The Two Walking Deads: Comparisons, connections, and challenges
By Susie Graham
When Fear the Walking Dead first aired, the temptation to compare the show to the original was strong and created expectations and challenges.
Fear the Walking Dead is a rather unusual spinoff series that has some interesting issues to contend with as a companion to the extremely popular The Walking Dead. The temptation to compare the shows has positives and negatives.
Especially at first, the comparisons created such high expectations that it was difficult for viewers to let go and try to watch the new show with completely new eyes. They wanted the magic of the experience they had with The Walking Dead to be recreated.
I imagine those expectations were a challenge for writers and showrunners as well. They wanted to make a show that was fresh and new yet had the same magic and feel and the same world as the one the viewers loved.
Another temptation for fans is to start to make parallels and character for character connections or even places. For example, “Who is the new Rick or Shane or Morgan,” or “Is the boat like the farm?”
So they needed connections, but what? If time and geography prevented some of the connections the fans might want, what else could connect the worlds? The walkers and the walker rules was the answer. And dramatic irony. We know more than the characters.
The dramatic irony that should have created tension and suspense because we know more than the characters, created frustration for some viewers. They found the show slow and they thought the characters were stupid for not understanding what we know.
Walkers. The infected. That was the other connection. But where were they? We didn’t see very many of them in season 1. We had become accustomed to herds and now we were seeing a few fresh, cool walkers, but not very often.
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Many fans were frustrated by other fans and advised them to stop comparing the shows so they could enjoy it more. They kept reminding other fans that it was just the beginning and the characters didn’t know as much as we do. And the walkers would come.
At this point, those who don’t like it are dropping out. Our characters are learning the ways of the new world, and it’s starting to be more fun to make comparisons again. The idea that it is a spinoff allows us to use one show to help understand the other.
The interesting thing that is happening that I didn’t expect is that some things on Fear the Walking Dead that connect with the original deepen the meaning of some of the events in the original rather than always the other way around.
Seeing our group on Fear at the beginning makes you wonder about the beginning for Carol and Lori and Andrea and Dale. They must have escaped to the quarry pretty quickly. Poor Jim must have really had a tough time losing his family before he got to the quarry. Alexandria must have really been protected.
Still seeing Nick covering himself in guts and knowing what we know about Wayne Dunlap and the guts ponchos in Alexandria gives a different experience to Nick’s discovery.
We don’t have to make perfect connections all the time, but it’s fun to think that certain things remind us of the way other characters behaved or other events on The Walking Dead.
The shows are connected. They are different but they are the same world. That’s what they wanted for the companion show. Whatever they have done, success and failure-wise as viewers see it, the idea of making a show that was connected by the same apocalypse has ultimately been achieved.