



Hey you! This Sunday marks the series premiere of Fear the Walking Dead, AMC's new zombie series that bears a striking resemblance to one of the network's other shows: Mad Men. I mean The Walking Dead. But WTF is Fear the Walking Dead and how is it? Come sit on my knee and let me tell you...





All right, so exactly what is Fear the Walking Dead?

It's a spinoff companion piece to the wildly popular The Walking Dead, obviously. But really, it's a way for AMC to capitalize on its moneymaker by offering up more zombies, because zombies equal ratings. Unlike its older cousin, Fear the Walking Dead is not based on any of the comics, so not only will there be no one around to blurt out spoilers, there will be no one around to complain about how the show is different from source material. PHEW! There are six episodes in Season 1, and AMC has already renewed the show for a 15-episode second season premiering next summer, because it knows that people are going to watch no matter how good or bad it is.





Who is involved with the show?



Robert Kirkman, the co-creator of The Walking Dead comics and the show, co-created Fear the Walking Dead with former Sons of Anarchy producer Dave Erickson, who will serve as showrunner. Erickson's other credits include Low Winter Sun and Marco Polo, so uhhh, yeah. Walking Dead producers Gale Ann Hurd and Greg Nicotero are also credited as producers.





When and where is it set?



While The Walking Dead was set in Atlanta and took place several months after the zombie outbreak first turned people into flesh-eating meat bags, Fear brings zombies to the West Coast, specifically Los Angeles. And we join things as the outbreak first breaks out, meaning life is mostly normal for the zombie buffet in the first episode. It's a nice contrast to the backwoods of Georgia.





How does that affect the tone of the series?



Well, there aren't any dirty people running around with shotguns... yet. Instead, Fear the Walking Dead shows off the initial panic of a populace wondering what in the W-T-F is going on. Remember, in the universe of The Walking Dead, people don't have the benefit of zombie movies, meaning all these weirdoes shambling around eating people are total f'ing mysteries. And because it's set in Los Angeles, there's more of an urban feel to the show rather than a bunch of hillbillies wandering around eating squirrels.





Which unlucky characters will we be following this time around?



When Erickson and Kirkman started promoting the show, they sold it as a family drama. I KNOW. But that's exactly what it is, particularly in the first episode. Maddie Clark (Kim Dickens) is a guidance counselor and mother who is engaged to Travis (Cliff Curtis), and they both have kids from previous relationships. Maddie's teen kids are Nick (Frank Dillane), a James Franco-like heroin addict, and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a good kid and ambitious student. And Travis' teen son Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) totally hates Travis for divorcing his mom Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez). In fact, most of these people sort of hate each other in the first episode, because that's what makes good family drama these days, I guess.





What about the undead, what are they like?

If you've been watching The Walking Dead, then you've probably noticed that the Walkers have been slowly deteriorating over the series' run. Like, some are just barely hanging together by rotting tendons now. In Fear, these monsters are fresh and decomposition is minimal. You'll see some glassy eyes and they lumber around like they've been dead for a while (no speedy 28 Days Later zombies here), but otherwise they are pretty intact.





What did you like about what you saw?

Even though The Walking Dead made a great decision to start things well after the beginning of the outbreak so it could concentrate on stories of survival and post-apocalyptic society, we've all been curious about how everything started. Well... here you go! That paranoid atmosphere really comes through in the second episode, and some of the acting is strong, too, particularly Dickens and Dillane. Oh! And the music is pretty good. It's more of a throbbing, electro-pulse score than the eerie strings of Bear McCreary's score for The Walking Dead. There are some scares, and call me an anarchist misanthrope, but there's something strangely gratifying about watching the world descend into chaos.

What didn't you like about what you saw?

The first episode is steeped in bad family melodrama (of course one of the kids is a drug addict), and there's a bit of a disconnect in watching everyone wonder what is going on when we all know very well what's going on. It's zombies, dummies. Overall, it's a pretty dry approach to the start of a zombie apocalypse and doesn't offer anything you wouldn't expect.





Well, should I watch it?

I liked the second episode a lot more than I liked the first episode, but if you really like The Walking Dead, there's no reason you shouldn't like both. It is, for better and worse, very similar to The Walking Dead in its effectiveness. If you don't like The Walking Dead, then I would stay away because there's nothing that different. People are scared and are trying not to get eaten, basically. (Note: You can watch the series' opening scene here).





And the most important question: Will there be an after-show talk thingy called Talking Fear the Walking Dead or Talking Fear or Fear the Talking Dead or Fearing Talking About Fear the Walking Dead?



No! At least not yet.





Check back Sunday for a full review of the 90-minute premiere from Cory Barker.



Fear the Walking Dead premieres Sunday, August 23 at 9pm on AMC.