I think the show is better than that, plus we're in uncharted territory since this is a series not already published as a comic book or a novel or anything else. The original Walking Dead was a comic book with stories and characters that go back to 2003, so they had a ton to draw upon there. The new Fear the Walking Dead wipes the slate clean and starts completely over. The danger (as I said a couple of hundred messages ago) is that AMC might be subjecting the viewers to too much Walking Dead, which will tend to kill the franchise. We'll know in a couple of weeks once the original show comes back. If the ratings stay high for the rest of the year, then they're doing fine. I think it's such "appointment television" at this point, people are gonna watch it no matter what, because they'll get X amount of scares, X amount of drama, X amount of action, and all that other stuff. The ratings could go down by 75% and I bet they'd still keep it on the air.
I think both shows can co-exist without subjecting the audiences to too much of this genre for the most part because the seasons (or split seasons) are pretty short. If both shows were on with full blown old school 26 episodes from Fall to Spring then that may be too much. If they can also keep the storylines as different as they are now then that should keep things running for a while. I do however think that both shows need to reduce the overuse of padding. This hurts the original show and I feel it's starting to rear it's ugly head on the new one.
I think Orphan Black may have made that mistake. Brilliant first season, but once the mystery was gone some story direction/plot points feel a bit shoehorned on.
The new show is definitely trying to take 15 minutes of story and drag it out to an hour. My observation is that it feels terribly, terribly padded to me. Walking Dead goes back and forth between having very simple, basic stories that are lightweight to very dense, complicated, action-packed storylines that cram 90 minutes into an hour. They've gotten better at it lately. But the new show is taking its time to get to the point, and to me it's not a positive direction. I don't dispute that one man's "boring" is another man's "measured pace."
I agree 100%. The plot always needs to move. I remember centuries ago when I was studying playwriting my professor (the late, great Stuart Browne) told us that not one single word or action should be wasted with padding. Every moment is precious and treat your story with respect. Everything should be of some sort of consequence to the piece be it large or small. These shows definitely take some major liberties with stretching a minute to ten minutes. I guess one man's padding is another's pudding.......
I didn't particularly care for the first three episodes but I really liked number 4. At this point the military is probably more dangerous to our main characters then the dead which I think strikes a very real chord in today's world on many symbolic levels.
I'm enjoying it . Dysfunctional family that is self absorbed. But we know that won't last forever. I love that it breathes. Except for Rick when he awoke just like in 28 days later , in Walking Dead we met them after they all knew what was going on.
The last two episodes I thought were the best so far (#4 & #5). It really got better after the trash they turned in for the first 3 episodes. There are still plot holes galore, spotty acting, and plenty of stupid moments for stupid people. Still, the proposition of knowing how the military fell, how in the dark most of the people were in the early days, and the general edgy feeling of the hospital and the interment camp keeps the show intriguing. Being a longtime fan of the comic, I don't know if these events will be considered canon within the comic book universe, but if this is the way it went down - in context of while Rick was in a coma - the whole thing was handled terribly (which is probably what would happen). I can understand the military falling at some point in time, but these guys, with their body armor, Humvees, tons of weapons, and training seem to get picked off by the zombies fairly easy. It would seem to me that you could heard these things and then roll in with a few tanks and destroy the zombies. Artillery could bomb the hell out of towns. Carpet bombing LA isn't a consideration, while keeping the "uninfected" out of harm's way? Gee, maybe I couldn't see the military falling, after all. But if it were to happen, this is probably the way it would go. Then to think, all over the world like this, with Paris being one of the last to fall (CDC). How ironic.
Not a great sign when only one person commented on the last episode. I keep watching and keep not liking. Cliched and in some cases detestable characters along with weak plotting makes for trouble.
What was going on with the dress-up scene in the house? As if you would be in the mood to play 'rebellious teenager' when you've just lost your mom to an unknown fate or lost your boyfriend to, well, zombies..
I still like watching this show (the cast and subject matter work well for me), but the script does take a lot of liberties regarding logic and behavior. It's a safe bet whoever is writing the dialog for the Army Captain has never served in the military, or understands how an army functions.
