OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

Fear the Walking Dead... and Kevin From Work

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Saturday, November 14, 2015 18:01
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VIEWED: 3747
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Friday, November 6, 2015 8:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I'm only 3 episodes into it, but I'm shocked to find out that Fear the Walking Dead was extended for a 15 episode second season.

It's not completely terrible. It's got its good points and its bad points, but overall I just don't think it makes for engaging television, and more importantly it doesn't deliver what it could have. What's worse, I think it's too late into the apocalypse to go back and do it right. I have a suggestion about how to fix that... and it involves an entirely new cast.

Not only is FTWD pretty boring and the characters are pretty wooden and uninteresting, but in 2015 with all the technology available to us it is just completely unbelievable. By the third episode there are intermittent problems with electricity and cell phone signals, but nobody had a Facebook or Twitter account leading up to that point?

The only somewhat realistic thing that happened in the events leading up to people outside of government officials actually realizing there was a problem was the a lot of kids not going to school because their parents called them in sick. On the last day anybody went to class, the principal even asks the bus driver if he missed a few stops when only 5 kids get off the bus. Even this realistic scenario was handled so poorly that it just adds to the absurdity of the story.

You'd have to assume that some of these kids were really sick, and the others were made to stay at home by their parents out of fear of the virus and weird stories they saw on the news. This is almost a "chicken and egg" type paradox. If nothing was happening to really be afraid of, why would the parents keep their kids at home? But if this illness was spreading, wouldn't people have already died by the thousands and started to try eating their family members? Wouldn't somebody have tweeted "OMFG Mom just ate Dad's face off! #CrappingMyPants #HidingInMyCloset". Forget the fact that we already know that once the fevers start death follows very quickly... but people must have already been zombies because people don't just "get sick" with the virus... They either turned when something else killed them, or they got sick after being bitten. This isn't an airborne pathogen. Hell it's not even spread by blood like in 28 Days later after watching the more bloody battles we've seen on 5 1/2 seasons of The Walking Dead.

I get that the writers wanted to show a Government that was trying to cover things up, but are we really supposed to pretend that in 2015 news of this wouldn't have spread immediately? Think of recent stories of social media in 3rd world dictatorships. What? Did the Government ban social media when the virus started spreading or simply shut down Facebook and Twitter? None of the kids we've seen on the show have any opinions on that?

Facebook and Twitter don't even make an appearance in this world. Aside from cell phones and the occasional text message, you couldn't be blamed for thinking the backdrop to this show was L.A. in 1987. I was half expecting Huey Lewis's "I Love L.A." to play on somebody's cassette deck in their car. Even though we find out that 5 other states have reported a serious new virus before the show begings, there is only one video of a guy being gunned down by cops online that everyone is passing around and made the news? Even then, people aren't focused on the right things... This video scares some of the main characters, but the rest of L.A. seems to focus on the Police Brutality aspect of it.

The only "Real" character in the show is the bit-part by the kid that had his knife taken away from him. In all of L.A. he was the only one who wasn't completely blind, deaf and dumb.


Now, by the end of only episode 3, the boys in Green have come into town and declared martial law and started killing zombies. The power is out, communications are down, and along with all of that the chance to tell a million and one different stories regarding everything wrong with our culture are gone with them. It's too late to go back. This could have been a real opportunity to show the collapse of American civilization while Rick was in a coma. Instead, all we got was a story of the entire brain dead population of L.A. who might as well have been in a coma and were essentially already walking dead themselves.

Maybe this is what the writers were going for? If that's the case, the guys who made Shaun of the Dead already told that tale, and IMO they did a much better job of it.


So.... Here's my suggestion on how to fix the show...

