Blu-ray + Digital HD

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman, March 3, 2019

The zombie-infested, stench-of-death world of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead has not quite eradicated humanity, but it has all but eradicated hope. Each series has spent considerable screen time capital on the push-and-pull struggle between those who fight to hold tightly to hope and those who would capitalize on the larger hopelessness around them, or on those who suffer horrific fates within the haunting hopelessness of a failed world. Many have perished in those battles, often as part of a larger, much more universally vicious cycle in the new normal where fighting for hope necessarily means losing so much of it along the way. In's fourth season, the pursuit of hope remains a central theme, but along with it comes the realization that hope isn't enough. The world also needs. Help, in this season, comes in the form of roadside boxes filled with post-apocalyptic luxuries: bottled water, canned food, a pocket knife, maybe something to read to pass the time. "Take what you need, leave what you don't," the boxes read. It's a small gesture but a critical first step in, just maybe, redirecting humanity back to what it once was and towards what it could be, a world where a helping hand offers a path towards healing, and not just from the immediate physical concerns of a world gone dangerously mad.Official synopsis:For season four, Andrew Chambliss and Ian B. Goldberg take the reigns as Showrunners from Dave Erickson, and it takes little time to realize that there's a radical new direction for the series in store. The first eight episodes serve as both a culling and a curating for the show as it slowly builds towards a near-total transformation. Season four's eighth episode stands as a very clear demarcation point that practically signals the beginning of a major overhaul for the show, a process that was put into motion from the start -- right off the bat when's fan favorite pacifist Morgan Jones makes hisdebut (and goes on to play the season's lead character) -- and completed by the end of its first half. Gone, at this point, are several recognizable faces, replaced by a new cast of characters. Growing pains are in evidence throughout the first half, as the new and old characters feel one another out but also as the show tells their stories through an increasingly convoluted shift in timelines that interferes with story building -- all the more critical in this season with a drastic roster turnover and influx of new characters -- but doesn't completely stymie basic character development along the way. The show capably, but not often compellingly, builds towards its second half, which turns out to be a much more rewarding eight-episode run that seems to thrive on the opportunity to run free from prior constraints and character commitments, bearing the fruit of a new and improved mix-and-match cast and the pleasantly deep chemistry and camaraderie that comes to define the group and its mission.The second half's story is fairly limited in length and scope, following the survivors attempting to escape Texas and return with Morgan to Alexandria, but as their efforts are routinely stymied they find that there's more work to be done in the Lone Star State when a new villain -- a wonderful Tonya Pinkins playing an otherwise everyday person whose perception of the new world, and humanity, changes when nobody stops to help her in a desperate time of need -- prompts them to realize that there's a destiny for them in this world that's greater than themselves. It's a refreshing change of pace from the much more grim outlook that has defined most every other corner of theuniverse, and it will be interesting to see if season five can allow the survivors to build momentum towards hope and help or if the world will throw a wrench in the works, as it always seems to do.