Ha ha. I’m in the hospital recovering from Hermia surgery and watching FTWD and wondering which is more painful.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
If that second episode were part of a CRPG, it would have been a daily quest you’ve already grinded out 50 times. There was nothing interesting or new about it.
I completely agree. “Hate watching” is probably the best term for my viewing of this show, at this point. As for The Talking Dead, I think they know this show is a sinking ship, as they seemed to spend a good amount of time talking about anything BUT FotWD.
It actually just got renewed, so we have at least 30 more episodes coming.
This show is run by clowns, which is frustrating since I’m far more interested in this setting and context (the collapse of society and survival tactics as things unravel) than I am the weird frontier-wars of the Walking Dead. I also like the idea of retreating to a boat - World War Z, the book, had some interesting ideas about how that would/wouldn’t work, and it offers lots of good fodder for the show. The segue from the premiere left off with a presumably killer, and expressly faster boat closing in, with someone who seemed malevolent on the radio talking about seeing them soon… and then this episode completely deflates and seems barely connected.
And the plot with Strand on the phone is just so awful - just stop. It’s the end of the world - tell a fucking survival show. You just don’t need the artificial drama of people having additional “agendas”. The entire cast other than Ruben Blades and Strand just be jettisoned. Ophelia seems like dead woman walking though, since so far this season she’s been as relevant as T-Bone.
Looks like we see the remnants of the webisode plane crash next episode. Somewhat surprised that it was the Asian woman who survived, rather than the kid, who seemed like the main character. But given the number of kids on the show already, that’s probably a good decision, and having another strong and decisive character should improve the group dynamic.
I don’t know, it wasn’t a terrible episode. It gave a neat little single episode look at how some people might be dealing with the events that are happening (by going full isolationist survival mode), and it provided much-needed information to our gang in a believable fashion. Thanks to the network of park rangers with radios they now know that San Diego is gone, most of the West Coast met a similar fate as L.A., and that it spreads inland to at least Colorado as well. I liked how the ranger station guy was coping with the events by putting the fences in place and repairing/clearing them. When they showed the little resort town on the other side of the island I thought they might go all Dead Island for a minute, but thankfully they did not. The only thing I was baffled by was why the guy thought the pills were a good fallback plan. A shot to the head would have been better, but then I suppose he wasn’t aware that his wife and kids would turn if they died from the pills. Everyone is still in the mode where they think you have to be “infected” to turn. Poor teenage kid is going to have to go back to the house and shoot his sister and dad still…
Not sure why the writers feel compelled to have Strand talking to some mysterious entity on his sat phone. Is there not enough drama in a world turned upside down by zombies? We really need menacing meta-plots as well? It’ll probably turn out to be a family member he’s trying to reach or something.
since so far this season she’s been as relevant as T-Bone.
NEVAR 4 GET
How did this crap get renewed?
Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk
Maybe. But I think it’s business. We’re going to learn how Strand paid for the yacht and the mansion.
I think Strand is somehow involved in creation of the zombie outbreak.
Ha ha, I’m watching Fear the Walking Dead. :(
-Tom
I’ve been watching this, and while it’s pretty goofy in places, I don’t think it’s any worse than the first couple of seasons of TWD. If anything, it’s better. Have you guys forgotten how much the first 3 or so seasons of the Walking Dead sucked?
I will bet you dollars to donuts Fear the Walking Dead will never achieve anything remotely like Sophie in the barn. Because unless you care about the characters somewhat, you can’t really care about the events. Fear the Walking Dead has such terrible writing, characters, and production values that I honestly don’t care what happens to a single one of the characters. Maybe Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis’ characters a little, but only because I like them as actors.
-Tom
I think Tom summed it up pretty well. This show just isn’t that good. What made TWD interesting was that you really did care about the characters. I’m still pissed about the whole Glenn Dumpster Dive mostly because I was absolutely shocked that they would just casually kill him off. Then the shenanigans were revealed and I just didn’t really care anymore.
And I really don’t care about any of the toons on FoTWD because not only are they cardboard-cookie-cut but I also know that the showrunners have no qualms about putting their puppets in dumb situations in order to shock you or make you feel uncomfortable or whatever. Like Glenn in the Dumpster, it’s audience manipulation of the worst kind.
I will continue watching because the whole series has a dreary competence that I can’t ignore. But I would be OK if they decided to cancel it at any point.
