Fear of the Walking Dead

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Tron
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Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby Tron » September 23rd, 2015, 10:00 pm

Being a fan of The Walking Dead made me excited for this spinoff. Now that I've seen about 5 episodes I think I can give an informed opinion on what I think about this spinoff; it sucks.

I'll start with the good. The slow-burn presentation of the story is good in theory. The shock factor we got from the original series is going to desensitize viewers so not trying to compete in that aspect makes sense. That's about all the good I can think of.

Like I wrote, the slow-burn storytelling is a good idea, but you've still gotta get the audiences attention. I felt like I was watching a really bad drama. Another time I felt like I was watching one of those low budget "made for TV movies" from the 80's. You don't have to show a ton of zombie footage, but there has to be at least more then 4 scenes total across 5 episodes.

The cast sucks. A really sorry and unlikable cast of characters are presented. No one is interesting, unique or bad-ass. The only good quality about the cast is that they do a good job of representing 2015 societal standards. That is they come across as self-absorbed, thinking that they are special and clever when really they are shallow &
Clueless. The only good that come from this cast now is if they all got killed & the series introduced new characters to build upon. Seriously I can't think of even one character that I like. They all suck. This would be a good opportunity to utilize a "has-been" actor from the past & given a new opportunity on this show. Someone like Maculy Culkin perhaps? That would at least bring something interesting about a character when you've got nothing else.

To sum it up; I had been watching the show for about 30 minutes while my wife sat in the room with me playing on her phone. I said out loud, "This show sucks!" She then asked me what I was watching. I answered that I was watching the new zombie show. She then said,"I haven't seen any zombies." I then said, " I know! That's why this show sucks."

Teddybear
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby Teddybear » September 24th, 2015, 6:42 am

I fully agree with how lame the main characters have been. Furthermore, nobody is reacting like a normal person would in this scenario. Very little sense of panic or terror is being conveyed.....I mean really - your neighbor ate your dog and then tried to have you for dessert and you still don't like guns?......the blonde counselor kills her boss (the principal) then plays Monopoly later that night, only 10 kids show up at the high school so the district calls it a half day and sends them home. etc....

Incorporate scenes like having a television on in the family's home showing Fox News-esque video clips reporting the chaos occurring around the country or at the bare minimum at least show neighbors talking in the street saying things like "Hey Joe, have you heard there are these sick people that are attacking others? Oh, and by the way, can I have the splitting axe that I let you borrow back? I think I'm going to need it."

I had high hopes for this series but am losing patience.

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scotland
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby scotland » September 24th, 2015, 11:00 am

I sadly agree.

Kirkman originally wrote Rick in a coma so he could skip right to post apocalypse. I thought this series would focus more on the collapse, but the time skip put that hope to bed. I wanted to see the fall of mankind - best I got was a riot. I want exploding nuclear reactors or toxic clouds from burning manufacturing plants, religious pandemonium, zombies in a high rise, the battle of Yonkers....

The characters are suspect. If I have an argument with my boss I get upset; if I bludgeoned them with a fire extinguisher I dont think I would be playing monopoly that evening. Sure she was trying to keep people calm, but that really seems more unreal than zombies.

The season is short. Maybe it will end well.

Steve
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby Steve » September 24th, 2015, 12:00 pm

I would agree that this show is disappointing when compared to The Walking Dead however, I would say it is far from sucking. Considering the timeline, I think we've seen a fair amount of zombies and no doubt, we will see more soon. I would also agree that the characters are not very appealing or very realistic. The whole sub-story about the people alive outside the safe zone is intriguing but not the reaction of the cast. I don't think I would risk my life by investigating alone like the character Maddie did. Another weak point was Liza leaving her family to help out at the hospital. Unless I missed something, she was not forced so I have a real problem with leaving her teenage son behind. Clearly, something apocalyptic is happening and the reactions are just not normal. I'll continue to have faith since there have only been 4 episodes and there are certainly Walking Dead episodes that have been sub-par in their character realism. I think it will grow into a decent show.

Teddybear
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby Teddybear » September 24th, 2015, 7:16 pm

The Battle of Yonkers? Now there's a man who has read the novel World War Z!!!!!

I seldom read books but have read WWZ 3 times and have listened to the "book on CD" several times as well. Mark Hamill's reading as the soldier re-telling the battle is some good stuff! I highly recommend anyone who enjoyed the book to grab the 10-CD set!

There is enough material in World War Z to make a few more movies. The Brad Pitt WWZ was excellent but hardly had anything to do with the actual novel. Chapters from the book like the U.S. Army trying to take control (and being vastly outnumbered) at Yonkers, the teen in Japan that tries to escape from his high rise apartment or even the family from Wisconsin that heads north to Canada thinking they will be safe would all translate very well on film.....if done right.

With two episodes left, maybe Fear The Walking Dead will take root. Eventually these characters are going to run out of food and get hungry, right?

