Fear The Walking Dead – wrap up of S1

The first seaon of ‘Fear The Walking Dead’, the spinoff series of ‘The Walking Dead’, came to a close the other week. I finally got around to watching the last several episodes.

The series is entertaining from the zombie-genre standpoint, but the characters are tremendously weak. There is literally no character about whom I care whether they live or die. The only interesting characters, for me, are the newly-introduced ‘Mr. Strand’, and the stereotypical immigrant-who-turns-out-to-have-shady-military-past, Salazar (played by the always entertaining Ruben Blades.)

However, I’m watching this series for it’s portrayal of the slow-to-fast descent into Detroit  Thunderdome. I’m fascinated at the progressive failures of infrastructure and critical systems, and how the characters react to those situations. So far, the only character I’m feeling any sympathy for is the schoolkid at the beginning of the show who kinda knew which way the wind was blowing. (I am, though, appreciating the unflappability of the Hawkins-like Mr. Strand.)

The most noteworthy thing about the final episode of the season was the decision undertaken by the family to leave the confines of the relatively secure neighborhood they were in. It was the classic bug-out scenario.

One character asks where they are going to go. The answer? “West”. That’s a direction, not a destination. But it does illustrate the classic survivalist dilemma – stay or go. But, if you’re going to go, you need to have an actual destination. Just leaving the dangers zone is always a great idea for the short term, but nothing good comes from wandering around in a crisis without a stable place to park yourself.

You would think that out of a group of a half dozen people, someone would have had a hunting cabin, relatives house, or other distant location to fall back to. As it stands, it appears they had nothing better than to drive blindly to the location suggested to them by the enigmatic and clearly self-serving Mr Strand.

But, the lesson in there is that if you’re really going to take this sort of thing seriously, you need to have another location in mind to relocate to. “Shelter in place” or “bug in” sounds great but it would be really, really nice to have a plan B.

8 thoughts on “Fear The Walking Dead – wrap up of S1

  1. I’m one of many viewers who was a little annoyed that they skipped about a week of the “slow collapse” they had been touting. Presumably the cast was just inside the fence being cared for by the NG during that time (so it wouldn’t have made for good TV) but I was hoping to see more of what it was like out in the ‘hood as things fell apart. Now we’re suddenly in the post-collapse stage. Hopefully we’re staying in the city and Travis starts channeling his inner Smiley soon.

    • I was also frustrated by the skip in the collapse. The wife and I also agree that the characters are weak with the exception of the two men that are willing to do whatever it takes to survive it seems. I liked the dad until he made his ridiculous stand and comments about hating guns. And lastly if you’re going to leave your secure neighborhood —-for the love of God CLOSE THE GATE behind you!!!

      • They didn’t close the gate because they were pissed that no one from the neighborhood came to their aid when the drug boy and the older woman were taken by the troops.

  2. CZ

    As always in any TV drama realism is sacrificed for drama or plot device. Love TWD, and even though as you suggest, characters in this FTWD are weak, we of the survivalist mind set loves to see us some possible scenarios in a collapse situation. Will we find concrete survival solutions, or realistic examples to draw from in terms of future post collapse use? Probably not, but a bit of entertainment is always nice. I always find myself saying I would/wouldn’t do that, of course.

  3. we just got caught up on the last couple of episodes and feel the same way. I found it interesting how the Mom took the time to grab some supplies from the infirmary (probably drugs for his son), and Strand was the only one to have picked up a weapon – there were several laying around as they made their way through the building. The biggest thing was at the end where the drug addict made the comment that it’s strange to see everyone else is caught up to what’s going on inside his head. Or something like that. Just wonder where it will go from here, it did let on that Strand has a escape plan of some sort.

    • No, it didn’t let on that Strand had a plan…Strand *claimed* he had a plan. I suspect he’s some sort of con-man or other sleazeball of Olympic level.

  4. I thought the dad character making the “hating guns” comment was inserted just to show his transformation toward embracing the need for violence and weapons, which has already begun. That’s also why I thought the characters started out pretty flat. Leaves room for contrast. But the writing so far is just a bit above SyFy channel disaster movies. Nothing special.

    Overall, the show has kept me watching, but just on the fence. Hope they surprise me and make it worth the investment so far.

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