Fear the Walking Dead - Official discussion thread

[pontifex]

Maybe that's what THEY want but it's hard for me to see this show going anywhere if it's just a rip off of the original. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will watch it regardless but I don't see this show getting 6M+ viewship like TWD if they don't do something different with it.

I mean think about it. There are only so many types of conflict you can have in a zombie apocalypse and TWD has covered all of those many times over. At a certain point all you're left with is the soap opera drama and I don't see that being enough for most fans.

Plus this cast doesn't look nearly as strong as the season one TWD cast.

If what they're going to focus on is the way in which civilization falls apart, that's fine. That can work. They might even be able to stretch that out over 2 seasons. But ultimately you end up with a situation identical to what you have in the original. You need conflict for a show like this to work and unless they're going to give us different types of conflict, why bother watching it?

looks like we'll have civilian vs military conflict coming up soon.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Maybe that's what THEY want but it's hard for me to see this show going anywhere if it's just a rip off of the original. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will watch it regardless but I don't see this show getting 6M+ viewship like TWD if they don't do something different with it.

I mean think about it. There are only so many types of conflict you can have in a zombie apocalypse and TWD has covered all of those many times over. At a certain point all you're left with is the soap opera drama and I don't see that being enough for most fans.

Plus this cast doesn't look nearly as strong as the season one TWD cast.

If what they're going to focus on is the way in which civilization falls apart, that's fine. That can work. They might even be able to stretch that out over 2 seasons. But ultimately you end up with a situation identical to what you have in the original. You need conflict for a show like this to work and unless they're going to give us different types of conflict, why bother watching it?

People will watch it cause zombies and west coast.

The creator even said that his worst regret was making that one episode where they went to the CDC and got an idea of what happened.

Idk about other people or comic book fans but I want some sort of resolution..

 

[Charmonium]

I agree that people will watch it. Just look at Stargate Universe. People watched that just because . . . Stargate. But it still got canceled because they wasted most of the time with bs plots that didn't relate to some of the really great mysteries they had laid out early on. It just became a space opera.

Don't get me wrong. A huge chunk of the population loves that shit. How else do you explain the popularity of reality programming. Add in the occasional zombie and I can see the show having decent ratings for the first season. I'm just saying that unless they do something radically different from the original series, they're going to have to start humping cross over episodes to keep people interested and that's just not going to happen. If it ever does, you can say goodbye to both shows.

Aside from the precise cause of the epidemic, there are still a lot of other issues they can deal with. For example, how did central govt control fall apart so quickly. From what I understand, FTWD takes place only a couple of weeks before the start of the original series. During that time it should have been possible to disseminate vital information like the fact that even "uninfected" people will turn when they die. With that knowledge you should be able to create a system to protect survivors.

So there should be a lot of interesting themes available to the writers here. We just have to see if they have the imagination to take exploit them.

 

[Genx87]

It would be nice to get an idea of its origins. TWD noted everybody is infected regardless of being bit. So one has to assume it was distributed by our food or water supply. Or was airborne. But knowing if it was a man made disease that got out in the wild by accident or on purpose would be nice to know.

 

[Imp]

so why did they have a half day at school? the video of the shooting that happened the night before? Why would that 1 incident cause them to do this?

Then when they were leaving they all acted like there was some huge thing happening.

They keep talking about not many kids being in school but where are they? Are they zombies or just sick? Why doesn't anyone know about that yet? seems like doctor offices/hospitals would be inundated with sick kids?

Sounded like everyone already knew something was up. The kid caught with the knife said he read about this type of stuff in other states online already, so seeing the video probably just confirmed that something was happening. One of the teachers said that parents were keeping their kids home -- the exception was probably the daughter's boyfriend.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I guess I am just good at suspending dis-belief. I am perfectly fine not knowing exactly what caused the zombies. I'm good with a show about the breakdown of society.

 

[Kaido]

It would be nice to get an idea of its origins. TWD noted everybody is infected regardless of being bit. So one has to assume it was distributed by our food or water supply. Or was airborne. But knowing if it was a man made disease that got out in the wild by accident or on purpose would be nice to know.

