Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 discussion and spoilers.

[hux]

I'm a girl. I need a dreamy boy to talk to because of all my girl emotions that make my brain go fuzzy.

It seems a little incongruent that people have turned into kill-happy pirates this quickly. They seem to be channeling the gritty, Walking Dead intensity but without much justification given the early outbreak premise.

I suspect they'll occasionally forget that it's the early days of the apocalypse and have some of these characters behave as though it's year five. We already saw Travis go from "we need to help people" to "yeah, fuck those guys on the raft" so I'm fully expecting more of this.

The trailer for next week's show even has Victor saying "the dead aren't the threat, its people that are." It took Rick and company months to get to that philosophy.

I can live without all the slow-motion, naval gazing too quite frankly.

 

[Trekker4747]

I suspect they'll occasionally forget that it's the early days of the apocalypse and have some of these characters behave as though it's year five. We already saw Travis go from "we need to help people" to "yeah, fuck those guys on the raft" so I'm fully expecting more of this.

I don't live in an apocalyptic wasteland and I would have made the same decision as Travis and Strand. It wouldn't have been easy, but I would have made it. Mom was nuts. What could they do for those 20+ people on their yacht? There's not enough room for them, not enough supplies, and no way to control them or keep them "in line" given the state of the world at this point. It's not like, "Okay, once we get to where we are going you can get off and let the authorities know what happened. And everyone keep in line or we'll report you to the police when we land!"

None of that exists anymore, where they are going may not even be safe if LA is any indication. There's the mentality of "we need to help these people" and then there's the mentality of "we *can't* help those people as we don't have the resources to do it."

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I'm a girl. I need a dreamy boy to talk to because of all my girl emotions that make my brain go fuzzy.

You nailed it. Additionally, in the FTWD timeline, not much time has passed, so Alicia should still be dealing with losing the love of her life, yet now she's playing partyline on the boat?

It seems a little incongruent that people have turned into kill-happy pirates this quickly. They seem to be channeling the gritty, Walking Dead intensity but without much justification given the early outbreak premise.

I can buy that; as mentioned earlier, in season one, looting and riots were happening early, and as in real life disasters, there will always be predators and opportunists instantly going into overdrive. Think of Woodbury--with a gang of murderers running the town--did not happen overnight; that kind of build up had much stealing and killing to thank for its longstanding stability (at the point Andrea & Michonne were introduced to it).

The trailer for next week's show even has Victor saying "the dead aren't the threat, its people that are." It took Rick and company months to get to that philosophy.

FTWD seems to be the show that will be more preachy than its parent series, and I think that was the point. The soapbox would not be tolerated being shoved into too many WD episodes, so FTWD will take that direction--and borrowing Romero's eternal zombie movie comment that the living is the true threat, more than the zombies.

 

[davejames]

I'm a girl. I need a dreamy boy to talk to because of all my girl emotions that make my brain go fuzzy.

Or maybe, you know, in this bleak and horrible new world she finds herself in, she just wanted to form a connection with another human being? Who sounded like a genuinely good guy who was in trouble?

Whatever you may think of the writing, I think the actors are all bringing a lot more dimension and complexity to their roles than people want to give them credit for.

 

[Trekker4747]

Or maybe, you know, in this bleak and horrible new world she finds herself in, she just wanted to form a connection with another human being? Who sounded like a genuinely good guy who was in trouble?

Whatever you may think of the writing, I think the actors are all bringing a lot more dimension and complexity to their roles than people want to give them credit for.

Agreed, it very much seems TREK_GOD hux hux pretty much just want to hate for the sake of hating. Don't like the show, or the parent show, fine. Whatever. But then why are you watching it?

But it's something else to not understand the situation characters are in, who they are, or *what* they are. Alicia is a teenage girl who's entire world has just crumbled around her. She's a teenage girl dealing with hormones and emotions and experiences she can barely understand and doesn't know how to cope with them. She's not an adult who can quickly, and coldly, cut off her connection to the outside world and trusting people -hence her optimism in wanting to save the people on the other boat- she's still naive to things. So it makes a fair amount of sense she'd connect with and trust a man on the radio who seemed on the up and up, especially when the adults on the boat are all trying to deal with the situation, her brother is hardly a reliable shoulder to lean on and her would-be step-brother is sort of an asshat and has his own demons right now.

She also has *no* reason to believe that people she talks to over the radio are not to be trusted because the world has collapsed into anarchy and chaos.

Sometimes I don't think the problem with TV shows these days are the writers but the viewers.

 

[davejames]

Maybe we're just not as cynical and pessimistic as we should be or something.

 

[Trekker4747]

Maybe we're just not as cynical and pessimistic as we should be or something.

I dunno, I'm a pretty pessimistic person, but I'm "logically" pessimistic? I dunno, the things the characters do/say, in context, make sense and I don't feel the need to after every episode to tear it up and criticize all of the characters.

I get the concept of hate-watching, but I've only hate-watched shows for a few episodes before tiring of it. Seems like some here are hate-watching the show week-after-week and are reveling in tearing it up from end to end without logic or reason.

 

[shapeshifter]

Do zombies operate according to a different set of rules in LA?

They were all surfers.

I wonder why Mom was so pissed off that they didn't take on the people in the lifeboat?

Fake empathy.

I'm with LOB. All I could think about was a giant zombie Jaws swamping the yacht, swallowing the whole group in one bite.

I just don't get how this series can be so bad, nor how I continue to believe next week will be any better. I suppose hope does spring eternal.

