‘Fear the Walking Dead’ season 2, episode 1 review: Zombies at sea
The title above is basically the main selling point at the moment for “Fear the Walking Dead” season 2. It’s like “Sharknado” but with zombies in the water … and also much better effects. It’s a good show trying to be a great show, continuing to struggle time and time again to find the right way to do so.
Through the premiere, the best thing about season 2, zombies aside, is Strand. Colman Domingo has done such a fantastic job with this creepy millionaire, who appears in one way generous but at the same time sinister. You really do want to believe that his motives are pure and right for helping Travis and his whole family; yet, why? You ask that question in terms of why he would want to help them, and then also at the same time why he would choose them specifically if he had some sort of terrible motive. There’s nothing special about any of them, so we cannot imagine him leading them down the path to any sort of terrible experiment or the like.
Travis and Madison remain capable leads for the show, but at the same time, their strength and power is taken away by the kids being idiots at times. Take, for example, Nick and Chris’ impromptu swim that led to them having to deal with a walker presence. Sure, young people just want to have fun, but don’t they realize that there is no escape from zombies in this universe? Nobody’s safe even miles out into the ocean. We’ll give Alecia a little less flack for dealing with a radio distress call, mostly because she was trying to help. She was just failing at it in the process.
The episode ended with a reminder that there are more human threats out there … so with that in mind, it’s really a lot more like “The Walking Dead” when we give it credit for. It’s a show with a lot of good intentions, and one that also does quite a few things right. It’s just a shame that some of these technical achievements are overshadowed for now by characters we just don’t really care about. Grade: B-.
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