I think that's pretty much all it can be...nature, or a man-made virus carried by a flu (in order to spread by itself). If that's the case, either anarchy or something that escaped from a lab somewhere. Will be interesting to see if they give us any clues or hints...like if it only starts in America & then spreads, or what.

 

[Imp]

I think that's pretty much all it can be...nature, or a man-made virus carried by a flu (in order to spread by itself). If that's the case, either anarchy or something that escaped from a lab somewhere. Will be interesting to see if they give us any clues or hints...like if it only starts in America & then spreads, or what.

They probably shouldn't get into that too much. I don't think you can believably explain the zombie disease and not pull a Star Wars Episode 1.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

They probably shouldn't get into that too much. I don't think you can believably explain the zombie disease and not pull a Star Wars Episode 1.

28 Days Later did it pretty well I thought.

 

[Charmonium]

They probably shouldn't get into that too much. I don't think you can believably explain the zombie disease and not pull a Star Wars Episode 1.

It depends what you mean by 'explain.' Nothing really explains zombies in any meaningful way. The idea that only the brain has to be intact for a zombie to function means that respiratory, circulatory and other major functions are essentially irrelevant. There are only a couple ways you can get to that and they're supernatural or biomechanical. For example self-replicating nanites could do the job but then you're still left with the issue of why the brain is so important.

From that point of view, I can see just glossing over the whole thing. But origin stories are still important, even if they're obvious bullshit.

 

[Imp]

28 Days Later did it pretty well I thought.

Ya, but 28 Days Later it wasn't zombies, it was some rabid disease. They didn't need headshots and their bodies were still technically functioning machines.

In Walking Dead world, you can cut their head off and until you hit their brain, they still work. Somehow, these bodies don't require any sustenance (e.g. blood flow, nutrients, energy production) and can still function. You don't want to go down that line unless you plan on bringing nanites or aliens in...

 

[TheELF]

You're missing the point here. Zombie or no zombie, if your son runs over his friend (repeatedly) in Dad's pickup truck, you don't look at your wife and she look at you and all you can manage is a shrug. I was OK with the show up until that final scene ... I mean, seriously !?? Hell, I could act out that scene better than they did.

That scene is ok,if you're just a normal couple, seeing this kind of crazy stuff in real life would totally freak you out,even freezing you up for a couple of minutes.
The boy on the other hand is used to getting bad stuff,he asks the other kid if there where pcb in in the drugs,so he knows how to move his body even when his brain is freaked out so he takes initiative and floors it.


I think the biggest flaw of the pilot is that it is made for people that never saw TWD (and didn't bother to read the title of the show) it starts with a scene giving you doubt about if what the junkie sees is real or not and they try to build this up as much as possible up to the finale that finally makes it real, for the family.
Man,everybody already knows that it's about walking dead people it's a waste of an hour of television.

 

[Imp]

I think the biggest flaw of the pilot is that it is made for people that never saw TWD (and didn't bother to read the title of the show) it starts with a scene giving you doubt about if what the junkie sees is real or not and they try to build this up as much as possible up to the finale that finally makes it real, for the family.
Man,everybody already knows that it's about walking dead people it's a waste of an hour of television.

It's a good idea to try to rope in some new viewers with this a new product, or just to make it its own standalone thing for syndication.

I liked CSI, but I only watched part of the first season of CSI Miami -- same for CSI New York. I like NCIS, didn't even bother with NCIS LA or New Orleans.

 

[clamum]

I guess I am just good at suspending dis-belief. I am perfectly fine not knowing exactly what caused the zombies. I'm good with a show about the breakdown of society.

Same. I tend to just take things for what they are in movies and tv shows and enjoy them. It has to be really f'ing bad for me to get disgusted with it and quit watching. It's a fictional tv show/movie for christ's sake.

 

[smackababy]

I finally got around to watching the first episode. Not terrible, but I had one huge problem. Any junkie off heroin for that long would not be able to function. Also, he would have been shitting his brains out. Heroin (and all opiates) make you severely constipated. When you're coming down, you gotta let it all out. He wouldn't have been able to walk out of the hospital, and even if they had him on heavy medication for withdrawal, within hours he would have had the shakes again and after so long the sickness would have been near unbearable.

