Fear The Walking Dead Deserves Better Than What It Gets

After seeing this week’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead, “Divine Providence,” and the ratings it’s been getting this season, I believe it deserves better.

I’ve always been a big advocate for Fear The Walking Dead. The premise of seeing civilization fall apart in a zombie apocalypse always appealed to me. I’ve had my gripes in the past, but they’ve mostly revolved around what I saw as missed opportunities to take characters in exciting directions or, at the very least, give them better sendoffs than what they ended up with.

Beyond those complaints, I’ve always found the show enjoyable. Was it on par with The Walking Dead? Not necessarily, but after season five, maybe six, the base show hasn’t been on par with itself, so expecting Fear TWD to do it is unrealistic. Regardless, I’ve thought it enjoyable, and in some cases, I’ve found the seasons of Fear TWD since Morgan joined the show more enjoyable than the contemporaneous season of The Walking Dead. I might even say I’ve been enjoying this season of Fear TWD more than the final season of The Walking Dead.

I seem to be in the minority by looking at the show’s ratings over this season as it’s been dropping, only cracking a million viewers once. When I say that the show deserves better, this is what I mean.

I can think of no better example than this week’s episode. We watched a solid, character-focused episode following the three remaining original cast members, Alicia, Strand, and Daniel, having to work together to ascend Strand’s tower, which had been stolen out from underneath him by his second-in-command, Wes. Everything in this episode was wonderfully consistent with each character, their relationships to one another, their motivations, and how they’ve evolved as characters, resulting in conclusions which were also wonderfully consistent, and presented new threats for all of our characters to have to deal with in the next episode.

Even going back through the season, we’ve seen character deaths that were compelling, surprising, made you care, and were, once again, consistent. Unlike some of the later seasons of The Walking Dead, which I’ve criticized before for having deaths that always seem to come around premiere or finale episodes, whether they made sense or not, the deaths we’ve seen in this season (and last season, for that matter) of Fear TWD have all made sense within the context of the show, and didn’t just seem to come out of left field, or were needless swerves or fake-outs.

And yet, this week’s episode was one of the lowest-rated episodes of the season. Why? What was it missing that I’m not aware of? Was it because Morgan left at the end of the previous one?

Whatever the reason is, I don’t know it, but regardless, I think that, based on how well I find the show to be written and how compelling I find the story to be, I think they deserve better ratings than what they’re getting. If you agree, let me know! And if not, that’s fine (though I imagine, if you did, you wouldn’t be reading this anyway). If you like more of my writing, why not check out my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse?! It’s available on Amazon here, and on iTunes here!