I 1,000% agree with all of this. S3 was SO good not just for all you mentioned, but because even though we're watching a show about zombies, that season had real-world, tangible conflict that we could relate to: the conflict between the Ottos and the Native Americans over disputed land, the racism that didn't disappear in the apocalypse, the fight for water during a drought. These are all issues that are realistic. Now, we get nonsensical stories like Strand marching around in that dumb dictator garb, people who inexplicably walk around a nuclear wasteland taking off and putting on masks at will, a fight over a tower in the middle of this wasteland when all these people could just... you know... leave for somewhere else.
My only hope for sticking it out with this s**tshow that FTWD has become is that seasons 7-8 of the original TWD were so truly terrible, and then a new showrunner came in for seasons 9-10 and completely turned that around and back into an enjoyable, watchable show that had some of the best episodes in its run. One can only hope TPTB wake up and make the same changes at Fear.
What ransom do Chambliss and Goldberg seem to have over the bigwigs at AMC that they haven't been canned yet??
Also, so many loose threads that weren't tied up at the end of season 3: I really wanted to see what happened to Proctor John and his crew. Where did Taqa and Crazy Dog go after sniping them at the dam? Whatever happened to that woman Alicia befriended, Diana, who got taken hostage? All we got was that crazy time jump to the stadium with a few flimsy flashbacks that didn't explain anything.
The exiting showrunners of season 3 really did set up for the new guys to take the ball and run with some great story, and they just blew it.
Yep, they had this great open-ended setup with some cool stories to follow and the new guys were like "nah let's just completely throw everything away and kill off the main characters and start a totally different show, what could go wrong?"
I had to skip the article because I haven’t seen the show yet. My question: is it worth starting to watch it? I liked TWD first season, listlessly stuck around until Season Blah, and gave up. Overall I didn’t really like it that much (though I liked enough to stick with it for a few years, obviously).
Is Fear so much better that I should give it a shot?
If you didn't really care for TWD in the early days I doubt you'll care for FTWD. I do think the first three seasons are good (S3 is very good, first two are just okay and at times not so much). Unless you have a real craving for zombies I wouldn't bother. Even then, go watch Kingdom!
It's annoying that they keep dumbing down these complex, interesting shows like FTWD. Don't even get me started on what the showrunner did to Killing Eve this season.
Shows that are great in their first few seasons and turn into what we have now with FTWD seem to make the same mistake- they start with a small group of characters who all interact with each other, develop real relationships, and have enough screen time that the viewer gets to know them and care what happens to them. Dialouge is authentic, and suspense is amped up because anything can happen at any moment (when Madison shot that Otto kid in the head, for instance, or Nick's death). Then, for some reason, they feel the need to add dozens of pointless new characters at the start of each season (MoMo and Sarah, why are you here???) who eat up screen time and the people we actually care about, who have a whole storyline built around them, are reduced to a few minutes here and there.
Now I wanna go back and rewatch FTWD seasons 1-3! Maybe it'll erase the rest of the mess from memory, hahaha Thanks for that nice trip down memory lane!!
I 1,000% agree with all of this. S3 was SO good not just for all you mentioned, but because even though we're watching a show about zombies, that season had real-world, tangible conflict that we could relate to: the conflict between the Ottos and the Native Americans over disputed land, the racism that didn't disappear in the apocalypse, the fight for water during a drought. These are all issues that are realistic. Now, we get nonsensical stories like Strand marching around in that dumb dictator garb, people who inexplicably walk around a nuclear wasteland taking off and putting on masks at will, a fight over a tower in the middle of this wasteland when all these people could just... you know... leave for somewhere else.
My only hope for sticking it out with this s**tshow that FTWD has become is that seasons 7-8 of the original TWD were so truly terrible, and then a new showrunner came in for seasons 9-10 and completely turned that around and back into an enjoyable, watchable show that had some of the best episodes in its run. One can only hope TPTB wake up and make the same changes at Fear.
What ransom do Chambliss and Goldberg seem to have over the bigwigs at AMC that they haven't been canned yet??
That last question is the big one for me. How can they keep pulling in a paycheck for this crap? Are there no consequences?
Also, so many loose threads that weren't tied up at the end of season 3: I really wanted to see what happened to Proctor John and his crew. Where did Taqa and Crazy Dog go after sniping them at the dam? Whatever happened to that woman Alicia befriended, Diana, who got taken hostage? All we got was that crazy time jump to the stadium with a few flimsy flashbacks that didn't explain anything.
The exiting showrunners of season 3 really did set up for the new guys to take the ball and run with some great story, and they just blew it.
Yep, they had this great open-ended setup with some cool stories to follow and the new guys were like "nah let's just completely throw everything away and kill off the main characters and start a totally different show, what could go wrong?"
I had to skip the article because I haven’t seen the show yet. My question: is it worth starting to watch it? I liked TWD first season, listlessly stuck around until Season Blah, and gave up. Overall I didn’t really like it that much (though I liked enough to stick with it for a few years, obviously).
Is Fear so much better that I should give it a shot?
If you didn't really care for TWD in the early days I doubt you'll care for FTWD. I do think the first three seasons are good (S3 is very good, first two are just okay and at times not so much). Unless you have a real craving for zombies I wouldn't bother. Even then, go watch Kingdom!
Ahhhh the good old days of FWD...I miss those days. Everything written in your article was spot on .
It's annoying that they keep dumbing down these complex, interesting shows like FTWD. Don't even get me started on what the showrunner did to Killing Eve this season.
Shows that are great in their first few seasons and turn into what we have now with FTWD seem to make the same mistake- they start with a small group of characters who all interact with each other, develop real relationships, and have enough screen time that the viewer gets to know them and care what happens to them. Dialouge is authentic, and suspense is amped up because anything can happen at any moment (when Madison shot that Otto kid in the head, for instance, or Nick's death). Then, for some reason, they feel the need to add dozens of pointless new characters at the start of each season (MoMo and Sarah, why are you here???) who eat up screen time and the people we actually care about, who have a whole storyline built around them, are reduced to a few minutes here and there.
Now I wanna go back and rewatch FTWD seasons 1-3! Maybe it'll erase the rest of the mess from memory, hahaha Thanks for that nice trip down memory lane!!