There just aren’t any shocking/unexpected/interesting moments on FTWD for me. And moments that are meant to fill that role come off as “meh” because of my total lack of care for what happens to the characters. The suicide of the ex-wife was obviously meant to be that heart-tugging, emotional moment that TWD is known for, but I was more relieved than anything. It meant the end of the silly Dawson’s Creek-level high school crap that was going on between the ex-wife, her son, her ex-husband and Kim (whatever her character name is).
By contrast, The Walking Dead established emotional connections with the characters very quickly. You knew quickly what kind of man Rick was, how he felt about his family and the fear/confusion he was feeling. I cared about the guy within the first half of the first episode. Even Merl, who at first seemed like a throw-away character, was someone that I understood and who felt fleshed out by the end of the episode where they find his severed hand on the roof.
Now that I’m typing this, I think I know the reason I don’t give a crap about FTWD characters. They spend so much time trying to establish how “damaged” all these people are. I would rather they be a happy nuclear family, living their every day lives without a care…and then the ZA starts and we see what happens to them. When a family was already a mess, I have less of a care about how much more of a mess they are becoming. Show me what happens to the people who have their shit together. What happens as food and water run low, the stress of being trapped in a house with people you love, watching someone you were happy with die in front of you. If the son dies, I think the family would be sad but also a little relieved. No emotional impact. Same for pretty well every one of the other characters, for me.
Darn good observation. I like that TWD shows relatively “normal” families and people, and then explores the crucible through which they travel and how that changes them. In FTWD, there is so much messed up, contrived drama built into each character before the ZA arrives that they’re largely unrelatable. I think that’s why I liked Tobias - no extra crap aside from usual high school issues, and he was smart enough to turn down the offer to follow these loons to “safety.”
Well, so much for that Asian cutie joining the cast.
Also, that must have been one of the most retarded zombie attack, siege, defense, and rescue sequences I have ever seen. And that’s really saying something, considering the crap zombie movies I’ve watched. Everything about it was so supremely dumb. From Reuben Blades emptying his pistol as a horde cresting a distant dune to everyone somehow not getting the boat prepped to leave in the fifteen minutes it took the zombies to draw near, to the standoff conveniently located atop a modest hillock to create the illusion of being cornered, to the mechanics of the Depp-alike’s rescue (not to mention his wacky tumble into the zombie pit!). In Fear the Walking Dead, you can just splash some blood on your face and Walk With The Zombies. You can even stand Face To Face With Them And Look Into Their Eyes/Souls.
I’m not the only one who watched this, am I? Guys? Anyone?
-Tom
I had it on in the background, I will admit. However, I found myself rooting for the zombies. So many of those characters deserve to die.
Man, that walker that was stuck in the sand sure had a nasty case of crabs. <rimshot>
Totally agree with Tom on this week’s episode. That was, hands down, the worst staging of a zombie peril scene in the history of TWD, perhaps in all zombie film ever. They had all the time in the world to collect the things they had found (including the much needed medicine), put it all in the boat, and still be safely out to sea long before the shambling horde ever closed on them. Expending all your ammo in a useless attempt to thin the horde is simply stupid, and way out of character for Salazar, who along with Strand would be the most likely character to recognize that they need to save the bullets for the PEOPLE they meet who are a threat, not the walkers. And why the urgency on the big boat? “We have to leave, NOW!”. Really, why? Because zombies can swim that far out to sea, against the tide and currents? Um, no. Finally, Nick’s epiphany about zombie gore camo comes how exactly? It’s not part of his encounter with crabs walker, and they never show what happens with the other one that falls into the pit. I suppose we’re meant to infer that because crabs walker was on top of Nick, clumsy walker did not attempt to eat him, and thus Nick figured out gore camo. Seems like a stretch.
Also, I doubt the Flight 462 chick is going away just yet. The kid might not be long for the show though, which is yet another totally out of character move this week, as ruthless as she seemed on the plane, how the hell is it that she just can’t being herself to end the kid’s obvious pain and misery, but instead keeps someone who could die and turn at any time in the boat with her? Dumb.
I’m out. Had high hope, gave it a try, but I’m done at this point. Going to keep the DVR going for the rest of the season, just in case I hear from someone that it gets significantly better, but will just “delete all” after the finale, most likely.
What a wasted chance at a franchise. There are some damn good writers in TV these days. It’s a shame they didn’t hire any of them to work on FTWD.
Wasn’t that hilarious? It made zero sense, like the writers, director, production crew, and show runner were all working completely independent of each other and had furthermore simply stopped caring about what they were shooting.
No, don’t go! It’s going to be a pretty sad “Ha ha, you’re watching Fear the Walking Dead!” when I have no one to direct it to beside myself and Slainte Mhath!
-Tom