Fear the Walking Dead’s views have been gradually decreasing as the show went on, and rightfully so, I’d say. If you’ve read any of my previous articles you’d be familiar with my distaste for the show. And you’ll also know about the amount of times I have praised its predecessor ‘The Walking Dead’. My point: I am going to attempt to be as least biased as possible as I compare the two shows in four categories: characters, story, acting and effects.
The first category on our list is characters. Let’s start with Fear the Walking Dead. What could you tell me about these people? Not much. Not anything, really. Sure, there are short conversations scattered throughout the show that tell us a thing or two about somebody on the main cast (for example: the conversation Travis had with Lieutenant Moyers where we learned that he was a gearhead), yet these people have absolutely no personality traits.
That’s where The Walking Dead comes in. Rick Grimes is a natural leader (the Ring Leader, as he was once called), brave, slightly insane, willing to do anything to protect those he loved. Daryl Dixon is an introvert, reserved, antisocial, wears a mask of stone yet still risks his life to save his friends. And, oh, the Governor? The Governor was a dictator, who, just like Macbeth, was morally corrupted and eventually killed by his insatiable hunger for power. One point towards TWD!
The second category on our list is the story. Again, we’ll start with Fear the Walking Dead. In the beginning the zombie apocalypse hasn’t happened yet, and we watch as society slowly breaks apart around our main characters. Yet, it should have been slower. They could have spent the entire first season on the collapse of modern civilization, the fear, the chaos, the military scrambling to restore order. We could have watched our main characters as they coped with the realization that it was the apocalypse! The Walking Dead paces its story much better (for example: spending all of S2 on Hershel’s farm). I have to say once again: one point towards TWD!
The third category is possibly one of the most important in a television show: acting. And I hate to say it, I really do, I swear, but The Walking Dead receives another point. Its acting is infinitesimally superior to the, at best, high school performance that Fear the Walking Dead gives us. I always feel like Travis and Nick and Madison are reciting the words they read over in their trailers, while when Rick and Carl and Michonne talk, I feel like these are their original thoughts and real, authentic emotions. *Ding* Point to TWD.
The last category is effects. To be sure, the effects on Fear the Walking Dead could be summed up in a single acronym:
CGI.
That is all I see! In fact, it feels like I’m watching The Phantom Menace, for Christ’s sake. For those of you who have not seen that movie, that is not a good thing! The Walking Dead immerses us with Jim Henson puppetry and gruesome prothstetics, not an organized collection of ones and zeroes! I tried not to be biased, I really did. However, I feel like it’s safe for me to say that Fear The Walking Dead has done literally everything wrong.
