Fear The Walking Dead - TV spoilers - NO WD BOOK SPOILERS

[Hellboy]

Not sure what people expect with this series. It's covering the outbreak and subsequent fall of society so it stands to reason things will move slowly at first as we see things break down over time. If they jumped right into the zombie apocalypse it would be no different than TWD with a more cliche setting and cast of characters.

Personally I enjoyed it. I will agree the characters aren't exactly that easy to get behind, but maybe they'll grow on us. I'm sure we'll see others added to the cast as things progress. I'll admit I'm more interested in seeing things fall apart than the well being of the main players at this point.

[MrYac]

there is a difference between slow and boring. this was however both.

[nbr3bagshotrow]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Not sure what people expect with this series. It's covering the outbreak and subsequent fall of society so it stands to reason things will move slowly at first as we see things break down over time. If they jumped right into the zombie apocalypse it would be no different than TWD with a more cliche setting and cast of characters.

Personally I enjoyed it. I will agree the characters aren't exactly that easy to get behind, but maybe they'll grow on us. I'm sure we'll see others added to the cast as things progress. I'll admit I'm more interested in seeing things fall apart than the well being of the main players at this point.

I liked the choice of characters. How does the Zombie apocalypse affect a pair of teachers and their kids. I guess it could have been based in Idaho and follow a group of survivalists who were prepared for anything with tons of guns, truckloads of ammo, and caverns of food for the end of times. That would have been interesting.

[Wombat]

I liked it. And I like the choice of people. Lets see how a highly dysfunctional family deals with the zombie apocalypse.

[carlito1978]

Originally Posted by MrYac

there is a difference between slow and boring. this was however both.

agreed. you don't need zombies around to make a show somewhat entertaining.

[built2shred]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Not sure what people expect with this series. It's covering the outbreak and subsequent fall of society so it stands to reason things will move slowly at first as we see things break down over time. If they jumped right into the zombie apocalypse it would be no different than TWD with a more cliche setting and cast of characters.

Personally I enjoyed it. I will agree the characters aren't exactly that easy to get behind, but maybe they'll grow on us. I'm sure we'll see others added to the cast as things progress. I'll admit I'm more interested in seeing things fall apart than the well being of the main players at this point.

I thought it was pretty good, I think the action/gore fans got bored as anything with a story makes them fall asleep....

Reminds me of "Better Call Saul", it also had a slow start due to the setup of the story and characters, it's the same with this... People need to give it time, they will pick up the pace after the characters and story are established...

[nbr3bagshotrow]

Originally Posted by built2shred

I thought it was pretty good, I think the action/gore fans got bored as anything with a story makes them fall asleep....

Reminds me of "Better Call Saul", it also had a slow start due to the setup of the story and characters, it's the same with this... People need to give it time, they will pick up the pace after the characters and story are established...

LOL

[jedi_don]

Originally Posted by built2shred

I thought it was pretty good, I think the action/gore fans got bored as anything with a story makes them fall asleep....

Reminds me of "Better Call Saul", it also had a slow start due to the setup of the story and characters, it's the same with this... People need to give it time, they will pick up the pace after the characters and story are established...

I like the character development and the personal drama in Walking Dead over the zombie smashing. But the Fear pilot didn't have much story. Just a lot of boring exposition about this family. Did we really need to see two scenes with the daughter and her boyfriend to understand their relationship? Did we really need two scenes going back to the empty church? They should have edited the pilot down to 1 hour. 90 minutes just killed the pacing.

I also thought Better Call Saul was strong all the way through

[johnclone]

I definitely liked it. Within 4 or 5 minutes of the start we already had our first walker sighting. And that music!!!!!!!!!! That boy was scared.

What was unique about this walker "sighting" is that since the guy is a heroin addict, who is going to believe him when he says his friend OD'ed and then started chewing on people? Does he even believe it himself? I loved the atmosphere that they gave the story as Nick wakes up in the hospital and his family go to speak to him, then Nick leaves and nobody knows where he is so the parents go looking for him.

Nick has a sister, but so far her life is like an episode of 90210. She sits on the bleachers with her boyfriend talking about nothing particularly important. Rest up sister, you'll need your strength.

But as Mr Hobbit pointed out, everywhere people went there were sirens peppered here and there which feels like this always growing doom is impending throughout the city, and then there was a scene in school where the girls were watching the video of the guy being shot but not staying down thinking it was FAKED (ah so naive), and I absolutely loved how there was a student who had figured out something big was happening involving a virus but certainly at this stage almost nobody really knows that something life changing has begun to take place. I forget exactly what the kid says, but it was something like "our lives are all about to change and we're all screwed" He says it so confidently, he just knows something is going down. But will his knowing something is happening make any difference at all, or will he become a walker soon regardless? (I think so, he has walker written all over him)

I think this will be a very interesting thing to see, how people attempt to go about life as usual despite the ever growing zombie problem all around them. The backdrop of a high school should work very well with this story as we'll see things unfold through the eyes of these students. Will kids start mysteriously disappearing one by one? Will walkers get into the school? Will kids have to kill walkers in the school? Will anyone realize that you need to bash their heads in or they just keep coming? Will killing walkers become a necessity for the family on a daily basis or will they just try to avoid them and expect law enforcement to handle things?

The final scenes with Nick and Tony (I think that's their names) were a good payoff for the episode's slowly creeping building of suspense, as FINALLY it becomes clear to Nick and his parents that something really strange has begun to happen involving dead people not staying dead, and they must confront their first walker as a family. It was quite heartwarming watching the three of them pull together to stay alive, and Nick saves his parents by thinking clearly and acting.

I'm excited about the season, but if I heard correctly from Chris Hardweiner there are only 6 episodes in total for season 1. So who knows what will happen with the show as far as renewal possibilities. AMC may not be committed yet to the show. Or maybe they are totally committed but just need time to make more episodes and could only create six this go round.

Something to consider: The whole series could last six or seven seasons, and yet only be about a few months in these people's lives. It will be very interesting to see just how much time passes from episode to episode. This episode appeared to me to cover no more than 3 days of time.

One thing I thought was very bizarre, in one scene at school the principal has his back turned to Nick's mother (don't remember her name yet) and the zombie music from the opening scene begins to play, but it turns out he's just fine. So I'm wondering was this a "jump scare" by the show's creators or is this some foreshadowing to how the principal will become a walker at some point?

Clearly the Jack London "why build a fire" lesson was for us to get some perspective on just how unsuspecting these people are at what lies ahead. The answer was to stay alive. It was like the show creators were having some fun with us saying, look at these dummies. They don't know what ---- we have in store for them.

[johnclone]

Originally Posted by jedi_don

I like the character development and the personal drama in Walking Dead over the zombie smashing. But the Fear pilot didn't have much story. Just a lot of boring exposition about this family. Did we really need to see two scenes with the daughter and her boyfriend to understand their relationship? Did we really need two scenes going back to the empty church? They should have edited the pilot down to 1 hour. 90 minutes just killed the pacing.

I also thought Better Call Saul was strong all the way through

That slow pacing is all about atmosphere. I take it you don't like David Fincher movies?

BCS rocked the whole season, but then for me it ended on such a "oh that sucked" season finale. I hope it can get good again.