Comments on: First Impressions: Fear the Walking Dead http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/08/28/first-impressions-fear-the-walking-dead/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Amanda Keeler http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/08/28/first-impressions-fear-the-walking-dead/comment-page-1/#comment-442992 Tue, 01 Sep 2015 18:31:16 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=28015#comment-442992 Thanks for the comment. (I also have not yet watched the second episode). One thing the first episode of FTWD did well was the suspenseful pacing while also introducing this new landscape.

You make a very interesting point–how will this new show feel different than TWD, especially after the initial frenzy/outbreak passes and the show settles into the new normal for these characters? Or maybe it doesn’t want to feel different. The original has been so successful–maybe people want this one to be nearly identical, different only in location and time frame.

I’m looking forward to seeing this narrative unfold in the coming weeks, and the ways it does and does not emulate TWD.

]]> By: Mary Beth Haralovich http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2015/08/28/first-impressions-fear-the-walking-dead/comment-page-1/#comment-442991 Tue, 01 Sep 2015 15:55:09 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=28015#comment-442991 Thanks for laying out the interesting questions that this pre-quel invites. I wonder how FTWD will sustain a season because the turn into the zombie apocalypse would happen very quickly. Surely, FTWD can quickly become TWD.

I enjoyed the slow pace of the first episode (haven’t seen the second yet) and the wry use of conventions that played on TWD knowledge — the scenes of a character walking through a dark space had me at the edge of my seat and amused at the same time; the inter-textual winks of chaos theory and how to build a fire; the traffic jam at the off-ramp, crowded with cars and emergency vehicles. Eerie and unsettling.

The splintered and incoherent family of FTWD echoes the diverse family that is to come on TWD. The zombie apocalypse makes the family stronger and more insular.

Thanks for starting this thread.

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