Firstly, kill off every single stupid character they made. Which is every single character on the show, except for chubby high schooler "Tobias" who got his knife confiscated. Don't make any apologies for it. This is the apocalypse and people die. None of these characters would have made it to Season 2 of The Walking Dead anyways, save for possibly Kim Dickens' "Mom" and Ruben Blades' "ornery father/barber shop owner". Wipe the slate clean for a new cast. If there's one thing the writers of TWD know how to do very well it's that Pulp Fiction-esque "time jump" thing, so you could reboot this series quickly and tie in some of the events that happened in this 6 episode experiment while starting from scratch so they weren't just a complete waste.

Secondly, work with the producers of "Kevin From Work" and ABC on the rights issues involved and blend both shows together. Not just the actors and the characters and the premise of KFW, but get the writers and the directors from both shows in the same room to come up with a great story.

If you haven't seen Kevin From Work, you're actually missing some pretty good TV. I'm not big on today's technology myself, and it's been a while since I've been in my 20's or had an office job, but even with all the new technology available today I find the stories to be very relateable to what I remember office life in my 20's were, if not a little over the top.

The writers and directors of Kevin From Work are much more in tune with what the kids are up to these days than the writers of The Walking Dead are. For a show like the original, you wouldn't notice that fact. By the time The Walking Dead started, the internet and cell phones and electricity and pretty much every modern convince we all take for grated had already been gone long enough for nobody to even bring them up. This dynamic just doesn't work for the days leading up to the Apocalypse. The writers/directors must easily be in their 40's or older and not even attempt to take into consideration today's technology or youth culture.

Although i like Kevin's self-absorbed sister Roxie, her most annoying trait is taking selfies all the time and saying things like "hashtag OutShopping". It may be annoying, but it's a lot more "Real" for the 25 and under demographic than anything we've seen in Fear the Walking Dead.


I know this would never be legally possible, and there would be too many egos and other conflicts in the way, but even if it wasn't a "great" show, it would be an unprecedented Television Event everyone would remember years from now. I actually really like the characters in Kevin From Work and would love seeing them taken out of "Work" and thrust into the Zombie Apocalypse. Now THAT would be the culture shock we should have expected in Fear the Walking Dead!

I don't know where FTWD is going next season, but I'm pretty sure it's straight into the trash-heap of horrible spin-offs nobody remembers like "Joey" or "Four's a Crowd". I just hope it's existence doesn't tarnish or outright ruin a great show like The Walking Dead.

There is such thing as too much of a good thing.




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Friday, November 6, 2015 11:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Oh no.... It's already happening...

Just by existing, Fear of the Walking dead points out a SERIOUS flaw with one of the major plot points between the end of season 2 and season 3 and questions the plausibility of the entire show...

Do you remember the CDC doctor's Secret he told Rick when they were both drinking? The one that Rick managed to keep from his friends and family and even all of us watching at home until he killed his friend and former partner Shane?

That's right. We're all infected and unless somebody destroys our brain it won't be long after death until we're rising from the dead, no matter how we pass away.


The idea that nobody else on the show but Rick knew that secret was completely plausible to us in a post-apocalypse/post Rick's Coma world. I never even gave it a second thought at the time and thought it was a really great and scary concept.

Now that Fear of the Walking Dead forces me to think about the days leading up to the Zombie Apocalypse, the stupidity from L.A. and the complete absence of modern tech and culture is bleeding over into the cast of the original show. How was that not already common knowledge to everyone left with a pulse a long time before that reveal?

The ONLY person who should have been surprised that ALL of the dead come back to life if their brain isn't destroyed should have been Rick since he was in a coma.

The way that scene should have gone was Rick crapping his pants when Shane comes back and tries to eat him. Then when his son Carl shoots Shane he could say something like "Oh yeah Dad, we forgot to tell you that if one of us dies of cancer or malaria you need to shoot us in the head".



On that note, why would our "Oppressive" Government hide that fact from us anyhow? Surely one of the brainiacs they have working for them would have been able to convince the powers that be that it was in their own best interest to tell as many people as possible about it.

