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Fear the Walking Dead - Season One - Sundays on AMC

Patryn

Member
yeah that would be lame but couldn't that just be 9 days since he saw part of the riot on the streets?

The Army arrived the morning after the riots. Remember? They fled home and were getting ready to leave that morning when the army showed up.

So it's the same 9 days either way.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Jesus most of the cast is hate worthy.

I didn't hate the characters of the Walking Dead proper like some people (Lori, Andrea) but damn if I don't hate 90% of the cast of Fear. That's certainly an achievement.
 

raphier

Banned
Wait, what? People think that scene implies that Madison beat Nick as a child?

Seriously?

Have you never read or seen any other book, movie, or show where a character slaps someone they care about, usually in a moment of frustration and disappointment?

i.e. Batman Begins

^

It was very clearly about frustration with Nick's current behaviour.
 

ItIsOkBro

Member
Beat up her son, jeopardized the community, blamed the ex-wife for her problems, and didn't pick up a gun. In this episode Madison certified herself as the worst character on TV.

I'm glad for the change of pace. IMO, the fall of civilization was happening way too fast. I was surprised since the pilot that it opened with a Walker present. Now that safezones are set up maybe humanity can fall a bit slower now.
 
Beat up her son, jeopardized the community, blamed the ex-wife for her problems, and didn't pick up a gun. In this episode Madison certified herself as the worst character on TV.

For one thing, it was explained that the area around the neighborhood is secured. There aren't any walkers around (in fact, as I understand it, this is the first episode of either series to not have a single walker in the episode). Her cutting a hole in the fence isn't as dangerous as Nick siphoning morphine while an old man writhes in pain above (which would have made things worse if he died).

There are a lot of things I'll give this show shit for, but Madison is not one of them. No way in hell is she as bad as Andrea at her worst (which I believe is what eventually caused the ouster of Glen Mazzara in TWD's third season).
 

Volimar

Member
Beat up her son, jeopardized the community, blamed the ex-wife for her problems, and didn't pick up a gun. In this episode Madison certified herself as the worst character on TV.

I'm glad for the change of pace. IMO, the fall of civilization was happening way too fast. I was surprised since the pilot that it opened with a Walker present. Now that safezones are set up maybe humanity can fall a bit slower now.

She's gotta set herself up as new Lori.
 

Zoe

Member
Wait, what? People think that scene implies that Madison beat Nick as a child?

Seriously?

Have you never read or seen any other book, movie, or show where a character slaps someone they care about, usually in a moment of frustration and disappointment?

i.e. Batman Begins

It's not her reaction but Nick's reaction that suggested it to me. He was way too withdrawn after it happened.
 
You'd figure if that were true then Alicia would have figured out that it was the mom that did it.
i thought we were gonna get to that. but then the chase/takeaway shit happened. i didn't expect the episode to end like that so suddenly.
The Army arrived the morning after the riots. Remember? They fled home and were getting ready to leave that morning when the army showed up.

So it's the same 9 days either way.
word. if they're trying to be realistic with how the world would end if such an apocalypse were happening (it wouldn't because in reality anyway zombie fiction fucking exists) are they really suggesting that instead of protecting civilians, that they'd take the time to trick the civilians into believing they're in a safe zone all the while the government is experimenting on people?

that's what some of the people in this thread are hypothesizing.
 
i think it's pretty ridiculous that liza hopped on the truck without talking to her son first.

&& that's part of why now everyone's gonna cling to madison's misconception that this is all liza's doing.

that's one thing i really don't like about these things...misconceptions. like when gabriel was telling that stupid shit to (alexandria's leader, her name escapes at the moment. monroe?)
 
I think the show is keeping a TWD-like ratio of "hate characters" and "likeable."

Hate: (Selfish/mean and/or jeopardise/slow-down the group)
- Alicia
- Chris
- Ex-wife

Likeable or at least some good some bad:
- Nick (okay, likeable but frustrating/disappointing)
- Daniel (warrior in the making)
- Travis (starting as a dove, going to end up a paranoid zombie war veteran)
- Madison (nurturing and caring towards her kids now, but the darkness is there and she's already starting to crack)
- Ofelia (worries about her family, thinks the military can be trusted now -- in for rude surprises on both fronts)

YMMV on how likeable any of these people are, of course but other than the teenage kids (who make me grind my teeth with everything they do) I'm okay with the cast. I don't expect them to sing and dance and be funny for me given the situation.

