Fear TWD | Season 4 | Episode 1| What's Your Story?[AMC] [SPOILERS]

NUTZZ

Fear The Walking Dead - Season 4

Episode 1 - "What's Your Story?"

Airdate- April 15th on AMC at 10:10PM | April 23rd on AMC UK at 9PM

A lone traveler's wearying journey is interrupted by new acquaintances, some who become friend, others who become foe.

PROMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWy-xc7PeWQ

NUTZZ

What You Need To Know About Fear the Walking Dead For Season 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_NnGoKgxos

TerrorFirmer

7

Nice. Didn't realise it was back.

Hopefully given that the finale of TWD will inevitably be a total dud, I can hopefully look forward to a level of redemption in FTWD.

Not mad about this Dwight crossover though. Does anyone really care? The showrunners of TWD have made horrific miscalculations in terms of character development and overestimating audiences reception to a huge number of those same characters in recent seasons.

At least the characters in FTWD are pretty well developed and they're not afraid to kill them off either, and when that does happen, there's a least a good sense of gravity to it.

The start of the last season of TWD with all the dramatic over the top slo-mo, heavy focus on and apparent heart-wrenching loss of certain vague characters, and I was just scratching my head like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMw1GmJzF6A

bazz26

The first episode of FTWD Season 4 airs straight after the Season 8 finale of TWD to facilitate the crossover between the two show.

JenovaProject

Isnt it on American telly tonight at 2am??
Is it on Fox after TWD tomorrow?

w/s/p/c/

JenovaProject wrote: »

Isnt it on American telly tonight at 2am??
Is it on Fox after TWD tomorrow?

Fox won't be airing this.  I think its normally shown on the British AMC channel that's only available through Sky?  So you may have to use alternative methods to watch this series if you know what I mean ;-)

Kirby

8

Really enjoyed that. Terrific start to the season.

Much, much better than the finale of the main show.....which is a bit tragic tbh.

thegreengoblin

Decent opener. The new characters seem to have something about them. I didn't want to punch either of them by the end, which is something anyway!

Wasn't without its faults though. I was losing count of how many times Morgan was rescued by the cowboy lad. And I didn't see the need for the appearances by Rick, Jesus and Carol at the start. Those scenes felt really forced. Maybe one from Rick would have been ok but three was overdoing it.

Otherwise I liked it.

Wibbs

7

thegreengoblin wrote: »

Wasn't without its faults though. I was losing count of how many times Morgan was rescued by the cowboy lad. And I didn't see the need for the appearances by Rick, Jesus and Carol at the start. Those scenes felt really forced. Maybe one from Rick would have been ok but three was overdoing it.

The usual obvious "let's add in some main show characters to get the interest of the audience in the spin off". Might have made some sense at the start of FTWD, but now? Now when the main show is scraping the barrel and the spin off has generally been better in acting, pacing and direction and actual y'know storytelling? It's as if the show runners of the main show still think it's fantastic.

I'd agree with you. One from TWD, Carol or Rick being the obvious. Why Jesus is beyond me.

When I first heard of this character transfer I thought it would be from Morgan's past. Between the first series when he first meets Rick and when he rejoins him. I was surprised to see it's "present day" current with the main show. That should be interesting to see how the years(?) have changed the original FTWD crew.

Hopefully they don't follow TWD and go the more daft apocalypse angle of that show. What I liked about the exploration of the early days of the zombie apocalypse in both shows was it was more "realistic", more grounded in the WTF has just happened in suburbia vibe and how people who had jobs and lives a month or so earlier were coping. So I'm not so sure how this will play out. It seems now it's in direct competition and comparison with the main show and given how slapdash the main show has become that might not be the best move.

DoozerT6

Wibbs wrote: »

The usual obvious "let's add in some main show characters to get the interest of the audience in the spin off". Might have made some sense at the start of FTWD, but now? Now when the main show is scraping the barrel and the spin off has generally been better in acting, pacing and direction and actual y'know storytelling? It's as if the show runners of the main show still think it's fantastic.

I'd agree with you. One from TWD, Carol or Rick being the obvious. Why Jesus is beyond me.

