Margaux and I find things to love in Fear the Walking Dead, but the show remains uneven.
Trevor: “The Dog” felt like a big step in the right direction for Fear the Walking Dead. The show is beginning to cultivate a genuinely creepy atmosphere, the scope is broadening, certain characters are acting smart-ish, and the show revealed its unlikely badass. There were some flaws, to be sure, but overall this felt like a more confident installment. Your thoughts?
Margaux: The biggest issue FTWD has is that we know the inevitable outcome, so when Travis does or says things like: “don’t do something that can’t be undone,” in regards to Madison putting her used to be kindly neighbor Susan out of her zombie misery, you can’t help but roll your eyes out of your skull. I mean, Travis does all sort of things that seem counterintuitive to what he’s seen/experienced/said; one minute it’s imperative they leave LA ASAP, the next, he’s convinced they should stay till morning, even though he was very recently attacked, but somehow managed to evade (again) getting bit, by his other neighbor Pete. I don’t even think by episode’s end that Travis truly believes that “the cavalry has arrived, now everything will get better,” or maybe he does and is a total idiot.
Trevor: Knowing the outcome is both FTWD’s biggest weakness and its main conceit. The show is banking on a LOT of residual goodwill from The Walking Dead, as well as significant audience spillover (which it’s getting). It’s hard, after spending five years (and counting) with Rick & Co., to put yourself in the mindset of people who don’t know what’s going on. So I find myself trying to ignore that fact – maybe I’m giving the show the benefit of the doubt that it hasn’t earned, maybe I’m being too lenient, but I found myself focusing on what worked with “The Dog” more than what didn’t.
For instance: the opening riot scenes. Director Adam Davidson handled that sequence well; it was tense and claustrophobic, and the two families’ escape from the looters made for a genuinely impressive setpiece (although, yes, I’ll say it: it was obviously shot on a set). It’s an interesting tactic, separating Travis and Maddie this early on, but I think it’s successful. We get to see how they individually handle these extreme circumstances, and they get definition other than as the other’s significant other.
Also, we got to see more of Daniel Salazar. Viva Salazar. Viva Ruben Blades.
Margaux: I think Travis and Salazar families escape made for the best scene of this episode, the hamfisted injury that Griselda sustains when they needlessly run underneath shaky-at-best bleachers notwithstanding. Scenes like those are what I tuned into FTWD for, and the moment between Travis and his still certifiably alive neighbor, when they both make eye contact taking out their trash that is probably full of zombie bodies.
I was so relieved for Daniel Salazar’s presence throughout “The Dog,” because without him, it would been a little too much in the suburban PC department; when Salazar watches Travis talk Madison out of killing their certifiably zombie neighbor Susan, he was the audience surrogate by calling them “weak.” Because they are. And I think Daniel also had one of the better lines of the night, when he tells an upset Travis that “guns don’t care how you feel about them,” after Travis walks in on Daniel teaching his puss of son how to load a shotgun. I mean, for fuck’s sake, I know they’re not keeping score, but I’d say it’s Salazar: 2 and Travis: ½ in the saving lives department.
Trevor: Salazar is the guy in every zombie movie who seems totally prepared for this shit. It doesn’t hurt that “Ruben Blades” sounds like the name of a Mexican bounty hunter. But I digress. It’s almost as if FTWD wanted to create the most unconventional Daryl Dixon it could think. What say you, Tumblr? Is Ruben Blades bae or not bae?
In regards to Susan: it was a cool, eerie touch to have her in the background for a good chunk of the episode, but when Travis went outside – to bury a person – and wearily said “Morning, Susan,” I found myself wondering if he and Maddie were adjusting too quickly. Like, this woman is clearly not sick. Even if she was sick, it looks contagious as fuck, and I definitely wouldn’t be making smart-assed small talk with her. So that character beat felt a little off to me.
Margaux: From a guy who thinks military presence equals “it’s all gonna be alright,” his moment with Susan the next morning actually worked just fine for me. Maybe it was supposed to serve as some insight into his denial of what’s happening around him because even Alicia seems to finally understand what’s going on, even though no one has explicitly told her. She does the Susan “sickness” math on her definitely dead by now boyfriend very quick. Look at the big brain on Alicia!
In other Clark sibling news, Nick has officially grown on me, if anything it’s because he’s the fuckin’ voice of reason: “she’s not sick, she’s dead.” FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO GETS IT. But now will come the whole “don’t believe the drug addict” business, I assume, especially with military’s involvement.
Trevor: Yeah, most likely. Running out of painkillers is going to suck for him. But that led to one of my favorite lines, courtesy, of course, of Salazar: “Good people are the first ones to die.” If Fear the Walking Dead was about him and Tobias, it would be my favorite show.
I did like seeing the attempt at military intervention. We missed that on The Walking Dead, what with Rick’s coma and all, so I predict some creepy 28 Days Later military in our future. But that is of a piece with this series, where the real monsters have always been human.
Margaux: Thank you for bringing up 28 Days Later because I think that was channeled best in riot-driving-to-Madison’s sequences, watching the lights go out in Los Angeles was pretty chilling and the claustrophobia of being surrounded by looters and not knowing which of them might eat your face off is all this show needs to do in order for you (well, maybe just me) to forget about comparing this show to its counterpart/namesake. When it executes those scenes as well it did, FTWD is a strong and compelling show, but when it centers on singular dilemma, aka one zombie more or less, it gets very snooze worthy. I don’t think Fear has figured out its pacing issues.
But they did seem obsessed with putting characters through literal mazes, that upcycled labyrinth in Susan backyard that Madison, Nick, and Alicia have to navigate through seems to have been put there strictly for dramatic effect.
Trevor: Fair point. But claustrophobia is something that FTWD is clearly trying to make its trademark, so you can’t blame them for playing to their strengths.
Damn it, there I go again, apologizing for the show! It’s not as though I’m in the tank for it – I’m not a rabid Walking Dead fanboy by any means, that show has some problems as well – but I guess I applaud Fear for trying something new. “The Dog,” to me, is a cautious four-star episode. It succeeded far more than it failed, had some genuinely tense sequences, and fleshed out its characters. What do you think?
Margaux: Naturally, I must respectfully disagree. I’d say “The Dog” was closer to a three star episode (but I’ll go the half star because something something compromise). It had handful of good scenes, but the whole episode for me wouldn’t of been as effective without Salazar presence – there needs to be at least one other person who kind of see what’s really on around. And as I said before, the pacing is a real issue here, it goes from high adrenaline moments, to Travis’s ex-wives club, with a couple jokes here and there, it doesn’t always resonate the way I think it’s intended. All that being said, I also thought the Monopoly scene with the Clarks was nice pause from the mania that surrounds them, but it’s almost like Fear The Walking Dead will take two steps forward in a great direction, then ten steps to the back and side, completely undoing any goodwill on the viewer’s (ie: me) part.
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