FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

[soupytwist]

This show truely is terrible now, I think this is the now Under A Dome levels of crapness. 

Even though it's parent show can often lapse into mediocrity at least it can fall back on it's mostly decent cast and source material.

[gmillerdrake]

This show truely is terrible now, I think this is the now Under A Dome levels of crapness. 

Even though it's parent show can often lapse into mediocrity at least it can fall back on it's mostly decent cast and source material.

I am giving this show another two or three episodes to convince me not to quit watching it.

[BlobVanDam]

This show truely is terrible now, I think this is the now Under A Dome levels of crapness. 

Even though it's parent show can often lapse into mediocrity at least it can fall back on it's mostly decent cast and source material.

I am giving this show another two or three episodes to convince me not to quit watching it.

Hehe, well this week's episode certainly did nothing to convince anyone otherwise.

I don't see the point of doing a prequel spinoff when the walkers are already a non-threat despite all of the human characters being braindead stupid and having no weapons or skills. More boring human bad guys, and the walkers are just mobile camouflage stations. In TWD, that trick has been used very sparingly, because capturing a walker is dangerous, and because it takes a buttload of giblets to mask human stank (and also because it was gross and smelly). On FTWD it's like let's walk up to a walker and take a smear of blood, and we're all good to go.
I wanted to like this show. I was hoping they'd take the opportunity to learn from TWD's mistakes and get away from the silly comic book bad guys and get back to walkers being the main threat, and show the human characters dealing with civilization slowly falling and learning survival skills and becoming more badass, but they've done the complete opposite. How any of these characters have survived is beyond me. TWD had killed off more characters by this point, and they were much more skilled overall.

[gmillerdrake]

This show truely is terrible now, I think this is the now Under A Dome levels of crapness. 

Even though it's parent show can often lapse into mediocrity at least it can fall back on it's mostly decent cast and source material.

I am giving this show another two or three episodes to convince me not to quit watching it.

Hehe, well this week's episode certainly did nothing to convince anyone otherwise.

I don't see the point of doing a prequel spinoff when the walkers are already a non-threat despite all of the human characters being braindead stupid and having no weapons or skills. More boring human bad guys, and the walkers are just mobile camouflage stations. In TWD, that trick has been used very sparingly, because capturing a walker is dangerous, and because it takes a buttload of giblets to mask human stank (and also because it was gross and smelly). On FTWD it's like let's walk up to a walker and take a smear of blood, and we're all good to go.
I wanted to like this show. I was hoping they'd take the opportunity to learn from TWD's mistakes and get away from the silly comic book bad guys and get back to walkers being the main threat, and show the human characters dealing with civilization slowly falling and learning survival skills and becoming more badass, but they've done the complete opposite. How any of these characters have survived is beyond me. TWD had killed off more characters by this point, and they were much more skilled overall.

Yeah...this show is just horridly done wrong. The previews for next week show that Daughter trapped in a hotel room battling off Walkers as they filter in....if this show wanted to do anything to redeem itself and get it back on track they'd have her get torn to bits. But they won't. Somehow a 18 yr old high school student is going to fend off 20-25 vicious adults that have swarmed her. It's not even interesting any longer.

Let's get drunk and throw stuff and then play a piano when everything around us wants to kill us. How F'n dumb....and what horrible writing.

Oooo look, another man who has brainwashed a group of people and our main Protagonist is suspicious of him. How creative.

Such a disappointment this series has been....I was really looking forward to it but now, I don't know. I imagine I'll be a dumbass and watch the rest of the season because I 'want' to like it also. But it really is a bad show.

[BlobVanDam]

I'll stick it out for the rest of the season, and maybe the S3 opener depending on how it goes.
They've got a third season guaranteed, so they better make some drastic changes if they want to last past that. Let's face it, the only reason it's made it this far is because of the title of the show.

[faizoff]

This show truely is terrible now, I think this is the now Under A Dome levels of crapness. 

Yikes, that's pretty bad. I bailed after the 2nd episode of the 2nd season so I don't believe I'll be back for this show ever again with so much good TV out there.

[Big Hath]

I've fast forwarded through at least half of these last two episodes in the hope that something interesting might happen.  Oh well.

[gmillerdrake]

I was really hoping that Nick would have had his hand chopped off. That'd have shown some balls on the shows part and drawn a neat parallel between he and comic book Rick.

[Mr. Ister]

I watched the first sequence and then watched the last 5 mins of Talking Dead.  On Talking Dead Kim Dickens (still a babe) described the survivors as "knowing how to handle themselves" etc....so basically they've skipped ahead to being on par with TWD characters without any of the development, without having to earn it through suffering or really watching that many people close to them die.  So much in this show just seems unearned.  I think I'm jumping off the wagon.  Keep me updated in case it gets better though.

