Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 discussion and spoilers.

[kitik]

You're acting under a foolish presumption to think that this "family" will survive.

That's the question, isn't it? Will some of them survive until season 2? Will all of them? Will they all die at the end of season 2? Or will we get all new characters for season 2?


I think the writers on The Walking Dead feel somewhat burdened by the fact they can't kill off too many main characters. They have to keep the stars around for obvious ratings reasons. And I kind of think a big attraction about this show for the writers is that they can pretty much kill everybody. Especially if the show actually just ends after 2 seasons. The writers' room motto might be "kill 'em all!"

And if AMC wants more Walking Dead, just start up a new show in Detroit or Minnesota or New Orleans called Run From The Walking Dead or something like that. And then of course Walking Dead Pawn Shop. And then Tricked Out Customized Walking Dead Wheelz, which features different groups of survivors heading down to the auto shop to get some blingy rims for their unique Walking Dead killing machines.

(And only a few minutes after I typed that did I finally think of that awesome scene towards the end of the movie Machete, with all the cars bouncing out of the hood heading for the big showdown. Not the same thing. But the same thing.)

 

[Guy Gardener]

The French did this triptych of movies called Red, Blue and White.

Seemingly, almost totally unrelated, except that each of the three films where happening at exactly the same time, so that now and then, you could see scenes from the other two movies happening in the background, or off to the side.

I was curious, wondering if they might roll time back, and every season starts 30 days before Rick wakes up with a new family to focus on.

 

[Morpheus 02]

- Lots of teasing about potential walkers and zombie apocalypse stuff in the first half or so. They really took advantage of viewers' expecations.

- It was a very slow and meandering start but hints of what was yet to come were somewhat interesting and the hook at the end was decent.

- I like the idea of a spin-off that takes us back to when the zombie apocalypse started. And it looks like they're going the slow-burn route. They'd have to if they want to milk this. Problem is, can they go several seasons? Once the zombie apocalypse is underway, what will distinguish this show from The Walking Dead? What new story ideas can they present?

- The show's title could be read as 'Fear: The Walking Dead'.

I liked it. I'm glad they decided to go with a slow burn instead of dropping everyone right into the zombie apocalypse.

You're acting under a foolish presumption to think that this "family" will survive.

That's the question, isn't it? Will some of them survive until season 2? Will all of them? Will they all die at the end of season 2? Or will we get all new characters for season 2?


I think the writers on The Walking Dead feel somewhat burdened by the fact they can't kill off too many main characters. They have to keep the stars around for obvious ratings reasons. And I kind of think a big attraction about this show for the writers is that they can pretty much kill everybody. Especially if the show actually just ends after 2 seasons. The writers' room motto might be "kill 'em all!"

And if AMC wants more Walking Dead, just start up a new show in Detroit or Minnesota or New Orleans called Run From The Walking Dead or something like that. And then of course Walking Dead Pawn Shop. And then Tricked Out Customized Walking Dead Wheelz, which features different groups of survivors heading down to the auto shop to get some blingy rims for their unique Walking Dead killing machines.

(And only a few minutes after I typed that did I finally think of that awesome scene towards the end of the movie Machete, with all the cars bouncing out of the hood heading for the big showdown. Not the same thing. But the same thing.)

I guess I am thinking they will survive, as this season at least will show a "typical" family who survives..they won't be a lead" like Rick, but people who go from group to group.

Now, depending on how long the druggie kid is still addicted...he looked like a Walker in different scenes. If deliberate, his death will be someone shooting him, thinking he's a walker.

I am surprised no one mentioned that at times, he looked like Johnny Depp.


Now, does the acne conspiracy kid survive? So far, he seems the most likeable of who we've seen so far.



If I were to do a zombie series, i'd like to have it be an anthology of different parts of the world, and actually filmed/written/acted by natives of those country. So it might be different ways to kill, different ways to react, etc.

If successful, the different groups can interact in some way. (perhaps a cruise ship in there to connect one group with another)

 

[Admiral2]

And if AMC wants more Walking Dead, just start up a new show in Detroit or Minnesota or New Orleans called Run From The Walking Dead or something like that. And then of course Walking Dead Pawn Shop. And then Tricked Out Customized Walking Dead Wheelz, which features different groups of survivors heading down to the auto shop to get some blingy rims for their unique Walking Dead killing machines.

As long as they don't use "Rise of". Then I'd have to start picketing AMC's headquarters.

 

[Trekker4747]

I watched it this morning and I liked it. Yes it's a slow start of an episode but considering what we've been told what this series wants to do it works. It is interesting to see people sort-of have to discover the "rules" of this world and to see how things went down in a more populated area as the world began to crumble.

I think it has a dose or so of promise.

The characters so-far are okay. Really, the only character I don't like is the druggie son. I dunno, there's just little there for me to latch onto in order to care about his character.

