Fear The Walking Dead: SEASON 2B (2x08-2x15) discussion...

[MinionZombie]

This thread covers all of SEASON 2B (2x08 through 2x15) of "Fear The Walking Dead". So if you don't want the latest episode to be spoiled, make sure you're caught up with the latest instalment before returning to this thread to rejoin the discussion. Enjoy! Well ... it's back for Season 2B... N.B. This thread was previously only for episode 2x08, but with seemingly much lower interest in Fear The Walking Dead discussion, I have decided to change this thread so it covers all of Season 2B.

[JDP]

Episode summary: Nick just doing some very stupid, nearly suicidal things.

[MinionZombie]

Episode summary: Nick just doing some very stupid, nearly suicidal things. The bit where the Doctor guy said 'don't put any weight on your leg' - but then proceeded to not give him crutches, and then not give a single solitary shit about Nick joined in on a game of football (even kicking it with his duff leg). Er, okay then... I'm wondering about just doing a single thread rather than a series of individual ones for "Fear" now, as interest in the show is generally quite weak now so it seems. What say you guys? Hell, I'm thinking about stacking up the episodes and then just binge-watching them once they've come and gone. It's a real shame, but there's really nothing happening in FTWD that couldn't happen on TWD. Fear's raison d'etre was lost after the first season. Now it's just become "The Walking Dead: Mexico" like it's a version of CSI. You get a few bits that are interesting - like the ravenous dog attack (a random encounter in a newly wild world) - but I'm just not feeling this show anymore. I don't really 'get' Nick's state of mind either. They're not selling me on the how and why of him seeing the walkers as anything other than monsters. Sure, he was an outsider in society as a junkie, and we've seen the Mexican view of death - but come on, folks they're attacking and eating living people. It was kinda interesting to see the 'junkie walker girl' from the first episode return in a flashback ... but even then there's wasn't an awful lot of material to work with there. Indeed, this whole season feels like there's an awful lot of filler floating around. The jump from 6 to 15 episodes has not been kind to the plotting, as I'd feared - there just isn't the material, especially when the show is basically not doing anything that couldn't happen on TWD. I've definitely seen (and continued to watch) worse shows, no doubt, but FTWD has become a sore disappointment in this second season after a promising start (remember how awesome those first few episodes were).

[MagicMoonMonkey]

This show has suffered and will probably be cancelled because they moved far too fast to get to this point. America reduced to burning cities in 6 episodes... I want to love this show, but I just can't. It is now The Walking Dead: Mexico. little communities just plodding along until one of the regulars stumble upon them and be part of the destruction of the place. The little hidden annex shown at the end there will be gone by the end of the season. We should still be in LA with Military turning up to clear the streets. AMC have dropped the ball with this show trying to keep it fast paced. The dry-dock governor story arc was ridiculously quick as was Baja. I just don't get why they want to be at the same place at TWD so quickly when it was always an outbreak story. (remember how awesome those first few episodes were). That single scene where they drive past the burning hospital with the swat team firing line was top telly. AMC definitely missed a trick. Do you think it was cash prohibitive to do that kind of thing every week and cheaper to just get to the end of the world and not have to work in the city?

[MinionZombie]

That single scene where they drive past the burning hospital with the swat team firing line was top telly. AMC definitely missed a trick. Do you think it was cash prohibitive to do that kind of thing every week and cheaper to just get to the end of the world and not have to work in the city? Hmmm ... I don't know ... if you set your mind to it, you could achieve anything. What it comes down to is scope and how much you can show ... but I don't really see why they couldn't have continued to show the early days and weeks of the zombie apocalypse. Perhaps with the city shooting it might prove cost prohibitive, but TV shows shoot in cities all the time - so it comes back to scope again, but you could have smaller spectacle but still get the ideas across. On Talking Dead it was confirmed we're now two months into it. Remember when the selling point was also "this is what happens while Rick is in a coma" - well at this point Rick has been awake for a month, and has reunited with his family a good three weeks ago or thereabouts. Hell, by this point the first season of TWD is over. They might even be at Hershel's farm by this point. There were so many opportunities to really do something different with FTWD, but they're just doing a CSI with it. The Mexican angle on death is interesting, but can you really get all that much material out of it? Couldn't they have done a version of that still in Los Angeles? We could have seen it from a government perspective. We could have seen the practicalities of dealing with an event like that and pluck dramatic events from those things (a shortage of water to a safeguarded community could result in a riot, hiding your dead could create all sorts of problems). Hell, you could even have had the President as a major character having to deal with all this mess at a government level behind the scenes while attempting to reassure the public on TV. Maybe he has to be transported somewhere - maybe something happens and the President is left to fend for himself in the wild, will he survive? Who might he come across? What will they do when they cross the President's path? What happens if they die and it becomes public knowledge? As I've said before, too, if they'd structured in a 'day by day' manner, that would have been something else to set it apart from TWD and let it be its own show. Now it's reason for being is gone and it's just 'doing a CSI' ... it's a damn shame. They have been in such a rush to get far enough into the apocalypse so they can include more zombies. Either they never intended to do what the claimed they were going to do when promoting season one, or they've just tossed the idea straight out the window. ... And so I take it that Daniel Salazar is dead now? Well that sucks - he was the best character! Nick is the other best character on the show, but the way they're writing him now - the direction they're taking his character - just isn't working for me. As for cancellation? I doubt it. If the viewing figures hold up well enough (even if they're not a patch on TWD's hefty numbers) then it'll stick around. The mid-season finale had 4.3 million which is plenty to keep it on the air. "Halt & Catch Fire" is now into its third season, and yet the second season ended with less than 0.5 million. I imagine that'll be a cheaper show to make, but even still.

