FEAR THE WALKING DEAD gets fresh writing, new meat and Lennie James

[PussyGalore]

Madison in FTWD was always a complete mystery to me. I am still surprised they did not have her telling her children to put on sweaters before going out (season1). The whole show is a complete waste. Here it is at the end, and they accomplished exactly NOTHING.

The writers are terrible. They had/have no idea where they're going with the story. They never did. We saw this in the first season. There was so much potential for making a great story in a whole new setting but it's like the writers went out of their way to botch the whole thing from the start. They gave us pathetic, unappealing main characters that were impossible to root for. They also failed to show the collapse of Los Angeles, and the world in general. They were ungodly cheap with the filming budget despite being a spinoff of the network (and cable) leading show, so obviously there was money there. The story had absolutely no impetus or movement despite occasional moments of "action". As you said, they accomplished absolutely nothing.

The producers of this crap are nothing but cynical hacks. They ignored the fact that the show was a turd for as long as they could and now they're scrambling to save it. This gambit won't work. Viewers aren't that dumb. When has killing off the entire original cast of a show ever worked?

 

[YJ02]

This gambit won't work. Viewers aren't that dumb. When has killing off the entire original cast of a show ever worked?

yes to all about the version 1.0 of ftwd!!

but, the "entire original cast" has not been killed off

Luciana, Victor and Alicia were part of the original cast and are still in the show as of the mid season finale

While this show and TWD are FAR from my favorite shows, I do watch an ep here or there just to see what is going on and only after I have caught up with watching other shows, pruning the tomatoes, weeding the gardens, dead heading the flowers and completed my patchwork knitting and crocheting projects I did NOT though watch any ep from last season when they were in arizona or So Cal OR wherever the hell they were.

The show, as it exists now, is far more watchable then before. Yes, to me at least, Lennie James is a big part of that. The other new cast members are no where near as irritating as Nick or Madison or Madison's whimp and a half boyfriend.

So they did have an extremely low standard to come up from, this 'in flight' reboot is an improvement.

 

[Overmind One]

yes to all about the version 1.0 of ftwd!!

but, the "entire original cast" has not been killed off

Luciana, Victor and Alicia were part of the original cast and are still in the show as of the mid season finale

While this show and TWD are FAR from my favorite shows, I do watch an ep here or there just to see what is going on and only after I have caught up with watching other shows, pruning the tomatoes, weeding the gardens, dead heading the flowers and completed my patchwork knitting and crocheting projects I did NOT though watch any ep from last season when they were in arizona or So Cal OR wherever the hell they were.

The show, as it exists now, is far more watchable then before. Yes, to me at least, Lennie James is a big part of that. The other new cast members are no where near as irritating as Nick or Madison or Madison's whimp and a half boyfriend.

So they did have an extremely low standard to come up from, this 'in flight' reboot is an improvement.

Okay fine, but you do realize the show is a soap opera, right? That is exactly what it is and the bolded things are exactly why soap operas have endured literally for decades. You only have to watch when you want. Its a pretty good business model, offering less expensive advertising slots than the "prime time" shows. Then again, "prime time" is not bringing in the big bucks, but rather spending them. Why not simply expand the soap model into the evening? This is why McDonalds and other fast food chains are offering 24 hour breakfast. As far as this show goes, enough people are watching it and it is DIRT CHEAP to make. Aired in prime time, it offers cheap advertising slots and a guaranteed audience which might just last for 10 more years. 2 soap operas have been running for at least 50 years:

General Hospital
Days of Our Lives

These numbers used to be exponentially larger in past decades. But even today they best the numbers of mega duds like Star Trek Discovery and Stargate Universe did.

They have been running so long, I remember my mother watching them when I was a small child. So, if you like soap operas, then there is always going to be something to see. Unexpected twists and shadowy new characters coming in and out o the story. The Walking Dead and anything spun off it is a soap. Just sayin!

 

[YJ02]

Okay fine, but you do realize the show is a soap opera, right? That is exactly what it is and the bolded things are exactly why soap operas have endured literally for decades. You only have to watch when you want. Its a pretty good business model, offering less expensive advertising slots than the "prime time" shows. Then again, "prime time" is not bringing in the big bucks, but rather spending them. Why not simply expand the soap model into the evening? This is why McDonalds and other fast food chains are offering 24 hour breakfast. As far as this show goes, enough people are watching it and it is DIRT CHEAP to make. Aired in prime time, it offers cheap advertising slots and a guaranteed audience which might just last for 10 more years. 2 soap operas have been running for at least 50 years:

General Hospital
Days of Our Lives

These numbers used to be exponentially larger in past decades. But even today they best the numbers of mega duds like Star Trek Discovery and Stargate Universe did.

