Fear of the Walking Dead

[Rookie1]

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.

They could have filmed everything on a lot with a b-crew filming around the city for dirt cheap (buddy of mine shoots b-roll for The Voice and doesnt get paid much). The zombies are all "fresh" so makeup affects would need to be minimal at best. Considering the hype, and the price of the 20 minutes of advertisement space during the show, and a cast of nobodies, I feel like they could have done a lot more than what we got.

[Herschie]

I wish they'd make a "Last of Us" show. This is similar, but it'd be cool to see clickers and runners. This is a bit different, as the infected are slow and relatively easy to avoid. Still, I like to make some popcorn and watch it with my wife.

[scotland]

Next to last episode of the season aired and its not better. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for Salazar? Would the military ever go scorched earth to the American people? All of Los Angeles is falling and we saw ... one zombie through a scope. Our new character, Mr. Make a Deal, has some promise, but that's about it.

[Tron]

Next to last episode of the season aired and its not better. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for Salazar? Would the military ever go scorched earth to the American people? All of Los Angeles is falling and we saw ... one zombie through a scope. Our new character, Mr. Make a Deal, has some promise, but that's about it.

You ain't kiddin'. One lousy zombie?

Salazar has the potential to turn Into one of those "misguided bad guys", kinda like The Mayor. Unfortunately the show sux so bad that it will probably get canceled before that can get materialized.

The boy & girl destroy a house? I know they're immature, but come on! Find something interesting to do or don't take up air time.

Travis is so naive & idealistic that he makes for an unlikely hero.

The show started off bad & somehow gets worse.

The worst part is how Rookie already shared that they "glazed" over the apocalypse part. Up until this episode I held hope that they would still get back into that. It sure seems now that we got a riot in one episode to everything's in ruins now.

As far as "Mr. let's make a deal"; he's ok, but he alone can't save this disaster of a show. Maybe if he set the heroin addict & the rest of the cast up for demise then maybe with a new cast & more zombies this show could be salvaged. We know that ain't gonna happen.

[Rookie1]

I think if they would have started out the series with episode 4, it wouldnt have been as bad of a show. The first 3 episodes were garbage, and the time-hop between 3 & 4 made all of those episodes irrelevant.

Say we started off the series with them in a gated community, all having a false sense security, not knowing what was really going on. We see flashbacks, much like they do at the beginning of TWD, showing how they all got there. Then we get more insight as to how the military and government are handling things, and how everything around them is crumbling. I would have liked that a lot better, and it would have fit the narrative more.

What we got was a poorly written horror movie cliche. Its sad. I mean, we get 3 episodes that really have no bearing on the show other than to show us how inept all the characters are and tell us things we already know are going to happen. You could literally not have watched any of those episode, started on episode 4, and would not have missed anything that mattered. After that, we time-hop to the day before the military decides they need to euthanize and go somewhere else, skipping over all the stuff we wanted out of the show.

There was so much promise, and they really botched it IMO. I really hope they fix these mistakes in Season 2, however, it will just be a TWD clone by then as they have already skipped over how things went down.

[scotland]

The last episode of the series aired. Despite some good reviews calling it dynamic and powerful, I found it better but not good.

For instance, at one point the military is defending the wall against the undead....and by military I mean about 8 guys. Holy cow...8 guys....with automatic rifles and a scaffold. Reminds me of a 1970s show Land of the Lost where the budget was so cheap they only had three monster costumes. Even though there was supposed to be a city of these monsters, you never saw more than three at a time. Same thing here. Its like they only have a few 'Army Guy' costumes or all the extras signed on to be Walkers and not soldiers. The local high school ROTC could have performed better. Where is that tank they used in the Governor storms the Prison episodes or Rick takes cover in a Tank in Atlanta episodes from the main series? Did they sell it or something?

Even then, 8 guys firing point blank at walls of the undead with full auto on....and not a single undead walker goes down. Not one. A few minutes later we watch our protagonists take out several undead in a kitchen, and every one of them know about the head trauma rule. Its ridiculous. We watched Rick and Carl take out a horde like that by themselves at the prison. They should have had a wall of dead undead in moments.

