AMC: Fear The Walking Dead

[quartermainefan]

To me this show is borderline ok.   It's better than last year but I haven't even bothered to watch last sunday's episode on my DVR yet, that's how excited I am for this show.  I don't find the cast all that interesting except for the drug son, and the problems the cast face seem like pale imitations of what happens on the real show.   I guess for the summer it is ok since TWD isn't on, but it should be noted that ratings fell for TWD when this show debuted.   I don't think that the show is so bad people are just refusing to watch the other, I think that with this show giving zombies all year long, come October the excitement is dissipated for the regular show.

[Vee]

That was lousy.

 

The sudden turns with Daniel, Nick and Chris are not nearly as well-laid out as the writers clearly think they are - Daniel's visions and hallucinations are cartoonish, Chris' mania is overwrought and far too sudden (Shane on TWD melted down over the course of a full season, not a handful of episodes) and while Nick was definitely becoming an adept predator, his immediately cottoning to Celia's worldview was nonsense.

 

I'll stick with this in the summer for the actors, but not forever. What a mess. And I'm really pissed that reading the post-finale interviews on this silliness (Daniel is not dead but Ruben Blades is gone for the rest of the season apparently, because apparently that's the best thing to do with one of the strongest actors on the show) led to my being inadvertently spoiled for tonight's GOT due to extremely inconsiderate and obvious headlines on EW.com. F__k.

 

At least Colman Domingo is great, as is Strand's bond with Madison.

 

Ugh.

[Juliajms]

^ Yes, to all that. There has been so little build up to some of this stuff that I'm having a hard time accepting that's "real" as it happens. I keep expecting various segments to be dreams or visions (and of course some of them were, including Ophelia's poisoning.

 

I'll stick with it, but so much just doesn't ring true at all. I agree Chris (and Nick's) meltdown needed to take longer. I could almost buy the disintegration of some of these characters. People acting crazy as the world ends is believable, but it happening so fast has killed the story or at least put it on life support. The show has gone from mediocre to bad to great and back again in it's short run.

[Vee]

I may be too charitable but this is easily the first time it's been outright bad, IMO - this week and last week.

 

Insanely, their plan is to write Ruben Blades out til Season 3 to 'focus on Ofelia.' Really? Ofelia?

[Vee]

Frank Dillane has been arrested.

[Juliajms]

^ That's terrible news. I guess it's selfish that my first thought was I hope they don't fire him. This is the worst kind of show to be a problem for though.

[slick jones]

Trailer!!!!!!!

 

[Juliajms]

^ That looked pretty good. Thanks for posting Slick.

[slick jones]

 I thought so, too.  Looking forward to see them all separated and then catching up with each other!

[slick jones]

I thought Dillane did a great job in the "Nick" episode. The new character Lucia? seemed like a good addition until I saw the preview on TD.

[Juliajms]

OK, so I continue to stick with this show for some reason. Nick's episode was not enough to truly hold my attention.  If you find him hot then this is the episode for you. I give him credit for being a survivor that is for sure.  Mostly, I want to slap him up side the head like Jessie Pinkmen's mom did in Breaking Bad and yell "why are you like this?" Getting the cake for the little girl was sweet, it shows he has a heart, but for the love of God, there are other ways to cheer people up than stealing Little Debbie's from hard core drug dealers.

**possible spoiler for the Walking Dead Universe discussed below. If you haven't watched this episode and don't want to know don't read the second paragraph down.**

 

So Alicia is pissing me off. I guess if you are going to have a family of survivors there is going to be family drama, but it's really hard for me to empathize with her sibling rivalry when the dead walk among us. So sorry your mother kept trying to save your brother from a life of hell wench.  You are over 18 and in the middle of an apocalypse, GTFOI! Not that Madison was really in the right at this point either. Nick made his choice she has to keep moving not get drunk, while zombies surround her makeshift family. Strand should have known better. Is Madison an alcoholic? I've suspected so since the first season, but not sure.

 

Now on to the spoiler. Some guy was bitten and survived. WTF? Is this real or a scam. Is this immunity? I continue to not understand the Mexican death cult theme. I'll admit my attention wonders when people talk about why this is happening so maybe the fault is mostly with me. Still, why people are choosing to be eaten to death is beyond me. I guess the show had to distinguish itself from the original or they thought they had to. It's not really working for me, but I continue to watch. I keep expecting it to get better and it only does when it follows the formula of the original, which is a band of survivors who become family trying to keep going against all odds.

