Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[Stan]

I give up on this show.....

Like 'Enterprise' they've taken what could have been an awesome premise and slapped us in the face...

I'm with you. Zapped it off the DVR schedule. When you have to force yourself to watch a show, hoping it will improve, it's not worth it.

And poor Chris Hardwick, having to host the Talking Dead episodes, somehow coming up with something to talk about and trying to make it interesting.

I'll wait until TWD comes back next month.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Anyone else still watching this show? It is taking me longer each week to get round to watching the episode and I am almost at the point of giving up.

Nope. Checking the thread, I see I did post earlier, but ultimately I decided to forgo season two. I have a buddy who is a big time fan of the original series and he is this close (visualize thumb and forefinger slightly apart) to dropping Fear the Walking Dead. He did say that the show had improved after the return from break, but not dramatically. (His thoughts).

Just responding to Nigel's post. If you are watching and enjoying season two then more power to you.

- Walter.

 

[Nigel P]

I still watch it but for every one thing I like about an episode, there's something else that I don't like.

I agree. The ratio of characters I am interested in to those I am bored/frustrated with is too low, which combined with the mostly poor storytelling makes it hard to care. I guess I will keep watching to the end of this season.

 

[TravisR]

And poor Chris Hardwick, having to host the Talking Dead episodes, somehow coming up with something to talk about and trying to make it interesting.

Yeah, there's occasional times when I enjoy Talking Dead to The Walking Dead because Hardwick is a fun time but even Talking Dead is being dragged down by Fear The Walking Dead.

 

[Paul D G]

Like Walter's friend I am right on the edge of dumping. The mid-season premiere had the most boring opening scene, followed by another 15 minutes of boring before something worth paying attention to happened. I started the second episode with the full intention of dumping it entirely but finally (FINALLY) some characters found themselves in Zombie Danger. The third episode did continue to improve.

This doesn't change the fact that I don't like the Nick, Madison, Travis or Chris characters at all. They also can't keep storylines straight. Travis started as a teacher in a bilingual school, then while he was looking for Chris and he encountered a native Mexican and all of a sudden he couldn't speak any Spanish. Then, four episodes later, he's speaking Spanish to a guy. I'm also pretty sure in the mid-season finale Madison said she was waiting for Travis to get back with Chris, but now she seems to have completely forgotten about both of them. And Travis has no concern at all that he abandoned his wife and stepkids to a bunch of strangers.

I really enjoy watching Talking Dead, but watching Hardwick feign interest in FTWD, and having cast members gush on how 'amazing' the show is makes me want to skip watching it too.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Anyone else still watching this show? It is taking me longer each week to get round to watching the episode and I am almost at the point of giving up.

I am. But I generally seem to be more annoyed by it than entertained.

AMC damn well better not go ahead with their plans for doing yet another show in this world. Not unless there is some kind of miraculous 180 turnaround for this one first.

Talk about diluting the brand.

 

[MarkMel]

I'm watching but only as a sorbet between the courses of TWD.

 

[Stan]

I really enjoy watching Talking Dead, but watching Hardwick feign interest in FTWD, and having cast members gush on how 'amazing' the show is makes me want to skip watching it too.

The actress who plays Madison is one of the gushers. And Yvette Nicole Brown, who I really enjoy, must be getting paid to pump this show. She's got her little notebook which is great when she's talking about TWD. But she must be a great actress to be able to show such enthusiasm for FTWD and make it seem authentic.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Anyone else still watching this show? It is taking me longer each week to get round to watching the episode and I am almost at the point of giving up.

I finally caught up tonight. The midseason finale was such a mess, with so many out-of-character moments that existed just because the writers needed them to happen, that it was hard to muster any enthusiasm.

And then they opened the season with a Nick-centric episode. I think the writers greatly overestimate the audience's interest/investment in that character. They started with this questionable premise that since hardcore drug addicts are used to living a nomadic lifestyle apart from the eyes of the law, they'd be ideally suited to the zombie apocalypse, and didn't want to let that go for a season and a half. Then they had Nick side with the crazy lady who thought the zombies were still people who'd moved on to a new phase of life, because they needed a reason to separate him from Madison and Alicia, even though nothing in the series previously would have made us believe he'd be that susceptible to outside persuasion.

Since returning from the break, the character's been more plausibly written. But I didn't believe he could be that close to oxy unsupervised for a single second and not use. And a person with a death wish doesn't make for a good protagonist. Pre-apocalypse, it would have been self-destructive. Now it's just destructive, since his unnecessary risks are likely to get a lot more people killed than just him.

