Fear the Walking Dead - Episode 1 Pilot Review

Fear the Walking Dead was a big concern of mine. I cherish the Walking Dead series through many avenues but a spin-off sounded more like a desperate attempt to generate more and maintain the buzz around zombies in popular culture and milk the cow for a little longer. But honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Entering into LA where the outbreak of the zombie virus is just beginning to take effect, we join our first group comprised of two teachers, Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) and Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and her two children Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). Here we begin with Nick in some run down church after doing enough meth to kill a horse (perhaps explaining why he looks so much like one). Almost instantly we are thrown into the zombie apocalypse with 3 dead and one psycho women chomping away at their faces. Fleeing from the area, presuming it was all some bad trip, Nick lands himself in hospital after playing Chicken with a sedan. Enter the awkward family love triangle. Typical step father (Travis) not being deemed as good by his new family and rejected by his original. From here on its about Travis understanding what is going on with Nick and throughout we begin to get bigger and bigger hints about the upcoming shit storm about to hit the world. It feels very real. Its not a superhero with the ability to punch through every wall in their way, its a normal person reacting to an extraordinary situation in the ordinary way. Its a very believable collection of reactions and that in itself is very refreshing towards the larger series.

So, its looking promising, but what about acting? In all fairness, I can honestly say I've never seen any of the actors before apart from Cliff Curtis and that was for a mildly entertaining ER show called Trauma, but there was a reason that didn't survive more than 1 series. The acting in general was okay but my biggest bane is once again young actors. Often their scenes felt full of teen angst with lacklustre acting that belongs in crappy teen movies. Nick seems like a giant shit bag with a potentially complex narrative that will hopefully see him develop into an awesome character to follow later down the line.

Is it worth the watch? Hell yes. Even more so if you're eagerly anticipating season 6 of its parent. The refreshing take on the zombie world has made Fear the Walking Dead a great entry into the lore and environment that separates itself from the activities of its comic book and Telltale variants.

8/10