Fear the Walking Dead has struggled, in past seasons, to grab the attention of viewers. But in season 3, that has changed. Here are five reasons why.
I’ll admit it: I’m a zombie junkie. I will watch anything related to zombies I can get my hands on. That’s why, when AMC announced a spinoff to The Walking Dead would premiere in August of 2015, I happily devoured all six episodes of that first season with the understanding that Fear the Walking Dead was a prequel, meaning it would tell the story of a family fighting to survive in the early days of the walker outbreak.
Many fans of the original understood that FTWD would be more of a slow-burn, compared to TWD, and patiently watched the world burn. The show’s inaugural season averaged around seven million viewers per episode, and AMC ordered a full 15 episode slate for season 2, which premiered in April of 2016.
The second season was much more complex and involved a whole lot more walkers, than season 1, however, viewership began to drop. When it was all said and done, season 2 averaged around four million viewers per episode. Many fans were frustrated that FTWD was following the exact same framework as TWD, with the main group of survivors being scattered across the map in the second have of season 2.
By the time season 3 rolled around, there was hope that the show would finally reach its full potential and surpass that six-episode first season’s ratings.
Season 3 is five episodes into a 16 episode slate, and so far, it appears as if showrunner Dave Erickson has found the magic touch (even though he’s leaving the show at the end of the season). Every episode of this third season has been superb. The storytelling is rich, the action has never been better, and the stakes have never been higher.
Here are five things Fear the Walking Dead is getting right and The Walking Dead should take note of (WARNING: Aired spoilers for season 3 to follow.)
Photo Credit: Michael Desmond/AMC
Fear the Walking Dead isn’t afraid of completely changing locations during the season…multiple time.
This has been the narrative of FTWD since the finale of season 1. The Clark family (and friends) haven’t had long to sit in one place and call it home. Sure, in the second half of season 2, Nick found the community of survivors using a wall of walkers to protect itself, and in the process meeting Luciana, but that happened in episode 15 of a 21 episode season arc. And, even the hotel that Strand, Madison, and Alicia find, provided a temporary safe-harbor, at best.
One of the biggest problems fans have with TWD is the group tends to spend too long in one place. Dare we even mention that awful season 2 spent at Hershel’s farm? Now, compare that season 2 to FTWD’s second season:
The Clarks and friends make their way down the coast to Mexico, in a yacht. They meet interesting people and groups along the way, and the story was never narrowed to someone yelling about Carl staying in the house while the rest of the group blundered around a farm looking for a girl everyone knew was in the barn the whole time.
By the end of season 2, FTWD’s group was moving from Mexico to California, never having stayed in one location too long. Meanwhile, by the end of the second season of TWD, Rick’s group was just burning down the farm and slaughtering the family of a kindly farmer who took in the group and healed Carl…so he could run around pointing guns at walkers — leading them back to the farm — getting poor lovable Dale killed in the process.
Photo Credit: Michael Desmond/AMC
Fear the Walking Dead isn’t afraid of keeping the dead as the main antagonists…and that’s a good thing.
In the world and timeline of FTWD, the walkers are something entirely new to the survivors. They haven’t had time to acclimate to a world where the person shambling along in front of you might turn around and eat your face. Because of this, there hasn’t been a main antagonist of the series, not yet, and we hope it stays that way.
In seven seasons, TWD has gone through some pretty nasty bad guys. But, this wasn’t always the case, as we didn’t get one guy to hate until the Governor arrived on the scene in season 3. Since then there has been a smorgasbord of main villains who all seem to have one goal in mind: Kill Rick!
At some point, in a show about the undead, the actual zombies (walkers) have to pose some sort of threat. Not just an annoyance easily dealt with by big metal walls, but an actual bonafide hazard to the living. And, on FTWD, they are.
At every point in FTWD, the walkers are the main focus of Madison and her merry band. In season 1, the group fled California to get away from the dead. In season 2, the dead were so prevalent that they were lovingly cared for by a crazy lady at a ranch. In season 3, the walkers are only getting worse, as the world continues to collapse under the weight of the devastating outbreak that gave rise the dead.