I'm all for the slow burn but they've taken that to the nth degree at this point and now with breaking everyone off into separate stories (which undoubtedly was done for production necessities), it's not speeding things up.

The one nice thing about breaking everyone off into the separate stories is that you can sort of triage the show as a viewer. Every time they cut to Travis and Chris, for instance, I know it's going to be terrible. Travis is going to act noble and ineffectual, and Chris is going to be an eager little psychopath. Speaking of the latter, it's another example of the plot driving the characters instead of the characters driving the plot. They decided this show needed a Shane, and probably thought it ironic that the pacifist from the first season would become the stone cold killer. But it seemed to come out of the blue, with one perfectly justified mercy killing on the crashed plane suddenly turning him into a would-be serial killer. On the other hand, the hotel subplot has a lot of potential.

He did say that the show had improved after the return from break, but not dramatically. (His thoughts).

I would agree with that. Nick is still infuriating, but I like the world building going on in his plot. Travis and Chris are still dead weight, but they've been quarantined from the rest of the show. On the other hand, the three best characters left -- Strand, Alicia and Madison -- are unburdened of the crappy characters.

I started the second episode with the full intention of dumping it entirely but finally (FINALLY) some characters found themselves in Zombie Danger. The third episode did continue to improve.

This was my experience as well. The biggest thing is that the show's finally started utilizing Alycia Debnam-Carey. They went into the first season was a frustratingly black and white premise that those who failed at the civilized world would thrive in the zombie apocalypse, and those who thived in the civilized world would fail in the zombie apocalypse. The reality would seem to be a lot grayer than that; while the end of the world would have different winners and losers than the civilized world, it wouldn't be such a clean cut reversal. For every Daryl that was marginalized by society but now thrives in a new world order, there'd be a smart people with a successful past who has skills that would be transferable to the zombie apocalypse.

Alicia would seem to be such a person, but because of this rigid philosophy they had to have her make dumb mistake after dumb mistake. Thankfully, after her spectacular fuck-up with the ham radio, we've gotten to see her apply that intellect to the problems of the post apocalyptic world. The scheme with herding all of the hotel's walkers along the pier like lemmings and then letting the riptide chew them up was a Rick Grimes worthy strategy.

On the other hand, Madison going from stumbling drunk to waging war on the swarming zombies stretched credibility.

Chris needed to get out-psychoed and taken out of the equation. And if we never hear from Ofelia again, I wouldn't be heartbroken. Then build a mostly new cast around the two characters that are working, Strand and Alicia. Maybe turn Travis into a Morgan-like character who disappears for a couple seasons and comes back transformed.

One thing I really do like is the setting in Mexico around Tijuana. The Southwestern feel of the desert landscapes and architecture is about as far as you can get from rural Georgia.

 

[Stan]

And then they opened the season with a Nick-centric episode. I think the writers greatly overestimate the audience's interest/investment in that character. They started with this questionable premise that since hardcore drug addicts are used to living a nomadic lifestyle apart from the eyes of the law, they'd be ideally suited to the zombie apocalypse, and didn't want to let that go for a season and a half. Then they had Nick side with the crazy lady who thought the zombies were still people who'd moved on to a new phase of life, because they needed a reason to separate him from Madison and Alicia, even though nothing in the series previously would have made us believe he'd be that susceptible to outside persuasion.
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One thing I really do like is the setting in Mexico around Tijuana. The Southwestern feel of the desert landscapes and architecture is about as far as you can get from rural Georgia.

The "Nick" issue is what killed this show for me, that goofy lady caring for the zombies was just the icing on the cake.

I tend to disagree with you about the Mexico setting. Don't know if it's actually filmed there, but certainly not helping the country. Not a place I'd want to visit after seeing this show.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The problem with this show is that it's mostly playing variations of scenarios we've already encountered on the mothership -- there is a finite variety of reasonable sorts of interactions in the zombie apocalypse -- with a cast of characters we're far less invested in. Because they knew they were piggybacking off the mothership, they didn't feel the same pressure to come up with a full slate of characters that could carry a show on their own. Given its prequel premise, having characters unsuited for the apocalypse wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing, if the show had been much bolder about killing them off. The problem is that, with a couple exceptions, we've got the same group of people we had when the world ended. You look at the group by the quarry in episode two of the original series, most family units only had one or two survivors left. It seems like there'd be a lot more people in Ofelia's situation than in Madison's situation.

I did like the how the episode placed the various story strands in one cohesive whole, so we sort of get an idea of where Nick is in relation to the hotel, and likewise Travis. Having recurring outside characters and a barter economy is something the mothership is just starting to explore. I also liked Alicia finally calling Madison out on her bullshit: She's still the mother who thinks that THIS is the time she'll get through to her junkie son. That was problematic enough before. But now her desperation has put an entire hotel full of people at risk, including her own daughter.