These aren't the ultra-fast meth-head zombies of 28 days later. They're slow and dumb. The only thing scary about them is they don't seem to die off without food like the monsters in 28 days later did. If "The Walking Dead" scenario ever happened in the real world, the Zombie Apocalypse according to TWD likely would never have happened if the people knew that anyone who died would come back. It could have been contained.

Seriously, "Fear The Walking Dead".... screw you.

You just turned "The Walking Dead" from a semi-plausible future into complete sci-fantasy.




Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, November 8, 2015 8:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I might have taken offense that nobody has anything to add to this post if it weren't for the fact that it's still on top and nobody has posted in this forum for over two days.

Well that and I don't know if Fireflyverse is Zombie Friendly from the start anyhow....



Nobody has an opinion on this????



Well... I did post that on a Friday.....

Maybe people will have time to post on Monday when they're avoiding work but still getting paid :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, November 8, 2015 9:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I did have the chance to watch all 6 episodes.

There is one character I respect the hell out of now. Victor Strand.

"The game has changed. We return to the old rules."

He then goes on to talk about how the people with frequent flyer miles won last round....

... and now they'll be the buffet.


He was wearing an expensive suit and even "sold" his expensive watch and cuff links for favors while he was in "prison". The way he talks, you might suspect that he's all show and the only thing he has going for him is the clothes on his back. In episode 6 though, he takes the survivors to his house on the water out west and it's nothing short of a modern age mansion you'd expect Johnny Depp to live in, complete with a yacht off the coast which is apparently his next destination.

Just who is Victor Strand?



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, November 9, 2015 8:57 AM

GWEK


Although I agree with your general assertions -- that FEAR THE WALKING DEAD isn't good and that KEVIN FROM WORK is -- I have a slightly different take (or at least different focus) on what went wrong with FTWD.

The lack of use of technology DOES bother me, but I don't find it as gutting as you indicate. The show is not set now, after all, but 5 or 6 years ago. That may not seem like a lot, but with something like this, it's a lifetime. For example, in 2009, selfies (as we know them now) barely existed and wouldn't gain widespread popularity for a few years.

Also important to note that FTWD's sin is nothing new in TV or movies. Perhaps because writers haven't caught up yet, or perhaps because it's just easier to tell stories without it, modern technology, especially social media, is often pushed to the side. Shows like KEVIN FROM WORK and MODERN FAMILY are the exception rather than the rule, and even shows that make use of a lot of high technology (eg, THE FLASH and ARROW) tend to so in the traditional "Star Trek communication" manner rather than making full use of modern technology.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that's not an issue, just that it's not one of the biggest ones. As you indicate, the characters are largely unengaging, and that's a HUGE problem. Even Strand, who stands out as interesting, seems largely contrived just to stand out.

Which leads to what I see as the biggest problem with the show:

Unlike WALKING DEAD, FTWD doesn't respect the intelligence of the audience. In so many ways. To me, the single biggest issue is that they seem to make the assumption that we have both seen and not seen WALKING DEAD. Many of the false starts and much of the "tension" plays on the fact that we're used to certain things from WALKING DEAD. Without the context of that show, a lot of the story doesn't hold together, or at least hold ironic tension. But, at the same time, the pacing and intensity is so slow and and so low that it cannot compete with something like WALKING DEAD (consider where both shows were at the end of one episode, two episodes, six episodes -- it's the difference of brilliance and mediocrity).

Ultimately, FTWD isn't terrible (it gets somewhat better by episode 6), but for me it falls into a rare category of "Things that I wish didn't exist because they make other stuff worse" (along with THE SHEPHERD'S TALE, which is so poorly told that it makes me wish I didn't know Book's secrets).

