Fear the Walking Dead (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

Interesting. There's all sorts of angles they could take.

I'd love to see them take inspiration from 'World War Z" (the book not the movie) and maybe have a series that focuses on some region where larger groups of survivors had enough resources to not kill each other and are working toward "clearing" the world, one city at a time.

Something like that could be pretty cool and would be different from focusing on the smaller groups where it's dog eat dog for the survivors.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The first season will transpire over a three week time period


To put it into perspective, Rick was in a coma for about five weeks. So "Fear the Walking Dead" won't get to the stage in the outbreak when Rick walked out of the hospital until sometime in Season 2.


Speaking of Season 2, the AMC press release confirms the episode count will be 15 episodes:

AMC, July 31, 2015
AMC CONFIRMS 15-EPISODE ORDER FOR SECOND SEASON OF “FEAR THE WALKING DEAD”



BEVERLY HILLS, CA – July 31, 2015 – AMC announced today from the Television Critics Association (TCA) Press Tour a 15-episode order for the second season of “Fear the Walking Dead,” which will air in 2016. One of summer’s most anticipated new series, “Fear the Walking Dead” was greenlit back in March for two seasons. As previously announced, the series will debut in the U.S. Sunday, August 23rd at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT with an extended 90-minute episode. The premiere will also air on AMC Global channels around the world simultaneously and will then re-air in local time zones during primetime.* A special episode of “Talking Dead,” hosted by Chris Hardwick (Nerdist), will follow the season one finale on Sunday, October 4th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT (U.S. only).

Living in the same universe as “The Walking Dead,” “Fear the Walking Dead” is a gritty drama that explores the onset of the undead apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counselor Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and English teacher Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) have managed to assemble. The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and our dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories.

“Fear the Walking Dead” is executive produced by Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero, David Alpert and showrunner David Erickson and produced by AMC Studios. The series stars Kim Dickens as Madison, Cliff Curtis as Travis, Frank Dillane as Nick, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia, Elizabeth Rodriguez as Liza, Ruben Blades as Daniel, Mercedes Mason as Ofelia and Lorenzo James Henrie as Chris.

AMC Global launched in late 2014 and is available in over 125 countries throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

*“Fear the Walking Dead” will launch in the UK shortly following the worldwide premiere. Timing will be announced soon.

For photos and additional information, visit AMC’s press website, http://press.amcnetworks.com.​

About AMC

Whether commemorating favorite films from every genre and decade, or creating acclaimed original programming, AMC brings to its audience something deeper, something richer, Something More. The network reigns as the only cable network in history ever to win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row with “Mad Men,” and six of the last seven with current back-to-back honoree, “Breaking Bad.” The network boasts the most-watched drama series in basic cable history and the number one show on television among adults 18-49 for the last three years with “The Walking Dead.” AMC’s current original drama series include “Mad Men,” “The Walking Dead,” “Better Call Saul,” “Hell on Wheels,” “TURN: Washington’s Spies,” “Halt and Catch Fire,” “HUMANS,” and the forthcoming “Fear the Walking Dead,” “Into the Badlands” and “The Night Manager.” AMC also explores authentic worlds and discussion with original shows like “Talking Dead,” “The Making of The Mob: New York” and “Comic Book Men.” AMC is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks include IFC, SundanceTV, BBC America and WE tv. AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile. AMC: Something More.

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Contact:

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[Adam Lenhardt]

Premieres tonight at 9/8c!


It will be preceded by a special "Talking Dead" at 8/7c, which will preview the upcoming sixth season of the mothership.

 

[dana martin]

slow start, waiting to see how this builds, but you know how sometimes you just get that feeling, or not caring, I want to see the Junkie kid gone, mom and dad are ok

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Sling TV choked after an hour so I guess it's time to cancel them they failed

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I thought it was a brilliant pilot. The pilot for the mothership was brilliant in its way too, using the lens of Rick Grimes to lay out the rules and parameters of the universe. Rick came across each piece of information as he (and the audience) needed to know it. This time around, we already know the rules and parameters of the universe, but the characters we're following don't. They don't get to ride out the apocalypse and awaken to find the new normal already established. They don't get a Morgan Jones to walk them through what they need to know. They're going to have to adapt on the fly as things just get worse and worse and worse.


