Fear the Walking Dead Pilot Review

First Aired August 23rd, 2015.

Nick Clark (played by Frank Dillane) wakes up from a drug bender inside a church and stumbles upon several bodies. He then finds his girlfriend reanimated as a walker devouring a corpse and flees. Nick is hit by a car and the scene shifts to show a still functioning Los Angeles.

High school guidance counselor Madison Clark (played by Kim Dickens) prepares to start her day with fiancé and English teacher Travis Manawa (played by Cliff Curtis) and daughter Alicia (played by Alycia Debnam-Carey). They get a call that her son, Nick, is in the hospital’s psych ward and go see him, stopping the police from interrogating him. Travis also deals with his own family issues: his son, Chris (played by Lorenzo James Henrie) resents him and chooses to live with his ex-wife, Lisa (played by Elizabeth Rodriguez). At school, Madison confiscates a knife from student Tobias (played by Lincoln Castellanos), who has seen the beginnings of the outbreak and fears the worst is coming. Nick tells Travis what happened at the church but Nick dismisses it as a drug-induced hallucination. That being said, he goes to the church that night to investigate and finds blood everywhere, but no bodies. The next day, Travis tells Madison what he found but she refuses to believe Nick’s story about people eating people.

Fear the Walking Dead shows lots of promise because, while the basic narrative is the same as The Walking Dead, it takes a different approach. Starting the series during the beginning of the outbreak is smart because fans of the original series have already seen the aftermath. Whereas TWD gave glimpses into the collapse of society, FtWD gives a detailed version which helps set the two mediums apart. Of course as the series moves forward they’ll start to seem more similar. The characters are engrossing and its refreshing that viewers get to see what kind of people the characters are rather than just who they become after society falls. Family is also a big distinction on the show. TWD is made up of people who banded together for survival but FtWD follows one family as they try to survive. The characters are all interesting for the most part but several only had one or two scenes. The pilot had an extended running time. I would have liked if most of these characters had more than cameo appearances.

After Travis escapes from the hospital, Madison demands that Travis take her to the church to see it for herself. At the church, Madison breaks down after wondering if Nick’s drug use was somehow her fault and Travis comforts her. That night they get stuck on the highway due to heavy police presence and flee when they hear gunshots. The next day, at school, teachers and students watch viral footage of a man reanimating and attacking paramedics and classes are ended early. Nick meets with his drug dealer and childhood friend, Calvin (played by Keith Powers), in order to forget what he saw at the church. Calvin pulls a gun on Nick to keep him from exposing his business but Nick shoots him and runs away.

I like that the series is taking it’s time to show how society crumbles, which makes it much more effective visually and narratively. I always pictured people watching early zombie attacks on Youtube or something before suddenly the zombies are right in your face. It also appears that because authorities aren’t releasing information people are in the dark, which will later prove fatal. Isn’t that always the case? However, I hope things pick up in the second episode. The slow and steady approach worked for the pilot to introduce the characters. But there needs to be more action in the next episode to keep things interesting. This is a show about a zombie outbreak after all.

Nick calls Travis who comes with Madison and Nick confesses to shooting Cal in self-defense but when they drive back to where the shooting happened there is no body. While driving away Madison and Travis spot a reanimated Calvin who attacks them until Nick runs him over with the truck several times. When they see Calvin still moving after all that trauma they realize something more sinister is happening. Everyone always remembers their first zombie, it’s a major milestone in the zombie apocalypse. It was weird that nobody had a stronger reaction to seeing Calvin still moving after all of that. You’d think they would have freaked out. Overall the pilot was a fun episode and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.

Quotes & Thoughts

“There was blood all over her mouth, and then she came at me.” “What did she do?” “She was eating them.”

It was jarring to see the relatively normal looking walkers from this episode compared to the severely deformed walkers from later seasons of The Walking Dead.

“If there’s a problem, we’re gonna know about it. The authorities would tell us.”

I wonder if the characters on this show will refer to the zombies as “walkers” or come up with some other name.

If you enjoyed Manny’s slow-burning optimism, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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