AMC: Fear The Walking Dead

[Juliajms]

^ That could be. Many of the actors from Deadwood have gone on to have pretty nice careers. One because David Milch knows how to choose his actors. Also, I think Deadwood has a cult following and people have kept track of the actors and followed their careers. I know I have. Kurt Sutter certainly did. Son's of Anarchy was practically a Deadwood reunion.

[slick jones]

I'm wondering how many will appear on the Bastard Executioner.

[DRW50]

If they hired Kim Dickens to hide this show's writing problems I hope they ask for their money back, as I thought she was every generic wife/mother on a drama in recent years. She was passable, nothing to complain about, but I can't say I see her as some awe-inspiring savior. I thought Cliff Curtis was a lot better.

[Vee]

So, yeah. I was actually pretty impressed with this.

 

When they said they were going to do a TWD spinoff I was pretty skeptical - I thought doing something set during the initial outbreak would be a novel idea, but at the same time I felt a lot of the public had reached a saturation point and was zombie-fatigued. No matter how good the mothership show still is, no matter how good its numbers still are (and despite now garnering one of the most diverse casts in a major primetime hit), it's consistently downgraded or condescended towards by a lot of people as being 'tired.' A big part of that is because of how people view the zombie subgenre in general as being tired, and I can't blame them for that. They're right. I think it's tired too and needs a break, but I also think TWD is still pretty good, going from a show that was once struggling with its identity to a show that's better every year. Anyway, I figured no matter how novel the concept or how good a cast they assembled, a spinoff would be treated the same or worse.

 

In point of fact, we know that Fear did huge numbers but its reviews, like its predecessor, are all over the map. Some critics love it, some critics hate it, some critics just think it's all tired. But I still got quite a bit more out of it than I expected to, and I expected a decent show. I knew to expect more of a character drama so I was down for that to begin with, but I also found myself surprisingly engaged by everyone. Even the snotty overachiever sister got some good bits, along with yet another Wire cameo for the franchise from Maestro Harrell (Randy Wagstaff!) as her doomed boyfriend.

 

I'm glad for two big things. Number one, that the franchise is continuing to push diverse casts, with most of the ensemble for this show being non-white (and I think Frank Dillane may be mixed). Cliff Curtis is an incredible actor who's never gotten his full due in America, and he's a very strong, assured lead here, instantly empathetic but also very direct. Kim Dickens is a favorite of a lot of us, and she infuses a lot of standard 'worried mother' material with something even and authentic. Frank Dillane is a beautiful young man, but I didn't know how good an actor he'd be - he's a livewire, very different from his father on GOT, and maybe a bit too Jack Sparrow at times but overall I thought he was really excellent. This was his story, his mini-arc in the pilot and he delivered completely, right down to the quietly homoerotic relationship with his preppy dealer (and presumed former classmate). He's a star. I also liked what I saw of Travis' bookish son, and I loved seeing Elizabeth Rodriguez (who almost stole Michael Mann's Miami Vice in a single scene) in something again as his ex. I hope she hangs around. The poor geek at the school was also really affecting.

 

The other big thing I'm grateful for is the show's use of Los Angeles, a city I really don't like and never have but which I find myself being diverted to more and more despite myself due to IRL circumstances, possibly permanently, and boy, is its decaying ennui captured in this show. I think the show's mood, its creeping existential dread, is pitched to perfection, really suffocating, especially in shots of the empty school and parks. L.A.'s really the perfect place to watch society fall apart, because IMO, in L.A. society is barely there to begin with. There's a thin veneer of glitz, beauty, and the California dream, but so much of the rest of the city is strip malls, gas stations, chintzy diners, industrial parks, ruined churches - desperate and desolate people and things. That's the L.A. David Lynch (along with many other filmmakers) is fascinated with, that's the L.A. this show presents. It has its nice spots, sure, but a lot of L.A. is Patient Zero, the original zombie.

 

The way the show uses the city, and the way they pump up that paralyzing dread as we watch society begin to slowly decay while everyone squirms around and tries to avoid the subject and go about their lives (especially Dickens/Madison) - the way we all probably would - feels especially relevant now, in a year where there seems to be another horror or tragedy month after month. I think part of why FTWD resonates is because the world feels a little insane right now, the same way the world of the show is going. We watch Madison try to avoid the subject of the world falling apart, while we focus in on it ourselves - transmuting our real, gnawing fear to the fantastical context of the zombie apocalypse. It feels immediate because it is. They've tapped the right vein of what's happening these days, and that's why so far the show really works for me.

