Here to Help

I didn't watch Season 4 and I "think" that I watched season 3, but it was so blase' that I honestly don't remember if I finished Season 3. Right when they started exterminating my favourite characters is when I decided to hit the eject button. In fact I didn't even make it to the episode where they killed off the protagonist Nick. I remember seeing the preview for the next episode where Nick was to die and I said "Ok, they just wrote my favourite character off the show! I'm out". I did just that, and that's where I left off, having never seen the episode where he was killed off. After that I read online or in the news that they were to kill his mother off too! She was the second best actress on the show!

So here I am deciding to return at the start of Season 5, having missed all of 4. I heard 4 was a total mess so maybe I made the right decision? Things seem to have changed. There are new characters and others are gone. I recognize our Kung-Fu peaceful crossover character from TWD. I recognize the journalist and of course our leading lady who is actually a good actress that brings a good performance to the show for her part. The gunslinger cowboy I recognize also. I have no idea about any of the others that seem to have joined the group. With Kung-fu leading the group it appears he has them out doing good deeds to help people? I think that is really dumb and it's lucky his altruism hasn't got the entire group killed yet.

Episode 1 seems to be taking place in some kind of nuclear zone? Perhaps it is a biological danger zone? It's one of those 2, but nuclear makes sense to me because the entire planet is already a no-go unsafe biological hazard. The nuclear aspect is a good direction for the show to take! Perhaps we will have to deal with some mutated zombies with special abilities! Wouldn't that be a refreshing change to hav3 something new and clever written into the story along those lines? We can only hope the answer is yes, and that they fired the S4 writers!

The premier episode ended with a mystery which did a good job of being interesting, mysterious and hooking the viewers interest for episode 2! Well I have to give this episode a solid 7.5/10. It was interesting, action packed and full of tense zombie sequences that we all love! I highly suggest watching this episode, especially if you skipped last season such as I did! Off to watch #2 so I will review that episode next!

Still got some interesting characters in this clustermuck of a show, Strand, John Dorie, Althea (maybe) and Morgan are all fun interesting characters when given good material to work with and that's always the problem, garbage in garbage out. That said, Logan introduces an interesting angle that we haven't seen investigate in the rush to make this easy action killing ''entertainment". No room for thought provoking here. Logan doesn't want to fight, he just want's what belongs to him. Is there any space for peaceful solutions in this aggressive world TWD insist on feeding us?

I'm guessing no but as always they dangle a carrot of promise before seriously disappointing us. It's probably not going to be any different this season.

Good to see the paid commenters got another round of income earning work to pretend this show is way better than it actually is. Hey if enough people say it it must be true. Better than being unemployed and homeless though, which is where some of the writers should be.

I'm not going to spoil anything that happens in this episode but if you enjoyed season 3 and hated season 4 this episode gave me hope that Season 5 as a whole will be an awesome season, so much has happened in one episode and the first 20/25 mins kept me on the edge of my seat. I really think that the show has changed directions and won't make the same mistake they did in season 4. I can't wait for episode 2

I had the chance to watch four episodes of season 5 in advance. The premiere is a promising start and this season is going to be decent, I can feel it.

While episode 3 and 4 are my favorites by far, episode 1 builds up quite a lot. Some viewers might find the first two episodes to be slow - but I promise you that you'll be rewarded. The storytelling feels better and I enjoyed the introduction of a bunge of new characters.

Our main group is back in action and I'm a bit sad to see that the crazy siblings Sarah and Wendell didn't make it on the season 5 poster. These two are awesome and fun to watch. I hope to see a lot more of them in the future!

The group is still on their mission to save and help people in need. I think it's an awesome task, somewhat risky, but still awesome. The dynamics between the characters are great and the actors are doing a good job. I really like this group, everyone is likeable and kinda cool. In some shows it annoys me that there are so many characters I hate (not even the villains) - so it's refreshing to have this bunge of cool people.

Unfortunately I can't spoil anything big, but be prepared for some awesome returns during these four episodes and a very interesting aspect that will affect both, TWD and FTWD. Loving it!

"Fear the Walking Dead" has devolved. It's fallen a long way from its early years as an earnest, deadly serious prequel to "The Walking Dead." (I, for one, really liked the first season's creative mix of slow-burn horror and family drama, and I loved the ambitious, milieu-exploring apocalypse-in-progress stories of subsequent seasons.) Today, we've reached the point where the show has become so slapdash and campy that you have to wonder whether its creators take it seriously at all.

I'm sorry to say this, but the Season 5 premiere felt like pretty amateurish stuff. Its writing, directing and acting (in some places) were really, really spotty. Its early action set-piece involving a plane crash, for example, was choppy, confusing and awkwardly staged. The plotting and dialogue were ... poor.

Even the premiere's marketing was goofy. Its television ads seemed like an intentional self-parody - like maybe a Saturday Night Live skit lampooning zombie shows. (See below.) The poster is a mess too - even if the center image's suggestion that John Dorie is a gunslinging Christ figure is pretty damned nifty.

With all of this said, it may surprise you that I still liked the episode well enough, and I'll still watch the show. I'd rate the premiere a 7 out of 10, because "Fear the Walking Dead" still has its merits. I can think of three reasons in particular why I still had fun with the premiere, and why I'll still tune in next Sunday.

First, some of the characters are terrific. I'll always love Victor Strand (Colman Domingo). I really like Dorie (Garret Dillahunt) and his mild-mannered girlfriend, June (Jenna Elfman), and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) is the kind of child character that typically grows on me. (Let's hope Dorie's posture in the poster isn't a hint about his death.) I still like Morgan, because Lennie James is always a pleasure to watch, even if I don't share the immense zeal of his legions of fans. (The writers need to do more with him beyond his weird, vaguely "Kung Fu," born-again altruism. I know he's supposed to be the Eastern philosophy guy, but his dialogue sometimes makes him come off like a stereotypical, nattering Evangelical.)

The second reason I'll stay with this show is that its stories move along quickly. There are no static, Negan-centered endless epics here, like there are on this show's plodding progenitor.

The third reason is this - "Fear the Walking Dead" has always hatched the most creative story ideas. Whatever problems the show might have developed over time with character, dialogue or plot details, the basic story concepts have always been really damned inventive. (They consistently offer much more than "The Walking Dead's" two boiler-plate plot arcs - group-vs.-group or refuge-with-a-hidden-danger.) This season looks like it will be no exception. There are two major reveals in this episode's closing minutes. One connects Season 5 with past seasons of "Fear the Walking Dead," while another is a tantalizing hint about greater forces in the "Walking Dead" universe.

Oh! One more thing! There is an important new character here played by the terrific Matt Frewer. If you're a true zombie horror fan, then you'll recognize him as none other than Frank, from Zack Snyder's superb, unfairly reviled 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake. And if you're and 80's kid like I am, then you might remember him as the original Max Headroom - from both the Coca-Cola ads and excellent but short-lived 1987 sci-fi series. That's some pretty fun casting - and the guy is a good actor.