[Trancelikestate]

I doubt Salazar is dead but yeah. Major disappointment. I'll still watch of course but like everyone else, I can't wait for October.

[Moon Knight]

Good episode. If it was TWD proper it would get more love. Cinematography was great.

[Buzzbomb]

As usual I quite enjoyed FTWD, but I thought the death of two of the three bandit type guys was very poorly handled. Still, I loved how Nick was starting to hallucinate whilst in the pack of walkers & the dog scene was great - If that was done for real, the zombie extras closing up on the dogs & their handlers were pretty brave.

[kidgloves]

I'm not watching this anymore and I'm so disinterested that I won't be following the ratings so someone please feel free to update the ratings thread

[MinionZombie]

I'm not watching this anymore and I'm so disinterested that I won't be following the ratings so someone please feel free to update the ratings thread 3.86 million - down again from the mid-season finale's 4.39 million. ... Also, just a heads up, I'm re-naming this thread so it covers all of Season 2B. There's no point cluttering up the forum with a bunch of individual low-traffic "Fear TWD" episode posts.

[DayoftheZ]

Still not watched series 2A and probably won’t now. I enjoyed series one but it diluted the main show down a little for me and took me a while to adjust back to Ricks group. As series two what I saw of it was basically TWD v2.0 with worse acting / characters I have no desire to keep up to it. From memory Daniel was interesting, Travis was basically Rick and Nick was likable if making the most ridiculous decisions. Did the ever kill Travis’s son and Maddies daughter, if not, why not?!

[Zombie Snack]

There were some interesting tid bits in this episode, as already mentioned the scene with the dogs was done very well, I would love to see more of those type of situations. The drinking of his own urine after he lost his water supply was a true real world survival tactic, no matter how hard to swallow. There were obvious flaws with the episode as most have already been mentioned. I think I enjoyed this episode more than most because of only following one character Nick, I didn't have to watch or listen to all the other characters usual dumb comments and more dumb actions. Enjoyed the back flash back story bit, that was a nice surprise. I honestly think if I didn't have the superior writing/acting/editing of the Walking Dead to compare this show to I would have more appreciation for Fear, but even with a positive feel for this episode I still only give it a rating of 5 out of 10. I do not expect any major changes or improvements unless a complete overhaul of the writing/directing is done. I will still watch but I can see myself giving up on this show if some major changes don't take place soon. I will hope for the best but I expect more of the same.

[shootemindehead]

There's waaaay too much walking with the walking dead in this show. It's stupid. What's the point in a zombie apocalypse when the living dead can be neutralised in such a simple (and idiotic) way?

[JDP]

There were some interesting tid bits in this episode, as already mentioned the scene with the dogs was done very well, I would love to see more of those type of situations. The drinking of his own urine after he lost his water supply was a true real world survival tactic, no matter how hard to swallow. There were obvious flaws with the episode as most have already been mentioned. I think I enjoyed this episode more than most because of only following one character Nick, I didn't have to watch or listen to all the other characters usual dumb comments and more dumb actions. Enjoyed the back flash back story bit, that was a nice surprise. I honestly think if I didn't have the superior writing/acting/editing of the Walking Dead to compare this show to I would have more appreciation for Fear, but even with a positive feel for this episode I still only give it a rating of 5 out of 10. I do not expect any major changes or improvements unless a complete overhaul of the writing/directing is done. I will still watch but I can see myself giving up on this show if some major changes don't take place soon. I will hope for the best but I expect more of the same. For some strange reason, which apparently I am not the only one who fails to see any logic for, Nick has mutated into either the dumbest or most suicidal character in this group. The things he did in this episode are those of either a mentally challenged person or someone who no longer cares to survive and does not give a damn about his life anymore. Starting with falling asleep on the ground in a world where he is very well aware that carnivorous walking corpses freely roam the land in search of "food", when he could easily have just climbed on top of the abandoned bus (which he later in fact does, but only after he gets attacked by the dogs) and take the nap there to begin with. It does not take a rocket scientist to have figured this one out from the very beginning. This whole episode looks more like Nick's clumsy attempts at either dying of starvation/thirst, get eaten by zombies or get shot by lawless mercenaries; potentially deadly situations that he could have avoided getting into if it weren't for his weird and illogical decisions.

[shootemindehead]

Yeh. The writing really leaves a lot to be desired. I said after the last run that I was done with the show. i just find it annoying at this stage, because all of its faults are easily avoidable. I've gone back on that, cos I'm a sucker for zombies and all that noise. But, by christ, it doesn't make it easy to like.