After taking a week off for Labor Day, because zombies love unions, Fear the Walking Dead came back for its third episode last night. Find out what the Gabbing Geek crew had to say about S1E3, “The Dog,” after the break.
[FEAR THE WALKING DEAD SPOILERS BEYOND]
Ryan: After a slow (but excellent) pilot, the second episode really picked up steam, only to come back to the slow shamble towards terror in the third episode. Much like the Los Angeles power grid during the early days of the zombie outbreak, the pacing of Fear the Walking Dead goes in and out a bit unpredictably. Still, this has been a lot of fun. Nick has taken a bit of a back seat while the family tension plays out. The Clark/Manawa family dynamic is made even more complex with the inclusion of the Salazars. None of them particularly want to be together but they’ve been forced to turn to each other for help. It’s a fun interplay to see unfold and feels authentic, so I’m still enjoying this.
The titular dog also seemed to be an interesting substitute for the gung ho zombie attacker. Rather than a human being convinced they can fight their way out, the battle-scarred dog still tried to take on a zombie and failed. Same with our survivors–fighting their way through the outbreak isn’t their goal, living to see another day is their ultimate result. Having the military roll in feels like a relief, but anyone who’s ever seen a zombie movie knows that the military almost never ends up being on your side in the face of a zombie apocalypse. We’ll see how quickly that all plays out since we only have three episodes left.
Score: 8 out of 10 properly placed garbage bins at the curb even while society crumbles.
Jenny: This week was definitely interesting. I was curious to see where they (the producers) would go with separating the families. I thought for sure there would be a long dramatic stretch of stories where we’d watch the two units try and get back to each other, but alas, that was not the route they took. Instead we cut to the chase, got everyone back together, added a few more outsiders to the pack, and started some true character development. Already we can see that Madison is going to be a strong mamma-jamma. Between her and the elderly hispanic man (his name escapes me at the moment – Snr. Salazar?) we know our little LA group will be safe… at least for a while. These two are the only ones that have guts in them. My favorite part of this episode is when we finally get to see Snr. Salazar step up and shoot a zombie dead square in the face. 1 point to Gryffindor!
I would lump Nick in “badass” category as well, but Nick is unreliable at the moment since he’s still coming down from his junkie high. That being said, I believe Nick is going to be like the new Carl. A nuisance at first, but then lethal in the end. Snr. Salazar is the new Daryl. And Madison is the new Rick. I know this is a stretch, but my money is on Madison being their moral compass of this motley crew, and I bet she’ll be the only person that can get past people being zombies to protect herself and her family when needed.
Travis and Ashley on the other hand completely disappoint me. I’m actually annoyed with their hesitation. Maybe I’m used to TWD crew being callused by their travel and ventures, so I expect a certain level of toughness – so, yeah, maybe I am being unfair. But little-miss-teen-sunshine and father-of-the-year better get their act together, or they will be the first to die.
That just leaves Travis’ ex wife, his son Chris, and the wife and daughter of Snr. Salazar. Those four are currently unknown to me. So we’ll have to wait and see – but as for now, I’m liking what I’m seeing in Madison, Julio (I gave him a name because I’m sick of saying “Snr. Salazar”), and Nick. Let’s see how they do with the Army in town giving them orders and keeping them contained. My guess is that they have better sense than to stay put… and we’ll see an escape plan form soon enough.
Score: out 8.5 of 10 unnecessary backyard mazes.
Jimmy: Now we’re getting somewhere! Enough with the slow burn, this episode finally turns the zombie apocalypse up to eleven! This show (like it’s partner) doesn’t need to be wall to wall walkers to be successful, but it needs some drama and intrigue. In this episode we finally get a real sense of dread as our lead characters are swept up in the mounting chaos. There’s still a couple of “stupid horror movie” moments, and the pacing slowed a little near the end, but overall the show continues to improve each week.
I’m still not loving any of the characters, but I will give it time. Maybe I unfairly feel like original recipe Walking Dead had better characters out of the box, since I knew most of them from reading the comic. However I still hope Madison is the first to go from the main cast as she is easily my least favorite character from either show. But I have my doubts she’s going anytime soon. Just too many expandable side characters or people they can meet along the way at this point.
And I can’t wait to see what is happening on that plane…(painted blood red of course…)
Score: 8.5 out of 10 snacked Scooby’s
Gabbing Geek 