Fear is Here! Will you know it when it arrives? Will you see it coming? I for one, will recognize the signs. I am a bit of a conspiracy nut, so to speak. But the rest of the world? I don’t know. I refer to the people that walk around with blinders on. The ones who I like to call, sheeple, blind followers, the ones that think, THEY, will tell us what to do when chaos falls around us. That’s what Fear The Walking Dead is about. It allows us a window into what can, (and will), happen when the proverbial poop hits the fan.
Being a writer for an entertainment website, gets you perks sometimes. I was able to view episodes 1 and 2 of FearTWD last week. I was stoked. Getting to see it before it aired was pretty cool and yes, I did watch it many times. It gave me lots of time to think about what I think the show stands for and what I really think of it. So, what do I think of it? I love it! I love the Walking Dead also. In fact, I am a fanatic about that series, so when it came to getting on the band wagon for Fear, I was all ready and willing! Now let me get something clear. Fear is a companion series to Walking Dead. If you want full out zombie, blood, guts, goo and walkers galore, watch WD, if you want to find out what happens at the start of society crumbling watch Fear! So far, the first episode is taking us there. The mindset, the confusion, the terror of not knowing what the hell is going on. We have a dysfunctional family, well a blended dysfunctional family. We have hard working mom, the high school counselor, the live-in boyfriend, teacher, with baggage of his own,(ex-wife and son), and we have the junkie son, the all together daughter, and the resentful son of said teacher live-in boyfriend. What will it take for all of these people to come together in zombie times? With junkie Nick at the forefront of the outbreak, what he witnesses has got his mind totally blown; Was it the drugs he took? Was it real? Mom doesn’t seem to think anything about the story he told, she just wants him safe and coddles him even more. Sister Alicia, just hates having to put up with his crap, over and over again. She is on the straight and narrow and has her life all planned out and seemingly perfect. Well, we will see how far that gets her. We have Travis, good guy, wanting to make this blending thing work. He actually believes Nicks story somewhat, enough to go check it out himself during the episode.
There is a virus going around. That is what everyone is being told. More and more kids are out sick at the high school and around a 5 state area. People act normally about it, not too scary right? No one acts overly concerned except for one student who gets caught bringing in a knife to school. Tobias,(Lincoln A. Castellanos)! I loved this kid. When Madison takes him to her room for counseling, he starts spouting strange little things about needing it for protection. “Safety in numbers” is what Tobias tells her. “No one’s going to college, no one is doing anything they think they are”, “they say it’s not connected”, he explains. She dispatches him to class without a second thought of what he tells her, and by the way, she doesn’t give him his knife back, Darn it! Wow! There it is, right there for you all to think about. This kid is great! He gets it, way before anyone of the so called educating adults do. Watch him in the second episode next week and you will see what I mean!
Alicia, the good daughter, has her life planned and is in love with Matt, but now Matt is missing. The dysfunctionality of the family, is least on her mind. She can’t wait to escape all that mess. As social media gets hits on viral videos of crazed people that seem to be unstoppable by police, Alicia is sensing that things are not right. Social media will play a big part if,( and when),. something of this magnitude goes down. I am really glad the writers thought to show that side. How many times has the “Real” media totally ignored news worthy stories, that we deem important? Showrunners, Kirkwood and Erickson are on the ball with this series. After seeing the first 2 episodes, I believe that it will be a telling lesson to us all.
There is a relevant scene in which Travis is teaching, using Jack London’s works. They talk about nature and Travis tells the students, “nature always wins”. This is going to be a very prophetic quote to remember later on.
After Nick’s little episode, while under the influence, he is suffering from confusion and withdrawals. Travis has since gone to check out the drug palace, only to find, much blood and gore and an extremely paranoid junkie. He later tells Madison that “something bad happened” in that place. She shrugs it off as druggies and their hallucinations. Nick is in the hospital since his run in with the infected Gloria, resulting in a car meets person accident. When the elderly man in the next bed,starts making strange noises and codes, Nick takes off out the door. He gets in touch with Calvin, who sold him the drugs in the first place, to see if it was tainted. I think that Nick wants to convince himself that it was the drugs, and not a real nightmare he was witnessing at the church. I truly believe that Nick knows it was real and that he senses something really wrong going on.
By this time Mom and Travis are out searching for him. Travis takes her to the church, where she has a bit of a breakdown about Nick. “There’s no bodies, they don’t just get up and walk away”, Travis tells Madison. She sees the blood and says,”something bad happened here”, but still doesn’t quite believe it.They run into a roadblock, thinking it’s a high speed chase gone bad. Helicopters , police sirens and loud speakers all going on. Is this the shape of things to come? They are finally getting a dose of “something is wrong here”. The next morning at school, Travis and Madison gather with the other faculty and watch social media,(again), of a viral video of an infected, biting a EMS worker and how hard it is for police to kill him. Something clicks for them both. I think they see it now. Again, social media and viral videos will be key in these days of mass chaos. Don’t you find that a bit disturbing? If you think about it, that is happening now! Only there isn’t a virus, yet!
When Calvin meets up with Nick later, he convinces Nick, that he needs something to take the edge of his withdrawal. I screamed to myself when this happened, knowing the outcome wouldn’t be good. Calvin has tricked Nick. With the intention of shooting him, they scuffle and it results in Calvin being shot. Its a harsh world out there Nick! When Nick calls Mom and Travis for help, they pick him up and head to the scene of the crime. All the while, sirens are blaring, crap is hitting the fan all around and Nick notices that “No one” is paying any attention or talking about what is happening in front of them. When they get to where Calvin is supposed to be laying…guess what! No body!.I really felt for Nick in this scene. He was at the verge of a snap, thinking that he had gone insane. Calvin shows up as an infected, trying to get to Nick. The adults witness this, with slack jawed confusion as Nick, repeatedly hits and runs over Calvin to dispatch his infected, pre-walker butt! Even after being run over and hit and thrown by the impact of the truck, Calvin, crumpled and with no jaw, turns and looks at the confused people. Madison says, “what the hell is going on?”, to which Travis replies,”I have no idea”.
I hope you enjoyed the first episode. I did! I really hope that you can keep in mind, and try not to compare it with The Walking Dead. This is a stand alone-ish series. I am a fanatic for WD as I said, but I left all expectations at the door when I watched this. I am pleasantly surprised at Fear. I really like it on it’s own merit.The characters are believable. Hell, I know a single mom that worked hard and struggled, with a live in boyfriend and 2 kids, that were quite similar to this blended group. Although you can take the drugs out of the equation, she also coddled her son and I can relate to Madison seeing that. So tell me what you all think. Does Fear stand a chance at greatness? Do you think it will become another obsessive to watch series? I think so. Give me some feedback and comments. As always, share via the social media buttons above!
Watch the full 1st episode here
Talked about Scene Ep 1
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