Fear The Walking Dead-episode 1

[Janx]

I found it *boring*. "Fear the Snoring Dead" kind of boring.

They spent a whole lot of time developing the characters around a core conflict that will shortly cease to be an issue. This core conflict developed painfully slowly, and in a way that left me not really caring much about any of the characters in question. All of this could have been handled as post-facto exposition.

I tuned in to see the beginning of a zombie plague, and they gave me the family melodrama around a young man's drug problem. While that may be a good story to tell, this was not the place for it.

I imagine they thought it would be good story telling. But it's predictable.

The kid will do stupid things to get a fix. sell somebody out, take unreasonable risks, disappear for stupid reasons so the family has to go look for him.

Then he'll get doped up stupid, and that'll be another liability situation.

Then he'll try to go straight and get withdrawal. I'm sure that'll be dramatic watching him flop around while zombies bang on the door.

Then, once he's clean, he'll find a stash, and do it all over again...

Totally didn't see that coming.

Meanwhile, the "dad" in the family will try to exert command control over the family. Pretty sure that'll drive the teen daughter into rebellion fits, along with his own son who doesn't like him. The mother will likely resent that as well, as clearly she's command material from her job and he's just a teacher.

FotWD will be a cautionary tale of how most civillians got themselves killed.

 

[Umbran]

I'm struggling to motivate myself to want to watch this. I'm kinda bored of TWD anyway, and two shows of it is only going to make that worse. I guess seeing the leadup to TWD might be mildly interesting as a one-off episode or two, but an entire series?

Well, the current run is only six episodes. I presume they'll pretty quickly run over the time until Rick wakes up in the original.

Then, they'll have a real question - what story are we telling here that isn't already told in the original series?

 

[Umbran]

I imagine they thought it would be good story telling. But it's predictable.

I'd phrase the problem differently - while it is predictable, perhaps my issue with it is better put as it not being new ground.

In the first few episodes of the original show, not a whole lot happened, but it was exploring a new world, and new problems. Going slowly through them made sense, as they needed more time for the audience to absorb the new reality. But "blended family, with teen with drug problem" is not new territory for the viewers. You don't need an hour and a half to explicate it to the audience. You can do it in a third that time, really, setting our expectations with archetypes that you then build depth on as we go.

I think they largely failed audience expectations with this largely mundane opener, and that's a problem. Failing expectations biases the audience against you. Even if it was otherwise well-written, acted, and directed, folks will tend to view it more negatively. Specifically, I think it has led to us largely not caring about these characters, and not caring about how things shake out for them.

 

[Janx]

Well, the current run is only six episodes. I presume they'll pretty quickly run over the time until Rick wakes up in the original.

Then, they'll have a real question - what story are we telling here that isn't already told in the original series?

they could have told the tale from some military folks perspective, or the Mayor or police chief. or a research scientist.

Folks who are trying to deal with or contain the problem.

Instead, we'll be watching from the helpless sidelines of the victims.

We'll probably keep watching it, but it'll likely make me grumble as I have to line up my schedule to catch it since SlingTV doesn't let me record or select prior episodes

 

[Janx]

I'd phrase the problem differently - while it is predictable, perhaps my issue with it is better put as it not being new ground.

In the first few episodes of the original show, not a whole lot happened, but it was exploring a new world, and new problems. Going slowly through them made sense, as they needed more time for the audience to absorb the new reality. But "blended family, with teen with drug problem" is not new territory for the viewers. You don't need an hour and a half to explicate it to the audience. You can do it in a third that time, really, setting our expectations with archetypes that you then build depth on as we go.

I think they largely failed audience expectations with this largely mundane opener, and that's a problem. Failing expectations biases the audience against you. Even if it was otherwise well-written, acted, and directed, folks will tend to view it more negatively. Specifically, I think it has led to us largely not caring about these characters, and not caring about how things shake out for them.

I wonder how we'd view this opening if TWD didn't exist?

I suspect since the title includes walking dead, the fact that we don't see a zombie until the end might be annoying.

 

[Deset Gled]

I turned it off an hour in.

There are so many problems with this show that others have stated well. It was slow, boring, too long, had no characters that I felt affinity for, had no plot lines that I'm remotely interested in, and I'm already burned out on TWD (I watched about three episodes last season, and I didn't miss anything important).

The most painful part for me was when the kid with the knife talked about the mysterious deaths going on across the country. That's the show I want to watch! Not this one. I turned in to see the zombie apocalypse start, dammit, not some high school melodrama.

Maybe the heroin addict plot is an allegory for the producers of the show. They want to break free from the pain they've inflicted on TWD, but they've forgotten how to get by without the bleh. Even when they get a chance to completely start over clean, they fall back into their old habits and destroy their TV show.

 

[was]

Found the first episode to be mediocre at best. It feels like they're adding filler to try to drag the opening out over several episodes.

 

[Lhorgrim]

I won't list specifics because I know some folks don't watch the previews for the next episode, but I get the distinct impression that we're going to get a very heavy dose of the living being as large or larger a threat than the walkers. Probably for several episodes. Man's inhumanity to man and such.

 

[Umbran]

Folks who are trying to deal with or contain the problem.

Instead, we'll be watching from the helpless sidelines of the victims.

Aside from Rick and Shane, the original show was pretty much people from those "helpless sidelines". So, I don't see that as a problem - in fact, the enforcement and control end would see a rather specific view of events that may not match the regular person's on the ground, so I think they are giving us people with valid viewpoints.

I just find the *people* to be uninteresting - there are interesting people that aren't cops, or in the army, or the like. There's already tons of cop shows. And I find the pre-event story to be unnecessary and uninspiring.

 

[Ryujin]

Truly remarkable. I can't remember ever wanting to see a character die as much as that little Jim Morrison wannabe that quickly before. It was under a minute.