Okay, so I was thinking about making a blog on Issue 175's cover or Issue 172, but I don't think either would be particularly necessary or wanted. At this point, I think the bonus ending from #75 would've been a better storyline than the current one lmao.
But anyways, I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the fact that there's one medium of The Walking Dead that's managed to impress me. In fact, I'd say it's surpassed the mother show. That's not exactly saying much, but still. While it's FAR from an addicting and amazing show, Fear The Walking Dead has managed to do the exact opposite of what the mother show did--improve over time. The Walking Dead's TV adaptation started out pretty good, then hit an absolute nosedive in Season 3, having a few breaks of quality entertainment afterwards, but ultimately accepting its fate as a clusterfuck of disappointment by Season 7. Fear The Walking Dead, on the other hand, has managed to improve on its many glaring flaws since its remarkably low-quality debut, and has thus progressed forwards rather than backwards. I don't know if there's a single other Walking Dead medium right now that hasn't long passed its golden age. At this point, the worst thing about this show is the name(which to be fair, still makes me cringe every time I type it out so I'm just gonna start abbreviating from here on). Of course, I'm still skeptical of the overall quality of the show, but I'd like to credit it for a few of the things it's doing right:
- Individual Characters - Now this is easily the biggest advantage FTWD has over its mother show. On TWD, the massive majority of characters have completely hit the dumps. They're all boring, horribly-written, flat-out unrealistic, or completely wasted. FTWD has managed to create diversity in its characters that makes for interesting dynamics that go beyond the usual "these two are eating booty and these two are friends" dynamics that we see in the mother show(Nick and Troy, Madison and Troy, Madison and Walker). Characters on the show interact in ways that make you interested rather than simply tolerating their presence. The characters in the show have a wide moral spectrum, which allows for some of them to be morally ambiguous enough to be interesting. Troy is a good example of this--the show has done a good job of fleshing him out and exploring his mental health, making him both a dangerous source of conflict but also somewhat deserving of sympathy. Strand would be another good example, although he's been somewhat reserved these past few episodes. While there are still some things that could be fixed with the cast, such as not having a few of them randomly disappear for extended periods of time then resurface out of the blue(Ofelia, Daniel, Luciana), it's going forward rather than backwards, and that's the important part.
- Pacing - The show has done a very good job, especially in the past three or so episodes, of keeping a good and exciting pace to keep viewers interested. No boring offshoot episodes like in the mother show, just genuinely entertaining episodes that help advance the story rather than filler stories that advance one or two characters that no one even really cares about anyways. That's not to say that there haven't been sequences and storylines that weren't all that desirable, but no show is perfect(except Star Wars the Clone Wars, but that's a story for another time). In other words, the show keeps you interested without having to pull off shitty gimmicks to do so--just genuine entertainment.
- Action - Let me get a quick disclaimer out of the way here. I am beyond aware that the show has had more than a few incredibly awful sequences that have unfortunately set the show back from being better than it is now--Travis' death, the lightning scene, and the good old astronaut scene with Strand stand out as examples of this. However, when the show keeps itself grounded, it does a very good job of keeping things exciting. Instead of creating stupid and altogether laughable scenes like the Armored Zombie fight from Season 7, the action sequences and tension have felt genuine, and have the same good sense of creativity and danger that The Walking Dead used to boast in its earlier days.
- Chris is dead
Before I end, there's one more thing I want to address. I'm very surprised no one on the wiki has been discussing this, which may just be a sign that people around here have altogether given up. Fear The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead are having a crossover next season.
Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen. The one remaining medium of The Walking Dead that hasn't been violently fisted by Scott Gimple is about to be put in an early grave. Not only that, but Gimpie himself is now signing on as Executive Producer. Let's not forget that the current showrunner is being replaced. I'm sorry, but I simply don't see how FTWD isn't going to crash and burn. I'm almost 100% certain it has hit its peak. With the looming threat of a completely needless and forced crossover with its disaster of a mother show, there's bound to be a nosedive of quality, and most importantly, realism. And with Gimple now controlling the show more closely than before, it seems like the only direction to go is downward. The best thing about FTWD was the fact that it was as far as possible from the continuity of the mother show. I genuinely pray to all known spiritual entities in the universe that I'm wrong about this, but everything I know about the Walking Dead franchise tells me that doom is coming to this show, even though it's just now started to impress me. It's gotten too good for its own good. Now, based on the words of Kirkman, the crossover may be much more small-scale than it could be, perhaps even just a single character, so maybe I'm wrong here. However, that doesn't change the other looming dangers to this show's survival. Maybe I'm completely overreacting, I sure hope so.
What are your thoughts? Am I right about the current enjoyability of Fear? Is the show heading towards an inevitable nosedive that will destroy all its progress? Will I ever find human affection and romantic interest?
Let me know in the comments below. And don't forget to like and subscribe