TV report: Fear the Walking Dead (pilot episode)

::spoilers ahead::
Okay, so I finally got up the courage to watch "Fear the Walking Dead" last night. I really liked it. It's not The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later. It's like a meta of those. There's a suspense and a tension that I really liked. These people have no idea of the hell that their handbasket is headed for, but WE do, and everything that we see them do is seen with the knowledge that the shit is truly about to hit the fan.

I think the show's creators/writers are actually really clever about how they're exploiting this situation, with us knowing what's coming the whole way. It reminds me of what Hitchcock said about the difference between thrills and suspense. Imagine a scene where 2 guys enter a room, talk about baseball for 5 minutes, and then boom! -- a bomb explodes, killing one or both of them. It's a shock. It's a surprise. It's a thrill. Now change that scene in one way: we see the bomber setting the bomb for 5 minutes and putting it under a chair in the room. Now, when the guys come in the room and talk about baseball, we're going out of our minds: get out of there! There's a bomb! Will they find it? Will they escape? That's suspense.

That's what "Fear the Walking Dead" is doing, in spades. We know the bomb is there. They don't. They think their son shooting up is a problem. They think a leaky sink or a kid sneaking a steak knife into school is a problem. They are about to learn what PROBLEMS really are. And every detail of their everyday lives just makes it more poignant and suspenseful. The teacher teaching Jack London's story "To Build a Fire." Brilliant. The girl's boyfriend oddly no-showing for their date. Brilliant. The paranoid kid who sees exactly what's coming. Brilliant.

Offhand, I'd say these people have zero chance of surviving the coming zombie apocalypse. An English teacher? A guidance counselor? A junkie? A teenage girl? They have "take-out" written all over them. Yet, the teacher has some skillz, and the courage to go through a creepy old church basement alone, which I wouldn't do for a largeish sum of money. The guidance counselor seems to know people and manipulate situations to her advantage. And the junkie is adept at escaping pretty terrible situations and -- credit where it's due -- nailing a zombie with a pickup truck. Hmmm.

Anyway, I'm definitely in on this deal. I said "holy crap" enough times during the pilot to suggest that I'm hooked for a while.

Bring it!

Highly recommended, unless you’re an action junkie

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