One thing I do get frustrated at is making bad calls -- Travis insisting on leaving their neighbor alive created the entire situation with Patrick and possibly even prevented their escape, as Madison altered course to save Patrick. But, I have to set aside those criticisms, because they are still learning. It's only 4 episodes in.

Also, remember that TWD had periods where not only Lori, Andrea, and Shane were in the cast at the same time, but Shane and Andrea actually hooked up. Ew. And that's not even counting the villains they were fighting, which we don't even have yet in Fear.

It's always been sort of a hate-watch show -- in fact, your dislike of a character is usually a pretty good indicator that they plan to kill them. I think they bring people like that into the fold on purpose.
 
It would be really cool if this show established an Enclave of the US government existing on the West Coast that the Greater Alexandria-Hilltop Community is unaware of.


I gave myself a cool idea for the comics (spoilers for current issues).
What if all of this bolstering and preparations for war against the Whisperers is for naught because on the eve of battle the Whisperers are wiped out by a force arriving from the west claiming to be the US government?
 
nick isn't the least bit likable in any way shape or form after the shit he pulled in the last episode.
Yeah that was pretty bad, but there is still something interesting/sympathetic/tragic about him, to me. YMMV of course. I don't think you need to condone everything a character does to be invested in their story and hope they turn out okay. Source: I watched The Sopranos.
 
Yeah that was pretty bad, but there is still something interesting/sympathetic/tragic about him, to me. YMMV of course. I don't think you need to condone everything a character does to be invested in their story and hope they turn out okay. Source: I watched The Sopranos.
i'm not sympathizing with this mothafucker anymore. not after this. but that's just me..
 

Red Mage

Member
Beat up her son, jeopardized the community, blamed the ex-wife for her problems, and didn't pick up a gun. In this episode Madison certified herself as the worst character on TV.

I'm glad for the change of pace. IMO, the fall of civilization was happening way too fast. I was surprised since the pilot that it opened with a Walker present. Now that safezones are set up maybe humanity can fall a bit slower now.

She hasn't even reached Andrea levels of stupid, yet. She shot Darryl and slept with the Governor, so that's a high bar.
 

cacildo

Member
Somebody should create a tv show called "what happens when zombies attack"

Showing what happens to the whole world, and also everybody has watched at least one zombie movie in life

The tagline would be "Its like the walking dead... except it dosent suck"
 
Beat up her son, jeopardized the community, blamed the ex-wife for her problems, and didn't pick up a gun. In this episode Madison certified herself as the worst character on TV.

I'm glad for the change of pace. IMO, the fall of civilization was happening way too fast. I was surprised since the pilot that it opened with a Walker present. Now that safezones are set up maybe humanity can fall a bit slower now.
Nick deserved the beating and then some.
 

UberTag

Member
You're trying to rationalize this as someone who's seen five seasons of Rick and co. coming to terms with what's happening. The characters in FTWD still believe things will get back to normal, because it's only been about a week or so since the outbreak.
All except for Tobias. That kid was ahead of the curve.
He knew that "normal" was fucked before anyone else.

I keep seeing this post and thought people were joking first. Regular TWD is way better than Fear the Walking Dead.... Even in it worst times you always have a couple of characters you care about on TWD - but with Fear they are all just idiots.
I think a bunch of people just convinced themselves that Fear "was better" after the first episode or two and refuse to recalibrate their opinions at all or even bother to explain how or why it's better. Frankly, I think Fear is hot garbage and The Walking Dead blows it away in terms of direction, acting, script... just about everything outside of really terrible late season 1 or early season 2 TWD. Hell, the hospital arc in Season 5 was pretty bad and it's still miles better than this.

They could have done a live-action recreation of the Telltale video games and it would have been infinitely better than Fear.

Then again we are still early and this might chase at the end of this season.. But so far the only person I like on the show were the fat kid in the school who knew what was going on and cartel grandpa. Ever one else is just horrible and no one acts human.

