Will ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ live up to its predecessor, does it matter? (spoilers)

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Spoilers for Fear The Walking Dead follow
After watching Fear The Walking Dead’s first episode last night, I have to say that I’ll stick with it. It built suspense masterfully, and it was a solid, watchable show with interesting characters. They did an excellent job with the setting, atmosphere and establishing a basis for the zombie apocalypse outbreak. You felt like you were there with them in LA and like you could see the ominous signs that the sh*t was about to hit the fan. When the climax happened, when we got to see them realize how dangerous and scary zombies could be, it felt cinematic and real. There were so many excellent moments in this show and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I’m not going to do a full recap, you can read a recap on Variety, The NY Times, and USA Today. FTWD is about the characters, and seeing how they cope with the world changing suddenly. There’s some gore and violence, but it’s more about relationships and dealing with the new reality.

I really wonder if the show began with the junkies because that’s how the outbreak started. Was it something in the drugs and is that why Cal wanted to kill Nick? It’s also interesting to see that Cal turned into a zombie immediately, as did Nick’s elderly roommate in the hospital. This establishes early on that everyone is infected and that they all turn when they die, whether they’re bitten or not. We had to wait a while to learn this important detail in The Walking Dead.

The Hollywood Reporter has an interview with showrunner Dave Erickson (Sons of Anarchy) and he comes across as thoughtful about how to weave a story together. I enjoyed the small details that gave context, like the missing persons posters, the lectures the teachers were giving in school (Jack London’s To Build a Fire, and chaos theory) and the dialogue that seemed ironic. (Alicia texting her missing boyfriend, “you better be dead.”) This is a show that has its own feel and take on the zombie apocalypse, and will hopefully add some backstory to The Walking Dead. I’m looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

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Photos credit: Justin Lubin, AMC

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32 Responses to “Will ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ live up to its predecessor, does it matter? (spoilers)”

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  1. bellenola says:

    Loved it!

    • annaloo. says:

      Yeah, I’m on board. I admt I was watching with a skeptical eye bc I figured, “Oh they’re just capitalizing on TWD and want to make more money” , but the episode was solid. I also remembered that Rick from TWD was in a coma when everything went down an dhe woke up into a changed world; here we see how the world started the change!

  2. QQ says:

    I’m Going to watch Cause LATIN BASED GAWD Ruben Blades is about to be in it, and it also seems they bothered with POC in this one that hey won’t kill immediately though 2 out of 3 black men did Bite it already, as long as they advance the story and don’t become a bunch of insufferable havoc causing a-holes and run around L.A for 4 seasons or get themselves a Carl I think this will be fine ( The Junkie Son has all the potential to get on my nerves quickly which is to say, good acting)

    But then again The first ep of TWD was impeccable

  3. Akivasha says:

    I just came here for Cliff Curtis HOT!

  4. launicaangelina says:

    I truly enjoyed the pilot. I love the slow build and am very interested in seeing how people react when their world falls apart. I really hope we get to learn what created the zombie virus.

  5. Jackson says:

    I thought it was decent. Maybe I expected too much going in but I thought it was a little light on the suspense/drama.
    I think Cal wanted to kill Nick because Nick had become a threat to Cal and Cal’s cover as a good, clean dude. Nick was losing it and Cal figured eh, one less loudmouth junkie to worry about. I don’t think he had any clue about zombie anything or tainted drugs, if that ends up being the cause.

    • Delta Juliet says:

      I agree. I thought Cal just realized that Nick could ruin his clean cut appearance and figured he’d get rid of him before he caused any real problems.

  6. Tiffany27 says:

    I fell asleep during the episode. Oop . Was it good?

    • Ana Maria says:

      I fell asleep too! I’ll stick with the show, but I thought it was kind of slow…

    • Trillion says:

      I thought it was a very very poor man’s TWD, personally. But it’s zombie apocalypse so I’ll keep watching it anyhow. Maybe it’ll get better like TWD did.

  7. Angelica says:

    I really loved Nick. He looks like Johnny Depp, Keira Knightly and James Franco mixed into one, but I mainly like how the first person to realize the outbreak is in town is an addict who doesn’t really believe it himself. You almost have to question whether he really saw what he saw. But otherwise I was underwhelmed. I’m still gonna watch because I don’t want the pudgy smart kid to be the only conspiracy theorist, I’m ready to see John Locke from Lost pull out his suitcase of knives and get to kickin’ a$$ (lol). I can’t wait to see the “But the government would tell us” mentality get squashed, and can’t wait to see the father-son problems turn into a who gives a crap, it’s the zombie apocalypse! Basically, I’m rooting for it, this episode could be a great platform for me to see how sheeple (hate that word but I’m using it anyway) turn into warriors and strategists. Here’s hoping.