When I first heard of this character transfer I thought it would be from Morgan's past. Between the first series when he first meets Rick and when he rejoins him. I was surprised to see it's "present day" current with the main show. That should be interesting to see how the years(?) have changed the original FTWD crew.

Hopefully they don't follow TWD and go the more daft apocalypse angle of that show. What I liked about the exploration of the early days of the zombie apocalypse in both shows was it was more "realistic", more grounded in the WTF has just happened in suburbia vibe and how people who had jobs and lives a month or so earlier were coping. So I'm not so sure how this will play out. It seems now it's in direct competition and comparison with the main show and given how slapdash the main show has become that might not be the best move.

I'd imagine Jesus' appearance was a throwback to the episode where they took that group of Saviours hostage in the first half of the season (I think?) and were walking them back to the Hilltop - remember Morgan wanted to get all murder-y and Jesus had to scuffle with him in the forest to calm him down? That's probably why he was there. They bonded, man...... :rolleyes:

Scraggs

7

Such a contrast to the original show, it felt new and exciting as soon as Morgan started running. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this John Dorie ledge and if Madison and Co have turned into bandits or what's going on.

fritzelly

2

I'm confused, thought I was watching FTWD not TWD - get series crossover but this was just Morgan period

As Wibbs said - what is the point of 2 shows now doing the same thing, they screwed us over with what they said FTWD was supposed to be and now they're running parallel to each other and the original cast are now all gung-ho taking out anyone in the way
Just don't get it.

Will reserve full judgement til a few episodes have aired but ...

Wibbs

7

If it is OK, even good, it's going to be better than and will show up even more how bad the original has become. Can't understand how the producers thought this a good idea to essentially compete like that.

Even on aesthetics it looks better and has done from early on. The higher contrast sunlight of California compared to where TWD is shot where everything looks "flatter" has much to do with it, but outside of that the camerawork generally looks more "expensive". TWD tends to look cheap by comparison. The location also helps in another way; diversity of environments. In FTWD we've had bits of desert, scrubland, mountain, forest, suburbia, urban, Mexican, beachfront, sea, mostly within the first season too. In TWD we've had urban(mostly early on), a snippet of seafront, fields, old warehouse areas and low contrast green forest and leaf strewn roads, lots of leaf strewn roads. It looks very samey, dull even. The cinematography doesn't help. It's very low contrast and has gotten more that way and cheaper since the first season.

expectationlost

why get out of the truck?

mzungu

DoozerT6 wrote: »

I'd imagine Jesus' appearance was a throwback to the episode where they took that group of Saviours hostage in the first half of the season (I think?) and were walking them back to the Hilltop - remember Morgan wanted to get all murder-y and Jesus had to scuffle with him in the forest to calm him down? That's probably why he was there. They bonded, man...... :rolleyes:

Aye, the same Jesus that is now plotting against Rick and presumably has no issue with Maggie taking out Negan. They really didn't think that through at all.

mzungu

Scraggs wrote: »

Such a contrast to the original show, it felt new and exciting as soon as Morgan started running. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this John Dorie ledge and if Madison and Co have turned into bandits or what's going on.

Same here. When I was watching it I could not recall what I saw him in before. Anyways, it turns out he was in the Terminator TV series from a few years back. He was one of the best things about that show (and it was a fairly alright show in itself). He is a really good actor and I am happy he is part of the show.

mzungu

Wibbs wrote: »

The usual obvious "let's add in some main show characters to get the interest of the audience in the spin off". Might have made some sense at the start of FTWD, but now? Now when the main show is scraping the barrel and the spin off has generally been better in acting, pacing and direction and actual y'know storytelling? It's as if the show runners of the main show still think it's fantastic.

To be honest, as soon as I heard there was going to be a crossover my heart sank. Once a crossover starts it usually mean sooner or later the cast from both can, and will, become interchangeable. I was happy to have both shows existing in their own spaces and timelines. That said, I like Morgan as a character but on TWD he has suffered from scriptwriters not having a bulls notion what to do with him (same would go for Carol, Darryl, Rick and a few others) and from a bloated cast (TWD feels like daytime soap opera at times).

Wibbs wrote: »

I'd agree with you. One from TWD, Carol or Rick being the obvious. Why Jesus is beyond me.

