‘Fear The Walking Dead’: The First Reviews Are In, Is The Show Worth The Wait?

For Walking Dead fans, the countdown to the companion series, Fear The Walking Dead has been an arduous one. While there is the anticipation Fear will be just as good as the original it is based on, there is also that nervous anticipation that it might just be a hot mess. But now the first reviews are coming and and fans can have a look at what others think of the new series. Let’s have a look at the best — and worst — things said about Fear The Walking Dead.

The Good:

• Screen Crush may have some reservations, but, overall, they were impressed with the tension built, especially between the blended family and by extension, the unknown threat to civilization.

  “It’s exactly that elusive threat that makes Fear The Walking Dead punishingly tense, and a chilling next chapter of horror filmmaking.” They are also happy that Fear is picking up where they felt The Walking Dead is now lacking, “an existential horror behind all the gore.”

• While the reviewer at Bloody Disgusting is not a fan of The Walking Dead TV series, they found Fear to be a step in the right direction for them. Bloody Disgusting loves the fact Fear puts more emphasis on the core cast members and less on the CGI zombie graphics. They found the show to be “very modern with a strong female lead and culturally diverse cast.”
• The Daily News were relieved that AMC have not simply produced a “Walkers West” version of The Walking Dead.

  “In a bold stroke that works beautifully, the first episode unfolds almost in slow motion. It’s not Man Vs. Zombie, not yet. It’s Man Vs. the Even More Terrifying Specter of some unknown but poisonous shadow that man very slowly realizes could darken and destroy everything we value.”

• Comic Book points out that Fear The Walking Dead just feels different to The Walking Dead because fans are used to the quick way in which the cast dispatches walkers in the original show and while the pace may be slow in Fear, that is not necessarily a bad thing.

  “There is not, by any means, an overwhelming presence of zombies in the episode despite the feeling that there is. It’s genius. We want to see zombies, we know they’re coming, but instead of giving it all up on the first night, Kirkman and Erickson tease us and hook us in for more. If we want full on zombie killing, we can re-watch episodes of The Walking Dead. But if we want to go back to the beginning and watch how it all unfolded, we have to patient. We have to join the new characters on this ride around Los Angeles and Fear welcomes us to do just that.”

The Bad:

• The Hollywood Reporter states Fear is not as “magnetic” as The Walking Dead. With such a large cast having to be introduced in the first episode, they found Fear to be not “as much fun as the original and, because viewers want to see zombies, the whole thing feels like a lurching story we already know being told too slowly.”
• TVLine was critical of Fear with their first impression section, however, they were impressed with Frank Dillane, calling him a “compelling presence”:

“The 90-minute pilot starts gorily strong, with Maddie’s heroin-addicted firstborn, Nick (an outstanding Dillane), coming face to face with his — and the series’ — first walker. (Though, of course, the zombies aren’t called that yet.) Then, unfortunately, it stumbles a bit, first by portraying Maddie’s daughter and Travis’ son as such insufferable brats that the junkie starts to look like the golden child, then by introducing Tobias, the oldest-looking teenager since Dylan McKay graduated from West Beverly.”

• Variety were impressed with AMC’s decision to fill a normal black hole bracket of time with a show that will draw guaranteed viewers, they felt it fell short of the intended goal “to see these extraordinary events unfold through ordinary people, but Dickens and Curtis, both fine actors, are left to dine on a too-thin gruel.”

Basically, if you can get past the need for the introduction of a large cast, Fear The Walking Dead may be just the thing you need to get you through the large brackets of time when The Walking Dead isn’t screening on AMC.

Fear The Walking Dead premieres on Sunday, August 23, 2015, on AMC.

Are you looking forward to making your own judgement on Fear The Walking Dead? Let us know by commenting below.

[Image credit: AMC]