  8. Addison says:

    Drugs did not cause the outbreak. Everyone has the virus in them. I’m sure the source of the virus is in the air. This is how the world got contaminated.

    As far as how fast they turned. It could have been hours between the time the friend was killed and Nick called the parents and they finally came over.

    As far as the old man in the hospital I don’t think he turned instantly either. I think they were trying to get him to maybe the OR? At least that’s what it seems to me. Anyone else get this?

    • epiphany says:

      Agree – the virus must have an easily accessible origin, as everyone (eventually) is infected. It makes no sense that the drugs cause the zombie transformation. However, it’s possible the junkies were all sharing needles contaminated with the virus, so they were the first population segment to exhibit the transformation when they died.
      The show itself was “meh”. Very slow start; I really like Ruben Blades as the dad, and the Nick character – he seems complex, and I hope he sticks around for a while. The mother was annoying, and I simply don’t care about the teenage daughter and her BF. It’s a new show, however, and I do love the original WD, so I will give it a chance.

    • Sally J. Freedman says:

      Yeah, I don’t really think that the old man turned. If it did happen, it happened after. I also just think that Call was gonna kill him because he was gonna blow his cover and had become a liability.

    • Sparkly says:

      The old man didn’t turn right away, but I think they made it pretty obvious that the doctors & nurses KNOW. Doc gave him about 30 seconds (or less) of resuscitation time before saying “We need to get him downstairs NOW.” I don’t think they were moving him to the ER so much as taking him somewhere before he turned. Maybe locking them all in the cafeteria with an oddly-written warning? 😉

      I like it so far. Hubby doesn’t, because he thinks it was too slow for a world that’s already pretty well established. But I liked that they showed a zombie fairly early in the game, set up the ‘normal’ and the main characters, and did pretty well on the pacing. Didn’t care for the obvious fake-out with the principle, and that’s a gimmick I hope they don’t bank on often. I like Nick a lot.

  9. Tiff says:

    I think the junkie chick overdosed… Then came back. He was the first witness of the beginning of the end..

  10. sassy says:

    i was …..a bit disappointed. Not near enough zombies and the junkie kid was overacting too much for me. But i’ll give it another episode.

  11. Madpoe says:

    90 mins and I only jumped once an probably over nothing.
    Nick kinda looks like if Keanu Reeves and Johnny Depp had a son together lol.
    I think i expected too much tho’. When I first watch TWD I instantly liked Rick and Shane’s character interaction. I’m not feelin’ it with this cast….yet. Will continue….to watch….

  12. HeatherAnn says:

    First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love that you are covering this with a post. Go celebitchy! Which my iPhone keeps correcting as celeb itchy. Second, it has promise, the show. Will be fun to watch.

  13. d says:

    In an Atlanta episode of the Walking Dead where they end up the WHO building or whatever it was where they store and study diseases, I can’t remember the name, the doctor/researcher there tells Rick how the whole thing started. I think it was an accident or something? Like, something broke or something, and this disease they were cultivating got into the air. Or the army was developing an air-based weapon, but then it got out and no one could contain it? Something like that, so no druggies. ALTHOUGH, not a bad parallel. Maybe that’s the subtext.

    • Ashley Coulter says:

      Actually, no, Jenner doesn’t tell Rick how it got started. Just that everyone is considered infected. When you die, you turn. He does tell Rick that we can presume it went international because France was the last known location working on a cure.

  14. Byte Me says:

    Loved it. The actor who plays Nick reminded me so much of a young Johnny Depp.

  15. Ms. D says:

    I loved it! But I was screaming at the TV ‘run, bitch, ruuuunnnnn!’ From like the opening scene. Ha! Can’t wait till next week.

  16. Amy M. says:

    Walking Dead is forever ruined for me due to work. I have spent way too much time up to my eyeballs staring at the comics for professional reasons (I get paid to stare at comics all day pretty much) which are rather repetitive: Rick has existential crisis, Carl acts like a brat, some baddies show up, zombie interlude, Rick is still a reluctant hero, zombie interlude, Rick rallies the troops, somebody dies/turns into a zombie etc. I just want them to figure out a cure, the element of survival can only go so far for me. But then clearly I’m biased since the zombie genre has submerged me at times at work and I just can’t deal with it anymore.

  17. Jess says:

    Don’t know if you guys remember (or just not much of a Potter fan), but the actor who plays Nick was a young Voldemort in the 6th Harry Potter movie! I loved him in that role (very creepy), but just can’t like his character in this show. Maybe because I still see him as Tom Riddle! Hopefully I’ll warm up to his character over time.

    The show has potential. I didn’t really enjoy the first episode by am willing to give it a shot.