 

 

[Antoyne]

I'm literally hate watching this show. I still don't find any of the characters likeable, interesting, or smart.

[Vee]

I can't believe it's literally two Mexican death cults in a row with this show.

 

The whole series took a massive slope downwards for me the minute they disembarked the boat and arrived at that plantation. It's been a mess ever since, with extremely random plot twists and character shifts. Why is Chris suddenly psycho? Who knows! Why is Nick obsessed with communing with the dead and why did he take the crazy cult people's gospels to heart? Because! When did Daniel begin hallucinating his wife and going mad? Just now! It's a mess. And I could not care less about the latest death cult or the woman Nick is hanging with. 

 

Kim Dickens and Colman Domingo are still great together, especially in that bar scene; their characters have built a surprisingly real bond and have serious chemistry despite Strand apparently being full-on gay (though the bit where he admitted to hitting on her was interesting). Most of the actors are great. I just can't be bothered with the random plot and character turns, or the inexplicable removal of Ruben Blades - they're claiming he'll be back, but it was deeply stupid to drop one of the show's strongest actors even temporarily. I also still have no idea what was going on with Alex/Michelle Ang, the woman from the plane - she was in the main credits for all of one episode, reappeared at the pirate base and then completely disappeared again. Why? Why leave a solid new character hanging forever? Have they decided not to use her after all, despite her being a strong character and their public promise of adding her to the regular cast? Is she coming back eventually?

 

The whole thing feels like a clusterfuck of slapdash planning and poor delays when this show really needs to coalesce. It had a terrible final two episodes in the spring which really damaged it and it's still fairly lame now. I'll stick with it out of brand loyalty and because I really dig most of the cast, but I won't hang in forever. At least the hotel is kind of interesting.

[Vee]

This last episode had one of the best sequences either show's ever done, an improvement on the beach sequence last fall - in California and Mexico, FTWD is able to play with scope and locations much bigger and grander than the mothership show. The pier trap Madison set up was very, very well-done, and Kim Dickens has always had a steeliness to her that worked well for the episode as well as her evolving character. Also nice seeing Brenda Strong among the hotel crew. The wedding party is an interesting dynamic, and Strand connecting with the groom was a really touching scene. Thanks to Colman Domingo, his crackling chemistry with everyone, and yes the writing, he's become a real tentpole character, as opposed to just a suave operator.

 

A mostly solid episode after weeks of a lot of dreck (with the exception of Madison/Strand/Alicia). Still not sure I care about anything going on with yet another death cult and poor naive Nick or his doomed romance, but I like his wheeling and dealing and interplay with Alejandro the ringleader. The Travis/Chris plot is just a debacle despite good actors.

 

Overall FTWD still has a long way before it's back on its feet, but the hotel plotline with Madison, Strand and Alicia works for me. I just wish it was a permanent base.

[Vee]

So I may be the only one watching what's left of the deeply flawed second season, but it ended with at least one good note towards something FTWD has hinted at since the beginning: That these might be the bad guys.

Cliff Curtis and Kim Dickens are both incredible actors with a lot of depth, facets and darkness that they know how to play, but the show has always only sketched around the outlines of Madison's dark family past and hidden steel that often shows in her friendship with Strand, or around Travis' potential to become someone else. That changed with the final 2 episodes, where Travis killed the two men who killed Chris in a psychotic rage which also cost the life of an innocent bystander. Unable to abandon him, Madison bargains for his exile and decides to go with him. When the third man dies his family attacks Travis, and Madison and Travis kill more of the hotel survivors before fleeing the hotel with Alicia - destroying its gates and shelter on the way out.

Curtis especially is born to this kind of darker role, and it fits him like a glove. Dickens is also incredibly compelling as his partner in crime. This is the track towards which the show should've developed with better care and better storylines this year, but at least they've gotten there. I hope they don't chicken out on it going forward, even if the resolution to many other plotlines (the pointless Colonia/gang feud) bored me, as did potential new ones (crazy border patrol/military, all things Ofelia). I also thought the whole Psycho Chris plotline and his demise was rushed and silly. But if it gets a darker, more focused show in the future I'll give FTWD one more round, for the exceptional cast. (Fortunately, the showrunner promises Strand will be in Season 3.)