Fear the Walking Dead hit the small screen Sunday and the zombie apocalypse may never look the same. AMC appears to be taking the slow burn approach with the show, and while some viewers may be disappointed with the lack of action (read zombie) they just need to be patient as things are bound to explode sooner rather than later. Taking place roughly around the time that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is being shot over in Georgia, Fear the Walking Dead brings us to Los Angeles at the outbreak of the zombie plague.
Not The Walking Dead. There is a difference in knowing what is happening and what is going to happen. Fear the Walking Dead introduces a whole new cast of characters, and while the viewers know what the events mean, we get to watch the cast as they deal with this unknown illness. A major difference between Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead is the setting. The original show takes place mostly in rural Georgia with a glimpse of Atlanta after it has fallen to the dead. Fear takes us directly to one of the largest cities in the country and that opens up a ton of possibilities for our cast to explore. The first episode is slow going as stated earlier, but it allows us the viewer to get a feel for the cast.
The characters. The first character we meet is Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) and it is not in the best setting. He comes to in an abandoned church that is popular to those looking to shoot up. He wakes up alone and startled as he hears a scream. We follow him as he goes looking for the noise, only to stumble across his girlfriend hovering over a body downstairs. Things quickly go wrong for Nick from there as his girlfriend turns around and shows she had been munching on another junkie while a knife was stick out of her side. Freaking out and high, Nick runs for his life and right into a car. That event allows us to meet the rest of Nick’s family. Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) is Nick’s mom and a guidance counselor at the school that her fiance teaches at and her daughter attends. Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) is a man in love with Madison and willing to do whatever he can to help out Madison and his new family. Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is Madison’s daughter and Nick’s sister. Still in school, she is intelligent and it is obvious that her brother’s drug problem has affected her greatly.
What happens. The episode circles around Nick’s addiction and what he saw that night he work up in the church. Travis is dedicated as a teacher from what we see, but more importantly to making this new family of his work. He takes Nick at his word about the church and goes down to look for himself. That only leaves him with more questions as he finds one terrified junkie, but no bodies and lots of blood. In addition, we find out that Travis has his own son with his ex-wife that he is estranged from and trying to repair his relationship with. A good majority of the first half of the show takes place at the hospital until Nick makes an escape. It is his escape from the hospital that starts to give the idea of whatever is happening is spreading. The hospital staff seems to be a bit frantic as this new “flu” is spreading. Travis and Madison go out searching for Nick, and it shows the viewer that something just isn’t right in Los Angeles, but they can’t figure out what. Reports of this new “flu” involving five other states surface and videos pop up on the web of impossible things.
Travis and Madison lead us to someone who at first appears to be an old friend of Nick’s but we figure out shortly thereafter that he is Nick’s supplier. The introduction of Calvin leads us to a confrontation that leaves three of our main characters baffled. Calvin not wanting to put up with the risk that Nick squeals or reveals more information than he should, takes him to an isolated tunnel. An act of self defense leaves Calvin shot and Nick making a break for it again until he runs into his mother and Travis. A trip back to where the shooting happened creates more questions than it answers.
The pilot episode introduces us to most of the main players for the first season of the show. A slow build up in this episode allows us a chance to get to know the characters and see how they interact. It will be interesting to see how Nick’s addiction will affect the group as things in Los Angeles become desperate and people more dangerous. One aspect of Fear the Walking Dead that I am looking forward to is to see how these characters will adapt to the new world they are living in as we see the zombie outbreak destroy everything around them.