Letting out pent up frustrations. Trying to find some bit of normalcy, especially given that the previous owners of the house were of a higher station in life to them. At the end of the world they still were allowed to feel like something. What was very frustrating, however, is that the chick was all but begging the boy to have end-of the-world sex, and that knucklehead turned it down. I was beside myself with his stupidity.
I thought the guy in the cell with Nick did a great job. Something big is gonna happen this Sunday final episode. Gotta get out of Dodge in a hurry...
We commented similarly while watching the show. It doesn't seem reasonable that 2, apparently relatively well adjusted teens, just go off on the art in the house. It's just too off the wall and adds nothing to the plot. Also, the "evil military" plot just reeks of contrivance. On the plus side, Ruben Blades adds some needed gravitas. We keep watching and hoping the show finds its footing
That may very well be true. but it should have happened in the second or third episode. All this leading a "normal" life while the world is ending is getting old real fast. It's too reminiscent of Alexandria (and Woodbury) on TWD. But I accept it (to a point) because of all that the characters on TWD went through BEFORE they reached a degree of "normalcy" in Alexandria, which of course won't be lasting all that much longer.
I sort of get the smashing things out of frustration, but the dressing up..it just seemed out of character and immature to me. But yeah, that chick's pretty hot (and definitely doesn't look 17/18) Yeah, i don't buy the bully soldiers either. Probably only written that way to make us root for the main characters. I'll watch the next episode though. I was glad that there wasn't too much of the Junkie Depp kid.
No, no...check this: Most of us growing up, who didn't get into too much trouble - like myself - and perhaps you, too, as reasonably well adjusted teenagers, we didn't go off the chain on things, even if we were tempted to, because we knew the ramifications for our actions. That's what holds most of us in check as children, teens, adults, whatever. The law (and rightfully so) makes sure we don't rock the boat too much. But when there's no more law? That's the biggest fear of civilization, anarchy, right? As a teen, if you knew for a fact that you could throw an empty beer bottle against the wall and watch it smash, without getting caught, you'd do it right? Maybe we've all done something like that. But these kids, with everything falling a part? It served to show that they were falling back to the reptilians brains that are in all of us, and it was okay! That scene certainly served a point in the show, when many parts don't. Which even pissed me off more, because that chick was so ripe for a bonedown the whole time, and that kid, there he is, as dumb as his father.
mmm i don't know where to begin with this. The writer's could have done so much more. The story is weak, all over the place, and I feel that there's no direction. Things seem to be happening too fast time wise. Since it started I keep asking myself after each episode "ok where's the story, is that it?, nothing grabbed me". passive father, mother who drinks her sorrows away and blames everyone, addicted kid who ****s on everyone, PTSD father tortures soldier to get information, daughter and other son put on clothes and smash thing (even though I know there's a metaphor in there somewhere), but really it's not grabbing me. The only interesting part is the "internment camp" style hospital. Characters don't gel. Acting wise mehh. Since it's alluded that the army is packing up and leaving, it's going to turn out to be a survival thing like Rick's group. If they don't kick this up into high gear and really get the characters to start working off each other, this series could very well be cancelled after the second season. The original series, you felt the characters meld from the beginning, Rick and Shane talking together in their police car, You know they have a history together. Now in FTWD it feels that the actors are forcing each other to get into the characters are 2 dimensional, it just doesn't work out. The only thing that is convincing is that both family's are not well adjusted. The kids come from broken divorced homes, parents argue, everyone snaps at each other, I don't feel any love between them.
Perhaps this show needs some English actors to make it work. For the first time I'm beginning to lose hope/interest, I didn't like Ruben Blades torturing the soldier when he was willing to divulge everything, why to prove that Ruben's character will do whatever is necessary even when it isn't, I think we already knew that, plus just how did they overpower a trained and armed man? Why didn't anyone come looking for him, how come he was off duty whilst the overs had been on duty for 50 hours? We had the whole episode with the flashing signal and this episode nothing like they just dropped the story line, I'm beginning to think it's just badly written although none of the characters are really grabbing me either, maybe Ruben should just unlock the stadium and put everyone out of their misery.
No, I could have accepted Australia, but New Zealand like Panama doesn't count, plus his character is starting to annoy me.