View attachment 34173

They have been running so long, I remember my mother watching them when I was a small child. So, if youy like soap operas, then there is always going to be something to see. Unexpected twists and shadowy new characters coming in and out o the story. The Walking Dead and anything spun off it is a soap. Just sayin!

simply stating that:

not all the original cast has been killed off

and

the show is better then it was, which was a very low standard


pretty much EVERYTHING made today is fairly 'soapish' IMO

 

[Joelist]

I missed that three of the lesser characters survive - that’s what happens when I don’t watch a show and pretty much have to use the internet for info on it.

 

[PussyGalore]

TWD and FTWD are not about zombies. The zombies are window dressing used to lure viewers in to watch poorly written and poorly produced melodrama. It's a bait and switch tactic that most people have figured out by now hence the dropping ratings. I, for one, will be happy when this gimmick of disguising soap operas as scifi or horror comes to an end.

 

[Overmind One]

simply stating that:

not all the original cast has been killed off

and

the show is better then it was, which was a very low standard


pretty much EVERYTHING made today is fairly 'soapish' IMO

TWD and FTWD are not about zombies. The zombies are window dressing used to lure viewers in to watch poorly written and poorly produced melodrama. It's a bait and switch tactic that most people have figured out by now hence the dropping ratings. I, for one, will be happy when this gimmick of disguising soap operas as scifi or horror comes to an end.

I remember when All My Children started an arc about an alien abduction, right during the UFO flap in the 1970s. Soaps change the window dressings as necessary, and they do not have to explain why. TWD and FTWD will never explain perpetual zombies or logic defying non-rotting skin or why there was a zombie bear in Season 2 but no other zombie animals.

 

[YJ02]

I missed that three of the lesser characters survive - that’s what happens when I don’t watch a show and pretty much have to use the internet for info on it.

well, one does only have to watch 1 ep of this show, or TWD, and be caught up on the drama
------------------------------------------------------------
related- i am a bit amazed at the nature of the fandom of these shows. tell them that one just needs to watch the 1st and last ep of each season and know all that is needed and they will fight it tooth and nail

1st- amazed that there are enough ppl to be relevant as a 'fanbase'
2nd-the bizarre way in which they internalize everything that happens to the characters in these shows

 

[YJ02]

a zombie bear in Season 2

no, it was Sasquatch...more human then animal,so.....

 

[YJ02]

are not about zombies.

well duh silly. they are about Walkers!

 

[YJ02]

yes, the absence of the use of the word "zombie" is another item the 'fanbase' uses to claim the superiority of the shows!

cause Zombies are so 1980's


but really, how pretentious and disconnected? the world of the TWD is our world where the term zombies is widely known and used..there is simply no logical nor believable reason for the term to not ever be used in the shows

 

[YJ02]

i can't quite totally define why, but I am going to put myself out on a dead tree's limb here --- this show has become more watchable

yes, killing off Nick's wanna be step dad (Mr useless human wasteoid not deserving off surviving an apocalypse) and his homicidal son, then cry baby Nick and his Mom were excellent decisions!

Bringing in Lennie Bruce (Morgan) from TWD was another great decision (Lennie Bruce imo is a very under appreciated actor)

but this season they have been telling a very much stripped down story that focuses on a much smaller group of characters than TWD ever did. the show's plot seems to have a purpose that is much more then say a bunch of sad sacks of shit from Georgia wandering around killing every living human they meet and screwing up every place they came to.

we now have a potential agent for an end game for both shows revealed in its infancy. the 'helicopter people'/CRM from TWD, never seen but only heard in that show, now have a face and a portion of their motivations revealed through FTWD

like I said, cant define it to one, non subjective point, but the show is (and always was imo) better than TWD and now after being re-tooled, and,so far, a focused plot line, one deserving a slot on your binge list (maybe way down on it, but hey)

 

[Joelist]

They did after all exterminate most of the original cast and brought in Lennie James (and now Austin Amelio) to in essence make a new core group that they could rewrite the show around - seasons 4 and now 5 have been under new show runners who junked almost all of the original material.

 

[Overmind One]

i can't quite totally define why, but I am going to put myself out on a dead tree's limb here --- this show has become more watchable

yes, killing off Nick's wanna be step dad (Mr useless human wasteoid not deserving off surviving an apocalypse) and his homicidal son, then cry baby Nick and his Mom were excellent decisions!