In fact, the whole zany prison break kind of plot was ridiculous. We finally fast forwarded to Rick waking up in the hospital, complete with piles of bodies. Society is already gone, we are just right back to Walking Dead: West Coast. Add in some deserted beaches and some CGI, and presto, moving right past everything you wanted to see there.

One nice bit though, which brought back memories of Raiders of the Lost Ark, only this time with a helicopter tail rotor.

[Rookie1]

They really should have started the series with episode 4. It would have been so much better if we didnt have the first 3 and last night wasnt the season finally.

Like you, I found the kitchen scene to be funny. Like all of the sudden everyone knows how to take them out, and are finally feeling a sense of urgency. Though they arent really worried about their kids, who they left alone AGAIN.

And whats with the Idres Elba wannabe? Why does he have the infatuation with the druggy guy? Seems like he has had a pretty good run on his own, yet needs a druggy guy's skills? I dont get that.

I couldnt help but be reminded of TWD season 2 midseason finale. They get to the house, the guy says you cant stay here, then they shoot someone in the head. Almost the same formula.

Did you watch the Talking Dead episode afterwards? The host seemed a little on edge about the show. I got the feeling he didnt like it at all. He made reference to the internet hatred for the show as well. The producer also didnt sound as confident as the producers of TWD do, and everyone was so bland with their interviews.

I give the first 3 episodes a F- and the last 3 a C+.

[Tron]

Well at least we finally got to see some zombies. I agree w/ Scotland that the military base take over was weak. I didn't see much in the way of weapons being fired. Where's the machine guns mowing down the flesh bags?

One thing I really hate is the flashing lights when our so called Heroes are escaping. Add split-second camera transitions & I'm getting a headache. Personally I'd rather see poorly executed action then blurry. Video games do that to using dark lighting & drab colors to hide poor graphics in the guise of trying to establish mood.

I couldn't stop thinking, "Why hasn't Mr. Makeadeal taken off that tie?" Full button up ties are so freaking uncomfortable no matter how long you've been wearing one.

Tortured soldier shoots the girl? Well at least Travis finally got some anger. Maybe now he'll be interesting.

The scene transitions make me feel like they left stuff out that should've been included. They get out the compound that was full of zombies & now they are on the open road? What happened after Travis beat the soldier down? Pretty bad directing decisions here.

Tender moment for mom & addict; perfect opportunity for a zombie to walk up behind them & feast, Wasted opportunity.

Once they got out of the compound I was really bored. More drama blah blah blah. I was tempted to fast forward. Some bad acting. Shoot me I'm infected. Sad music & that's that.

This was the best episode yet, but that doesn't say much since up until now they were just awful. I'll be surprised if this picks up again for another season.

[Rookie1]

I'll be surprised if this picks up again for another season.

Season 2 was given a greenlight before season 1 even aired. Id be willing to bet we see some massive changes in the writing and story though. Given the ad space AMC can sell, and how much TWD caters to the fans, they wont want to let this slip away. Id say TWD has 3 seasons left (not including season 6) before the cast wants to call it a day, so FTWD needs to stay healthy. Plus, this and Hell on Wheels is all AMC really has left. Its their cash cow, and they will make sure it stays that way.

[Tron]

I'll be surprised if this picks up again for another season.

Season 2 was given a greenlight before season 1 even aired. Id be willing to bet we see some massive changes in the writing and story though. Given the ad space AMC can sell, and how much TWD caters to the fans, they wont want to let this slip away. Id say TWD has 3 seasons left (not including season 6) before the cast wants to call it a day, so FTWD needs to stay healthy. Plus, this and Hell on Wheels is all AMC really has left. Its their cash cow, and they will make sure it stays that way.

Your points make sense. It was obvious that FTWD was working with a much smaller budget. That's fine, just make sure you work with what you got. Hillbillies in the woods works fine with a small budget. Big city riots & armed forces does not.

Hopefully next season the cast all get killed off one by one & a new cast of actually likable & interesting characters replace them.