General Zod

Bingo. Or the do the most dangerous or stupid thing because they want to rebel or because of some hormonal thing. It gets old.

Shazam

Well that and most children can't act.

Preterite

I doubt that any explanation would satisfy folks. We'd all be picking it apart like we do everything else about these shows.

For those of you who didn't like the slow pacing, beware that the cast and crew are on record as saying this isn't a zombie show, it's a family drama.

I love movies that show society crashing and burning during events like these - I guess I find the through far scarier than zombies - so I will probably give this show a couple more episodes to win me over.

It would be awesome if they used a different cast every season to show the ZA from different angles. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we're going to be "treated" to the on-going adventures of Off-Brand Johnny Depp and the Enablers for years to come.

Shazam

Family dramas don't have to be slow.

It seemed they made the pilot 90 mins just so they could show a ton of commercials. Trimmed to one hour it would've been fine. There were a lot of extended head shots, a cheap way of padding a show.

Koby

This actually wasn't bad for what it was trying to do. I enjoyed it after I got past the first 15 minutes of bad acting. Things seemed to get better, the acting didn't seem as bad, etc... and it ended the premiere at a nice spot I thought.

I guess those that disliked it just expected it to be something it never tried to be.

Abob Teff

As Shazaam said, just because it is a "family drama" doesn't mean it has to be slow. I would argue The Walking Dead isn't a zombie show either -- it is a show about society and human dynamics. I am OK with it not being balls-to-the-wall zombie action, but this still fell short.

This felt more at home right after The Fosters and before Pretty Little Liars. There actually was more zombie action than I expected for the first episode, so I don't have an issue there. The problem lies in failing to build this world so we can slowly tear it down. The decision to focus so narrowly on the family was a poor choice. Too much time was spent on the family drama with "the investigation" being the only building block (and a weak one at that). This was an ABCFamily channel version of a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys made-for-TV movie.

I'll agree with Preterite; I don't think THE explanation is a good idea. I like the concept of floating out numerous conspiracy theories and then focusing on the fall of society. The anthology approach is interesting. I know it is too early to say after one episode, but I cannot see us following this family beyond the middle of the 2nd season.

chowderhead

no AMC press release about the ratings yet so we may not get anything until tomorrow. I imagine since there is no press release that the ratings were only okay. It is the middle of summer though so ratings are going to be flat.

DJariya

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/24...g-dead-ratings

^^^Check that. Biggest cable TV series premiere ever!! 10.3M viewers and 6.3 in the demos.

No need to Fear cancellation.

chowderhead

I was wrong but they could have gotten the release out sooner. FTWD is a hit but let's see where things go.

Draven

Yeah, no excitement at all.

Orbi-Wan Techno

For me, it was an okay time-killer, then the last 5 minutes almost made up for the rest of the show.

OldBoy

thought it was blah. had it on in the background after putting some effort in the beginning...

Patrick_N

What a waste of time. What was the target audience for this episode? People who never watched ANYTHING zombie related? Bah.

Fail. Would not buy.

Draven

My wife loves zombie stuff. She's seen every major zombie movie and even watches the crappy ones on Netflix and she liked it just fine

Preterite

No, that's the defense for Agents of SHIELD.

I would argue that this is the case with all good zombie media. The best zombie media are akin to disaster flicks in that they examine humanity during a crisis or after society has been kicked down (even if temporarily). It's when filmmakers attempt a monster movie that we end up with stuff like the Day of the Dead remake and Z Nation.

I am really hoping they go with an anthology format. There's a lot of potential there - first-responders, hospital staffers, prison guards and inmates, politicos trying to manage the crisis.

Because otherwise, the initial crisis will resolve by the end of the first season, leaving the cast where Rick Grimes was at the beginning of the parent program and sticking us with TWD: Los Angeles. And so far, there hasn't been anyone on the show I'd be interested in following down that path.

flashburn

I actually liked it. I liked the slower pace and it felt pretty different compared to TWD. I also liked Cliff Curtis and Kim Dickens. It's cool seeing the beginning of a zombie apocalypse that hopefully they will take the time with the idea of infrastructure failing and seeing how things play out in more detail than we would get from a movie.

General Zod

Now that they are along the California coast I can say what I always said about Walking Dead... Stock up a boat full of food and head to an island. Catalina sounds perfect.

bryce0lynch

I liked one part of it: how the disease shows up in a marginalized segment of the population. Because of that it gets a foothold due the "in the shadows" aspect of the marginalized segment and in the "no one listens to them"/"everyone who deals with them is jaded."

darkdaze73

I see Scott dropped his comic book Archie look for the cave man look. And yeah, he does seem like an odd man. I usually skip The Talking Dead when he is on as he never adds anything to the show either and his rambling tends to put me to sleep.

As far as FTWD, I thought it was ok. It was about what I expected it to be; slow and drawn out. I did not expect a lot of zombie action and was kinda surprised we got to see one so early into the show. I will stick with it at least through this season just to see where it goes.

TGM

Deftones

that's fine and dandy, but if everyone is infected, as soon as someone dies, you have to be vigilant to off them.

Neil M.

The preview for the rest of the season looked pretty decent. I thought this was a really bad start but I'll stick with it for the six episodes based on the preview.

MLBFan24

I enjoyed the pilot. Didn't expect many zombies, so I wasn't disappointed. Character development was good.

The dad's son is reluctant to spend time with his father, but once that apocalypse hits, the only people you can trust are friends and family. His attitude will flip 180 degrees in seconds.

PhantomStranger

A horribly slow pilot with far too much character development. The never-ending parade of commercials and promos remind me why DVRs are an absolute necessity.

I get the feeling the father won't make it past season one. AMC will want Fear the Walking Dead as a show driven by its female lead since The Walking Dead is really driven by two male leads.

I think this pilot could be called "When AMC finally cooked its golden goose." It will be interesting to see how much the viewership numbers decline for episode two.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, I can't wait to see those soldiers get eaten alive.