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Does ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Have A Direction And Purpose?

By Adam Carlson

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Fear The Walking Dead has many fans excited while others are skeptical about the new AMC show.  Both groups have every right to feel the way they do about the upcoming program, but most viewers will at least wait until the show premieres to make a decision

Some of the major criticism comes because the show can’t be defined by modern terms.  People don’t understand what the point of the show is and why it is necessary in telling the story during the initial stages of the walker outbreak.

Fear The Walking Dead’s showrunner Dave Erickson tried to explain what the show is during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.  Here’s what he said:

"“It’s more a parallel story than a prequel. It’s kind of its own strange hybrid thing. I wish I had a better word.”"

And I was fine with that.  I mean, why pigeon-hole your show to fit into a description that has only applied to other programs when what Fear The Walking Dead is doing is so unique to television shows.  Sure, it’s a spin-off, but it doesn’t focus on any characters from the original show.  And yes, it’s a prequel, but as of now there’s no tie in to the original show.  The only real thing that Fear The Walking Dead has in common with The Walking Dead is that they’re set in the same universe.

The folks over at MoviePilot.com disagree with me though.  They see the fact that Fear The Walking Dead can’t be defined with a simple designation as a sign that it lacks the vision to succeed.  Here’s what they said:

"“This generally speaks to me as a lack of vision. If you can’t even name what your spin-off is functioning as, then I don’t know how to treat your show. “Fear” also has a challenge to overcome, broadcasting alongside The Walking Dead Season 6, in that it’s retreading the whole zombie outbreak from the start. With “Fear” allegedly taking place while Rick Grimes was in a coma, we’re being shown the exact thing that The Walking Dead thought necessary to cut out. Season 6 has a fan base well versed in the logic of this series. Does “Fear” really need to have characters exclaiming “what are these things?” all over again?”"

I don’t understand this logic.  There will be no retreading.  We never got to see the initial stages of the outbreak during The Walking Dead.  It’ll be interesting to see how survivors react to learning about what walkers are and how they try to deal with them.

Also, the story of the outbreak was cut out of The Walking Dead because it initially told the story of Rick Grimes.  Watching Rick barricaded inside that hospital room until he woke up from him coma would have made for awful television, especially since he had no visitors.

We never really got to see all these characters that didn’t know what walkers were except for Rick.  Sure, we had some confusion over what they were at the farmhouse, but by that point in the story people knew how dangerous they were and either confined them or killed them.

I’m going to hold on to judging Fear The Walking Dead until the six episodes of the first season are complete.  However, going into the show, I’m not too concerned about the setting or the time frame.  Instead, I’m worried about creating characters that fans are drawn to and make the show worth watching.  And we won’t know how that is until after we see the show.

Fear The Walking Dead is set to premiere this Summer on AMC.

Next: Walking Dead 50 most shocking moments and deaths

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