‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Episode 1.6 “The Good Man” (6 out of 10) Created by Dave Erickson & Robert Kirkman; Starring Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Rubén Blades, Mercedes Mason; Sundays on AMC.
Well, we made it. We all lost something along the way, but we’ve finally arrived at the mid-season finale of “Fear the Walking Dead.” While it’s not the worst TV show I’ve seen, it has some serious flaws that often made me question the motivation behind the show as a whole. Tonight, I’d like to discuss the finer points of the finale, as well as outline some problems that these first six episodes seemed to struggle with.
Now that life in the military installation is going down the tubes, there was some nice freneticism in tonight’s episode. Seeing the chain of command crumble so that our heroes were forced to make their own escape was great—except for the fact that they’re still dead set on striking out for the desert, otherwise known as the part of the world least likely to support life. There were a few decent moral quandaries thrown into the mix, although some were handled better than others. Having soldiers steal the car from Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) was a bit clichéd—Chris punches a trained soldier and takes a rifle butt to the face while the others get gross about Alicia. It was a nice hiccup in our heroes’ already backwards plan, plus Chris took a rifle butt to the face. The bit where Ofelia’s (Mercedes Mason) soldier boyfriend Andy (Shawn Hatosy) gets the drop on her and Daniel (Rubén Blades) was a transitory moment for Travis (Cliff Curtis), who nearly beats Andy to death after he shoots Ofelia in the shoulder. This was a moment of catharsis for me—all season I’ve been wanting Travis to lose his shit, and here he finally did. Seeing Daniel calmly approach the military base gate as he warns the guards to save their ammunition was a total badass move—especially when they see the unending horde of undead that Daniel has led to them. More zombies than we have currently seen in this season descend upon the base as the heroes attempt to jailbreak their family. Despite the badass-ness of this scene, I can’t help but feel like the zombie apocalypse in Rick’s universe was caused by the natural hostility that comes between the oppressor and the oppressed. Daniel’s traumatic formative years made him who he is today, and that is a man who would rather feed his enemies to a horde of zombies than live another day under someone’s boot. It’s a respectable philosophy but one can’t help but feel that he was solving his personal problems by making things worse for everyone around him.
The team eventually makes it out with Strand (Colman Domingo), who talks them out of their dopey plan to head into the desert—an easy task, considering Strand’s not-so-humble digs. Concluding with a heart-wrenching farewell between Travis and Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez), we’re left pondering who this Strand guy is, along with why he has such a nice house.
Hits and Misses
My biggest problem with this series is the characters. With the exception of Travis in the last act of tonight’s episode, nobody seems to experience any character growth or transition. The kids are always whiny and don’t seem to learn from their mistakes, Daniel will always choose the path of complete ruthlessness regardless of the situation, and Madison just wants her kids to be safe. While most of the acting was great, it didn’t feel like these characters really went anywhwere.
This lack of character development made the show’s inevitable turn into gritty territory less jarring and emotional because nobody ever really stepped outside of their character’s comfort zone. Regardless of the situation, I knew that Travis was going to take the high road. I liked that the last episode shows him snap, but the show needed to show some character diversity to make those darker aspects of the story come through.
Of these poorly developed characters, Nick (Frank Dillane) was the one that annoyed me the most. Maybe it’s because I like my zombie heroes to be self-sacrificing in some small amount, but Nick drove me nuts for the entire season. I didn’t buy Strand’s interest in him either. What kind of self-proclaimed closer seeks out an unrepentant drug addict for some top secret plan that he has in the mix? Oh, the dude can steal a cell key, so let’s just forget the fact that every decision he’ll ever make is filtered through the lens of “how can this get me high?” His final thoughts on how this collapsed shell of a world is how he’s always seen things almost set off my gag reflex. If you’re going to close with some profound observation on human kind, can you not make it come from the least human member of the group?
On the plus side, the show’s VFX and sets built up a nice burn of tension throughout the show, which helped a lot when the characters weren’t doing anything.
Conclusion
If “Fear the Walking Dead” is just an appetizer before “The Walking Dead” comes back this Sunday, it has succeeded in making me want to see what my favorite zombie-killing team is up to this season. Since the second half of the show’s first season will likely start up after our current cycle of “Walking Dead” is over, I’m not expecting it to become much more than the appetizer. Thus far, it’s lacked the meat to become a serious show contender.