Wow! That was absolutely awesome. I mean, it's definitely a slow burner, but holy shit is the writing truly great! The pacing was for the most part much better than I expected, and the acting is top notch. I hadn't worried about that last part considering that both leads have performed with a pretty steady amount of gravitas in some roles they've done in films in the past, but something about TV can bring out the worst in actors...or the writing, which was my main concern. I'm really, truly surprised at how much I liked that, and it's mostly to do with the script. I suppose my preconceived notions of the show were misplaced, but something about the trailers put me off and they showed the worst of it, I think; I was enthralled with that first episode. Lots of great tension in minimal, mysterious scenes. Awesome horror, mystery, drama blend of genres.
I'm pretty sure this won't change many people's minds if they were ambivalent or against TWD, but for fans, it's going to be a great ride. My only worry is, lest the quality goes down (if it stays where it's at...this is gonna be great), is that in the latter life of the show, it IS going to be the same as TWD and there's nothing that can be done about that. Granted, I'm speaking in formulaic terms; if they keep it stylistically different, it can still have it's own persona. It's just that doing so is gonna be pretty damn tough once you reach that 'total apocalypse' stage. What else is there but zombies and bad people at a certain point? Survival is all that's left and that's pretty clear based on TWD. I've come to like the name as well, like a lot. Just the word Fear changes everything and I like how that's played out in the show itself. Even though it wasn't 'scary' at times per se (though some others it was...a little), it was filled with tension throughout, you can feel that soon everyone will be in fear like Mr. Druggie and Mr. Nerd are. I loved that scene with the knife, that was beautiful. Totally thought it was just another bully thing. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here. Woot! New show! Haha I've literally got nothing so the fact that I would be watching this even if True Detective or TWD was airing is great. Couchpotatozombie mode.