Fear The Walking Dead

Scraper · Post by **Scraper** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:53 am

So I guess Sunday's episode was slightly better than the previous 2. I still found myself cheering for the Zombies to eat every single character.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 9:50 am

My biggest reaction to the episode was the relief that it didn't suck nearly as badly as the previous two, in spite of at least half of it being devoted to Travis and his psycho kid.

I can't be bothered to look up the actors name, but has anyone else noticed that his "range" consists of looking like he's trapped in an elevator and someone is farting?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:39 am

Resting disappointed face, AKA Kanye West Syndrome.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:54 am

I enjoyed the hotel version of the show. It was much better. Travis and Son not so much.

Scraper · Post by **Scraper** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:30 am

Did anyone else notice in the beginning when Travis breaks the car window and then just opens the door from the outside without reaching in to unlock it? So essentially he broke the window for no reason. I normally might not notice something like that, but this show has me being so critical I can't help it.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 12:16 pm

I enjoyed it just like the first two. Thought the opening scene was gripping

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 3:17 pm

It was a better episode with fewer cringe-worthy moments. I had vaguely misremembered Travis dying last season so it took me a few minutes to get over my disappointment at seeing him again.

Scraper · Post by **Scraper** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:28 am

It's official, blood smearing can now be used as a plot device to get characters out of any zombie attack.Not only has this show become terrible, but the precedent that it is being set with the blood smearing has the potential to ruin the original Walking Dead too. It's a lazy ass writers escape from any situation.

I mean if you insist on using this plot device at least make it credible and completely cover them in gore like they do with the meat ponchos. It's almost as if all of the actors in FTWD have a no meat poncho clause in their contract and the directors are forced to just use a tiny bit of blood instead.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:35 am

Scraper wrote:It's official, blood smearing can now be used as a plot device to get characters out of any zombie attack.Not only has this show become terrible, but the precedent that it is being set with the blood smearing has the potential to ruin the original Walking Dead too. It's a lazy ass writers escape from any situation.

There was no dumpster nearby. What did you expect?

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 12:19 pm

Scraper wrote:It's official, blood smearing can now be used as a plot device to get characters out of any zombie attack.Not only has this show become terrible, but the precedent that it is being set with the blood smearing has the potential to ruin the original Walking Dead too. It's a lazy ass writers escape from any situation.

Speaking as someone that bailed after the first half of the season, I completely agree. I think one of the primary problems with the flimsy "blood smearing" premise is that it shines such an awkward light on the utter implausibility of it all; how/why does an undead corpse possess a sufficiently functional circulatory system to even produce uncongealed red blood?

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 2:20 pm

Fiction doesn't have to be believable, it just has to be consistent. I'm fine with zombies having uncongealed blood because it's been established in this universe.

But dammit, going from meat ponchos to blood smearing *feels* like a rule break. I can take the apologist's side. We could say that Rick & Co. just didn't realize how little gore they needed, hence they went full meat poncho when it really wasn't necessary. And somehow, through seven seasons, they haven't picked up on a trick that our FTWD characters figured out in days. Unlikely, I know, but it's within the realm of possibility.

My problem, however, is that the show runners themselves have answered the question about why Rick & Co don't use meat ponchos all the time. The answers ranged from it being inconvenient, to the difficulty of having to remain silent, to the dangers of putting zombie blood on your skin (since blood in any open wound would result in you becoming infected). The takeaway is that there are numerous reasons NOT to do this. Yet just about every episode of FTWD since Junkie Depp discovered it has used this tactic.

Ordinarily this stuff wouldn't bother me, but as has been already pointed out, the show's poor execution in numerous areas makes these normally minor flaws seem exaggerated. If your writing staff is going to get away with this stuff, you need to be strong in other areas. TWD has numerous examples of rule-breaking and logical inconsistencies, but most people are able to gloss over them because they love the characters and story.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:36 pm

I hate to say it, but after watching the latest episode tonight, Madison is by far more competent that Rick will ever be.

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 3:36 pm

tgb wrote:I hate to say it, but after watching the latest episode tonight, Madison is by far more competent that Rick will ever be.

Disagree... She kept WAY too close the the herd to lure them out on the pier... She could have run ahead to give herself some room, waited, run again, repeat..
and the boat could have left to go get her sooner too...

and it wasn't even Madison's idea..

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:24 pm

I guess 3 consecutive weeks without suckage was too much to hope for.

tjg_marantz · Post by **tjg_marantz** » Mon Sep 19, 2016 12:16 am

3 consecutive? Never saw one consecutive.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Sep 19, 2016 5:22 am

For some reason I was thinking the last couple of episodes were ok, but in hindsight I was being too kind.

Best part of last night's episode was when the AMC guy announced there were only 2 left in the season. I turned to tlr and said "Thank god".

tjg_marantz · Post by **tjg_marantz** » Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:17 am

You know what my biggest disappointment is? When we go back to Rick and company and we lament how stupid they all are for not just smearing a little blood on their faces when they out scavenging. These guys are such n00bs.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Mon Sep 19, 2016 12:30 pm

tjg_marantz wrote:You know what my biggest disappointment is? When we go back to Rick and company and we lament how stupid they all are for not just smearing a little blood on their faces when they out scavenging. These guys are such n00bs.

I am just going to pretend that Fear the Walking Dead didn't exist, all a bad dream. Last night was awful. I chose to put the clean sheets on the bed instead of watching at one point.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:04 pm

I'm really glad that everyone going their own way resulted in everyone ending up one block from each other.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 12:38 am

YellowKing wrote:But dammit, going from meat ponchos to blood smearing *feels* like a rule break.

While I agree that one should necessarily be dripping with gore to mask the stench of the living, I'm going to go contrarian here and support at least the intention. FTWD breaks with the gun-happy survivalist fantasies of TWD and shows us people finding ways to cope other than badassery (which, I realize, is the #1 draw for most viewers, and not without its charms), while at the same time the Mexican day-of-the-dead culture depicts zombies as something to be at least respected, if not accepted, rather than simple monstrous abominations to be exterminated. I like that the FTWD crew gets by more on brains than brawn and copes with the world in ways other than arms and armor.

This all falls apart when half the characters are still unsympathetic and they persist in doing un-brainy shit. And changing meat ponchos to zombie cologne ("a little dab'll do you!") is lame and overpowered. The tactic should be harder to pull off, dangerous to attempt, and should fail if you screw it up.

I guess I like the show's emerging concept, but the execution needs to get a lot better quickly.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 4:41 pm

Is anybody watching this season? My DVR has slurped down five or six episodes, but I keep seeing that 2-hour season premier and saying "nahhhh."

Tempted to delete them all and free up the space, but TV history is full of shows that didn't hit their stride until their 2nd or 3rd season, and I'd hate to bail now if this turns out to be one of those. Did it get miraculously better?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 5:04 pm

I was tempted to just write the show off after the second or third episode because of a relationship that develops between the mother and a character who she should hate. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it's actually a pretty interesting one that most shows would have made into a black and white situation. I speak of

Spoiler:

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 5:24 pm

The show has taken quite a turn for the better this season - even better than TWD, as far as I'm concerned. It certainly helps that you-know-who is gone. I'm also intrigued by that relationship, as well as

Spoiler:

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 5:35 pm

I too am finding this season a bit more interesting although the latest turn with

Spoiler:

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 6:27 pm

The wife and I are liking this season best so far...

Spoiler:

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 6:28 pm

Lassr wrote:
Spoiler:
the native americans I'm not sure about. We'll see how far they take it. And if Travis mysterious survives and shows up then I may say goodbye to the show.

It's possible

Spoiler:

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:59 pm

I am pleasantly surprised by the positive responses where I expected withering disdain. Guess I'll have at it after all.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Sat Jul 08, 2017 9:33 pm

While it's not as good as TWD, my opinion of all 3 seasons have been fairly good. Sure there are some boring parts, but overall, entertaining.

Scraper · Post by **Scraper** » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:28 am

The first half of this season has been much better than seasons 1 and 2. They shed most of the dead weight characters and the pacing is actually pretty fast for a Walking Dead show. It's not 11 episodes of buildup with 1 episode of actual results. Instead the story moves along fairly quickly with each episode.

Newcastle · Post by **Newcastle** » Mon Jul 10, 2017 4:44 pm

Glad to hear it picked up. Recorded the first half episodes so I might get into it.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Jul 10, 2017 8:58 pm

In my opinion, Madison is the villain of the show now.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:06 pm

hepcat wrote:In my opinion, Madison is the villain of the show now.

Based on what?

Spoiler:

She's certainly the most interesting character on either show.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:14 am

She used to care for people.

Spoiler:

tjg_marantz · Post by **tjg_marantz** » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:43 am

Yeah I was hate watching this show up until a couple episodes into this season. It's growing up good. Some rough patches but overall, much much better.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:53 am

hepcat wrote:She used to care for people.

Spoiler:
Now, not so much. She has two people she cares about...and damn everyone else. She's used people, lied to them, endangered everyone else...she's basically the Governor at this point. If she takes a bullet to the frontal lobe this season, I'll cheer. And yes, she is the most interesting character. But to me, it's because we're seeing how people like Negan and the Governor are born.

p.s. if i were being scalped like that, I'm pretty sure I'd stop my speechifying in order to scream bloody murder. that guy must have no nerve endings in his head.

Yes, she's manipulative,and she's done some questionable things, but both the Governor and Negan have a sadistic streak that I'm just not seeing here. At least not yet.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Jul 11, 2017 10:14 am

However

Spoiler:

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:46 am

I don't think she's allowing it to go unchecked so much as she thinks she can control it. I suspect whether or not she can will be a thread in the second half of the season.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:19 pm

Well I'm glad I asked for opinions and decided to watch the (half) season, because it was really quite good. Right up until the end I thought they were setting up the predictable Walking Dead season-ending shootout and diaspora, and I was quite pleased with the more nuanced direction they took.

I have concerns about Madison similar to what's already been discussed. All of the major characters have grown since you-know-who got killed.

Just curious, though, because my attention wandered...

Spoiler:

tjg_marantz · Post by **tjg_marantz** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:26 pm

Yeah we finished the season this morning. I think this is the first show I've gone from hate watching to enjoying quite a bit. Strange feeling.

As for spoiler tag, rebirth, giving up, I'm not sure it's entirely supposed to be real meaningful.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 6:57 am

tjg_marantz wrote:
As for spoiler tag, rebirth, giving up, I'm not sure it's entirely supposed to be real meaningful.

Spoiler: