Fear The Walking Dead | Season 1 | Episode 2 | So Close, Yet So Far [AMC] [SPOILERS]

NUTZZ

Fear The Walking Dead - Season 1

Episode 2 - "So Close, Yet So Far"

Airdate - August 30th on AMC at 9/8c

Madison tries to keep Nick from withdrawal; Travis sets out to locate his son before Los Angeles falls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0VC1wPfREY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tqz5NSiGrw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvydm-ruv4E

Paddy Cow

Much better than last week and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season now. After the pilot I was meh but this episode was spot on.

Washout

7

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Much better than last week and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season now. After the pilot I was meh but this episode was spot on.

Agreed. now has the feel of impending doom that you didn't get from episode one

Kirby

They went to all that trouble to get the cart of tomatoes and then left them behind! :P

ricero

7

The show should all be about the mighty Tobias :pac:

Also Starring LeVar Burton

8

ricero wrote: »

The show should all be about the mighty Tobias :pac:

He'll be the Morgan of this series... We won't see him again until Season 5 or something, but he's already a firm fan favourite.

crushproof

8

I didn't enjoy the first episode at all but this, this was much, much better. I like how it's slowly building up and not just turning into an all out virus all of a sudden.
The plan to go to the desert isn't great at all - I'll be wondering how on earth they get out the city. Needless to say it's my biggest of fear - if the SHTF and I live in a massive place like LA. Chances of even getting out of the city are quite slim!

NUTZZ

8

Really enjoyed this episode, more so than the pilot. I love the build up and tension created, and dealing with the slow collapse of society in detail. The show has a really epic feel to it, even more so TWD, it feels like a feature film at times with certain grand shots. The desert storyline seems unlikely to happen as it will really negate the premise of this companion show.

I'm very optimistic about this show now, roll on next week!

8

What is fantastic about it is that it's very much of the time - as in, those are the exact reactions that you'd now get to police shooting unarmed people. I was completely expecting the homeless guy's arm to twitch live on TV. Fantastic episode. I enjoyed the pilot, but this was much better.

Avatar MIA

7

Enjoyed it, think they've done well with eps 1 and 2.

Wonder if people thought ep 1 was slow because it wasn't full of Walkers like the TWD.

ceadaoin.

That episode was better than the first but a couple of things annoyed me. the plan just to go to 'the desert' seems a bit stupid. Its a pretty inhospitable environment, they'll need a lot of supplies to survive for any amount of time. Also, the husband said to go and he'll meet them there. Eh, how are they supposed to find each other exactly? The desert is huge! Unless they have a prearranged place to go which we don't know about.

And why didn't they just explain to Alicia why she had to stay away from her boyfriend and why she couldn't go out to help the neighbour when she was being attacked? I'm sure if she knew her fella was definitely going to turn into a flesh eating zombie then she would have left pretty sharpish and wouldn't be trying to go back.

Avatar MIA

7

ceadaoin. wrote: »

I'm sure if she knew her fella was definitely going to turn into a flesh eating zombie then she would have left pretty sharpish and wouldn't be trying to go back.

Three reasons why she wouldn't have left him.

1. Teenage girl in love.
2. Teenage girl unlikely to believe in flesh eating zombies without witnessing same herself.
3. Teenage girl in love.

aligator_am

Yeah it was much better than last week's, hopefully the trend continues.

Something I thought was interesting was when Tobias tried to stab the dude in the head and it just bounced off, I know he's only a kid and the knife wasn't up to much but think it also showed that these zombies are much fresher / tougher than those in the primary series.

I don't remember seeing the kid from The Wire getting bit last week, was it shown?

ceadaoin.

aligator_am wrote: »

Yeah it was much better than last week's, hopefully the trend continues.

Something I thought was interesting was when Tobias tried to stab the dude in the head and it just bounced off, I know he's only a kid and the knife wasn't up to much but think it also showed that these zombies are much fresher / tougher than those in the primary series.

I don't remember seeing the kid from The Wire getting bit last week, was it shown?

I just thought it was because Tobias is pretty weak and the knife was small. Rick and co have no trouble stabbing even fresh walkers through the head in the main series. They are stronger, more experienced at where to strike and generally have good weapons.

It didn't show the kid getting bitten as far as I can recall. Him not showing up to meet his gf was the only indication that something was up.

arch_stanton

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Three reasons why she wouldn't have left him.

1. Teenage girl in love.
2. Teenage girl unlikely to believe in flesh eating zombies without witnessing same herself.
3. Teenage girl in love.

I thought she was coming down with a bad case of Kim Bauer syndrome but thankfully her brother had a well timed fit.

expectationlost

5

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Three reasons why she wouldn't have left him.

1. Teenage girl in love.
2. Teenage girl unlikely to believe in flesh eating zombies without witnessing same herself.
3. Teenage girl in love.

i thought she left him way too easily in the first place.

expectationlost

5

yeah certain lack of just explain to people what you saw even if its sounds crazy, yerman on the phone in the truck to his ex-wife dont demand things from her tell her whats going on.

aligator_am

expectationlost wrote: »

yeah certain lack of just explain to people what you saw even if its sounds crazy, yerman on the phone in the truck to his ex-wife dont demand things from her tell her whats going on.

Yeah I was thinking the same, I assumed that if they're in that position relationship wise then just demanding stuff / instructing her would go down like a lead balloon.

Wonder if the secondary school will be making a reappearance (considering all the food there), have to assume that there's either a shed load of zombies or looters in there now, the metal detector kept going off and the 2 characters appeared to have ran in the opposite direction and still bumped in to zombie Obama.

PhiloCypher

ceadaoin. wrote: »

I just thought it was because Tobias is pretty weak and the knife was small. Rick and co have no trouble stabbing even fresh walkers through the head in the main series. They are stronger, more experienced at where to strike and generally have good weapons.

It didn't show the kid getting bitten as far as I can recall. Him not showing up to meet his gf was the only indication that something was up.

I think it's more down to these being fresh zombies. A lot of the zombies you see Rick et al stabbing effortlessly through the skull are extremely decomposed.

FreudianSlippers

5

I'm still not into it. It might be the characters - they're all so meh... I'll stick with it, but I'm not convinced they have actually solved the serious pacing problems that TWD has in this show.

duridian

7

The protest at the LAPD shooting homeless guy was good, as it blended some very topical, real world behaviour into the story.

On the other hand, I'm finding the lack of the characters giving a most basic and proper warning to each other, of the imminent and dreadful danger, utterly frustrating and unrealistic behaviour.

When you know there are seemingly-crazy, infected with some bizarre disease, FLESHEATING, seemingly-reanimated dead people, who-can-take-take-a-magazine-of-9-millimetres-to-the-chest-and-carry-on-like-it's-an-insect-bite, wandering the streets of your town, you DO NOT politely acquiesce to your neighbour's invite to a party on their front lawn, on the edge of the side walk and vulnerable to anything passing by. You tell them WTF you have seen happening and warn them to GTF indoors and bar their windows and doors.

Ditto when your teenage-in-luv daughter wants to stay in the embrace of her clearly dying boyfriend who has clearly been bitten by one of "them" and likely to very soon be snacking on said luvstruck teenager.

Ditto all the other similar situations.

Old Perry

Liking it so far and would agree with peoples praise of it here. the actors are pretty good and the atomosphere is captured quite well, the good points so far allow ya to look over the usual lazy plot devices ie. bad communication. it could have been a cheap knock off but its looking like itll hold its own.

one thing that is getting to me a bit is that apart from the location and characters the general plot is quite similar to the TWD and other zombie/apocalypse dramas. i hope they insert some new info into this and give us more food for thought on the walking dead universe (eg. the reason or hints as to why it happens).

thegreengoblin

7

Very good episode. The pace has moved up a notch and there's a nice sense of impending doom about the show. The mother wasn't as mildly annoying as she was last week and I thought Nick's cold turkey stuff was handled well.

I wonder what they will do about keeping the family members together and alive. It will be interesting to see how new characters will be integrated into the show. We saw with the original show how they can keep bringing new characters into it but the nature of the gang moving around from place to place meant they could do that quite easily. Can they do the same thing here?

On a side note, Travis' son Chris has some of the worst make-up I've seen on an actor!

ceadaoin.

PhiloCypher wrote: »

I think it's more down to these being fresh zombies. A lot of the zombies you see Rick et al stabbing effortlessly through the skull are extremely decomposed.

Bob was stabbed in the head by tyreese as soon as he died. Herschel too. Although the knifes the main cast have are a lot better than basically a steak knife

Paddy Cow

duridian wrote: »

The protest at the LAPD shooting homeless guy was good, as it blended some very topical, real world behaviour into the story.

On the other hand, I'm finding the lack of the characters giving a most basic and proper warning, of the imminent and dreadful danger, to each other utterly frustrating and unrealistic behaviour.

When you know there are seemingly-crazy, infected with some bizarre disease, FLESHEATING, seemingly-reanimated dead people, who-can-take-take-a-magazine-of-9-millimetres-to-the-chest-and-carry-on-like-it's-an-insect-bite, wandering the streets of your town, you DO NOT politely acquiesce to your neighbour's invite to a party on their front lawnm, on the edge of the side walk and vulnerable to anything passing by. You tell them WTF you have seen happening and warn them to GTF indoors and bar their windows and doors.

Ditto when your teenage-in-luv daughter wants to stay in the embrace of her clearly dying boyfriend who has clearly been bitten by one of "them" and likely to very soon be snacking on said luvstruck teenager.

Ditto all the other similar situations.

Madison

-took a knife off Tobias who tried to warn her
-heard Nick talking about dead people
-went to the church and saw the blood bath
-saw Calvn get up and walk when he should be dead
-got the run down from Tobias on how these things work and how quickly civilisation falls apart

and still she hesitated when the principal was trying to eat Tobias, hoping that the principal was still a real person.

Madison and Travis know that people won't believe them and aren't wasting time. Their main concern is to get their family out before the **** really hits the fan. I think Madison has the potential to be quite ruthless later on. She certainly showed she has the cold survival instinct, when she wouldn't contemplate helping the next door neighbour from being attacked.

We're so used to seeing Rick struggle with his moral dilemmas that it seems strange that someone would act out of selfish interests without a second thought. Also don't forget the cop who was stocking up the boot with water for his implied flight. I'd most of the people who cop what is happening will try to get out quietly before total chaos hits.

NUTZZ

8

Just to note, there will be no new episode of Fear The Walking Dead on Sunday coming as it is Labor Day weekend in the US, episode 3 will air on September 13th. This means that Fear The Walking Dead will run straight from its Season 1 finale on Sunday October 4 to the Season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead on Sunday October 11.

duridian

7

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Madison and Travis know that people won't believe them and aren't wasting time. Their main concern is to get their family out before the **** really hits the fan. I think Madison has the potential to be quite ruthless later on. She certainly showed she has the cold survival instinct, when she wouldn't contemplate helping the next door neighbour from being attacked.

Those are some fair points Paddy, but the stuff with the daughter and the bf (Matt?) is still baffling. Surely they would explain better to her the potential danger he represented, even if it might result in a massive hissy fit. Especially when they knew he had been bitten.

Dubl07

I keep telling myself it's entirely coincidental that I went knife-shopping in TK Maxx yesterday.

Boskowski

8

Loving this, really felt the tension. It got me. Gave it a 9.

Sudden Valley

7

Enjoyable episode. like a lot of zombie films the plot is most interesting at the start when people are trying to figure out whats happening. Nice to see they are keeping up the WD tradition of killing the black dudes. One each in this episode and the first one!

Old Jakey

Some good moments but like the Walking Dead the writers insist on making the characters act retarded every now and again. Like the fat kid breaking into school to steal food and get his knife back. Or the wife not helping the neighbour.

Avatar MIA

7

Old Jakey wrote: »

Like the fat kid breaking into school to steal food and get his knife back. Or the wife not helping the neighbour.

They were some of the most rational actions. The kid went to the school to get long lasting food. He only asked for his knife because he bumped into his teacher.

As for not coming to the aid of a neighbour being attacked by the undead? Looks around at mine... nah, I'm grand where I am.

Was certainly a step up from the 1st episode imo. It has problems but more willing to see how it goes now.

Banjaxed82

A definite disappointment compared to walking dead. Willing to give it a chance but it hasn't grabbed me by the balls like the opener to walking dead did.

Here's hoping they have something good in store.

5starpool

5

A few things irritating me about this show so far.

1. Teenagers really are annoying.
2. Schools/social functions are nearly deserted yet lots of people totally oblivious which is contradictory.
3. Social media should be far more full of happenings around the country or world.

Hopefully they will at some point before the total breakdown of infrastructure have something to say where it might have originated and the pace at which it spreads. I'd imagine it all cascades downwards very quickly, but a few days is a long time on social media.

It has some promise but I wonder how they are going to make it different enough from the main show to be worthwhile in its own right, but still retain lots of the things that makes the main show such a hit.

5starpool

2

5starpool wrote: »

3. Social media should be far more full of happenings around the country or world.

Hopefully they will at some point before the total breakdown of infrastructure

On point 3, this is a world where people can't explain or describe ANYTHING to each other, aside from "don't go outside!" "why" "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE SEEN" "..." "..."

On the next sentence, when the complete breakdown does happen, I'm sure we'll have a great view of it from some dark enclosed space filled with the most annoying people. We might get to hear a few screams and explosions and gunshots coming from outside... maybe?

I really want to enjoy this but it really is the most boring zombie apocalypse I've ever seen. Which is a complete wasted opportunity IMHO.

Dandelion6

I think some of the criticisms here are expecting a little too much from the characters. I don't find it difficult to believe that at the onset of a zombie apocalypse, people wouldn't quite grasp what was happening and would find it difficult to accept that they can't just talk their zombie friends out of attacking or explain to other people what was going on.

I think it nicely fills in some of the blanks that we missed in the original series being introduced to the new world through someone who was comatose through the onset.

5starpool

5

Dandelion6 wrote: »

I think some of the criticisms here are expecting a little too much from the characters. I don't find it difficult to believe that at the onset of a zombie apocalypse, people wouldn't quite grasp what was happening and would find it difficult to accept that they can't just talk their zombie friends out of attacking or explain to other people what was going on.

I think it nicely fills in some of the blanks that we missed in the original series being introduced to the new world through someone who was comatose through the onset.

Considering the coverage the ebola cases in developed countries got in the media, it's implausible that the media would not be full of stuff about the mysterious goings ons, whether people believe it or not. Obviously to try and apply it to real life (which is the case here) people won't jump to the zombie apocalypse conclusion of course, but in some ways (amount of people missing/absent) it's advanced, in other ways it's as if nothing untoward whatsoever is happening. I'm guessing/hoping though the first 2 episodes just covered a timespan of a couple of days?

It seems like only 1 kid knows whats happening outside of those who have witnessed stuff, but are we to believe that its mostly just being talked about on obscure or niche places?

Also, with the bite that the black boyfriend lad got, while we didn't obviously see what happened (but on one asked), Would he not have gone to a doctor or hospital or called someone for help? It takes a couple of days or longer to die from a bite, and he was still somewhat coherant so should have just said "ah well, I got bit, must lie down and do nothing about it".

Tompatrick

9

They sure do love their iPhone 4s !

Calibos

I kept skipping through the episode. Says it all really.

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......thats not Z for zombie either.

Calibos

I kept skipping through the episode. Says it all really.

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......thats not Z for zombie either.

Mr E

2nd episode was stronger than the first, definitely. You can't have wall to wall zombies like the parent show. The slow build-up is deliberate. I think everyone will be on board by episode 6.

Anyone getting a breaking bad vibe from the cinematography? The muted palette and some of the camera work is definitely inspired by BB.

Necronomicon

I enjoyed the episode - both episodes in fact - but what I'm enjoying most is the tension from the **** hitting the fan and the world crumbling around everyone. When that aspect of the show is taken away, and the premise is no different than TWD, then I'm not sure it will sustain my interest.

MythicalMadMan

7

When the powers that be aren't telling people anything about what is going on, is it really much of a job that they would be trying to stop it getting out on social media.

I know the tubby kid said he had read of a fever on the internet in other places but we don'y know if we are on ground zero or not.

And kudos to all the people who would be going around telling everyone instead of collecting supplies and trying to get out first. I'd be straight out of the city.

And while the dessert is a bit of a dumb idea, it would seem fairly rational to go somewhere that heavily unpopulated, when you are trying to escape for an outbreak of some sort which you don't know how it spreads.

FrostyJack

6

MythicalMadMan wrote: »

When the powers that be aren't telling people anything about what is going on, is it really much of a job that they would be trying to stop it getting out on social media.

I presume there will be some kind of conspiracy/cover up behind it, so I could buy that the media is not revealing all. Acting is good for the most part and kind of like the story but as said above, nobody tells anybody anything in the entire 2 episodes. I could breakdown all the pieces into 2 or 3 sentences but they seem to have no time to tell their loved ones. But to makes matters worse they crawl around doing chores instead of getting out of there risking the rest of the family. Dropping the kid home from school, strolling back to the car. Anyone else would be Dukes of Hazzarding it around. The other thing is why is it 14's while Walking Dead is MA. It would be like having one of the Captain America movies R rated in the Marvel Universe. If kids aren't meant to watch the main series how can they give a teaser to them? The reason it annoys me is the violence is toned down which kind of takes some of the realism out of it.

DuckStab

7

FrostyJack wrote: »

The other thing is why is it 14's while Walking Dead is MA. It would be like having one of the Captain America movies R rated in the Marvel Universe. If kids aren't meant to watch the main series how can they give a teaser to them? The reason it annoys me is the violence is toned down which kind of takes some of the realism out of it.

TWD was TV-14 for the first 2 seasons, it only got an MA rating from season 3 onwards. Although it was 18s here from S2.
As the walkers are all going to be very fresh we're not going to see any of the grotesque decomposed ones for quite some time, and as for intestine-ripping attacks, I guess we'll see. imo in TWD the only truly brutal on-screen death was

Noah's

(

Dale's

was pretty bad too although not much on display), and that took 5 seasons! But from the preview picture of next week's episode it does appear that we're getting a step up in the gore department -

http://tinyurl.com/q2plf9f

I'm enjoying the show so far, but I'm in the complete opposite camp to the "too slow" complaints brigade. If anything I think it's moving too fast. I thought that we'd be getting hints and a slow escalation, with things only really starting to collapse towards the last episode, but three in and nearly everything's gone to hell.
The series' unique selling point is the time period. We know what happens when the apocalypse hits, and once it does I worry that we'll be left with an almost CSI scenario; same show different location. TWD: LA I know there's scope to show a different kind of breakdown in a built up city area, but the main series has done a pretty good job in going between Atlanta/suburbs/rural area in showing these differences so I'm not sure what more they can bring to it.
That said, if the standalone web episode set entirely on a plane takes place after S1, maybe everything hasn't gone dark ages just yet with commercial airlines still flying. With S2 already planned out hopefully they have something different in mind anyway.

Also I never copped Lexa without her grounder makeup!

Paddy Cow

DuckStab wrote: »

imo in TWD the only truly brutal on-screen death was

Noah's

(

Dale's

was pretty bad too although not much on display), and that took 5 seasons!

I thought the scene in Terminus where they

were slitting throats and bashing people with baseball bats

was pretty full on. It was also mental how Rick and co dealt with the Terminus guys.

Then there were the deaths of Lizzy and Mika. That was dark as hell.

Not a death but the scene where the psycho guy was going to rape Carl was intense.

There's loads more but those stand out for me the most.