But I kinda liked were they were going the last episode.... I really hope Travis stops being such a tool.
I'm kind of in the same boat as you. Just watching this as a guilty pleasure to pass the time but I'm not expecting much improvement from these final two episodes.
 
All except for Tobias. That kid was ahead of the curve.
He knew that "normal" was fucked before anyone else.

I feel like Tobias is one of two things. Either he's a subversion of the "prepared survivor", or he's a caricature of the fans who watch the show.

He's a smug kid who claims to be prepared for the worst, but when push comes to shove, he can't get the job done. He relied on a dinky penknife (to the point of going back to the school for it, when he could have used any knife from his family's home), and stabbed Artie in the chest instead of the head.

I don't understand why people keep championing him. He was a bit of a wuss, actually.
 
He relied on a dinky penknife (to the point of going back to the school for it, when he could have used any knife from his family's home), and stabbed Artie in the chest instead of the head.

I don't understand why people keep championing him. He was a bit of a wuss, actually.
He didn't go back to school for the knife. He went there to get food, and it lucked out that Madison was there so he was able to get his knife back

Now why they left without taking the food is a question for another day

But he clearly didn't return to the school for the knife
 
I feel like Tobias is one of two things. Either he's a subversion of the "prepared survivor", or he's a caricature of the fans who watch the show.

He's a smug kid who claims to be prepared for the worst, but when push comes to shove, he can't get the job done. He relied on a dinky penknife (to the point of going back to the school for it, when he could have used any knife from his family's home), and stabbed Artie in the chest instead of the head.

I don't understand why people keep championing him. He was a bit of a wuss, actually.
we would know to aim for the head.
 
Yeah, I still don't understand that scene at all. Why they left without taking the food, or why Tobias went there in the first place when the school was explicitly shown to be locked before Madison arrived.
 
One thing I find weird with the walking dead is the lack of carnivorous animals. A bunch of walking corpses should be easy targets for animals yet they only show live stock and In FTWD the one dog that just decided it was going to let the walker eat it. I understand many animals fear humans and so they would avoid them but their are walkers that sit in place long enough for plants to grow on them.

Really I just want to see the crow like in the intro of walking dead sitting on the shoulder of a walker slowly picking at it while it's wondering around or even cooler a tiger or bear from a zoo escaping and just ripping through groups of walkers just for the sheer badassery. I mean as the dad in "Fear the Walking Dead " says no matter what Nature always wins.
 

someday

Banned
One thing I find weird with the walking dead is the lack of carnivorous animals. A bunch of walking corpses should be easy targets for animals yet they only show live stock and In FTWD the one dog that just decided it was going to let the walker eat it. I understand many animals fear humans and so they would avoid them but their are walkers that sit in place long enough for plants to grow on them.

Really I just want to see the crow like in the intro of walking dead sitting on the shoulder of a walker slowly picking at it while it's wondering around or even cooler a tiger or bear from a zoo escaping and just ripping through groups of walkers just for the sheer badassery. I mean as the dad in "Fear the Walking Dead " says no matter what Nature always wins.
I figured it was because they are dead and most animals wouldn't eat something that is rotting. The moment humans die, they begin to break down. I assumed that animals smelled that and avoided eating or trying to eat them.
 
I figured it was because they are dead and most animals wouldn't eat something that is rotting. The moment humans die, they begin to break down. I assumed that animals smelled that and avoided eating or trying to eat them.

That why I mentioned crows as some animals are fine consuming rotten flesh and I just find it odd(though I understand its budget as they would need to cgi which is the reason the dogs death was off screen) we havent seen many conflicts between animals and zombies but its most likely because the animals are too smart .

When you deconstruct the walkers what you essentially get is a slow almost vegetative state human running off of instincts similar to microorganism with their consumption and reproduction(though through killing instead of self reproduction since than humanity be damned) whos major form of hunting (and group swarming) based off of most likely pheromones and other chemicals (make me wonder if heavy perfume would work similar to rotten flesh in getting around walkers) similar as mentioned before to microorganism (im ignorning the two walkers that used tools as I believe that was the tv producers fault) which all in all makes them dumber than ants and completely insignificant in the animal kingdom.

