If some viewers were expecting an explosive start to FEAR THE WALKING DEAD similar to the pilot episode of TWD, then they were sorely disappointed, instead, the companion series opener took its time setting the table, so to speak, for the Zombie Apocalypse. The only sightings of Walkers in the show's 90 minutes came in the opening and the closing scenes. That is how it should be, for if FTWD is about the end of civilization, then we have to get a good feel for what is about to be lost and what the main characters have that is about to be snatched away from them. Moreover, for all those who are complaining abut a slow pace, I suggest they go back and watch some episodes of season two of TWD when Rick and the gang were whiling away the time on Hershel's farm.
The plot of this pilot episode introduces us to Madison Clark, played by Kim Dickens and Travis Manawa, played by Cliff Curtis, two Venice, California high school teachers who are in love and attempting to blend their families. He has a surly teenage son, played by Lorenzo James Henrie, who lives with his Mom and doesn't want to visit for the weekend, while she is the parent to a high school aged daughter, Alisa Debnam-Carey, who is a good student with a boyfriend, and a very problematic son named Nick, a professional heroin addict. There have been lots of snide "Brady Bunch" comments, but this episode takes its time to let us get to know this family and their fault lines, while showing them going about their daily routine, oblivious to the apocalypse that is only days away. I think the writers made a concerted effort to make everybody seem very ordinary; there isn't a Rick, a Shane, or a Darryl in sight.
And that is where the tension arises from in the story, for we in the audience have the advantage of knowing what they do not: that the dead are about to rise and devour the living; that one scratch or bite will mean certain death; that the only way to kill a Walker is a head shot; that everyone is already infected. When a patient goes into cardiac arrest, we know what is going to happen, but he doctors and nurses have no idea; a viral video of police unloading on a patient who attacked paramedics at a traffic accident might look like police brutality, but we know that only a bullet to the head will make the difference. Madison and Travis are what the characters on TWD once were-simple people getting through life; we never really got to see that on the original show and we wonder what is in store for this family down the road and what will be the price they will have to pay for survival.
If anyone saw GONE GIRL, then they know what a good actress Kim Dickens already is, I hope this show will really showcase her; same for Cliff Curtis, who has been very good as a supporting actor in a lot of things over the last decade, RUNAWAY JURY comes to mind. For me, the standout performance came form Frank Dillane as the heroin addicted screw up, Nick, the first person in the show who gets a glimpse of a Walker. Nick appears to be a hopeless case with no survival skills once everything hits the fan, but I'm rooting for him to surprise us, one of the joys of disaster fiction is watching characters rise (or fall) to the challenge.
Again, the pacing was slow, especially the scenes with Nick wondering around LA looking to get his fix, and there were at least two big fake outs when we thought the Walkers were about to raise their ugly heads. But one of the most intriguing parts of TWD has always been the hints they've dropped about how it all went down in the early days of the Zombie Apocalypse-think of the flashbacks in Season One of Shane futilely trying to save the comatose Rick at the hospital or Lorie, Shane, Carl, Carole and Ed's adventure on the gridlocked highway to Atlanta. They always left us wanting to know much more, and in FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, we're finally getting to know what happened while Rick was sleeping.
And that diner where Nick goes to meet Chris his pusher, looks an awfully lot like the one Sam Jackson and John Travolta visited in PULP FICTION.
The plot of this pilot episode introduces us to Madison Clark, played by Kim Dickens and Travis Manawa, played by Cliff Curtis, two Venice, California high school teachers who are in love and attempting to blend their families. He has a surly teenage son, played by Lorenzo James Henrie, who lives with his Mom and doesn't want to visit for the weekend, while she is the parent to a high school aged daughter, Alisa Debnam-Carey, who is a good student with a boyfriend, and a very problematic son named Nick, a professional heroin addict. There have been lots of snide "Brady Bunch" comments, but this episode takes its time to let us get to know this family and their fault lines, while showing them going about their daily routine, oblivious to the apocalypse that is only days away. I think the writers made a concerted effort to make everybody seem very ordinary; there isn't a Rick, a Shane, or a Darryl in sight.
And that is where the tension arises from in the story, for we in the audience have the advantage of knowing what they do not: that the dead are about to rise and devour the living; that one scratch or bite will mean certain death; that the only way to kill a Walker is a head shot; that everyone is already infected. When a patient goes into cardiac arrest, we know what is going to happen, but he doctors and nurses have no idea; a viral video of police unloading on a patient who attacked paramedics at a traffic accident might look like police brutality, but we know that only a bullet to the head will make the difference. Madison and Travis are what the characters on TWD once were-simple people getting through life; we never really got to see that on the original show and we wonder what is in store for this family down the road and what will be the price they will have to pay for survival.
If anyone saw GONE GIRL, then they know what a good actress Kim Dickens already is, I hope this show will really showcase her; same for Cliff Curtis, who has been very good as a supporting actor in a lot of things over the last decade, RUNAWAY JURY comes to mind. For me, the standout performance came form Frank Dillane as the heroin addicted screw up, Nick, the first person in the show who gets a glimpse of a Walker. Nick appears to be a hopeless case with no survival skills once everything hits the fan, but I'm rooting for him to surprise us, one of the joys of disaster fiction is watching characters rise (or fall) to the challenge.
Again, the pacing was slow, especially the scenes with Nick wondering around LA looking to get his fix, and there were at least two big fake outs when we thought the Walkers were about to raise their ugly heads. But one of the most intriguing parts of TWD has always been the hints they've dropped about how it all went down in the early days of the Zombie Apocalypse-think of the flashbacks in Season One of Shane futilely trying to save the comatose Rick at the hospital or Lorie, Shane, Carl, Carole and Ed's adventure on the gridlocked highway to Atlanta. They always left us wanting to know much more, and in FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, we're finally getting to know what happened while Rick was sleeping.
And that diner where Nick goes to meet Chris his pusher, looks an awfully lot like the one Sam Jackson and John Travolta visited in PULP FICTION.