Fear The Walking Dead is AMC’s spin off from the ever popular The Walking Dead. However, as critically acclaimed as The Walking Dead is, it is not without fault or criticism. Even though I am a fan of the show I myself found the pacing issues of the last series very cumbersome and slow, which was also the same for the series before. In my opinion most of the episodes could have been combined after each of the mid-season breaks rather than dragged out in the way that they were. In spite of this I tried to approach this new spin-off with an open mind.
Whilst FTWD does have the same premise it does have the luxury of not being tied in to the comic like the original TV show. I appreciate that there is a lot of differences between the comic and The Walking Dead series however there are still numerous plot points and characters that are shared. This appears to give the show the freedom to create entire stories independently and giving the writers free reign to do what they wish.
The story is set in LA and aims to fill in some of the back story as to how the virus/walkers came about. It follows a strong independent teacher Madison Clark, her partner Travis Manawa (whom is also a teacher at the same school), and her 2 children, the eldest, a son called Nick (with a troubled past and drug problem) and the younger sister named Alicia (strong minded, spent her life behind her brother).
The characters seem all pretty generic and don’t really break out of the mould of a standard clichés. The troubled teenager is straight out of every other high school drama and so is the daughter who is always playing second fiddle. The step father figure is also a familiar entity trying to fit in and do what he can to get the kids to accept him as part of their family. And the same goes for the mother who is strong will has an apparent vulnerability. She knows what she wants and will do it but at the same time she isn’t too proud to admit she needs help every now and then.
From the off we are introduced to Nick and his drug habit as he wakes up in a drug house to see a walker making a snack buffet of another resident. He freaks out and isn’t sure if he was just hallucinating from the drugs or if what he had seen was real. The story follows this line throughout the episode with Nick trying to work out what is real and what is not whilst his family rally around to support him, and try to get him through this latest setback. It appear to be a pretty safe start but I think that the story is kept as straight forward as possible in the opening episode for a very specific reason.
What this reason is in my opinion is what rescues the episode and makes for some very interesting viewing. This is not necessarily the characters, but the world around them and what is going on and how they are reacting to it without actually realising. Literally everything in the world around them is a link to the impending outbreak. Whether it is the junkie eating someone at the start, or news reports showing people that were seemingly dead just rise up and attack emergency service crews which are posted to the internet causing people to consider if it is real or fake. Even the school and the principal makes numerous references to a flu like outbreak that is infecting people and keeping them at home. Everything is just on the cusp of the “Walkers” breaking out and wreaking the havoc we are all expecting.
OVERALL SUMMARY
I won’t say how the episode ends as you’ll have to watch it to find out, however I do think there needs to be much improvement to some of the characterisations needed if there is to be any longevity for them. Overall you do have to question how good has a show actually been when your main talking points of the show are actually the Easter eggs and nods from The Walking Dead world? I know it has only been one episode so I am optimistic that of course the characters will grow and it won’t be a one tree hill/zombie cross over, well…at least I hope it won’t!