Still would be cool though
 

Vagabundo

Member
I keep seeing this post and thought people were joking first. Regular TWD is way better than Fear the Walking Dead.... Even in it worst times you always have a couple of characters you care about on TWD - but with Fear they are all just idiots.

Then again we are still early and this might chase at the end of this season.. But so far the only person I like on the show were the fat kid in the school who knew what was going on and cartel grandpa. Ever one else is just horrible and no one acts human.


But I kinda liked were they were going the last episode.... I really hope Travis stops being such a tool.

It is still early, but FTWD does what TWD doesn't; have some decent inter character dialogue/interaction. Most of the TWD character interaction is philosophical bullshit.

Another thing FTWD does way better is have the character smile and joke. TWD is so grim all the characters are just morose all the time, not very believable, even in the most abhorrent situations people joke and laugh.

TWD is still interesting, it does have some interesting characters and situations and I'll continue to watch it. It fills my zombie niche, but I'm far more invested in FTWD at the moment.
 

Pillville

Member
I'm going to keep watching... BUT...
as many have said, character are annoying.


Also, it's hard to "Fear the Walking Dead" when there aren't any walking dead.

They are treating the infected people like mysterious things, like the White Walkers in Game of Thrones.
Except it doesn't work here because:
1) We already have a long running show about the walkers, so we know what they are.
2) The "Walking Dead" is in the title of the show, so we know what they are.

Maybe if this show had happened before The Walking Dead and was called "The Infected". It would be really interesting.
What was wrong with those sick people?
Why didn't they die?
What is the military hiding?
Then in a plot twist we find out "The Infected" is all of humanity.
 
I'm going to keep watching... BUT...
as many have said, character are annoying.


Also, it's hard to "Fear the Walking Dead" when there aren't any walking dead.

They are treating the infected people like mysterious things, like the White Walkers in Game of Thrones.
Except it doesn't work here because:
1) We already have a long running show about the walkers, so we know what they are.
2) The "Walking Dead" is in the title of the show, so we know what they are.
Those criticisms are ridiculous

There was a show called Breaking Bad. Does knowing that the show was about the protagonist breaking bad make the show not interesting?

So what if we know what the walkers are? The characters don't and that's what matters. If you can't divorce your knowledge from the character's experience, that's not the show's fault
 

Pillville

Member
Those criticisms are ridiculous

There was a show called Breaking Bad. Does knowing that the show was about the protagonist breaking bad make the show not interesting?

So what if we know what the walkers are? The characters don't and that's what matters. If you can't divorce your knowledge from the character's experience, that's not the show's fault

I'm saying that so far, they are treating the zombies as a big mystery (to both the characters and the audience). That really doesn't work when you're audience has already had years of experience with them. I'm ok with the characters not knowing what they are or how to react.

I think, like me, most people wanted to see how society collapsed. Not 6 people stuck in their house, whining about when the phones are going to work again.
 

Pillville

Member
Also, the dad totally reminds me of the Wind Waker Shop Owner.
tumblr_nv6uaqvEB61s96c36o1_400.png
 
I'm saying that so far, they are treating the zombies as a big mystery (to both the characters and the audience). That really doesn't work when you're audience has already had years of experience with them. I'm ok with the characters not knowing what they are or how to react.
I don't think it's treating it as a mystery to the audience. The daughter not getting replies from her boyfriend, the sirens and general activity on the streets diminishing as the first few episodes progressed, the doctors rushing the guy out of the hospital room...all those things work and heightened because we know what's going on but the characters don't

It's like the original Halloween or The Strangers, where the audience would see the killer in the background or lurking around well before the characters were aware something was wrong

But the show definitely isn't treating it as a mystery for the audience
 
I'm definitely seeing a lot of people who simply aren't able to divorce what they know about the walkers with what the characters know about the walkers. The characters don't know what's going on. They obviously have encountered enough of the walkers to have an inkling of what's going on, that "you get sick, you die, then you come back and attack people."

This family is a microcosm displaying the breakdown of society. It might not be the full "let's watch a city disintegrate" that some people are looking for, it is consistent with how the show handles these types of things. That is, rather than the grand (and yes, expensive) perspective, they take a small set of people and show how they react/survive in this situation.

