Season 2, Episode 1: Monster
PLOT: The survivors of Fear the Walking Dead season 1 attempt to escape zombie hordes and military bombings by setting out to sea on the Abigail, a yacht captained by the mysterious Victor Strand.
REVIEW: As of the closing moments of the first season of Fear the Walking Dead, the show was one I was rooting for more than I was enjoying. While I think a show set in the universe of The Walking Dead but in a different location at an earlier time has potential, it’s a potential that I didn’t feel those first six episodes quite reached. My issues with it were the pace and tone, which was much more sedate than I expected, and a lack of characters I could connect to, but those are issues that could be fixed as the show goes on. I could grow to care for these characters more, and the show could become more exciting. I’m holding on and tuning in hoping that Fear the Walking Dead will really take off. Maybe by the end of this fifteen episode second season it will be the show I believe it could be.
The slow build of season one did pay off quite spectacularly with that finale. Two thousand zombies surging through a military base may have been worth a couple of episodes of people sitting around in a quarantine zone. The season two premiere gets off to a promising start, with the military’s explosive attempt at reducing the number of zombies taking a chunk out of California while the walking dead close in on the lead characters as they make their escape out to the yacht called the Abigail.
A friend of mine was recently saying that she thought the characters on The Walking Dead should try to escape the zombie threat by taking a boat out to sea, so it’s quite an entertaining coincidence that Fear the Walking Dead is going that way. Once they’re out on the water, the show still takes a couple moments for the characters to sit around and be pensive, but this episode actually moves along at a good clip, especially for this show.
One of my favorite aspects of The Walking Dead and many of my favorite zombie movies is the fact that other people prove to be a greater threat than the living dead. That element was present with the troubles the characters had with the military in the first season, but we didn’t get a great villain out of the situation. What’s going on in the season two premiere is much more interesting. The characters have now, essentially, been rescued by Victor Strand, but there is a huge chance this guy isn’t really trustworthy. Captivatingly played by Colman Domingo, Strand could turn out to be an amazing hero or a formidable foe, and the show greatly benefits from his presence either way. The mystery of Strand’s true colors is made even more fun by the fact that the character who trusts him the least is my other favorite presence on the show, Ruben Blades as Daniel. I look forward to (potentially) seeing those two butt heads.
A down side for me is the abundance of pain-in-the-ass kids on this show. The biggest pain right now is Lorenzo James Henrie as Chris, who has gone from not wanting to spend time with his father to being stuck with him for good after the tragic death of his mother. It’s understandable that Chris wouldn’t be handling the situation well, but does he have to be so annoying? Hopefully his character will become more interesting instead of just continuing to be a little douche. At least Frank Dillane’s Nick has finally kicked his drug habit and is embracing his natural fearlessness, so it looks like he’ll be less of a pain this time around and could be becoming a strong character. Less impressive is the behavior of Alycia Debnam-Carey’s Alicia, as she spills the details of the Abigail to some nice-sounding stranger on the radio. That’s okay, though. That looks to be bringing in more human villains, which this show needs.
The villains set up here have already provided us with something special, zombies of a sort we’ve never seen on these Walking Dead shows before. Aquatic zombies! They might not have been as awesome as the water zombie that fought the shark in Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE, but it was a cool sequence nonetheless.
Fear the Walking Dead still hasn’t blown me away, but with the first episode of season two it seems to be heading in the right direction.
BEST ZOMBIE MOMENT: As cool as it was when Travis and Madison (Cliff Curtis and Kim Dickens) were battling zombies on the beach with bombs going off in the background, the standout moment of the show were those zombies floating in the sea with their lifejackets on.
GORY GLORY: Nick shoving the propeller of a boat’s outboard motor into the face of an attacking walker was a zombie kill worthy of cheers.
FAVORITE SCENE: As Alicia scans the radio channels, she catches a broadcast from the Coast Guard informing citizens that they have no way to rescue them, not by sea, land, or air. “There’s nothing. Forgive us.” This message felt like something that could have been in DAWN OF THE DEAD and it warmed my Romero-loving heart.
FINAL VERDICT: