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So far so good.
Druggie son I want to put a boot in his arse
Step dad in this time and age doesn't know how to use a camera
Principle Eval the teachers by listening in on the speaker.......crafty geezer.....but crafty enough to survive

Edit

Spoiler


Edit

Nice Cliff Hangar

I couldn't really get into the characters myself. I'll wait an episode or two before bashig it.

I thought the whole thing was incredibly...boring.

What the producers are touting as a 'benefit' - that we know more than everyone else does - is actually its biggest downfall.

Hopefully it doesn't take more than this episode and the next to really get going...

They've signed an exclusive deal in the UK so a AMC channel with Fear the Walking Dead is going to only be on BT. Which sucks, as that has worse coverage than Netflix, and is third out of the three main subscription services.. so unless I pirate it (which I don't tend to do) I'm not going to see anything.

I'm certainly not paying an extre £20 odd quid a month for two BT sports channels and AMC, as I have every other channel they offer through Sky.. just seems a really odd call by AMC, particularly as they where obsessed about pirating a while back, because from what I'm seeing online that's what a lot of Brits plan to do.

 Alpharius wrote:
I thought the whole thing was incredibly...boring.

What the producers are touting as a 'benefit' - that we know more than everyone else does - is actually its biggest downfall.

Hopefully it doesn't take more than this episode and the next to really get going...

Same here. I found it ironic that one of the advertising lines was, "Once civilization goes, it goes fast" and then proceeds to an hour and a half of character exposition and civilization getting along just fine.

 Alpharius wrote:
I thought the whole thing was incredibly...boring.

What the producers are touting as a 'benefit' - that we know more than everyone else does - is actually its biggest downfall.

Hopefully it doesn't take more than this episode and the next to really get going...

I'm ok with it. Walking Dead started after the Zombiegames had occurred. This revs up to that, so by nature there's going to be more of this initially.

What I would really like to see is a Walking Deadescue take on it, aka I want to see them focus on watching society fall apart around them. We need to add in some preppers and maybe a hollywood star that quickly get eaten.

 Alpharius wrote:
I thought the whole thing was incredibly...boring.

What the producers are touting as a 'benefit' - that we know more than everyone else does - is actually its biggest downfall.

Hopefully it doesn't take more than this episode and the next to really get going...

I think the slower pace is the entire point, and that this show is attempting to reach some new audiences beyond the core TWD fans.

While I'm a fan of TWD (in both mediums), I do get it when people say they have a hard time relating to the characters. It's a show in which the sociopaths are the good guys. If you've been with it since the beginning, maybe you're attached to this or that character. But imagine starting the show now and being told that Rick is 'the good guy'.

FWTD gives us a cast of less damaged individuals, and we get to see them and their more normal, human reactions to horrors happening in a more recognizable modern society. It almost has to be easier for more people to relate to these characters.

 gorgon wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
I thought the whole thing was incredibly...boring.

What the producers are touting as a 'benefit' - that we know more than everyone else does - is actually its biggest downfall.

Hopefully it doesn't take more than this episode and the next to really get going...

I think the slower pace is the entire point, and that this show is attempting to reach some new audiences beyond the core TWD fans.

While I'm a fan of TWD (in both mediums), I do get it when people say they have a hard time relating to the characters. It's a show in which the sociopaths are the good guys. If you've been with it since the beginning, maybe you're attached to this or that character. But imagine starting the show now and being told that Rick is 'the good gu'y.

FWTD gives us a cast of less damaged individuals, and we get to see them and their more normal, human reactions to horrors happening in a more recognizable modern society. It almost has to be easier for more people to relate to these characters.

I find Rick to be more relatable now than when he started out. Honestly, I'd still accuse him of being too soft.

Maybe that says more about me though.

We saw Rick wake up to the insanity and had Morgan help him come to grip with what's happening
Now we get to see it all go down hill and people dealing with the insanity from the get go.

I think the first episode was fine to set the characters. I think the pace will pick up pretty quick with the next couple of episodes from what was going on on the last part of the show.

Note- this is largely from my girl :

1) Really boring.
2) We hate Lori 2.0
A. It's like they tried to do WD with Lori as the protagonist instead of Rick. I'm not feeling it.
B. She's terrible at her job, her son is a drug addict, her daughter cuts class to have premarital sex (probably), she poops where she eats, and endangers her students by letting knife wielding kids into school to inflate her own ego.
3) It's still really boring


In it's defense, at least Lori 2.0 realized she is a terrible mother in a single episode, it took original Lori two plus seasons to figure that out.

- edit - also, why are there no homeless zombies?

Bromsy wrote:

- edit - also, why are there no homeless zombies?

Because zombies are the hardest working members of society. While everyone else lazes around sleeping every night, they are out there shuffling shuffling. As the old saying goes, you can't keep a good zombie down.

 Frazzled wrote:

Bromsy wrote:

- edit - also, why are there no homeless zombies?

Because zombies are the hardest working members of society. While everyone else lazes around sleeping every night, they are out there shuffling shuffling. As the old saying goes, you can't keep a good zombie down.