 

It could fall apart in six episodes - I don't know what their long-term plan is or when or if they will catch up to TWD. They must have something clear in mind, or rather, they better. The tone, the much quicker and snappier dialogue, the wonderful electronic music are all very different from the mothership; if they can keep forging their own path, I think they might be good to go. Or people will turn on it this week and tune out if it doesn't become a supercharged zombie killfest, I dunno. But to me, FTWD is the first time a zombie story felt like a legitimate horror movie in a while. You're watching the world fall apart around good people and you can't help them and you wonder what it would feel like if it was you.

[DRW50]

This is interesting to read, as I felt like the show tapped into a certain decay that reminded me a lot of late '70s horror as well as one of my favorite movies of that era (3 Women).  

 

I also kept wondering if that place the dealer and Frank Dillane were in was the same place they shot the drag race near the end of Grease. 

 

I watched it on my DVR, no commercials, but it didn't slog as much as I thought it would. It was a little heavy-handed and dull, but I thought the cast offset too much tedium. Frank Dillane was much better than I'd expected, at least until the end, when they started to overdo Johnny Depp + that guy from Criminal Minds. For most of the episode he managed to play a lost, dreamlike, childlike character without being cloying or precious. The scene where his dealer was consoling him was very powerful. I'm sorry they killed that guy - it was a good set piece, but a show that has had so much criticism for killing black men probably shouldn't open their prequel by killing another black man.

 

Cliff Curtis going to the abandoned church was another great set piece.  He did a lot with a cardboard role. I'm also interested in his old family.

 

The scene I liked best was the video footage of the walker going around attacking various people, as cops and paramedics were helpless to know what to do. It set up the alien, unstoppable grind to come in such a simple, effective way. One of the friends of the sister (the weakest part of the show for me) watching the video had some awful Darabont-style line about "This is the new reality." but other than that bit, the whole sequence was brilliant.

[Vee]

3 Women is also one of my all-time favorites. I always thought of a lot of that movie being set in the barely-livable wilderness beyond a lot of the decay, though. That's a whole other topic. I was reminded of Nightcrawler with FTWD, though, and Repo Man, and a little Mulholland Drive.

 

The scene with the girls and their teenspeak was easily the biggest miss in the show for me, fortunately it was brief. That was a tin-eared Kirkman moment for me. I probably shouldn't arbitrarily blame him, but he did co-write the pilot.

[slick jones]

Excellent description/analyzation of the first episode.  I watched it and will continue.  Kim Dickens is always a breath of fresh air and I completely agree about Cliff Curtis.  The relationship between Dillane's character and the dealer was something I wish they pursued, before killing him off.  I actually thought (for a second) that the dealer was taking him for a little "one on one" time in exchange for the fix.  I am looking forward to seeing the dysfunctional ex-wife and son blending in to the story.  

[Vee]

From the promos I've seen, it looks like things will be escalating very, very quickly in Episode 2.

 

I can't remember the timeline from TWD - I think they said Rick was in a coma for 45 days? And then he woke up and the world had gone from normal to undead. I would think it would take a bit longer for things to go totally nuts, from where Los Angeles seems to be in the pilot to outright panic - maybe another week or two. But I also don't know where the pilot is in relation to Rick's coma, or how much had really gone down before Rick was hospitalized.

 

The stuff that really got me was the creeping, encroaching absence of life in bustling places - the school, the beach, the streets. Things were still somewhat normal but getting increasingly off. They did a good job illustrating that with Madison walking the hall, trying to feel like things are the same. By the end of the pilot, of course, they have to send everyone home.

[Juliajms]

It's been one episode! No one would have thought much of Carol at the start of TWD either.

[DRW50]

 

She's perfectly competent and I am happy to give her a chance - I was mostly responding to the idea that the show was a wasteland she was hired to singlehandedly save.

[Darn]

 

 

Literally no one said that. You are so dramatic I swear.

[Juliajms]

So the quotes of this post are all screwed up and it won't let me fix it or start over. Awesome!

 

Carl- I thought the scene where the middle class white family repeatedly ran over and shot a black man was very out of place. I don't think anyone would call me an activist, but that was so noticeable. Is a show like this obligated to be sensitive to the current social climate? I don't know, but I cringed at that scene.

[ChitHappens]

Finally watched, and I thought it was dreadful from start to finish.  I found the addict son so unrootable and unattractive.  I didn't like any of the characters, so I won't be tuning in.  The leads are as interesting as a wet sock!

[Juliajms]

I'm sorry you won't be watching, but I'll look forward to posting with you when TWD comes back.

 

I do think it's likely a lot more characters are going to be introduced in the next few episodes. There is no way they can build a show around this family any more than TWD is built around Rick's family.

[Vee]

FTWD is introducing a new character via an online special - set during an in-flight disaster with a zombie attack. One of the featured characters will then appear in Season 2.

 

The special will apparently debut online, but air in segments during FTWD commercial breaks.