But let's take a real life situation (for those of you struggling with "but these characters are stupid!"). Remember the big tsunami in Indonesia in 2004? When the waves receded from the beach, how many people actually went toward the water? Thousands of them. We can sit here in hindsight and say "didn't they know that was a sign of a tsunami and they should be running in the opposite direction?" No, they didn't. They went toward something odd to see what was happening.

So try to take that perspective here. These characters aren't stupid: they simply don't know what is happening and are piecing it together.
 

aku:jiki

Member
I really don't know why so many of y'all are just kneejerk hating on Nick. Despite being a junkie, he's been one of the least useless characters so far. Isn't he the only cast member to score a zombie kill besides Daniel?

Im more impressed by the kids: everybody hates annoying teens on apocalypse movies/tv shows.http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/photoshop/8/0/4/452804_v1.jpg
That pic fails to recognize that The Strain managed the impressive feat of recasting an annoying son with an even more annoying son.
 
I really don't know why so many of y'all are just kneejerk hating on Nick. Despite being a junkie, he's been one of the least useless characters so far. Isn't he the only cast member to score a zombie kill besides Daniel?

That pic fails to recognize that The Strain managed the impressive feat of recasting an annoying son with an even more annoying son.

The mother killed the principle.
 
I really don't know why so many of y'all are just kneejerk hating on Nick. Despite being a junkie, he's been one of the least useless characters so far. Isn't he the only cast member to score a zombie kill besides Daniel?

That pic fails to recognize that The Strain managed the impressive feat of recasting an annoying son with an even more annoying son.

Didn't kill it, just wounded it until it could no longer move.
 
I really don't know why so many of y'all are just kneejerk hating on Nick. Despite being a junkie, he's been one of the least useless characters so far. Isn't he the only cast member to score a zombie kill besides Daniel?

That pic fails to recognize that The Strain managed the impressive feat of recasting an annoying son with an even more annoying son.

Seriously. I didn't think it'd be possible, but I find myself wishing the old kid would come back.
 
I'm definitely seeing a lot of people who simply aren't able to divorce what they know about the walkers with what the characters know about the walkers. The characters don't know what's going on. They obviously have encountered enough of the walkers to have an inkling of what's going on, that "you get sick, you die, then you come back and attack people."

This family is a microcosm displaying the breakdown of society. It might not be the full "let's watch a city disintegrate" that some people are looking for, it is consistent with how the show handles these types of things. That is, rather than the grand (and yes, expensive) perspective, they take a small set of people and show how they react/survive in this situation.

But let's take a real life situation (for those of you struggling with "but these characters are stupid!"). Remember the big tsunami in Indonesia in 2004? When the waves receded from the beach, how many people actually went toward the water? Thousands of them. We can sit here in hindsight and say "didn't they know that was a sign of a tsunami and they should be running in the opposite direction?" No, they didn't. They went toward something odd to see what was happening.

So try to take that perspective here. These characters aren't stupid: they simply don't know what is happening and are piecing it together.

This. I keep trying to say this, but everyone can't seem to divorce the fact that they know way more than the characters. It's arm chair quarterbacking after the play is over. It always amazes me when people complain about something being unrealistic when it's absolutely realistic and the perfection of perfect choices they want is what is unrealistic.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
I'm definitely seeing a lot of people who simply aren't able to divorce what they know about the walkers with what the characters know about the walkers. The characters don't know what's going on. They obviously have encountered enough of the walkers to have an inkling of what's going on, that "you get sick, you die, then you come back and attack people."

This family is a microcosm displaying the breakdown of society. It might not be the full "let's watch a city disintegrate" that some people are looking for, it is consistent with how the show handles these types of things. That is, rather than the grand (and yes, expensive) perspective, they take a small set of people and show how they react/survive in this situation.

But let's take a real life situation (for those of you struggling with "but these characters are stupid!"). Remember the big tsunami in Indonesia in 2004? When the waves receded from the beach, how many people actually went toward the water? Thousands of them. We can sit here in hindsight and say "didn't they know that was a sign of a tsunami and they should be running in the opposite direction?" No, they didn't. They went toward something odd to see what was happening.

So try to take that perspective here. These characters aren't stupid: they simply don't know what is happening and are piecing it together.

Quoting again for maximum exposure.
 
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