Sorry to go off topic a little. I think after the past several years of The Walking Dead that has raised the bar considerably for the zombie genre we are getting harder to please 8-)

Hardcore Sadism
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby Hardcore Sadism » September 24th, 2015, 8:11 pm

Yeah I have no hope for this season. Next season or this prequel-series will be cancelled, mark my words.

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scotland
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby scotland » September 24th, 2015, 9:28 pm

Teddybear wrote:The Battle of Yonkers? Now there's a man who has read the novel World War Z!!!


It is a fabulous book. The interview style covering disjointed snippets as a sort of personal edition to a more impersonal government official history is wonderfully engaging. The downed pilot with a 'helpful guide' in Louisiana, the soldier in the Paris sewers, the dying astronaut, etc are memorable. The battle of Yonkers tries to address how the worlds mightiest military could not end the plague. The book does the slow burn spread of the virus very well, all the way up to the judas goat grand strategy for survival. Great stuff, but Brooks wanted to tell a complete story on the near extinction of man. Add in story elements from what happens when civilization collapses - a lot more than the power goes out and food is scarce. That could have made a riviting, but expensive, mini series or short season.

Kirkman wants to explore mans savage side versus the more humane side. Any civilization will just be a chance to explore how it remains temporarily safe at a great cost, how it changes people or deals with savagery within and without. Reading his comics, I thought he was going in circles after about 60 issues (he introduces a governor 2.0 and inflicts degres of bodily harm to characters that zombies become the most believeable part of his wacky biology).

I will stick with this season and see if it improves, butI doubt we will see anything original. Maybe original is overrated, and people just want good zombie special effects, which they can do. Maybe the season finale will change our mind.

Tron
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby Tron » September 25th, 2015, 7:08 am

Good points about the show guys. There's a lot going on in this show that just doesn't mesh well. Funny how everyone is either enabling or supportive of the heroin addict. Where's the anger? Where's the resentment? The mom finally hits the guy, but even then she still doesn't hurl verbal insults.

It's obvious this show doesn't have half the budget the Walking Dead does. It's ok to work on a small budget, but the directors & producer need to do a better job of hiding it. How expensive is it to use extras in the background?

Still the main problem with this show is that there isn't enough action & the cast is uninteresting. People need to die!

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Rookie1
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby Rookie1 » September 25th, 2015, 8:53 am

The first 3 episodes were absolute garbage IMO. They focused too much on insignificant story lines, and made the characters absolutely deplorable. Your neighbor is getting eaten, so you sit down to a nice game of monopoly? Really?

Episode 4 was a lot better though. If they would have started the series with that episode, and then flash backed to the rest, I wouldnt be as disappointed with the series as I am.

I remember Shane saying "it started out with a bunch of little events" or something along those lines. I was really hoping to see more of that, how local and federal governments were dealing with it, and how things just went down. Instead we got the typical dysfunctional family thrown in to a bad situation scenario. Wasnt impressed.

The time hop between episode 3 and 4 glazed over everything I wanted to see, and now we just see the Army murdering civilians and taking people away to a mysterious medical center. Pretty much the same story every single infection-type movie has ever had.

I really wanted a lot more in-depth explanation of how things went down, instead we just got a generic horror show the likes of the Sy-Fy channel originals.

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scotland
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Re: Fear of the Walking Dead

Postby scotland » September 25th, 2015, 9:25 am

Tron wrote: People need to die!


And lots of people. Like 300 million people in the US alone if Rick's experience in Georgia is anything to go by. Its like "Here is a school of 1000 kids...now let's show zombie violence so extreme that only 10 traumatized kids, who had to slaughter other kids, manage to survive it...now imagine that in every school in America..."

And darn it, the show started off with a school. It was set up for this horrible scene of school violence, which would certainly have made a social statement as well as been shocking zombie tv. Instead, we got what we got. Blah.

Rookie1 wrote: Episode 4 was a lot better though. If they would have started the series with that episode, and then flash backed to the rest, I wouldn't be as disappointed with the series as I am. ..the time hop between episode 3 and 4 glazed over everything I wanted to see.


Even if episode 4 was better, you are right that the time hop from ep3 to ep4 skipped over we we needed to see. If this family is one of the lucky ones, then don't follow their story! Follow a person or family out there in the chaos - let us see. Rule #1 is to show, not tell, and they have not really shown us much at all.

Maybe its the budget interacting with expectations. King Kong climbed the Empire State Building in the 1930s with a modest budget, and Godzilla could demolish Tokyo in the 1950s with a modest budget, and we had Land of the Lost and Planet of the Apes tv series in the 1970s with downright cheap budgets - but maybe expectations for special effects are so high that even with amazing CGI technology the showrunners feel it can't be done with a modest budget. So, with all that CGI, we get this tiny tiny window to the end of Mankind.


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