If FTWD keeps the focus on the very frightening undead, then there won’t be one main antagonist like the Governor or Negan to take up entire episodes of meandering flashbacks. No, keep a show about zombies, focused on zombies.
Photo Credit: Michael Desmond/AMC
Fear the Walking Dead isn’t afraid to make a former heroin addict its hero.
It has been argued that Nick (Frank Dillane) may have witnessed the first recorded instance of a walker eating its prey. In the season 1 pilot, Nick wakes up in an abandoned church where he and his junkie girlfriend have been squatting while they shoot heroin. He goes looking for her and finds her eating the face of a poor unsuspecting hobo. Nick’s girlfriend may have been patient zero,
Nick’s girlfriend may have been patient zero and that’s why he’s a hero. Okay, that was terrible, but you get the point. Since season 1, Nick has kicked heroin and replaced it with the thrill of walking among the dead, as he was the first character to learn how to cover his body in walker blood, making himself virtually invisible to the hordes of undead he has encountered.
On TWD, the main protagonist is Rick Grimes, a former Sheriff’s Deputy who would do anything to find and protect his family. Heck, Rick even adopted the love child of his best friend Shane and his wife Lori. There is always a line that Rick won’t cross, even in season 7 when all hell is breaking loose with Negan, which is why he can be sometimes portrayed as a boring or vanilla character.
Rick’s wholesome good guy persona isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we find it far more interesting when someone so deeply flawed as Nick can rise above their damage to become someone better than they once were.
Now, all we need to do is get AMC to introduce the Whisperers into the show and have Nick be their leader. Oh come on, you know you want it.
Photo Credit: Michael Desmond/AMC
Fear the Walking Dead isn’t afraid to have a strong female lead the group.
We just covered the fact that Rick Grimes has begun to get a little boring and too vanilla for our tastes. Well, if you’re tired of the same old television good guy trope, then FTWD has someone they would like you to meet: Madison Clark.
There has always been an air of mystery to the character of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens). From the very first episode of FTWD, she has been a solid rock for everyone around her to lean on. And, she isn’t afraid to break the rules in order to protect her family, either.
In season 1, Madison has no issue with torturing a soldier to find out where her friends were taken. In season 2, Madison refuses to allow a stranded female taking care of a very sick and injured kid aboard the yacht she was on with her family because there was no promise the kid wouldn’t die and turn into a walker.
In season 3, Madison tells her kids, Nick and Alicia, that they are going to make Broke Jaw Ranch their home, even if they had to take it over to make it so. Madison knows how to adapt to her current situation, which makes her the perfect survivor in an apocalypse. She is willing to do whatever it takes, not matter what, to ensure her family is safe.
Madison Clark is 100% badass, and we totally dig that about her.
Photo Credit: Michael Desmond/AMC
Fear the Walking Dead isn’t afraid to kill a main character.
There is just something about a show that is willing to kill a main character, that makes us want to keep tuning in week after week to see what — or who — is next. Sure, TWD has killed off its fair share of characters, that, were we forced to put them in order of importance, could be considered central to the plot.
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However, the problem with adapting a popular comic to television means that when a main character is about to die, everyone knows it way beforehand. This was the case when, in season 7, Glenn was killed by Negan.
So, when Travis (Cliff Curtis) was killed in the premiere of season 3, we were very shocked, as he was a main character that was supposed to survive, not take a random bullet to the neck. Travis was one of our favorite characters on the show, as he was a loyal family man, willing to do just about anything to ensure his family was safe.
Travis was a good guy, but he wasn’t acclimating to the new reality of a zombie apocalypse. While yes, he was a strong and more than capable character, he never had that little extra something that makes a character like Madison so important in the world of FTWD.
Fear the Walking Dead is hitting its stride, in season 3, which is extremely important in today’s television market. Shows get canceled all the time for not pulling in enough viewers, and often, it’s the showrunners who are to blame, as they refuse to keep their story fresh, keeping their targeted audience on the edge of their seats.
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AMC and Dave Erickson seem to have found their footing with FTWD, and even though Erickson won’t be a part of the show after this season, we hope to see the next showrunner keep this story the way it is — constantly changing and keeping us on our toes.