 

[Trekker4747]

I dunno, I don't find the series bad. It's lower key than the original, sure, but I think it has a certain "interesting" aspect to it in the different take it's going; so far being a bit more mundane in we're seeing slightly more average characters from a much more urban setting dealing with these things as opposed to the characters in TWD:TOS.

I think there's potential here and I think being on the sea has an interesting aspect to it, but, yeah, probably not one they'll take full advantage of.

 

[Arrrrgggh]

I just think the writers have assumed the world has grown completely evil way too quickly. There hasn't been any progression towards it; it just... happened. A couple days after L.A. is lost, and there's already predatorial pirates (or just ship-destroying psychopaths; there really was no reason for a bunch of pirates to obliterate that boat) with a fully detailed scheme for preying on survivors in place. It's just too much too soon. This is something that should have waited at least a few months and preferably at least a year or two. You know, when it would actually be believable that people were running out of supplies and getting desperate.

 

[davejames]

As annoying as these characters may be at times, I still find the actors interesting and believable enough to keep watching.

Although as much as I love slow burn storytelling, I think the show probably could use some more action and a few more colorful and badass characters.

 

[DarthTom]

I just think the writers have assumed the world has grown completely evil way too quickly. There hasn't been any progression towards it; it just... happened. .

All one has to do is look at the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how fast society - in real life - disintegrated in anarchy for how this could happen. In fact and if you recall - rapes, looting [even by the police ], and even murder was occurring en mass in New Orleans after the disaster. If anything, the quickness in which the world turns evil is under estimated IMO with a natural disaster on the scale of the ZA.

Regarding the boat - I'd think they'd have a lot of options for fuel. Diesel fuel - which the boat likely uses - would be plentiful as few remaining vehicles would be using the existing supply .

I liked the episode but as some others have said some of the manufactured drama where characters make asinine choices stretches one's ability for suspended disbelief.

Agreed - Strand is the most interesting character currently

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

davejames, you already admit you find the characters annoying. At least you--instead of some board members --do not put on blinders, or pretend its all good....sort of like the TREK BBS version of Chris Hardwick.

Or maybe, you know, in this bleak and horrible new world she finds herself in, she just wanted to form a connection with another human being? Who sounded like a genuinely good guy who was in trouble?

Or, you are ignoring that others in this thread have spotted that as a gimmick to create false conflict. She's not alone, and in the timeline, just lost the love of her life. At that point, she should not be trying to make cutesy small talk, but concentrate on how she can help her family (remember them?) survive.

Whatever you may think of the writing, I think the actors are all bringing a lot more dimension and complexity to their roles than people want to give them credit for.

Yeah--Colman Domingo (Strand); he's the only character written to act in a realistic sense, does not make overnight changes into some warrior (Travis) or acts with authority she does not have (Madison).

 

[hux]

Agreed, it very much seems TREK_GOD hux hux pretty much just want to hate for the sake of hating. Don't like the show, or the parent show, fine. Whatever. But then why are you watching it?

More of this passive-aggressive shit. Why are you watching if you hate it so much? Oh I don't know, why do you beat your wife so much?

And why do you assume that criticism of a show is HATE!!!! Seriously, just fuck off. Its a discussion forum. I will discuss it however the fuck I like. If you don't like what I say... then why do you read it? Why not just stop reading it?

Anyway, it was an okay episode but for the occasional terrible writing.

 

[Trekker4747]

And why do you assume that criticism of a show is HATE!!!!

Easy assumption to make when all I see is negative criticism and jumping to ultimate conclusions on the motivations of characters, the direction of the plot, or the competency of the writers.

 

[hux]

I mocked the teen girl because it was annoyingly obvious what they doing there and I questioned the idea that people would instantly resort to mad-as-shit pirate violence so early into the outbreak (that boat they found wasn't just attacked... the people were absolutely slaughtered).

Both perfectly valid criticisms.

I found season one to be painful to watch but I'm willing to let that slide and give season two the benefit of the doubt but I definitely get the impression that they're rushing certain things.

 

[Trekker4747]

I do agree people resorted to piracy pretty quickly, but hasn't the world been dealing with this for a few months now? There was a time jump in the middle of the first season; so maybe while the governments were busy trying to deal with the outbreak certain other areas were ignored and people took advantage of the lax patrolling and security.

Still, it does seem very, very early for this level of slaughtering piracy.

But, do we know for sure it was pirates? Seems like an assumption being made from Strand's reactions and what was on the SONAR/RADAR. For all we know the government destroyed the boat in the name of trying to contain the outbreak the same way they nap'd the cities and started slaughtering civilians.

 

[sojourner]

but hasn't the world been dealing with this for a few months now?

It's only been about 3 weeks in-universe. The time jump last season was specifically stated to be 9 days and this episode opens the same day as the previous season finally ended.

 

[Trekker4747]

Okay, wasn't sure what the jump was. The point made above about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina makes sense, though. Things collapsed quickly there.

 

[hux]

Most people at this early stage would surely assume that whatever this infection/outbreak is, it will ultimately (hopefully) be dealt with and cured. Its unlikely that they'd be thinking... "It's definitely the end of the world so let's start killing people."

Add to that, the fact that they're also at sea and therefore, pretty damn safe and this makes the idea that they would elect to abandon civilisation and become bad-ass pirate muderers, a little hard to swallow.

I'm willing to suspend disbelief but its definitely a legitimate criticism.