[gmillerdrake]

On Talking Dead Kim Dickens (still a babe) described the survivors as "knowing how to handle themselves" etc....so basically they've skipped ahead to being on par with TWD characters without any of the development, without having to earn it through suffering or really watching that many people close to them die.  So much in this show just seems unearned.

that's my problem right now. There is simply no way that EVERY member of ANY group would be able to handle and defend themselves like they do, at this point.  Especially a high school girl and a High School counselor of which like you said...haven't really earned any sort of 'Level Up' to where it's believable that they could be on par with a Michonne, Sasha or Carol.

A more believable way to approach this series would to have been by now whatever cast they had started with either they'd all have been killed off by now or maybe only 1 or 2 of them left. But to have basically all but 2 of them still around....it's silly.

[gmillerdrake]

This show is horrible. Travis's kid could possibly be the most annoying character ever to have graced television....across all genre's and generations. It's such a horridly written character that I can't even blame the actor. The decisions and dialogue they are writing for that character are beyond ridiculous. A real person simply would not 'act' like that kid is...no matter what they are going through. And, if he were that defiant as a kid to his father then Travis would be best off just turning around and walking out of his life now. Such a bad...bad....character. Ugh.

There is only one action that can save this show and that is for them to begin to kill off every 'major' character....like, week after week to where by the end of the season maybe it's just Nick left. But for me I don't think it matters. I'm sure I'll torture my eyes and brain and watch the rest of the season but I can't see me coming back to watch anymore of this show when it returns for season three if there isn't some sort of massive change in the way they are doing this.

[gmillerdrake]

I was thinking last night that a really neat take on TWD universe would have been a show set 20-25 years into the future....like how or if humanity has recovered? Could have been a much better way to 'exploit' the Walking Dead name and fans rather than give us basically a 2nd class show of what we've been watching.

[BlobVanDam]

I think a show set in the future would be even worse tbh, and much less fresh and relatable. FTWD's problem simply comes down to awful writing.

This week's episode was a slight improvement, but when the girl was in the elevator shaft with the walkers coming after her, and also when she was backed up against the glass doors, it highlighted a major problem of the series to me. Unlike TWD, I found myself not caring whether or not she lived. Secondly, at no point did I feel she was in any immediate danger anyway. They haven't really killed any major cast members. The group killed one themselves when they were infected, and that's about it. No emotional investment in characters + no real threat = don't care. And for such a useless group, they're mighty handy with stabbing walkers, much handier than TWD. It makes no sense. In this episode alone we had the two kids handling walkers no problem at all. Where's the progression and character development from every day person to zombie killer?
Also, introducing even more generic human bad guys. As soon as you see some new people, you're just like "yep, they're going to be bad guys". It's so tired and cheesy.

They've completely defeated the purpose of placing this show at the start of the apocalypse, because it's fallen back into bad habits, but without setting anything up worth a damn first. It didn't show the decay of society in a believable way, it hasn't shown the characters adapting in a believable way, it didn't even take the first season to create characters I care to see live.

[Big Hath]

I cut bait on the show this week.  Starz was running a Bond marathon over the weekend and I needed DVR space to record a few I hadn't seen in a while so I didn't even record FTWD.

[BlobVanDam]

It doesn't even matter what Bond movie it was, you made the right choice.

[Big Hath]

not to turn this into a Bond thread, but this weekend I watched Thunderball, From Russia With Love, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever.  I still have On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the two Timothy Dalton movies, Goldeneye, and one more Roger Moore movie that I can't think of at the moment.

[Progmetty]

This current fuckin season has been going on for 6 freakin month?! I had intended when it started to wait until it's done and then binge watch it and every time I check to see if it's over I find that it isn't.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Also, introducing even more generic human bad guys. As soon as you see some new people, you're just like "yep, they're going to be bad guys". It's so tired and cheesy.

Yea stuff like that just makes me tired.

I bailed from TWD or atleast I got tired of that show and I thought this show would be a breath of fresh air, it was for a couple of episodes then it just turned to a generic mess of a show. Atleast TWD had and still has some interesting characters despite my lack of interest in their fate at this point, this show is even worse with absolutely no interest in any characters or their fate whatsoever. Nick showed some promise but yea not even him can save this show at this point. 

[BlobVanDam]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

In that entire episode, there was literally only a 2 second shot of 3 distant zombies minding their own business and posing no threat at all to anyone, and that was with 5 minutes left in the episode. You could show someone that episode without them even realizing it was supposed to be a show about zombies. And I knew the generic human bad guys were going to kill that sick guy 10 minutes before it happened. I was hoping the kid was going to get killed too, but that was just wishful thinking. They were just drawing it out ambiguously for half an hour so maybe the audience could pretend anything ever happened in this show, or that characters were under any threat of ever dying.