Bringing in Lennie Bruce (Morgan) from TWD was another great decision (Lennie Bruce imo is a very under appreciated actor)

but this season they have been telling a very much stripped down story that focuses on a much smaller group of characters than TWD ever did. the show's plot seems to have a purpose that is much more then say a bunch of sad sacks of shit from Georgia wandering around killing every living human they meet and screwing up every place they came to.

we now have a potential agent for an end game for both shows revealed in its infancy. the 'helicopter people'/CRM from TWD, never seen but only heard in that show, now have a face and a portion of their motivations revealed through FTWD

like I said, cant define it to one, non subjective point, but the show is (and always was imo) better than TWD and now after being re-tooled, and,so far, a focused plot line, one deserving a slot on your binge list (maybe way down on it, but hey)

They did after all exterminate most of the original cast and brought in Lennie James (and now Austin Amelio) to in essence make a new core group that they could rewrite the show around - seasons 4 and now 5 have been under new show runners who junked almost all of the original material.

Wait, so this show is still running? I thought it was dead long ago! Is TWD still running too?

 

[YJ02]

Wait, so this show is still running? I thought it was dead long ago! Is TWD still running too?

yes, TWD is still on

granted it is slightly more watchable without Rick and Coral, but its huge cast and just doom and gloominess (too much even for a apocalyptic..or no, the wrong kind. interpersonal doom and gloom) just make it forever dumb

last season i watch the last episode then watched the first just for shits and giggles (or probably cause there was nothing else to)watch


FTWD --as I stated in the opening of this thread, has cleaned house. not sure about the show runner side. though i'd think that with this many changes then they have changed up TPTB's as well

the only one left from the original family from s1 is the Alicia character played by Alicia Carey Debnam. her brother Nick their Mom and the Mom's half assed boyfriend and his son are all gone

the only other original character is Strand

the main characters of the plot has shifted as well (because the original ones are dead) they are Morgan from TWD (the story of how he got there (texas) was done fairly well) and a female journalist named Al.

i am not saying to watch it, just that it is watchable

 

[Overmind One]

yes, TWD is still on

granted it is slightly more watchable without Rick and Coral, but its huge cast and just doom and gloominess (too much even for a apocalyptic..or no, the wrong kind. interpersonal doom and gloom) just make it forever dumb

last season i watch the last episode then watched the first just for shits and giggles (or probably cause there was nothing else to)watch


FTWD --as I stated in the opening of this thread, has cleaned house. not sure about the show runner side. though i'd think that with this many changes then they have changed up TPTB's as well

the only one left from the original family from s1 is the Alicia character played by Alicia Carey Debnam. her brother Nick their Mom and the Mom's half assed boyfriend and his son are all gone

the only other original character is Strand

the main characters of the plot has shifted as well (because the original ones are dead) they are Morgan from TWD (the story of how he got there (texas) was done fairly well) and a female journalist named Al.

i am not saying to watch it, just that it is watchable

I left off after The half-ass Mom's boyfriend and her son were gone, and it was Strand and Mom and the remaining ones at some convent on an island. They fed the matriarch of the convent to the zeds, and Nick left to hang out with the zombies like he was one of them or something. I stopped watching. TWD I haven't watched since before Lori was killed.

 

[YJ02]

I left off after The half-ass Mom's boyfriend and her son were gone, and it was Strand and Mom and the remaining ones at some convent on an island. They fed the matriarch of the convent to the zeds, and Nick left to hang out with the zombies like he was one of them or something. I stopped watching. TWD I haven't watched since before Lori was killed.

ftwd now, is essentially a different show from its first 3 seasons (4?). whenever it was when they brought in Lennie James (Morgan)

ftwd is also about 7 yrs behind the current time in TWD. i am guessing that the ending to both shows will come through ftwd with some type of return to virginia by Morgan and his group..especially after we see his ppl (well one of them so far) have made such close contact with a member of CRM. a sign of things to come?

whatever, really doesn't matter to me, like i said, i am only saying the show is now tolerable and watchable and light years beyond TWD in terms of watchability and story line

 

[YJ02]

I left off after The half-ass Mom's boyfriend and her son were gone, and it was Strand and Mom and the remaining ones at some convent on an island. They fed the matriarch of the convent to the zeds, and Nick left to hang out with the zombies like he was one of them or something. I stopped watching. TWD I haven't watched since before Lori was killed.

yes, they had some way bizarro story lines back then. so far, i have seen nothing like that in the "new and improved" version, it is far more straight forward