by Thom Yee

Fear the Walking Dead images courtesy of AMC.

1×05: “Cobalt”

It may not be the best example of our own humanity when we react positively to death on a show we watch week after week, but when we cheer for the deaths of certain characters, some entirely innocent, does that actually make us bad people?

In this week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead, entitled “Cobalt”, we finally learn the meaning of that mysterious term, the military’s plan for self-extraction and abandonment (and possibly extermination) of its civilian charges.  And it’s happening soon. Except delete the word ‘finally’, because there have been no seeds for cobalt planted thus far, and that’s the type of lack of forethought that’s really hurt the show in these late stages. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Fear the Walking Dead images courtesy of AMC.

1×04: “Not Fade Away”

We’ve still got two episodes to go, and we really only have four episodes to judge it on, but I feel like I can say with confidence that I like Fear the Walking Dead better than its parent show so far. The Walking Dead may be, by and large, an easy show to like for pretty obvious reasons, but it’s also been pretty grating if not mind-numbing to understand some of its characters, the choices they make, and the resulting prolonged dramas they’ve caused, and that’s led to a lot of really stupid things happening with alarming frequency and some unnecessary character assassinations like what happened with Andrea becoming an unlikable, shrill turnoff before her welcome demise. In Fear, even if you don’t like a character, at least it’s not hard to understand where they’re coming from, and I don’t particularly want to see anyone die just yet. Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Fear the Walking Dead images courtesy of AMC.

1×03: “The Dog”

Y’know what I hate? The weak old woman who gets hurt and needs to be carried by the rest of the group. That’s a tired, old, hoary (as in “the hoary hosts of Hoggoth”, not “whorey”) cliché that needs to be retired. It’s derivative, it’s annoying, and, given our current socio-political climate, it’s also kind of anti-feminist. As I watched the scaffolding start to buckle and fall towards Griselda (the older Spanish lady who doesn’t seem to speak any English), I couldn’t help but wish it would fall on Travis or Daniel instead. Of course, a man carrying another man makes for an odd-looking onscreen moment, at least according to our current TV-watching sensibilities, but it would’ve made for a nice reversal (or at least a conscious rejection of tired, hoary, old tropes). Continue reading →