FEAR The Walking Dead has debuted with generally positive reviews, and for good reason. Take a look and see why we enjoyed the zombie spinoff series.
It is not often that spinoffs stay around for too long, though with two seasons already greenlit, and a premise that follows in line with its counterpart series, FEAR TWD shows a side to Robert Kirkman’s world of flesh-eating zombies the likes of which we have yet to see; Los Angeles.
By now its likely you have seen the episode, or if you have not gotten around to it because it isn’t available to stream on most platforms yet, you’re in luck as the series is available in both iTunes and Google Play. Regardless of your medium, if you were among the shortlist of those hanging on waiting to see if the series pilot is any good, you need not worry. It is very, very good. Here is why:
Not unlike the mainstream series, FEAR takes place partially in a hospital, only they are in Southern California focusing on a young junkie named Nick, who the episode heavily focuses on. Unfortunately for him, the outbreak has slowly started to come about, and he keeps on running into the undead in unusual circumstances. The issue here, aside from seeing your friends turn into flesh-eating zombies, is that Nick is unable to determine whether or not what he is seeing is real or side effects from some bad drugs (NOTE: ALL drugs are bad). While leaning on the side of “HOLY SH*T THIS IS REAL”, Nick’s family does not believe anything Nick is saying due to being aware of his history with drugs.
Left to Right: Travis, Madison, Nick, Dead Guy
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Now, I could break down the entire episode bit-by-bit, but I am not going to do that. The reason I won’t is that while we know the premise and that it takes place in the same universe as Rick Grimes’ group, we are watching the outbreak escalate on the other side of the country. And the way it happens as well as the character’s reactions are surprisingly very refreshing from having just re-binge watched the 5 seasons of its parent series.
Truthfully, I found myself filled with the suspense of waiting for more undead to show up on-screen, knowing they could be around each and every corner. However, imagining what it would be like if an outbreak happened in real life (living in Southern California myself), I came to the conclusion that the media coverage shown in FEAR would be the exact same result we would witness on our own television screens. With people uploading YouTube footage of the event, and the local news dismissing it as some sort of drug nonsense before declaring a state of emergency, things quickly escalate and spiral out of control.
The angle of the show is different from our traditional TWD, mainly because in episode 1 of TWD, we see Rick combing the streets wondering what the heck happened and where everyone buggered off to before coming up to an undead girl and shooting her in the face. Awesome, but no build up into the chaos that took place. Instead we witness all of the outbreak, or what little we do focus on in flashbacks. TWD focuses on the here and now, right in the middle of trying to survive. And that is exactly where FEAR succeeds.
Seeing the cast, building a relationship with them from a character development to audience stand point prior to the appearance of zombies/walkers/roamers/biters/whatever made us grow worried about who would live and die. While TWD comic started out with giving us somewhat of a heads-up before the show started going in a largely different direction, FEAR delivers the same heart-pounding zombie-apocalyptic panic and excitement that TWD has for 5 seasons already. Only difference is, we literally have no idea which direction the characters/the show will go. All of the main characters could be killed by the end of the shows first season, and we could get a whole new cast by season 2. And this is why the show, in my opinion, is more exciting.
If you read TWD comics, you kind of know whats coming, who lives, who dies, with the expectation that certain events will be altered to better translate on-screen and please fans (Daryl was NOT in the comics, and he will likely not be dying any time soon as he is the fan favorite. Too many would stop watching if DD was killed off).
With all of the above, I was pleasantly surprised that the show still peaked my interest in a way that seemed fresh, despite the overabundance of zombies nowadays, and 5 season of a series that centered on surviving the zombie apocalypse.
Maybe it’s because the series focuses on a place near to where I live, or maybe it’s because I can never have too many zombies in my life, but in any case, FEAR The Walking Dead is on a very short list of shows I feel like will make a large cultural impact after its first season. And its all because AMC knows what we like, and had TWD as a trial run to see what they could do and what they couldn’t with a show about zombies. If you are a fan of the comic, the AMC show, or just good television, FEAR should be on your radar as a show not to miss each Sunday on AMC.
Couple other thoughts… Creator Robert Kirkman has stated he wishes to avoid using the term “Zombie(s)” in the series so as to sort of provide a sense of realism to the show. That in mind, how many more names are there for zombies? They have exhausted the following: Walkers, Biters, Roamers, Rotters, Geeks, etc. Oh, and if this is where it all “starts”, I wonder if we will get more insight into what causes the outbreak? Maybe the source? Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, but still. It would be interesting, but perhaps better if we never knew.
FEAR The Walking Dead debuted this past Sunday on AMC and will continue to run course through its first season of 6 episodes. Season 2 has been greenlit for an extended 15 episodes which will debut in 2016. The spinoff series stars Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Mercedes Mason, Lorenzo James Henrie, and Rubén Blades.
