Fear the Walking Dead

[Rob]

I can't put my finger on it, but I'm having a really hard time caring about this show compared to the regular one.  Maybe because it's referential... maybe because the characters aren't as dynamic or interesting... maybe because the writing just isn't as good and doesn't encompass much that we haven't already seen and done in the original... but I'm still very meh on the whole thing, even if it's slowly getting better.

[Chris M]

Rob, I think that nails down what I've thought overall.  I keep watching just to get my zombie fill, but even that is fading.

I'll probably just stick with it to see what ends up happening, but unlike TWD, this gets put on the DVR and watched as time presents itself.

[Scockery]

Some one IMDB said "We are actually watching a show about a group of villains".

No, not that interesting.

On TWD when the group split up you'd want them to reunite. In FTWD, they split voluntarily and getting back together seems like a bad idea for some of them. Strand shouldn't have to deal with the family's crap, and neither should Ofelia.

They could've left the pharmacist's immunity a mystery, but had to explain outright that we wasn't, so to return to status quo on the zombie front.

[Rob]

Rob, I think that nails down what I've thought overall.  I keep watching just to get my zombie fill, but even that is fading.

I'll probably just stick with it to see what ends up happening, but unlike TWD, this gets put on the DVR and watched as time presents itself.

And if enough people feel that way, this show doesn't have more than a season or two left...

[Jesse James]

I bailed again.  I may catch up on it out of simple curiosity but yeah, it really sucks.  For whatever reason the people are terribly uninteresting compared to the original.  Guess you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice.

[Chris M]

And if enough people feel that way, this show doesn't have more than a season or two left...

Yep.  I'm assuming many people watching the show are like me in that they wouldn't leave it on the DVR if it were a truly gripping show.  The writing isn't that great.  The acting is cardboard.  And the story pace is very slow.  With that in mind, why would I race to watch?

[Pete_Fett]

They could've left the pharmacist's immunity a mystery, but had to explain outright that we wasn't, so to return to status quo on the zombie front.

This reveal really bothered me. At the end of the day, there has yet to be a virus on this planet that affects EVERYONE - even the worst of them - there is always a percentage of the population that is naturally resistant to it. This show could have introduced something truly unique to the Walking Dead mythos by saying definitively "yes, there are some people immune to the virus that turns you into a walker but it's like .1% of .1% of the total population".

That would have been interesting to me, because that would mean that there is a chance that at some point there *COULD* be a cure/resolution. Perhaps the people behind the show/comic don't want that and that's why they ended up making him a fraud, I dunno.

Some one IMDB said "We are actually watching a show about a group of villains".

If the show is indeed about a group of people who end up becoming a group of villains, then they're doing a really lousy job at being villains so far. Villains would have killed the family on the lighthouse island and tried to set up a compound there. Villains would have tried to take over the boat colony people after killing the leader so easily. Villains would have told the hotel workers to live with Travis beating to death those two ****-heads or be beaten to death themselves. Sorry, but that is a FTWD apologist trying to justify that this show is even worth watching.

I think this show is doing nothing but actually HURTING the popularity of the Walking Dead franchise and combined with the cop-out of not knowing who Neagan killed at the end of last season, I would not be surprised at all if the October 23rd premier of this next season of TWD has LOWER ratings than last season. I honestly hope it does because it will hopefully make the people who write the checks for this show take notice and realize that maybe it's time to pull back a little with multiple shows and stop with gimmicks like forced cliff-hangers.

[JediJman]

I caught up on most of the latest episodes yesterday.  Just two more to go.  For me, this show feels like a foreign bootleg of a figure.  It's interesting because it's closely related to something you really like, but it also looks cheap with glaring flaws.  You'd put it in your collection as a novelty, but it doesn't hold a candle to the official product you know and love. 

Yeah, the characters are all pretty lame.  No, I don't like watching the majority of the show through subtitles.  Of course the family drama is completely overdone.  But what bugs me most about the show is that they don't follow the "rules" of the original show. 

 - The zombies are conveniently slow and non-threatening outside of anyone purposely trying to kill themselves.
 - At times they just wander - why aren't they all pressing up at the fence at the colonia?
 - The zombies all walk in tidy, convenient packs.  That group Nick ran into on the road earlier in the season all just walk in a tight group?  At the same speed?  Staying in the confines of the road? 
 - I can't stand the way everyone just slaps on a little zombie blood and suddenly they're invisible to the undead.  TWD uses this sparingly and makes a big deal of it when they do it, and there's still a constant threat of it not working. 
 - Why would the mob of zombies just keep walking off that pier? 
 - Was the soft piano music really enough to attract zombies several floors up?
 - How did anyone ever get infected?  You can fight off hoards of zombies with a busted wine bottle.

I know it's hard to defend "realism" in a show about zombies, but that's really what it comes down to for me.  TWD feels like a constant, real threat.  FTWD feels like a cheap tabloid trying to capitalize on the latest buzz of the original.  The only truly interesting thing they have going is that Alejandro somehow survived that bite.  I wonder if we'll find out it was something other than a zombie bite or if there's some real clue here to the origins of the virus. 

[Pete_Fett]

The only truly interesting thing they have going is that Alejandro somehow survived that bite.  I wonder if we'll find out it was something other than a zombie bite or if there's some real clue here to the origins of the virus.

Oh, are you going to be disappointed... don't read my post previous post if you don't want to find out...

[JediJman]

Finally caught the end of season 2.  I liked that the action was heating up and they tied up a lot of storylines.  They really shrunk the cast back down, offing Chris and leaving Strand behind, so hopefully that sets us up for better characters in S3.  I would have liked some of the hotel peeps to go with them - the doctor and Hector seemed like good additions to the cast.  Not sure what that crossfire at the border gates was all about, but it will be nice to get the crew back in the states again to at least get rid of the constant subtitles. 

[Matt_Fury]

So it took 3 seasons and two episodes, but Travis finally made a good decision.

[Jesse James]

Did he kill everyone else?

[Matt_Fury]

Even better.

[Jesse James]

Infiltrated AMC and cancelled FTWD?  Hmmm 

[Rob]

I actually thought that might have been the best episode of the show yet.  I'm hoping that they've realized they need to make this show way better.  But the fact that they've just arrived at a compound of untrustworthy people makes me worry that they're about to turn the show into the same thing that TWD has become.