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Thursday, November 12, 2015 1:49 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Great reply there GWEK :)

I'm not saying that Kevin From Work is a GREAT show, but I do really enjoy it and it's something different than what I've ever seen. I wasn't saying that EVERYONE does selfies today, but even if this show took place 5 or 6 years ago, enough of the youth had at least a 1st to 3rd generation iPhone to take them with. It may have not been as prevalent back then, but even the show Chuck had an episode about "Sexting" back in those days....


The "sin" you speak about is real, but it's not that writers/directors haven't caught up yet. It's that certain writers/directors haven't caught up yet. The entire Walking Dead crew who should be cutting edge speak to the audience as if we're still living 10 or 20 or even 30 years ago. As I said before, that is perfectly copacetic in a post-Rick-coma world of the original show, but in a show like FoTWD that's supposed to show us the events leading up to the Zombie Apocolypse in the most "Progressive" arena of the world which is L.A...... well...... WTF man?



You really hit the nail on the head with the whole dichotomy of them assuming we both have and haven't seen the original show though. It's as if they expect the best of both worlds in their audience. Just who was this show geared for anyhow? Long time fans, or newcomers? In all 6 episodes, the answer to that question seems to flip-flop every minute or two.

The acting itself is as great as it could be for the most part. The "Mom" was the brothel owner on both Justified and Deadwood. The Barbershop Owner/ex-Interrigator was Bruce Willis's brains/conscious in Color of Night over 20 years ago. I didn't even recognize the daughter as the Very Empowered leader of the Grounders on The 100. Her turn as being a lesbian on that show was a lot more moving than anything she did on FoTWD. Just because she was a hot white chick dating a black guy they killed off after 2 episodes we're supposed to care about her?

The only white guy in the entire show so far is the junkie loser teenager.

Aside from the MAJOR technological flaws and outright BS, the only two characters from the first 4 episodes that would survive until season 2 or 3 of the original show are "Mom" and "Barbershop".

Honestly, I LOVE Strand as a character.

Chances are, he's just an eccentric self-made rich black guy that had nothing to do with the Zombie Apocolypse, but if anything positive is to come from this bullshit spinnoff, I'm hoping that we find out that he knows a lot more than he's ever willing to tell.

That's my bet, anyhow. Strand is going to be the single tie into the original show.

Somehow he knew that dead people turn into zombies YEARS before anybody on the original show. Maybe he just saw it while he was chained up in the makeshift prision, but I think he knew that long before any of those poor civvies surrounding him did. Probably before any of those low-level army type dudes did too.





But you're right about it ruining things. The Matrix was just about the Perfect movie, and it was ruined by the existance of the Matrix II and III.

So far, Fear of the Walking Dead has done nothing but taint the original with no benefits.

Unless they really make season 2 amazing, all they can do with it is continue to hurt and discredit anything we've seen from the original show.

Quote:

Originally posted by GWEK:
Although I agree with your general assertions -- that FEAR THE WALKING DEAD isn't good and that KEVIN FROM WORK is -- I have a slightly different take (or at least different focus) on what went wrong with FTWD.

The lack of use of technology DOES bother me, but I don't find it as gutting as you indicate. The show is not set now, after all, but 5 or 6 years ago. That may not seem like a lot, but with something like this, it's a lifetime. For example, in 2009, selfies (as we know them now) barely existed and wouldn't gain widespread popularity for a few years.

Also important to note that FTWD's sin is nothing new in TV or movies. Perhaps because writers haven't caught up yet, or perhaps because it's just easier to tell stories without it, modern technology, especially social media, is often pushed to the side. Shows like KEVIN FROM WORK and MODERN FAMILY are the exception rather than the rule, and even shows that make use of a lot of high technology (eg, THE FLASH and ARROW) tend to so in the traditional "Star Trek communication" manner rather than making full use of modern technology.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that's not an issue, just that it's not one of the biggest ones. As you indicate, the characters are largely unengaging, and that's a HUGE problem. Even Strand, who stands out as interesting, seems largely contrived just to stand out.

