The good man always loses: Fear the Walking Dead Season 1

Warning: This review contains spoilers

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he first season of Fear the Walking Dead ended on 4 October with the episode ‘The Good Man’, which left our characters in a nice beach villa, waiting to escape the coast on Strand’s (Colman Domingo) boat.

After only six establishing episodes and very few, but well calculated, zombie attacks, here we are again discussing whether The Walking Dead phenomenon can still entertain us.

Robert Kirkman. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

When the creator, Robert Kirkman, announced the creation of a companion series to TWD, he argued that he wanted to fix some of the problems he encountered during the making of his show. The question now is: did he succeed?

My answer is ‘yes and no’. Fear the Walking Dead feels like a very different machine; it seems like the writers have a clear idea of what they want to go for this companion universe.

Fear the Walking Dead is a true character-driven show: if there is one thing I can promise to the fans, it’s that you will leave the first season caring about most of the main characters. They might still not act as normal functioning human beings sometimes, but subtle character development scenes are becoming one of the series strongest assets. (Think about Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) in the episode ‘Cobalt’ especially.)

Elizabeth Rodriquez. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Nick Step

Fear the Walking Dead has proven that it can easily get rid of the dead weight (unsympathetic characters): the show almost immediately starts off by introducing two families who share the same man, Travis (Cliff Curtis).

At the idea of having to live through seasons and seasons of constant quarrelling between the current girlfriend and the ex-wife, the audience cringed in their seats. Fortunately, though, the writers made the right choice (and even chose the most beautiful way of acting it out) in killing Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez), the ex-wife.

This series also is – and feels – more diverse. Besides the fact that in the first few episodes, it has already killed off a black main character, the LA universe feels more ethnically and culturally alive than the woods of the east coast.

Be careful though, Fear the Walking Dead is not immune to bad writing: the show still believes that lack of communication is an effective tool for creating dramatic tension. It’s wrong.

Also, ultimately, it is not really what was promised to us: we were expecting rioting, policemen killing people, neighbors attacking each other, zombie attacks taking place in unaware corporate buildings.

We were promised panic, we were promised chaos, we were promised the end of the world, World War Z style – but this was not the case

The show decided to see the end through a micro suburban familiar filter. Despite what most people might think, this is half a complaint, half a relief, because it was indeed the best choice. Watching action sequences is fun, but not as fun as actually caring about who is experiencing them. Fear the Walking Dead is aiming straight away to the most important problem: the humans themselves.

The show still answers to a lot of questions: it shows us how fear played an important role in destroying the bonds between all those who were trying to survive. Firstly, the people started reacting violently to police gunning down civilians in public, and then the army. The show shows us how the hospitals were quickly overrun, as were the military, despite their superior weaponry and armor.

Fear The Walking Dead has become the highest-rated first season of any series in cable history

Charlie Collier, president of AMC Studios, said: “When we set out to launch a companion series to the #1 show on television, there were truly many things to fear, beyond ‘Fear’ itself. To see this show stand alone, break through and set records as a unique piece of storytelling is very gratifying and a tribute to great creative talent.”

The show will be coming back with 15 episodes next year, with an installment of Talking Dead airing after every episode.

In the meantime, since you are still probably emotionally scarred for life by ‘JSS’, do not forget to watch the 16 part web series, Fear The Walking Dead: Flight 462, which will introduce a new character for the second season.