Don't you hate it when you come out of an opiate high in a desolate crumbling heroin den only to discover that the girl who was shooting up next to you when you passed out now has a piece of rebar through her abdomen and is eating everybody else inside?


Seriously, though, that opening sequence was brilliant. It built just like RIck's walkthrough of the hospital did. And then Nick makes it outside, and it could be the apocalypse; he's the only living character we've seen so far, and he's the only one in frame. And then, boom, he gets hit by a car. Well, they still have cars in the mothership too. But then the camera pulls back -- but instead of revealing the apocalypse like the pullback outside the hospital, the disorienting reveal here is that the world is still very much intact. We're at the very beginning.


We only get three walkers in the whole episode: Gloria in the abandoned church, the man on the highway, and Calvin in the aqueduct at the end. Given that the walkers are the attraction that brings in the crowds, it was a pretty ballsy move. Instead, the pilot wisely spends its time allowing us to live with this very fragile family unit, which is itself in the very early days. The advantage of having the mothership's success behind it is that just about every actor available today would have been interested in starring on the show. They could get exactly who they wanted, and didn't have to settle for any of the characters.


Frank Dillane is brilliant as Nick. When faced with the end of the world as we know it, being a drug user appears to be a decidedly mixed bag. On one hand, the apocalypse will surely disrupt the distribution of opiates that Nick depends on. Battling the physical and psychological symptoms of withdrawal from heroin is going to be very far from ideal when you need to be running for your life. On the other hand, you're already used to operating in a world where the rules of civilization don't apply. In this way, he has a leg up on many of the others around him. The scene with Calvin in the aqueduct is a perfect example: Nick read the situation and did what he needed to do to survive. At this juncture, most other people aren't going to be willing to take that step. Travis and Nick's mother made it out of that aqueduct because he was.


In the wrong hands, Alicia could have come across as merely petulant, sarcastic and obnoxious. In Alycia Debnam-Carey's hands, she has a rich internal life. Of the four main characters, she's the most together and therefore has the most to lose. The cliche of book smart people not having any street smarts is beyond tired, so it was nice to see the portrayal be a bit more complex here. You totally get her love for her brother, how disabused she has become that he'll straighten himself out, and her unwillingness to give up on him in spite of that. One of the finest actresses under 25 working today, and I can't wait to see what she does with the character.


Most people are already familiar with Cliff Curtis and Kim Dickens from their other work, and they're as good as you'd expect. Curtis brings out Travis's decency and openmindedness and lack of judgment. We like Travis as a human being, and because of that we're not sure he has what it takes to survive in a zombie apocalypse with the humanity such a disaster creates. Like Debnam-Carey with Alicia, Dickens takes a character that could be unlikable -- a mother on the verge of giving up on her son -- and makes her extremely empathetic. There is a strength to Madison that we see in single mothers all of the time.


One final point about this premiere: I loved the use of ambient sound, including the law mowers, trains and sprinklers. It's an entirely different palette than the mothership, and really heightened the separation between the two in my mind.


All in all, it fully justified its existence. I'll definitely be back next week to see what happens next.

 

[todd s]

People on Facebook articles about the pilot are ripping it as boring. They wanted more zombies. Do they not know the plot behind the show?!?

I am curious to see how the walkers take over. I can see the fast moving zombies of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake taking over. But, these are slow movers. So they should be containable...but, we will see

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I am curious to see how the walkers take over. I can see the fast moving zombies of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake taking over. But, these are slow movers. So they should be containable...but, we will see

Given all of the kids out of school with the "flu", it looks like there are two things going on at once: the virus or microbe that resurrects the dead as walkers is quickly spreading throughout the human population. We know this because Calvin wasn't bitten, but he still came back as a walker after he died. But then it seems like there's another pandemic that isn't necessarily related to the zombie virus/microbe, but similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu is going to cause mass casualities. And if those people have the zombie virus/microbe in them when the succumb to the flu, then they'll come back as walkers.