[gmillerdrake]

The only hope this show has at retaining me as a viewer is killing off AT LEAST ONE of the main characters next week. That's about all that can entice me to watch anymore of this show.

[BlobVanDam]

That second last episode was probably the best they've had so far, but I still have major gripes.
They killed off a cast member, and ditched two locations, and not one of those events involved walkers. Chris got killed by humans (although that was a very satisfying death), they had to leave the hotel because a human killed some humans over killing a human, and the Mexican group had to leave their camp because of the generic human bad guys coming to kill them. Ofelia took on a bunch of zombies no problem, then got taken by a generic human bad guy. Enough with the fucking humans already. Remember when the zombie apocalypse was enough of a threat?
The one hoard of zombies was a non threat to the Mexican camp the entire time despite their flimsy fence, and only become a threat when they opened it up themselves to block in the bad guys. The whole Mexican group had a small smear of blood on their face and were all happily walking around the streets. The two times they've done this in TWD, they had to be completely covered in giblets, and still had to be extra cautious around walkers. Then it ends with...... generic human bad guys again!

I guess I should say something positive....... Travis killing those dudes was the first decent thing he's done, even though they were basically unable to fight due to being in a car accident. Nick thumbing the walker through the eye sockets was the best gore in the show so far.

[BlackInk]

This seems to be be how they run these shows. Make the audience hate every character, so that any death feels like a relief. And make every episode suck ass, so that when anything at all happens in the season finale or something everyone will be all "well it's the best one so far".

[BlobVanDam]

The fact it was the best so far certainly wasn't a compliment. It was just the least dull out of a pretty dull run. At its best, it was still only what I'd expect from a regular episode of TWD.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

That annoying son is finally dead, based on that I rate the last episode 5 out of 5 stars.

[Rattlehead]

Serious question: do people get enough enjoyment out of bashing this show to keep watching it?

[gmillerdrake]

Serious question: do people get enough enjoyment out of bashing this show to keep watching it?

I don't like bashing the show.....I wish it weren't bashable. IMO they've made some odd choices as to what they are doing with the characters. First of which, they've turned the original group into a unit of zombie assassins in no time flat...a 17 year old fragile high school girl who is like Laura Croft now....a divorcee woman counselor that is now a Special Forces member.....and so on. At least in TWD they were terrified of zombies at first and a lot of the original cast were killed off. The only people FTWD have lost have been from Humans...not zombies.

There should be two or three of the original people....Nick for sure because he's probably the 'main' character of the show.....but after that.....pick one or two and the rest should have been killed off by now.

I want to like the show because I like that genre....it's just tough to take at the moment

[Rattlehead]

First of which, they've turned the original group into a unit of zombie assassins in no time flat...a 17 year old fragile high school girl who is like Laura Croft now....a divorcee woman counselor that is now a Special Forces member.....and so on. At least in TWD they were terrified of zombies at first and a lot of the original cast were killed off. The only people FTWD have lost have been from Humans...not zombies.

Did you forget how easily Carl was able to shoot someone in the head in the dark from 50+ feet away in Season 2? How old was he supposed to be at that point, 10? To suggest that TWD is any less ridiculous is comical.

[BlobVanDam]

FTWD is noticeably more ridiculous. Sure they both have their moments, after all it's post apocalyptic fiction about zombies based on a comic book, but the thing is FTWD has been ridiculous even relative to the baseline of TWD as pointed out throughout the thread.

[gmillerdrake]

First of which, they've turned the original group into a unit of zombie assassins in no time flat...a 17 year old fragile high school girl who is like Laura Croft now....a divorcee woman counselor that is now a Special Forces member.....and so on. At least in TWD they were terrified of zombies at first and a lot of the original cast were killed off. The only people FTWD have lost have been from Humans...not zombies.

Did you forget how easily Carl was able to shoot someone in the head in the dark from 50+ feet away in Season 2? How old was he supposed to be at that point, 10? To suggest that TWD is any less ridiculous is comical.

At least Carl was the son of a cop....where he's been around guns and most likely shot them. Plus at that time Shane had been secretly showing him how to shoot.....so that example really doesnt compare.

I'm not saying TWD hasn't had issues with implausibility but they are FAR fewer that FTWD.

[Rattlehead]

So it's normal for a child to be able to use a gun if their father is a police officer? That's news to me... I do realize Shane showed him how to shoot a few times, but I still found it hilarious that he was able to shoot someone in the head from a significant distance in the dark (in just one try). He's probably the most badass 10 year old in TV history for that 

I just have a hard time buying the argument that FTWD is "noticeably more ridiculous" when I think about that scene, as well as the one where Glenn escapes death by rolling under a dumpster while surrounded by a sea of zombies.

