I’m a huge fan of THE WALKING DEAD. It’s one of those series
I make a point to watch each week while it’s on, tossing my hands into the air
at the end of each episode because I know I’ll have to wait a full seven days
until the next episode. But it’s now at the five year mark so when I heard
there would be a spin off series coming I wasn’t sure what to expect. Will it
be equal to the original? Or will it just be another show/movie to add to the
downfall of the already overcrowded genre that will peter out soon? The answer
is mixed.
For those unfamiliar with the original show (doubtful there
are any now) it tells of the zombie apocalypse, when society has fallen to a
plague of zombies and only a few ragtag groups are left surviving as best they
can, focusing on one group in particular. The film starts months into the
plague with its main character waking from a coma, bed bound and unaware of
what has happened. So what did happen that whole time he was in a coma? How did
this all begin?
FEAR THE WALKING DEAD tries to answer some of those
questions. Taking place in California the whole plague hasn’t hit yet like it
did in Atlanta in the original series. Instead inklings of what is to come are
just beginning to happen. Scattered events are occurring and the public isn’t
quite aware of what is coming. But before the season ends they will be well
aware.
The film focuses mostly around one family. Madison Clark (Kim
Dickens) works in a high school and is about to marry Travis Manawa (Cliff
Curtis). Already living together they deal with the issues soon to be married
couples face, especially since they have high school age children involved as
well. Madison has the worst of the problems with a girl who is the typical teen
and a son who’s a junkie and disappears from time to time. When he shows having
seen the body of his dead girlfriend who overdosed only to rise again they have
a hard time believing him. On Travis’ end he has a son resentful that his
father isn’t there enough for him. Will they toss aside these issues to join
together to survive?
Rather than take the stance of showing the collapse of
society at large the series focuses more on smaller stories. The family at the
center, the people whose lives intersect with theirs as they try to reunite
while everything falls apart around them and the groups that they meet while
trying to just stay alive. Their disbelief of what was happening at first
changes as more and more zombies appear. Now it becomes a story of trying to
find one another and to discover a way to continue living.
The series doesn’t add a lot more to the original other than
to give us a glimpse at the last few days of normality before everything went
haywire. No detailed reasons as to why it happened, no ground zero as to where
it began and no focus on how it was being handled by the government. Complaints
have surfaced on those issues but the creators never promised that those items
would be the focus. Instead it falls back on the tried and true story of a
group of people trying to live during these times. Thus it provides little new
while building on what we already knew.
The series is well made, well directed, well acted and well
written. Technically there is nothing to dislike about this series. And yet
when compared to the original, as everyone knew it would be, it felt lacking.
Or perhaps lacking isn’t the right term. Maybe it just felt like more of the
same. With the whole zombie genre taking over a majority of horror films and
with the success of the original series this might just be too much of a good
thing. Watching it on DVD makes it move along faster than when it actually
aired. I know when that was going on I didn’t find myself anxiously awaiting
the next week’s episode like I did (and still do) the original series. It just
sort of felt…there.
This isn’t to say things can’t change in season two. Or that
it gets better the further along you get into season one (I only reached the ¾
mark before writing on it now). But if it is nothing more than same old same
old my guess is it won’t make a season five like THE WALKING DEAD has let alone
more. Word is another spin-off is on the way and that to me makes no sense. Be
happy with the success of the original, the somewhat success of the prequel and
look for something new. Kind of like THE WALKING DEAD did when it came out.
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