So the surging ranks of walkers aren't necessarily dependent on bites. Probably the vast majority will die of other causes during the ensuing chaos, and then come back as walkers anyway.

 

[Sean Bryan]

A slow start for the less patient viewer, but this had a nice unsettling vibe of something bad being on the way. Some good moments of tension stemming fom th viewer's knowledge of what is happening while the protagonists are unaware.

I think establishing the lives and personal issues of this family is interesting because the show should build to all of that becoming meaningless in he face of the undead apocalypse yet we get to see a before/during/after transformation of the lives of this family.

Interesting theory about the "flu". I'm not sure there was enough information to take that as literal though. The "flu" cases may have been what people have been reporting due to being sick from bites. Or it could have been due to people being dead and not showing up for work/school and others just assuming "flu".

I still think the slow zombies can overrun things do to two factors:
1. Ignorance about what is going on. I think the vast majority of early bites would be from family, neighbors, and co-workers. Without understanding what is actually happening, most sane people aren't going to bash their loved ones or friends in the head because they seem to have gone insane. But not going for the head-kill immediately in an attack means lots of bites.

Hospitals will be large centers of concentrated infection. Not knowing that all natural deaths result in zombies is a big part of the outbreak getting out of hand. Start with all the natural deaths that occur in hospitals everyday everywhere. Those zombies will bite hospital employees and family members. Then all sick people who have been bitten on the outside will be brought to hospitals, once they die you start to get a larger surge in numbers and a hospital becomes one of the most dangerous places you can be. Police stations would be similar locations on concentrated danger.

2. Everyone comes back. I don't know what the number is, but let's use the numbers from "Don't fear the Reaper". 40,000 men and women everyday day. So once whatever the infection is spreads around the world you get "40,000" new undead surprising loved ones, healthcare workers, and police. Lots of those people get bitten. Next day, 40,000 more. More bites. Initially, this will still just be chocked up to unbelievable reports and rumors that people it's not directly affecting won't pay much attention to. But thise numbers are going to start to surge. I think that is where the show is now. Things are just starting to become noticeable to those who aren't paying attention.

And it is everywhere, which makes it harder for the government to contain.

So ignorance about what is actuall happening combined with everyone coming back is how the slow zombies swell to an unmanageable number. I think if you took even know me of those factors away the slow zombies wouldn't ever completely overtake things. If the whole world knew how to react to them and kill them (and understood that their loved ones were "dead" with no hope for saving them) like the survivors in The Walking Dead, the walkers wouldn't get out of hand. Likewise, if all natural deaths didn't come back the outbreak would have to start from certain location and spread outward, making it more likely to be contained. When you combine the two factors of ignorance and there not being a center of the outbreak but everything being everywhere it just gets out of hand and once the numbers reach a certain point it just becomes unmanageable.

So I wouldn't rule out the possibility of there being another factor like "the flu" actually being a form of the flu that's contributing to the problem, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary to have something like that in order for this situation to go tits up. That may just be a red herring.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I did a quick Google search I don't know how accurate the numbers are but it's saying approximately 150,000 people die in the world every day.

So in just one week that would be approximately 1 million undead across the world. And that's just from natural deaths. If you consider each of them is likely to bite at least one family member or healthcare worker then we'd have nearly another million created from bites just within that first week.

Since it's not localized to one area but spread out everywhere I think initially it would not be as obvious what was going on but then suddenly you would start to see an exponential swell in numbers.

If there is something else going on at the same time like the flu, that would certainly contribute to the problem. It could also confuse the world about what is going on so that people have a harder time understanding the situation, but I don't think it's necessary in order for this to grow out of control.

 

[TonyD]

I still haven't watched more than the pilot of WD cause zombies don't entertain me.

Watching this because it may be less zombie more leading up to zombies.

Has there been any decent speculation on what caused the outbreak?

