I pay to see The Walking Dead. I don’t have cable so I pay Amazon Instant Video so I can watch every episode as soon as possible-the morning after it airs. I have Netflix. I could wait, but I won’t. I love it. Fear the Walking Dead is a stupid title. I already subscribe to Hulu, and Hulu announced that it would have Fear the Walking Dead, but I would have to be patient so I was. I spoiled myself by listening to recap podcasts by The Black Guy Who Tips. My prejudice against the title decreased as my interest in the storyline increased. The day that it was released on Hulu, I watched all six episodes of Fear the Walking Dead in one sitting.
Because I knew that even though Fear the Walking Dead was a prequel, I would not find out what caused the virus, how, where and when it started, I was not disappointed. Instead Fear the Walking Dead is what life was like right before and during the early days of the zombie apocalypse and how long it took people to adjust to new challenges. If you watch Fear the Walking Dead expecting The Walking Dead, then you will be disappointed.
The Walking Dead is about how people distinguish themselves from the dead or live as opposed to simply surviving. The characters are at risk of literally becoming the walking dead. The walking dead does not simply refer to the zombies.
Fear the Walking Dead has a different philosophical premise. “Men do these things not because of evil. They do evil because of fear. And at that moment, I realized my father is a fool for believing there is a difference.” Fear the Walking Dead’s characters are understandably motivated by fear, and much of the ensuing mayhem of the last episode transpires because these characters fear what will happen to their loved ones if they don’t do anything and everything to protect what they love. They are not good guys even though we root for them. Fear the Walking Dead revels in challenging our perspective-no man is good, especially the ones that we are rooting for.
The opening scenes start in a church turned drug den. “Then the glory of the Lord moved out from the door of the Temple and hovered above the cherubim.” As one of the drug addicts, who walks and looks like one of the zombies runs in terror from his former sanctuary, the camera pans up to reveal the bustling city of LA blissfully unaware that life has changed.
Fear the Walking Dead is not a perfect show. While the riot scenes were chilling since it unintentionally camouflaged the outbreak, it is a provocative mistake to encourage the audience to unintentionally (hopefully) root for extrajudicial killings of unarmed people and conflate rioting with largely peaceful protests.
If Fear the Walking Dead’s characters survive, and the show continues following this theme that only evil men, the ones that we are following, survive, they may end up on opposite sides of the table from Rick and his crew. I hope that Fear the Walking Dead keeps pulling the rug out from under us, but I’m not so into it that I’m willing to pay extra yet.