Fear The Walking Dead S01E02: "So Close Yet So Far"
Last week, I wrote about how Fear The Walking Dead would always face that uphill battle of franchise comparisons and its very corporate-driven origin story. Fortunately, the pilot episode did an admirable job of building its story around a recognizable, relatively engaging group of people and a pre-mass outbreak world, just enough to differentiate it from The Walking Dead original flavor. Unfortunately, in only the second episode, it's starting to feel like the elements that made the pilot solid are quickly being stripped away for a familiar anarchy-driven story. That's a bit of a bummer.
Shout out to my dude Tobias, who not only made a heroic return to the school and the show this week, but also insightfully described what will happen to modern society once the viral outbreak reaches a saturation point. That, of course, is pure, speedy, hysteria. "So Close Yet So Far," like the series' pilot, made good use of the snapshots of society's downfall: the contradictory images of the confused, angry, and uninformed protestors chanting in the streets and other people going into survival mode, fending for themselves above all else; the looting, the violence, the failing infrastructure that we've spent so much time and money building. Those snippets were quite evocative, occasionally disturbing, and again one of the strongest parts of the episode.
Unfortunately, while those scenes effectively tapped into the manic energy that would surely come with a real world catastrophe, I kept thinking to myself during this episode that Fear might have been better off employing its key differentiating characteristic—the pre-fall family stories—far more in this first season, perhaps even throughout all six episodes of Season 1. I get it; the people tune into a zombie show to see zombies and mayhem and all that, and a weird mixed-family drama with rumblings of that mayhem probably wouldn't draw in the comically large ratings that are expected for a show in The Walking Dead franchise.
Not to continue to repeat myself, but as I said last week, this is a show that really, really needs us to care about the people because so much of the overarching plot is already known to us. We know where this is going and where it's likely to end (or not end). In theory then, what should carry the audience through the extremely familiar beats are the people. But when Fear immediately jumped into some of those familiar things—sudden walker attacks, people running from one space to another to hide, etc.—it's not as if the audience was so invested in anyone that the stakes were particularly high.
For instance, the opening teaser immediately revealed the turning of Maestro Harrell's Matt, which, sure, provided a fun little jolt in at the beginning of the episode, and provided some dramatic relevance to Alycia Debnam Carey's Alicia (that's not confusing at all, show). Yet, we barely got to know Matt or his relationship with Alicia and so his (admittedly slow-moving) transformation had much less of an impact than it could have had he survived in full health for even another couple of episodes (especially since Harrell is a good performer). We already know that "No One Is Safe," so what's the point? That quick jolt at the beginning, I guess.
Similarly, the show already turned to the well-worn "Separate the Group" axiom that The Walking Dead admires so much, to mixed results. Cliff Curtis and Elizabeth Rodriquez make for a fine pair of exes trying to overcome their inherent tension for the betterment of their son and you could certainly see how someone in the writer's room noted that Episode 2 needed to concentrate more on this part of the mixed family tree, but Lorenzo James Henrie's Chris felt much more like the annoying kids we're used to on shows like this, unlike his future step-siblings. Although Henrie's a relatively new performer and nowhere near bad, the show saddled him with some really poor teeny dialogue about the people rising up.
As Tim and I talked about on the podcast last week, it's not as if this is unbelievable behavior from a confused, somewhat angry teen; it's just that those characters or these scenes rarely work on TV no matter how believable they might be. But hey, Rubén Blades is here now, so that's something!
Perhaps I'm expecting something too different from Fear, and that's on me. I would just prefer that shows made a legitimate attempt to convince me why they should exist, you know? And given that so many of you suggested in the comments that the pilot was either boring or redundant, I'm very curious to see your reaction to this one. Maybe it was less boring, but wasn't more redundant as a result?
Anyway, let's turn to a couple more of the positives. Chiefly, Kim Dickens. If you're looking for a reason to keep watching this show amid frustrations with repetitive storylines or the weird mash-up of Los Angeles and Vancouver in shooting locations that we'll see for the rest of the season, Dickens is probably it. This episode rightfully put a lot on her shoulders and, although it's one of those familiar arcs, there's still good material to pull from watching her Madison slowly harden herself to the terrible circumstances around her.
The traumatic events of the pilot's final moments in the back of her mind, "So Close" showed Madison handle a walker at the school—that poor principal!—in a panic so that she could get Nick (Frank Dillane) some meds, decide that she couldn't save everyone in the neighborhood, and eventually, break down in tears like any rational human being would. Dickens was just good, so human, that you want to follow Madison through these various traumas, even if you've seen them a dozen times on the mothership. And to Fear's credit, there's still a fine minor wrinkle of experiencing all of this through fresh eyes and with characters who weren't already hardened by months of walker-related paranoia and bloodshed.
Really, all the performances continued to carry Fear, despite my frustrations with the speed of the story. Dillane's Nick spent most of the hour writhing around on the ground, spurred on by extreme withdrawal, and that offered him the chance to do the kind of expressive, physical acting that he clearly enjoys doing. Likewise, the few scenes between his Nick and Debnam Carey's Alicia were better than they had a right to be thanks to a combination of exasperation and care that only siblings can express for one another. The scene with Nick straining to keep his sister away from Matt before he seized on the living room floor, was emotional and humane. I can't emphasize enough how these characters feel like real people—something TWD has always struggled with—and though some of that is surely on the page, these actors are so quickly good in the roles that it's hard not to be impressed.
There's still a lot to like with Fear The Walking Dead. With a core of great performers, shows can overcome quite a bit. Nonetheless, I'm hopeful that the show continues to remember to give these actors good stuff to do, and not so quickly rely on the genre conventions and ever-familiar beats that we get each week with the original series. Fear needs to keep working to be different instead of rushing to look, feel, and move in the same ways as its cousin series.
— This move to Vancouver is going to be interesting to watch. There were certainly far fewer exterior sequences and establishing shots in this episode, but what we did see occasionally felt very Los Angeles nonetheless. The production shot a bunch in LA despite moving to Vancouver, so who knows how that will break down as the season progresses.
— There needs to be a Tobias-centric episode ASAP. Actually, no offense to Dickens and Curtis, but let's just build this entire thing around him. He's got his knife, that's all he needs.
— While I had issues with Matt showing symptoms of the virus so quickly, I did enjoy how the show used a smash-cut out of that teaser and the credits into Travis, Madison, and Nick zooming onto the highway to run away from the horrible scene from the end of the pilot. That's the kind of fun stuff that this show could do to differentiate itself from TWD.