Originally Posted by
Mattrick
Well, there isn't very much to say about the Fear mid-season premiere. I liked it. It was a solid set up episode. Not what you typically have with a premiere episode, but it does a fine job of placing a lot of pieces, moving characters here or there, establishing their new motivations, and enhancing the dynamics between the characters. A lot of people complained about the scene where Strand woke up and noticed a walker had just wandered into the house, and he fought with it behind Luciana, and didn't hear the scuffle. But this is something I like about Fear The Walking Dead the past two seasons. Unlike TWD which tries to be artistic in a way that's entirely surface level most of the time, Fear used perspective and sound to tell us where Luciana is: she's grieving Nick, she's directionless, hopeless, and totally in her own world, so lost in her own despair she's oblivious to everything else. Strand and Alicia are both escaping, through drinking and through obsession over something external. Even Charlie is struggling with her guilt over what happened to Nick and Madison and her role in everything. On the flipside, the other half of the cast is looking forward, to returning home or building a home, and beginning to accept their lives, and Al is already looking for her next story to document. I like that dichotomy, and it makes sense in that the old characters are essentially grieving over all the changes to the cast this season, while the new characters are looking forward.
I guess I said a bit more than I thought, but you can tell Fear puts that extra bit of thought into their scripts and their characters. Even when the plot isn't moving, there's stuff going on with the characters I find intriguing.
The only thing those of us watching this show can really discuss in terms of what's coming, is Morgan wanting to return to Alexandria. A lot of people think the shows will combine. I don't think they will, at least not this season. TWD by the mid-season of 9 will have jumped ahead...5 years? 6 years? That would mean Fear would have to take longer than that to get back, or they'd be in Season 9, but they're not. Maybe down the road, sure. But FTWD was already renewed for Season 5. Morgan desires to go back to Alexandria, but I don't think the world will let him. I'd even be fine with the next couple seasons of FTWD just being this group traveling across the country and getting into a bunch of situations that makes the trip take years. But they can't combine the shows right now. The best bet, really, if they want to combine the shows, is for FTWD cast factor into the story after this next one, so they'd combine with the main show around for about Season 11.