Which leads to what I see as the biggest problem with the show:

Unlike WALKING DEAD, FTWD doesn't respect the intelligence of the audience. In so many ways. To me, the single biggest issue is that they seem to make the assumption that we have both seen and not seen WALKING DEAD. Many of the false starts and much of the "tension" plays on the fact that we're used to certain things from WALKING DEAD. Without the context of that show, a lot of the story doesn't hold together, or at least hold ironic tension. But, at the same time, the pacing and intensity is so slow and and so low that it cannot compete with something like WALKING DEAD (consider where both shows were at the end of one episode, two episodes, six episodes -- it's the difference of brilliance and mediocrity).

Ultimately, FTWD isn't terrible (it gets somewhat better by episode 6), but for me it falls into a rare category of "Things that I wish didn't exist because they make other stuff worse" (along with THE SHEPHERD'S TALE, which is so poorly told that it makes me wish I didn't know Book's secrets).



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, November 12, 2015 8:10 AM

JONGSSTRAW


FTWD was lame. I wasted six hours of my life watching and waiting for a story I liked or a character I cared about. But that never happened. The stories were hopelessly aimless and contrived. The characters were very forgettable and uninspiring. I can't even remember any of their names.

OTOH, Season 6 of TWD has so far been an unrelenting adrenaline-pumping thrill ride.

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Thursday, November 12, 2015 12:52 PM

GWEK


The truly insane thing about this half-season of TWD is that I think it will all basically take place in a single day.

Although there were flashbacks, the first episode started in the morning. In the most recent episode, the sun has FINALLY set... but next week's episode looks to be an overlaps dealing with only three characters, and I suspect the week after will also be an overlap dealing with only 2-3 characters. That leaves just the mid-season finale to bring everything home, and I wouldn't be surprised it just covers the few hours leading up to dawn.

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Saturday, November 14, 2015 6:01 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by GWEK:
The truly insane thing about this half-season of TWD is that I think it will all basically take place in a single day.

Although there were flashbacks, the first episode started in the morning. In the most recent episode, the sun has FINALLY set... but next week's episode looks to be an overlaps dealing with only three characters, and I suspect the week after will also be an overlap dealing with only 2-3 characters. That leaves just the mid-season finale to bring everything home, and I wouldn't be surprised it just covers the few hours leading up to dawn.




Wow... that's pretty cool. I didn't even think of that since they've been bouncing us all over the place.

Really, I think it spans at least a few weeks since the end of the last season (and some flashbacks much longer before than that), but I think you might be right that the end of the season ends no later than the same day that the very beginning of the season started.



Quote:

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
FTWD was lame. I wasted six hours of my life watching and waiting for a story I liked or a character I cared about. But that never happened. The stories were hopelessly aimless and contrived. The characters were very forgettable and uninspiring. I can't even remember any of their names.

OTOH, Season 6 of TWD has so far been an unrelenting adrenaline-pumping thrill ride.



FTWD was lame because WAY too much happens in only 6 hours and the writers neglected so many technological reasons that this "beginning" of the outbreak is entirely implausible. The fact that we're supposed to just like these 1 Dimensional characters after only 6 hours is completely beside the point.

TWD's audience is too smart for that. They should have known better what demographic they are catering to.

In the end, FTWD has added nothing to the story so far and even discounted great things from the original series if you think about it too much.



The 5 things I learned from 6 hours of FTWD.

1. The only white guys worth talking about in L.A. in the face of the apocalypse are the worthless druggies who are an albatross to their families.
2. The white women in L.A. know this, that's why any of them that are desirable are not with white guys.
3. Even in the face of an extinction level event, we should in no way allow somebody who is trained in firearms teach our children how to properly handle them.
4. The military and/or government are mindless power-hungry fanatics who resort to a "Lord of the Flies" mentality just days in, and in retrospect are much scarier than any zombie outbreak.
5. Facebook and Twitter are new. Nobody ever heard of that shit in 2011.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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