Even on Talking Dead they're struggling a bit to find enough to talk about, and with Fear being in its infancy we don't have a wealth of backstory to refer to and read-back-into like we do with TWD (nor do we have source material to ponder).
There's various ideas in the episode that I like, various moments, but on the whole it feels in need of more material - or a faster pace (i.e. fewer episodes). I enjoyed the set up of the island itself, the fenced-off beach, clearing the washed up walkers (or "floaters" as one guest referred to them as on Talking Dead  ), indeed the opening was very creepy with those fresh walkers stumbling out of the crashing waves.
Yeah - Alicia and Chris generally just do my head in. You can understand that Chris has just lost his mother, but I feel like his grief could be written differently ... the trouble with being a viewer is we're already so far more advanced than the characters because of TWD. We know where this is all going, so our tolerance for people getting to grips with this world is lacking. Alicia just annoys me, moping around like a living, breathing, filler machine just there to use up some running time.
Now, Nick on the other hand is far more interesting. Great performance from Frank Dillane, too. I really dug his scenes in this episode - I like the juxtaposition of how well he's coping in this world compared to the others.
Strand continues to intrigue, but I'll need some more concrete info soon or I'll tire of the subterfuge. I'm wondering if he's some sort of guns/drugs runner or some kind of government agent of some sort.
I continue to like Travis as a character, and Maddie, and of course Salazar. Interesting that Ophelia is finally beginning to understand her father a little more now, why he's been able to do the things he has in the past (distant and recent). Although, again, I'm not especially drawn to her character. Salazar, yes; Ophelia, not that interested.
The main problem the show has is finding it's own relevance. Viewers will be coming from TWD land already - we know where it's going, as I've already said - and so, seeing another group of civilians journey through this world seems rather samey with inevitable lessons learned and encounters experienced along the way. The boat aspect gives us a new dimension on it, but again, it's only a location - we need stronger material to go along with it. It would have been much more interesting, looking at it now, to have seen the series from a governmental perspective - you could have people at different tiers of the hierarchy, from a grunt on the ground with a family to protect (so you can include some civilians) all the way up to, heck, the President. That would have provided quite a different perspective on the whole thing! That would have also made it easier to write in much more material in the early days (i.e. avoiding the 9 day time jump).
As a side note, I wrote a script a couple of years ago that included some of those aspects - the government side of a 'zombie' apocalypse - in addition to the civilian side. It was only a spec script, the first episode of a planned-out six, but there was a wealth of material offered up by covering the government's side as well.
I'm fearing (pun intended?) that FTWD is turning into The Walking Dead: West Coast, like a CSI spin-off doing the same stuff in a different location and not much more. Hopefully there'll be something to spice things up soon, because I can't see FTWD catching on beyond its current level if things continue as-is. We've got some strong characters in there, but also some rather weak ones, so we could do with a bit of an oomph to the whole thing. Season 1 was much more compelling.
I like FTWD, but ... hmmm.
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Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
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Originally Posted by DayoftheZ
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