You missed the abandon shopping carts throughout the episodes?

Eh. The whole 'drug addict son, wicked smart daughter' schtick was obnoxious.

The viral video bit(e) would be interesting, were this 2007.

Looks like the defecation hits the oscillation next episode, which seems like the whole thing is ramping up pretty quick.

EDIT: That doesn't mean I won't stop watching, I hold out hope for improvement.

First episode is a little slow. But I expected that. And we're already seeing the acceleration. School closed on a half day after one bus only brought in 5 students. Where the day before some people were sick but not most of the school.

I wouldn't call her Lori 2.0. I don't get nearly the same vibe. I actually got competence from her in spades in her environment.

As for her job I'd say she actually strikes the balance that good teachers/administrators need between rule following and what's actually best for the kid. From snippets of conversation her ex was a drug addict (hence the it's in the blood discussion), her daughter has been accepted to an Ivy League school.

She also as a parent is genuinely trying to help her kid without enabling him which strikes me as what a good parent can do. And as for the son/daughter druggy/braniac thing I feel like based on his actual actions the druggy son is just as smart but limited by his drug addiction.

Overall the only character we've met that I'm meh about is the Step Dad. But I see him being the base from which they all really accept what's going on as he seems open to the crazy.

I think it'll draw a whole new group in but once it gets going it'll be able to tap the regulars from TWD too. I'm kinda excited to see the fall. Also to see how they handle the fall in a place like LA where natural resources to survive are insanely far away when you consider that the ways in and out of the LA area are going to be impossibly blocked in no time. Especially since it's still home even if I moved away 5 years ago

 Bromsy wrote:

- edit - also, why are there no homeless zombies?

Y'know, I kind of looked at this in the vein of "The Dresden Files". One of the books has him looking into a bunch of crazy necromancers in Chicago--and when he's asked about "where are all the homeless people?", he replies with "They're the people who live here. They know that something is going on. Do you really think they'd stick around with that level of weirdness?".


That's the way I'm looking at it here. The homeless have probably encountered zombies more than any "credible" citizens have, and already adapted to an extent.


Anyways, regarding the show. It wasn't bad for a pilot episode. I need to sit down and watch it all at once rather than the first half one day and the second half the next.

I really enjoyed it, slow start notwithstanding. Looking forward to the next episode and the collapse of society.

It'll be interesting to see the military in action against the undead.

I was under the impression the military was going to be the main antagonist next episode after the looters.

It seems they're going to take over a town.

I think showing the the homeless guy going from cart pushing to abandoned cart and staggering as if a walker as the episode progressed was a little heavy handed, but nicely done symbolism of the zombie-ness spreading amongst the abandoned, the shunned. Same with druggies turning, too. The people that we all turn away from and don't want to see become our downfall.

But I like that symbolic crap. Overall, I was a bored by the family drama stuff. Couldn't even pay attention enough to care about the boyfriend/live in step-dad-role dude having issues with his son, but his wife/ex-wife is evidently friendly with the lead female... see even writing that out was /snore/

The ending was a bit weird but I think it played up the shock and WTF paralysis pretty well. It made sense that the druggy son was like, Frak it, I'm not crazy and I'm running the cannibal freak down. He's been living in that church with other drugged out people, and saw his friend gnawing on a dude. So yeah, no shock that Mom and boyfriend are like... um, did that really just happen? To them, this is all in the realm of maybe and they haven't had a chance to process that their lives really were in danger.

Overall, the episode was slow. Not sure it'll work to draw in new viewers. It's really going to depend on where they take it.

Edits- because I can't write good

On premier night, I turned it off after 30 minutes. Then, after reading some comments in this thread I went back and watched it thru to the end. I think the directors and producers missed the point of what makes Walking Dead a great show. There is a gritty realism, with characters looking and acting like real people in a strange situation. But what does Fear give us?

A homeless drug addict who manages to save money for a tanning booth, chest waxing, and lotion to maintain perfect skin. Trust me, in Downtown LA the druggies do not look like this kid. At all.

A “super smart” teenage daughter. We know she’s super smart because they tell us a whole bunch of times. But all we see is she skips nearly every class to make out with her black boyfriend. The one time we see her in a class, she is not paying attention. In the real world, the smart kids are in class and they work hard.

A loving mother whose son was just nailed by a van. But there are kids in her class that need her! See ya later, son! Yeah, that seems perfectly natural. Oh, and teachers love covering for kids that bring knives to school!

Who are we supposed to root for? Who are we to relate to? The son is a jerk to everyone. The daughter is a jerk to everyone. The mom is a jerk to her family and boyfriend but not to knife wielding students. The boyfriend is the punching bag. Who is the hero?
I wont be watching anymore of it. The real Walking Dead returns in October! That’s where you’ll find me!

Your comment about the son is strange. TWD isn't exactly strictly realistic with regard to how the actors "look." The women tend to have grime and sweat on them, but also light makeup, manicured eyebrows, and hair that isn't particularly dirty or unkempt despite supposedly being on the road for weeks at a time without a bath.



And of course your criticism ignores that it's ENTERTAINMENT, where actors are always more beautiful than their real-world counterparts.

I'd also suggest that really smart kids don't have to work THAT hard in high school, and that returning to work after finding out your adult son wasn't seriously hurt isn't overly unusual. He was going to be fine...it wasn't like a bedside vigil was required there.

Im intrigued about seeing the military response & the impact on society, etc. Its the only really interesting aspect aabout the zombie genre to me, and it happens to be the one element of the genre that is rarely ever portrayed, as generally a zombie story will focus more on a specific group of survivors rather than the wider world.

Its the only reason why I tolerated World War Z anyway.

 Gen. Lee Losing wrote:
The real Walking Dead returns in October! That’s where you’ll find me!

More fool you, then, for expecting a Walking Dead clone.

FTWD is not The Walking Dead, nor should it aspire to be.

TWD is about a group of hardened survivors struggling to survive in a post apocalypse world. They already know what's happening, and that society has completely broken down. They know they can only depend on themselves for survival, nobody's coming to rescue them.

But FTWD has a fundamentally different premise. We're witnessing the apocalypse begin, in real time. Society has not yet broken down. People don't know what's happening. They still think the authorities (government, military, police) have it under control, and if they can just hold on they'll be rescued. They haven't yet learned what the main cast of TWD has learned - survival of the fittest.

When we're properly introduced to Rick Grimes (after a short pre apoc prologue), he wakes up to a post apocalypse world. The world already gone to gak, and he's forced to confront it from the first episode, a baptism of fire. The cast of FTWD lack that slap in the face, the apocalypse is creeping up on them slowly. They're like frogs, being boiled slowly.

Who is the Hero?

Whoever learns to adapt to the new world the fastest. From episode 1, I'd guess it'll be the druggie son. He's the only one who's started killing zombies yet. TWD is about the strong struggling to survive. FTWD is about the weak learning that they have to be strong and adapt to survive. By the time it concludes, I wouldn't be surprised if by the time the show concludes, half the cast have been killed off with the rest becoming hardened survivors.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Im intrigued about seeing the military response & the impact on society, etc. Its the only really aspect aabout the zombie genre to me, and it happens to be the one element of the genre that is rarely ever portrayed, as generally a zombie story will focus more on a specific group of survivors rather than the wider world.

Its the only reason why I tolerated World War Z anyway.

Exactly. THATS what I want to see. The little vignettes in TWD harkingh back to when things were breaking down were some of the best bits for me.

Yeah, I'm interested in the actual government response. We already know that everything went tits up in about 3-4 months total. We know that because of the CDC at the end of season one. And we're already seeing the acceleration now.

My wife, who loves The Walking Dead only for the psychology and doesn't care much for zombies, is already more interested in the FTWD. It's not a clone of TWD. Even the area in which they live means that once it catches up with TWD (which they said it will eventually) it won't be a clone. You couldn't pick a more different geographical area from the south eastern seaboard with SoCal.

The starting actors in this are also much better for me than TWD ones. Outside of Rick, Glenn, and Darryl I didn't care for anyone till we met Herschel's family and even then Rick and Darryl were the only characters I cared about for quite a while. Over that time some characters have grown so that I love them (Carol and Carl) or they have died and over time been replaced by a lot of characters I like (as in I'd be sad to see all but one or two people in the TWD survivor group go).

To each their own. I think the greatest issue is going to be people comparing to TWD and not remembering quite how....meh the acting and plot were in early TWD.

Season 2 was a bit of a quagmire.

Season 2 suffered heavily from the weekly format. I went back and watched it again (and boy did I loathe it the first time around) but it really was much better when you could watch it in a run and not wait weeks for something to happen.

But yeah, I personally love TWD but it didn't really start to get momentum till season 3 and even then it didn't skyrocket till Gimpel took over as the showrunner.

Didn't Season 2 have a low budget or something?

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Didn't Season 2 have a low budget or something?

Season two had quite a few problems. They dropped the budget by the amount of the tax credit they get for filming in Georgia to give that money to Mad Men (if I remember right). They also wanted to try to do a more set-piece show which accounted for the farm and not leaving it much the first half of the season. The original show runner left I wanna say before the season started and the second one left or was fired by the halfway point. It might be why it starts to pick up quite a bit after the barn in season 2. Honestly season 2 was plagued with issues.

Yeah, it's funny to look back at all the showrunner drama with some perspective.

Remember all the hubbub about Frank Darabont leaving (during season 2 IIRC)? At the time people thought the show was doomed without him...as if he was the single person responsible for making or breaking it. He got replaced by Glenn Mazzara (left after season 3), who overall righted the ship, but was rumored to have clashed with producers (including Kirkman) behind the scenes. The decision to boot him got criticized in some circles.

Then Gimple comes in, makes the show better and higher-rated than ever (making AMC happy) while bringing it a little closer to the comic (probably making Kirkman happy), and everyone's forgotten about the past guys and their drama.