Margaux and I talk about Fear the Walking Dead, which is gradually improving.
Trevor: So let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Fear the Walking Dead’s pacing. This is a very slow burn, and the pace is paradoxically the show’s greatest strength and biggest weakness. How does it work for you?
Margaux: Let’s put it this way: I would rather have more scenes like the Clarks neighbors throwing the saddest birthday party in the world, or actually SEEING how Matt (Alicia’s boyfriend) got bit. There isn’t enough going on for me to care about the main characters, outside of Maddie and Travis, and even that bond has more to do with their acting chops than what’s actually on the page.
Trevor: I’ll admit, it’s slow going at first. But I see real potential here. There were a lot of great human moments in “So Close, Yet So Far,” and I think a lot of that is due to the pacing. I’m speaking of Maddie and Tobias escaping from the school, or Travis and his family hiding out at the barber shop. (I also have a soft spot for Ruben Blades. No idea why. I’ve seen him in one thing, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and that was evidently enough to make me love him forever.)
Margaux: I will give props to Maddie and Travis wising up and realizing it was high time that they got the fuck outta dodge. But Tobias creeping around the school, and completely missing their newly turned principal, was a stretch. Also, Tobias, go buy yourself a new fuckin’ knife, buddy. If Maddie wasn’t there, wouldn’t you have already done that? I mean, I’m getting into semantics here, but maybe it is the pacing that allows for you to stop and think a little too much for a zombie show. I will say this as a positive though, I appreciate seeing the “fresh” zombies and that they are a lot harder to kill since they aren’t in various stage of decomposition.
Trevor: I like that too. And sunny Los Angeles is a nice change of scenery. There’s definitely a lot that FTWD is doing right. (Another visual difference: this show looks like it’s soft with a much softer focus than The Walking Dead. It lends a hazy, uncertain air to the proceedings that I really enjoy.)
Margaux: Pretty sure I read somewhere that that hazy look for FTWD is due in part to the fact that they shoot digital and TWD shoots on film. I could be making this up though, I read the internet for a living.
Trevor: Truly we lead shameful lives.
Another point of discussion: how do you feel about the LAPD angle? The protests over what look like the shootings of unarmed people is very timely, to say the least.
Margaux: Eh, I could take it or leave it, though having to listen to Chris (Travis’s son) say dumbass teenage shit like, “But Dad, THIS IS IMPORTANT” honestly makes me miss Carl. Carl doesn’t roll up to ‘protests’ and starts filming things he doesn’t quite understand. He just wears a dumb hat and had to kill his own Mom, normal zombie apocalypse stuff.
I will say that I am loving Elizabeth Rodriguez’s character, she may not of seen the viral video of a corpse coming back to life because she was studying for nursing school. But the second she does see it all go down in front of her very eyes, she hops to and hauls them outta that potentially dangerous situation, fast.
Trevor: I like her a lot too, and I’m glad that parental bickering doesn’t take up too much screentime. And yes, Chris is the worst, but maybe that’s because I still like Nick. (And that might be because the actor’s father, Stephen Dillane, plays Stannis on Game of Thrones.) I appreciate how much attention FTWD is paying to Nick’s detox. It looks truly brutal. Although it did remind me of the detox scenes in Walk Hard. “He needs more blankets and less blankets!”
Margaux: The “heroin is its own apocalypse” allegory is really fuckin’ heavy handed for me, but I do think Tom Riddle is doing alright job of navigating it, though it ends up making me dislike Alicia a lot more for is.
Trevor: You’re always going to call him Tom Riddle, aren’t you?
Margaux: Yes, I am. I mean, is anyone surprised that Tom Riddle, who looked like he was a heroin addict in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, ended up FINALLY playing one? The answer is no, so his name remains Tom Riddle.
Trevor: Alicia might not be very sympathetic to Nick, but she is admirably devoted to Matt. And without realizing it, she delivers one of the smartest lines in “So Close,” when someone expresses concern about her getting sick by being around Matt: “If he has it then I have it.” Yes he does, and yes you do! Everyone does!
Margaux: Okay, that’s actually the confusing part to me, and things could of been clarified if this show wasn’t already obsessed with killing off POC – RIP Matt and his unseen, Vegas partying parents. So, do we have it already? Or do you still need to be bitten to have the effects truly take place? Is this, ‘the virus is in all of us’ thing something that happens after its spread – is it the common cold? I feel like we get shots of people coughing, but obviously not about to die, and then we Matt’s chewed up shoulder – how in the fuck did that happen? Did the principal succumb to the cold or a student?
I feel like the messaging is intentionally confusing, but doesn’t offer up anything else other than heroin withdrawals. Also: why hasn’t anyone told Alicia what’s going on?
Trevor: People aren’t sure what’s going on. Maddie only starts to figure it out when she and Tobias stab Artie about a hundred times.
Margaux: What do you think the over/under on the high school becoming the prison of the TWD on FTWD? They’ve gone a long way to establish the place; the stash of canned food, the two-way loudspeaker that is clearly key to sussing out the whereabouts of possible walkers.
Trevor: That’s a good idea I haven’t thought of. But personally I’d hate to see this franchise go back to that well so early. So as smart as it would be for them to do that in real life, let’s not lose sight of the fact that everyone in zombie movies/TV shows is a fucking moron.
Margaux: Haha and I almost forgot, my bad.
Trevor: To me, “So Close, Yet So Far” was a solid 3.5 star episode. It improved on a lot of things, but this glacial pace could kill the show if it’s not careful. I’m optimistic, but cautiously so. Do you agree?
Margaux: I do! I think there were more hints at insane things will get, the downtown riot was a nice touch that made it feel like the characters were in The Purge or something, but my complaint is the same as last weeks, less interpersonal relationships, more botched birthday parties.
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