Other than that, I didn't mind it. The drama is a bit over the top and it is like they are throwing every kind of drama imaginable at this one family like some huge cliche, but I can deal with that, I suppose.

As far as the viewers knowing it is about zombies, that doesn't matter. This isn't about whether or not the viewers know there are zombies, it is about society not accepting it until it is too late. That is how this spreads. People don't want to believe magic zombies can exist, so they look for logical explanations and it turns into a huge epidemic.

 

[Murloc]

I'm not even gonna start watching this series, the walking dead jumped the shark too early.

 

[Bart*Simpson]

Did anyone else watching FTWD last night notice that the wife got bit on the arm by the zombie drug dealer? Be interesting to see her turn.

 

[Imp]

Did anyone else watching FTWD last night notice that the wife got bit on the arm by the zombie drug dealer? Be interesting to see her turn.

Pretty sure hubby pushed dealer out of the way just in time.

 

[smackababy]

Pretty sure hubby pushed dealer out of the way just in time.

They didn't show one way or the other, and I think that was intentional.

At least, they are continuing with the "everyone is already infected" theme and people are simply rising after being killed.

 

[Triumph]

Yeah things feel a bit scattered right now. I felt like the family story with the druggie kid was pretty distant, but then it's like it's really important, but they don't really make you care about it all that much. I dunno. We'll see if it picks up. If nothing else, it's something to tide us over until October :awe:

The only thing that would've made the family story with the druggie relevant and remotely interesting, is if it turned out that the government had been keeping things contained up until then. But Johnnie Depp managed to let it loose when he killed his dealer and it was gone when he came back.

But that doesn't seem to be where they were going, since they pretty much incapacitated the body with the pickup truck. So we're back to this being the same old drama story about how people deal with the same old problems that TWD already dealt with.

 

[Imp]

They didn't show one way or the other, and I think that was intentional.

At least, they are continuing with the "everyone is already infected" theme and people are simply rising after being killed.

I think she got away unscathed... but we can do frame by frame analysis here!

https://youtu.be/iJLex5Ka7gY

Edit: This is just cool.
https://youtu.be/79tZJjtjfZ8

 

[PokerGuy]

I thought the first episode was absolutely terrible. I was yawning during most of it, wondering if I should just go ahead and go to bed or watch to the end. As a fan of TWD, I'm going to give it another shot with the second episode to see if things get better, but that was awfully boring.

None of the characters are at all interesting, I don't care if they all get eaten or killed. For them to drag out the 'drama' like that with characters that are completely uninteresting makes for a very boring show IMO.

It's a good thing for the people behind this show that it's tied into to TWD series. If not, I would not have bothered watching again, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that view.

 

[Strk]

I think that's pretty much all it can be...nature, or a man-made virus carried by a flu (in order to spread by itself). If that's the case, either anarchy or something that escaped from a lab somewhere. Will be interesting to see if they give us any clues or hints...like if it only starts in America & then spreads, or what.

Don't get me wrong, I like a good origin story, but I'm pretty sure the origin of whatever causes walkers might be a bit much. Does saying it is a satellite, lysogenic lentivirus really make it better? Real viruses can do some crazy things like rabies making you hydrophobic, but sometimes making up a science to explain made up things kind ruins it. As someone said, just look at Star Wars. I think everyone was good just going with the mysticism of the Jedi.

 

[Kaido]

Don't get me wrong, I like a good origin story, but I'm pretty sure the origin of whatever causes walkers might be a bit much. Does saying it is a satellite, lysogenic lentivirus really make it better? Real viruses can do some crazy things like rabies making you hydrophobic, but sometimes making up a science to explain made up things kind ruins it. As someone said, just look at Star Wars. I think everyone was good just going with the mysticism of the Jedi.

Yeah. It's taken me this long to accept that we don't need an explanation, and that it would probably be better off without it. But I think eventually some kind of cure would be good, especially with TWD being about Rick & his adopted family - he needs a way to ensure the safety of his kids growing up, which means they need to find a cure so they can at least live inside a safe compound without the risk of someone dying & turning like happened in the jail.

 

[Aharami]

Both wife and I liked the premiere. And while I would like to see an explanation of the outbreak, I will likely be disappointed with any explanation they come up with. So I hope they don't try to explain it. We'll see.