Also can someone convince me to watch WD, I'd like to give it a go.

 

[todd s]

Would have been funny if in the background was a story about a Georgia police officer who was shot and in a coma.


Was hoping we would hear more from the student who brought the knife to school to protect himself from the undead. The internet would definitely be the place where initial stories are coming from.


Also, while we do see the virus slowly spreading. You would have to think somewhere some military or government group sees and figures out what is going on and starts to pull back to a safe area. Would be a great story for Rick and their group to come upon an installation of members of the military/government in hiding.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

10.1 million viewers, 4.7 rating: Highest rated series premiere in cable history

 

[joshEH]

Well, crap. I thought this was kinda fun.


Actually, I find the idea of a character motivated by unrestricted drug-use to continue to survive an apocalypse an interesting one. I was hoping that Merle, then Daryl when that quickly changed, would be that kind of character early into the second first season of TWD.



Will definitely be sticking with this for the foreseeable future, but dammit, part of me also wishes Lennie James and Kim Dickens were in the SAME Walking Dead.

People on Facebook articles about the pilot are ripping it as boring. They wanted more zombies. Do they not know the plot behind the show?!?

I am curious to see how the walkers take over. I can see the fast moving zombies of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake taking over. But, these are slow movers. So they should be containable...but, we will see

If it's set in L.A., the dead won't be walking anywhere. They'll all be taking zombie Ubers.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Interview with showrunner Dave Erickson about the series premiere


He confirms that AMC is giving the show the "Mad Men" exemption from running strict 42 minute episodes; hopefully our DVRs adapt accordingly.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Solid opening pilot for the show. Perhaps they could have shown a little bit more zombie action but considering that it deals with the opening days of the coming zombie apocalypse I wouldn't expect wall to wall action. Liked the slow buildup and the idea that a character witnessing one of the first zombie occurrences would question, and have questioned, their sanity.


The Walking Dead seems (I believe) to embrace the idea of mobility as a survival characteristic; I'm curious to see if FtWD will develop this strategy for its characters. Being ahead of the characters in terms of zombie lore creates an interesting viewing environment and watching the characters learn to adapt to the changing world will (I suspect) be one of the more entertaining aspects of the new show. I'm curious to see if the kid who took the knife to school will figure in subsequent episodes; perhaps providing additional information to Madison Clark (Kim Dickens).


Thought the acting was pretty solid all the way around; Frank Dillane (Nick) physically reminded me of Brandon Lee (Eric Draven from The Crow) - probably because of the hair style.


The pilot could have moved a little quicker, but I'm on board for the rest of the season (Five more episodes - what a commitment. )


- Walter.

 

[EricSchulz]

Absolutely loved it! I expected (and had hoped for) a more character/story based start, rather than wall-to-wall zombie action. It almost plays more like a family drama with the zombies as a backdrop, rather than the other way around. I am VERY cool with that!

 

[TravisR]

On the topic of how the zombies can get big enough numbers to overrun people, I think that this early on there's also a problem touched on in Dawn Of The Dead (the good one) where they say how people can't have funerals or wait to do the normal things to say goodbye, they need to immediately destroy the brain before the person reanimates. The vast majority of people wouldn't be ready for that kind of thing and it would lead to more biting deaths which leads to more zombies and eventually people would become the minority.

Has there been any decent speculation on what caused the outbreak?

Both shows (and the comic book) are about what happens to people when society collapses so they'll never reveal what caused the dead to rise. The characters are regular people so they wouldn't be in a position to find out and they're struggling to survive so why it happened wouldn't really matter to them because they couldn't do anything to reverse it.

 

[TonyD]

Yep I get that, I'm asking the people who watch the shows what their theory is.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Entertainment Weekly: AMC planning standalone television event set in "Walking Dead" universe


The one-and-done special, currently planned as a half-hour, would explore what happens when a airplane passenger dies during a flight and unleashes a zombie outbreak on board. The one survivor left standing at the end would join the cast of "Fear the Walking Dead" for Season 2.