With last week’s season 6 finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead, fans  were left with a huge cliffhanger and wanted more. The wait for season 7 will be long, but season 2 of Fear of the Walking Dead premiered April 10, viewers didn’t have to wait long for more walker action.
For those who don’t know what Fear of the Walking Dead is, it is the prequel show to The Walking Dead. It was created to explain how everyone was infected with the “zombie virus.”
The idea behind the spinoff is fantastic, especially for new fans to TWD.  There are so many questions left unanswered: Is it just the United States? Where was the first outbreak? How did it spread so quickly? And that’s just naming a few.
The new ensemble of people is exciting to see. It’s like watching season one of TWD; they are getting to know each other, trying to decide whether they can trust one another and who has what strengths that will be beneficial for their group. Of course, none of them are well versed in what to do during a zombie apocalypse, so there will be many deaths by stupidity to come, slowly weeding out the strong from the weak, but that’s what makes these shows great.
The current cast consists of high school counselor Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and her children, Nick (Frank Dillane), who is a heroin addict, and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). Clark’s fiance, English teacher Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis), his son Christopher (Lorenzo Henrie). Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) and his daughter Ofelia (Mercedes Mason), as well as Victor Strand (Colman Domingo). They have banded together since the outbreak in hopes of making it through alive.
The spin-off has now taken to the sea on Strand’s yacht, Abigail. In some respects that seems smart, being on a boat means you are away from land where the walkers reside. But, being on a boat also means limited resources and no means of escape if they are to be attacked. And who’s to say that zombies can’t swim?
The idea of leaving land had never occurred to me. Their goal is most likely to land on another continent, seeking refuge. North America may be the only infected country, it could be safer to leave. On the other hand, it could also be very dangerous. Because we don’t know how the virus is spread, it could infect everyone on Earth.
The show proposed so many new ideas and perspectives to a zombie apocalyptic world, giving it so many opportunities to be the frontrunner of dystopian television, but they literally avoided every chance.
The season two premiere was dry; it lacked the edge and suspense that TWD always has. There was a brief climax towards the end of the episode, but I would hardly say it had me gripping my seat.
The episode lacked substance. By shipping them off to sea, they have fewer opportunities to encounter walkers and other people, which makes the show almost pointless. The writers also made the characters seem very whiny and unenjoyable people. I had to force myself to pay attention during the episode, a problem I would never had expected from a show about the apocalypse.
I expected more from AMC, especially after the jaw-dropping one-hour finale of The Walking Dead just a week ago. They have all of the right components for a great television show — unique perspectives, a fresh and intriguing cast, and a sister series to give them name recognition — but they have taken their advantages for granted. There are 14 more episodes for AMC to make up for their pointless premiere. Televisions shows often go through rough patches, but season 1 was only 6 episodes. I am hoping for a speedy recovery from the disappointment and will continue to watch the series out of respect for TWD, but I am not impressed.
If this is a representation of the rest of the season, I wouldn’t expect much to come of this so called thriller — let alone a season three.
What did you think of the episode? Leave your questions and comments below.