Hopefully the final shot means that Travis has put Chris in the rear view mirror.

 

[Paul D G]

Adam's write up sums it all perfectly. The show is just on the edge of watchable at this point. With two episodes left I'll stick out the rest of the season, but unless they turn it around in the finale, I think I'm out.

Above all this is a horror series. We're two weeks in to the apocalypse... there should be hundreds of walkers roaming the landscape yet there is only a handful here and there. These people are as unbothered by zombies as Rick and the group are 2 years on. Someone should have gotten bitten during that herding of the infected out of the hotel yet everyone survived unscathed. This show is called "Fear the Walking Dead" yet instead of horror it's more of a soap opera.

 

[TravisR]

...unless they turn it around in the finale, I think I'm out.

Considering how often they fired showrunners on the early seasons of The Walking Dead (which were MUCH better episodes than what Fear is currently doing), I can't believe that there won't be major changes or alot of new writing blood for S3.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Yeah the cheapness of the shows in the lack of extras for zombies or CGI at least, Mexico cities like tijuana have millions of people, where are they all hiding ? Either they are the living or the Dead and we should be seeing alot more of the populace, even when the group was in LA we saw no one, you can't lock all the populace into a stadium. There should be massive heads of zombies everywhere, I only forgive the original because they locate everything in the sticks where we can for give the empty road plus its years into the ZA not months

 

[Stan]

Adam's write up sums it all perfectly. The show is just on the edge of watchable at this point. With two episodes left I'll stick out the rest of the season, but unless they turn it around in the finale, I think I'm out..

I'm with you, I have decided to finish out the season. Saw one of the Talking Dead episodes that was pretty decent, so decided to go back.

AMC repeats everything so much, no problem finding the four episodes I missed. But it better improve or I bail for good.

Dave Scarpa's comment was spot on. Where is everybody? The rural Georgia setting makes sense, but what happened to the 20+ million people in the SoCal/Mexico region?

 

[TravisR]

I don't know that there should be THAT many people or zombies around. Presumably, Mexico either evacuated their cities or bombed them which would have decreased the city population. Plus, I think it's been about two months at this point so plenty of the zombies could have wandered away from Rosarito in that time.

 

[Stan]

I don't know that there should be THAT many people or zombies around. Presumably, Mexico either evacuated their cities or bombed them which would have decreased the city population. Plus, I think it's been about two months at this point so plenty of the zombies could have wandered away from Rosarito in that time.

Well it's all fiction, fun to talk about. It would be interesting if there really were a ZA. At least some of us would know how to handle it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

One of the interesting things about "Fear the Walking Dead" is the idea that the drug cartels were actually better prepared to weather the zombie apocalypse than the legitimate American governments. So they've been able to maintain a level of civilization -- albeit brutal -- that ceased to exist in the parts of America we've seen on the two shows.

It also seems like the apparent lack of quarantines around the major population centers can help explain the lack of zombies; people were free to flee to the countryside, so the zombies are probably a lot more dispersed.

 

[Stan]

One of the interesting things about "Fear the Walking Dead" is the idea that the drug cartels were actually better prepared to weather the zombie apocalypse than the legitimate American governments. So they've been able to maintain a level of civilization -- albeit brutal -- that ceased to exist in the parts of America we've seen on the two shows.

It also seems like the apparent lack of quarantines around the major population centers can help explain the lack of zombies; people were free to flee to the countryside, so the zombies are probably a lot more dispersed.

Silly question, but in the fictional world of zombies, how do they survive?

Eventually they'll run out of humans to eat, they must need water, their bodies must obey the natural laws of physics and decay. They seem to be fine after falling out of high-rise hotels but wouldn't they finally decompose?

Guess I go back to that old phrase "Suspension of disbelief".

 

[TravisR]

Silly question, but in the fictional world of zombies, how do they survive?

Eventually they'll run out of humans to eat, they must need water, their bodies must obey the natural laws of physics and decay. They seem to be fine after falling out of high-rise hotels but wouldn't they finally decompose?

Guess I go back to that old phrase "Suspension of disbelief".

Decomposition of the zombies was a question that was recently raised in the letters page of the comic book and if I remember correctly, the explanation was that not all of them died at the same time (so some are newer than others) and the real world/suspension of disbelief answer is that if you want the comic book and show(s) to continue, the zombies can't just rot away.

Early on in the comic book, they'd come upon zombies that were basically starved & nearly immobile but that element quickly disappeared presumably to skirt the question of food sources and the zombies' decomposition.