't know why their friends, family or neighbors are trying to hurt them or even really know that their neighbors are even dead. Most people's first instinct if someone stumbled up to them making breathy growling sounds wouldn't be to whip out a baseball bat and smash their heads in. I think it goes a long way toward explaining why there are so many sadists and psychopaths in the original series: because as the world fell apart, most of the people with any shred of decency were trying to reason with the infected or would refuse to kill them (like Herschel used to) because it was unknown what exactly was wrong with them. People that could more easily cut ties with friends and loved ones were more likely to survive. And as the teasers for the next season of the original series hint at, what's the point of rebuilding civilization if none of us are civilized anymore?

Oh definitely agreed. Highly likely I'll love it. To me the whole TWD is like a customised product I ordered. When I was a big kid and also as a young adult, I used to watch zombie movies, try to imagine the world we know falling apart and felt sorry because they didn't make any shows or movies like this one. About people. And human. So I am enjoying it immensely.

When I first saw the 28 Days Later years ago, I had hope that they would do something like this related to fall of civilisation. With TWD and the spin off....I am grateful.

I wrote that 'it would require to leave a certain frame of mind', because I know most people felt like 'going back' while nothing 'new' would happen. I don't see it that way at all.  I just would like to see it done as good as TWD.

Too bad most people skip it thinking it is just a 'zombie show'. Myeh.

[Hydra009]

I gave it another shot and watched all 3 episodes.  It's gotten much better.  Not the best, but it's okay - watchable, even.  So far, it's my second favorite zombie drama tv show created by Robert Kirkman.

I thought it was funny how the gang sat down and played monopoly.  It'll be a wonder if they survive for two weeks longer, let alone as long as Rick's group.

And I liked how the military intervened.  In TWD, we get hints of a small military presence - a helicopter flying overhead and a small group of military survivors.  It'll be interesting to see how things go wrong for them.