I'm intrigued and interested. Those complaining about it being slow are, apparently, looking for the wrong thing than what this series wants to do.

 

[shapeshifter]

The Strain wins best gore gag of the week. That kid-pire being ripped in two, leaving it's guts spilled across the floor, was better than anything TWD has done.

As for the rest, FTWD premiere was boring but, I guess, essential character notes were established. I now know who I want to see bite it first, at least.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

No, the difference is this is one of those zombie/horror shows where people don't know they're in a zombie/horror show. Yet. Not that characters in TWD have ever heard the word "zombie" before, as recently discussed, but they understand they're in a post-apocalyptic fight for survival. In episode 1 of TWD, Rick woke up and the world had already ended. But in FTWD, these people have no idea what type of shit they're in. Over the next few episodes, they're going to be thinking to themselves "hopefully a week from now, everything will be back to normal".

This is not 1968, where mass communications were (compared to today) limited, and controlled the message. Today, anyone is a "breaking news" reporter and in the span if 24 - 48 hours, innumerable incidents of people eating people will not inspire a "hopefully a week from now, everything will be back to normal." Most follow online information to learn about anything--reporting and sharing never ends. For that reason, that same power of technology also twists the arms of government, who either lie, or are forced to come up with some educated reply, otherwise they risk panic.

This is the big dilemma for any zombie film made in the 2000s: when an outbreak--particularly one of a horrific nature--hits all over the city/state/country/world, no character (after experiencing a zombie like the stars of this series) can be seen either writing it off as something that will pass, and not expecting daily updates on the investigation of it all.

The creators have stated on numerous occasions right from the very start that this wouldn't explain any sort of cause or anything. That's not what TWD is about, and it won't be what FTWD will be about either.

Then I ask again, what's the point of taking this prequel exactly where the parent series goes? Actually, this discussion is sort of paralleled by the debate between Rick and Shane about the value of going to the CDC, or Fort Benning. Rick--long after the ZA was accepted as fact--actively pursued a cure from officials.

If someone already in that world still sought official answers, why wouldn't characters at a point when structured government at every level is still at the height of its power / available? Or have the expectation that something is being addressed?

Again, i'm not saying the entire series should be about the cure, but at this stage in the timeline, it cannot be glossed over for the reasons stated earlier.

You keep beating this dead horse. Give it up. They're not interested in exploring the cause or the cure. It's about how normal people learn to survive.

You're acting under a foolish presumption to think that this "family" will survive.

Maybe some of it, or one of it will make it through to season 2, but #### it, this is The Walking Dead, people I've learnt to care about gotta die or I don't get that tingly happy feeling running up and down my spine when they're taken out savagely amidst panic and turmoil.

It's sorta difficult, but think back as far as you can, Rick used'ta have a wife.

Good points. why would a heroin addict (or whatever he's on) suddenly get over his withdrawal (with no medical intervention to help) and turn into some gritty survivor? He will not be able to back a truck over every zombie in L.A., o he will need to get his hands dirty...and how effective will he be? The crabby mother has a big mouth, but will that hold off a herd?

I know some will jump in and say, "in season 1, Carol & Sophia were weak, Carl & Andrea did not know how to use a gun, and they still survived. Why not think addict-boy and The Mouth will not?" Yeah, but at least that group had several people who knew how to use guns, or fight with other weapons. FTWD's main cast do not seem to have a strong bone among any of them.

 

[sojourner]

You're over looking the fact that the main cast on TWD has changed over the seasons. Who's to say it won't here?

I never said this family will survive, only that the show is about normal people surviving. There will be deaths and there will be new additions.

 

[Admiral2]

My problem is I shouldn't be starting out the show looking forward to everyone dying, but I am. Sure there'll be turnover, but you won't see the kind of turnover I'm looking for in only six episodes.

 

[Guy Gardener]

When the bloke in the bed next to Junkie boy started dying, I started wondering... Is the virus already saturated into the food table, are we already at a point that everyone is infected, and that unrelated expiration still results in zombification back now when it's supposed to be the origin vector of the virus?

This'd mean if it's true that saturation of the public had been building up for some time to a critical mass uniformly, or more likely %99 percent of an inactivated dormant version of the zombie virus had infiltrated the mass completely, which only then required contact with a specific trigger to activate.

Although Zombies = Angels is still hilarious.

 

[sojourner]

I think that wave of flu mentioned may be the initial virus spreading in it's non-lethal state.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Hmm, is it the flu or the flu shot that started this epidemic?

If it's the flu, then Gold is funny.

If it's the flu shot, then man is a f###up.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, there's no way to know how "everyone was infected." As Jenner said, "this is our extinction event," so, maybe, this was just some biological, or divine, design that activated one day (in everyone.... at once.) Okay, that doesn't hold up. But there aren't many ways for disease to infect a population of 7 billion people more-or-less at once no matter how it's communicated. Air borne, food supply, water supply. Anything that infects people in California isn't likely to infect people who live in Alabama on the otherside of the country. There's very, very, little the two have in common or share that impact the entire population of both and all points in between. Then when you add in the rest of the world this becomes thinner.