[soupytwist]

So it's normal for a child to be able to use a gun if their father is a police officer? That's news to me... I do realize Shane showed him how to shoot a few times, but I still found it hilarious that he was able to shoot someone in the head from a significant distance in the dark (in just one try). He's probably the most badass 10 year old in TV history for that 

I just have a hard time buying the argument that FTWD is "noticeably more ridiculous" when I think about that scene, as well as the one where Glenn escapes death by rolling under a dumpster while surrounded by a sea of zombies.

The difference is when FtWD does something ridiculous it has nothing in the bank to fall back on - if the writing was stronger or the characters were remotely interesting or likable you could let the moments of silliness slide (like I tend to do on TWD).  But when your enjoyment of a show is already in the gutter it magnifies any stupidity ten fold.

[Rattlehead]

So it's normal for a child to be able to use a gun if their father is a police officer? That's news to me... I do realize Shane showed him how to shoot a few times, but I still found it hilarious that he was able to shoot someone in the head from a significant distance in the dark (in just one try). He's probably the most badass 10 year old in TV history for that 

I just have a hard time buying the argument that FTWD is "noticeably more ridiculous" when I think about that scene, as well as the one where Glenn escapes death by rolling under a dumpster while surrounded by a sea of zombies.

The difference is when FtWD does something ridiculous it has nothing in the bank to fall back on - if the writing was stronger or the characters were remotely interesting or likable you could let the moments of silliness slide (like I tend to do on TWD).  But when your enjoyment of a show is already in the gutter it magnifies any stupidity ten fold.

Let's not forget that we're only two seasons into this show if you made it that far. I didn't find many characters on TWD that interesting at the end of the second season, but there were several other things that kept me coming back for more just like FTWD. Both shows are clearly far from perfect, and seem to have many similarities, so to me it just seems strange to see how hard some TWD fans are on this show.

[Mr. Ister]

So it's normal for a child to be able to use a gun if their father is a police officer? That's news to me... I do realize Shane showed him how to shoot a few times, but I still found it hilarious that he was able to shoot someone in the head from a significant distance in the dark (in just one try). He's probably the most badass 10 year old in TV history for that 

I just have a hard time buying the argument that FTWD is "noticeably more ridiculous" when I think about that scene, as well as the one where Glenn escapes death by rolling under a dumpster while surrounded by a sea of zombies.

The difference is when FtWD does something ridiculous it has nothing in the bank to fall back on - if the writing was stronger or the characters were remotely interesting or likable you could let the moments of silliness slide (like I tend to do on TWD).  But when your enjoyment of a show is already in the gutter it magnifies any stupidity ten fold.

Let's not forget that we're only two seasons into this show if you made it that far. I didn't find many characters on TWD that interesting at the end of the second season, but there were several other things that kept me coming back for more just like FTWD. Both shows are clearly far from perfect, and seem to have many similarities, so to me it just seems strange to see how hard some TWD fans are on this show.

Think about where TWD was at the end of the 2nd season.  Rick had reunited with his family, Merle had been an ass, they had to abandon members of their own party, they met new people had to kill newcomers on behalf of those people, and Rick had to kill his best friend.  I haven't seen the last 4-5 eps of this show, but nothing had near the emotional valence of any of that or made me attach to any of these characters like those events did.

[gmillerdrake]

Think about where TWD was at the end of the 2nd season.  Rick had reunited with his family, Merle had been an ass, they had to abandon members of their own party, they met new people had to kill newcomers on behalf of those people, and Rick had to kill his best friend.  I haven't seen the last 4-5 eps of this show, but nothing had near the emotional valence of any of that or made me attach to any of these characters like those events did.

totally this. Any emotion that they've been trying to convey is very 'forced'. I felt no emotion for Travis when he learned his son had been murdered by those two dudes because they had spent 6 episodes turning his son into a complete dick...and even in doing that they were writing his character in a way that no 'real' person acts...they just don't. So their desire for the emotion behind some of these scenes was not present because of....IMO....the inability to write effective characters.

TWD in the first two seasons tied to you Rick, his son, Laurie and Shane very well which made anything that happened to them emotional.

[Grappler]

This show lost me last year.  I watched Season 2 and gave up a few weeks before the finale.  I was just fast-forwarding through the episodes on the DVR, waiting to see if anything interested happened.  I didn't care for any of the Mexico arc (though I respect that they showed how different cultures have different beliefs when it comes to the dead), and didn't care for any of the characters at all.  The season 2 finale lulled me back in, since it finally started to push the characters into the kill or be-killed mindset of the world that they now live in.

So Season 3 premiered last night and I was pretty impressed.  The first two episodes were very action packed and full of tension...and loss.  I finally feel like this is more of a higher-stakes world ala the primary Walking Dead series.  I'll keep watching to see where it's headed.

If you haven't been too happy with the show, try watching last night's episode (at least the first and the first 15 minutes or so of the second and see how you feel.