by Thom Yee

Fear the Walking Dead images courtesy of AMC.

1×06: “The Good Man”

So they let them out.

This is the final episode of the season and the one where our heroes try to save their three taken loved ones — Nick, Liza, and Griselda — by committing the slow, shambling, long-term, horrific genocide of the remaining L.A. residents. We knew that the arena full of crashing-at-the-gates, yearning-to-be-free-and-eat-brains zombies were most likely going to be some sort of trump card for one group or another, but it’s disappointing (if not predictable) to see our heroes responsible for the overrunning of L.A. by zombies, our heroes packing up and running away without telling anyone, our heroes basically killing a bunch of innocent people to achieve their own ends. Their evils weren’t direct, they didn’t set out to bring about the apocalypse, but in releasing that crashing, brain-eating zombie horde to distract the military and get Nick, Liza, and Griselda back, they were responsible for the killing of L.A. They didn’t even close the gates of their community behind them when they left. Continue reading →

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 →

by Thom Yee

Fear the Walking Dead images courtesy of AMC.

1×02: “So Close, Yet So Far”

One of the first things I noticed when I began watching The Walking Dead was just how dirty and hot and dark the whole thing was. Something you don’t always pick up on in the comicbook version — especially because it’s in black and white — is just how grimy things would be in this world, where the blood is flying and the brains are exploding and the Atlanta heat is beating our heroes mercilessly, and even in TV scenes that were direct lifts from the comic, it really was striking to see just how horrible the zombie apocalypse would be in real life. Continue reading →

Why I’m Watching… Fear the Walking Dead

by Thom Yee

All images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels.

Because I already watch regular The Walking Dead?

Ultimately that’s pretty weak reasoning, but it’s also the type of base reasoning that makes spinoffs possible: hope for a minimum guaranteed audience. Breaking Bad fans watch Better Call Saul. Cheers fans watched Frasier. Friends fans watched Joey. Actually, nobody watched Joey.

In its earliest incarnation as an indie comicbook (aaaall the way back in 2003), The Walking Dead wasn’t a horror story, but a what-happens-after-the-horror story that wasn’t concerned with where the geek/walker/biter/rotter/roamer zombie virus came from, how it took over, if it could be cured, or when things would go back to normal because the real monster is man himself…! Continue reading →