It being airbone makes it much more likely but it'd have to be a very, very aggressive and resilient air-borne "disease" and maybe even one that could multiple enroute and be carried by other animals without "infecting" them. (Since only humans are impacted and not animals.)

 

[Guy Gardener]

7 billion?

You know, it could just be America?

Maybe Europe crawled it's way out of the shitter since we last caught up with them?

 

[Trekker4747]

7 billion?

You know, it could just be America?

Maybe Europe crawled it's way out of the shitter since we last caught up with them?

I think it's been said by the show-runners the world is impacted, if it was just the US then why haven't we been conquered by surviving powers?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

The only way for the virus to have spread so far and infected so many is if it had been non-symptomatic but highly contagious (airborne and bloodborne) over a period of years or decades, unknowingly infecting everyone after transmission via passengers on planes, boats, trains, and buses, before it finally mutated and became symptomatic and started resulting in people becoming zombies. It's extremely unlikely that it would go unnoticed in people's blood though, even without causing symptoms.

Or, if you want to go the Jenny McCarthy anti-vaxxer nutjob conspiracy route, you could say the virus was part of a vaccine used against some global disease on the order of smallpox or polio, which was distributed for free by the governments of the world, and had the unfortunate side effect of eventually turning everyone into zombies, hence the government's efforts to keep the spread of it quiet in the hopes that they can contain it before the truth is exposed. Vaccines are usually inactive or attenuated, so again, extremely unlikely, but whatever, at least it's just in fiction and not some dumbass parents at your kid's school spreading disease or a politician or celebrity spreading lies.

 

[Guy Gardener]

7 billion?

You know, it could just be America?

Maybe Europe crawled it's way out of the shitter since we last caught up with them?

I think it's been said by the show-runners the world is impacted, if it was just the US then why haven't we been conquered by surviving powers?

Quarantine.

A better question is why hasn't the US been nuked if there are doubts about quarantine?

Although waiting for the Zombies to rot into something unthreatening shouldn't take longer than 5 years.

Waiting for the radiation to clear could take ten times as long.

I'm wondering about North Korea, and other fascist regimes.

Relatively lo tech, isolationists who are more than willing to burn their cities to the ground to protect fearless leader.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The virus may need to reach a critical mass in an individual body before it has any effect. So it may have been spreading for years, and then slowly building up in people. It may be invisible to testing unless you're specifically looking for it, or it may have been seen as benign, like stomach bacteria. But, most likely, it was bio-engineered and deliberately spread.

Anyway, I thought the premiere was pretty good. It's cool watching the Zombie Apocalypse kind of sneak up on everyone in the background of everyday life. Rumors of things happening on the Internet, the viral video of the Zombie attacking the cops and paramedics, a Zombie feast disguised by the normal violence of a drug den. I liked the scene where they're driving and the wife sees a shadowy figure shambling through the trees. Is it a drunken homeless guy or a Zombie? Scenes like that invoked the original Night of the Living Dead for me. As with the premiere of Walking Dead, I appreciated the adult pacing; I don't really need everything to look like a music video.

I also liked how the two high school classes we saw were relevant to the story. Jack London teaching us how not to die, and Chaos Theory about to bring down civilization.

I wasn't too excited about the family drama in the previews, but I ended up liking the characters more than I thought I would. The son is especially sad and sympathetic. I wonder if peripheral characters like the other son, the ex-wife, and the kid who knows the Apocalypse is coming will survive to become regular characters.

It was all a nice buildup to the first real Zombie attack when they went back for Calvin's body. Freaky! And it occurred to me that we never found out where the kid's girlfriend went. Is she still somewhere in the church? Is she out shambling around somewhere? I wonder if he will encounter her again.

If I were to do a zombie series, i'd like to have it be an anthology of different parts of the world, and actually filmed/written/acted by natives of those country. So it might be different ways to kill, different ways to react, etc.

That would be great. I've been waiting for that since Dawn of the Dead came out.

 

[Immolatus]

And it occurred to me that we never found out where the kid's girlfriend went. Is she still somewhere in the church? Is she out shambling around somewhere? I wonder if he will encounter her again.

you think people would notice a blond in her panties with a knife sticking out of her chest walking around

 

[Morpheus 02]

My personal theory of the virus (or at least, for some Zombie media) is that it's the nanites from the show "Revolution" are the cause...but rather than have AI an absorb energy, they reanimate humans.

A worldwide radio signal activates them and then spreads.

But again, it's not about the how but what happens after and to/by whom

How long dos the conversion take again? A bite, by itself takes a while to kill a person.