A stunt. Pure and simple. FTWD didn't need to do it, but they did. It is a puzzler.

Wibbs wrote: »

When I first heard of this character transfer I thought it would be from Morgan's past. Between the first series when he first meets Rick and when he rejoins him. I was surprised to see it's "present day" current with the main show. That should be interesting to see how the years(?) have changed the original FTWD crew.

Hopefully they don't follow TWD and go the more daft apocalypse angle of that show. What I liked about the exploration of the early days of the zombie apocalypse in both shows was it was more "realistic", more grounded in the WTF has just happened in suburbia vibe and how people who had jobs and lives a month or so earlier were coping. So I'm not so sure how this will play out. It seems now it's in direct competition and comparison with the main show and given how slapdash the main show has become that might not be the best move.

At a guess, all we will get out this is at most a few flashback episodes to fill in the gaps of the past few years which is a shame. I am hoping they decide on keeping a fair distance between this and TWD. I enjoyed this weeks FTWD a lot, and I would like it if things stayed that way.

Wibbs wrote: »

Even on aesthetics it looks better and has done from early on. The higher contrast sunlight of California compared to where TWD is shot where everything looks "flatter" has much to do with it, but outside of that the camerawork generally looks more "expensive". TWD tends to look cheap by comparison. The location also helps in another way; diversity of environments. In FTWD we've had bits of desert, scrubland, mountain, forest, suburbia, urban, Mexican, beachfront, sea, mostly within the first season too. In TWD we've had urban(mostly early on), a snippet of seafront, fields, old warehouse areas and low contrast green forest and leaf strewn roads, lots of leaf strewn roads. It looks very samey, dull even. The cinematography doesn't help. It's very low contrast and has gotten more that way and cheaper since the first season.

Aye, Baja California where they shot a good bit of FTWD is probably one of the most scenic areas in the Americas (never mind North America) and looked fantastic and it was very diverse. On the other hand, TWD forrest scenes might as well have been shot in the Pheonix Park for all anybody would care, it pretty much looks the same!!

thegreengoblin

Good points about the different locations. I think that was something that was definitely noticeable last season. Mexico to me was the perfect choice for a Walking Dead story. I remember a scene with Nick stumbling around in the desert and it just felt right.

Having said that, the main series locations have worked out well in general...it's just that we've seen so much of it by now that it doesn't register.

sonofenoch

Only caught this last night, quite impressed with that episode had never watched before ....certainly better than anything the walking dead have done in a long time

Is AMC on BT week behind? notice they're showing ep 1 tonight at 9

Prefab Sprouter

7

Caught the 1st Episode and really enjoyed it. Morgan's character looked like it got a new lease of life and the new characters are interesting as well. I've watched and enjoyed it since its inception, 1st two series were patchy but last season was excellent and I definitely prefer it now to the main show.

TerrorFirmer

7

It's pretty troubling when not only is the 'spin off' show better scripted, shot, paced and acted....but the actual characters that are transplanted for a ratings bonus actually fare way, way better in said spin-off.

At this point, to my mind, FTWD is the real zombie show and spirtual succesor to the first two or three seasons of TWD...while the actual Walking Dead has slowly morphed into Eastenders edition by comparison.

silvervixen84

I recently caught up on FTWD after initially not liking it, and I'm really enjoying it now. It's a bit grittier, the writers don't bloat the cast with loads of unnecessary characters, or drag out story lines. I'm glad that the new season is on now, as I wasn't happy with the last season of TWD so can get my zombie fix from this (and iZombie for a lighter fix )

PhiloCypher

Like others wasn't a fan of the walking dead prologue, felt very awkward and forced to me. Really enjoyed the rest of the episode tho. As the new characters I thought Garet Dillihunt and Maggie Grace gave really engaging performances, to the point where I didn't mind not seeing the main FTWD cast till the end.

Given how they left things at the end of season 3 and the time jump, reintroducing them in this new context was the best way to get the audience to re-engage with these characters and make us wonder what brought them to that point.

Sidenote:

Maggie Grace should never go blonde again . The short black hair suits her and helps puts some distance between her and the damsel in distress rut she was in with Lost and Taken.

mzungu

PhiloCypher wrote: »

Like others wasn't a fan of the walking dead prologue, felt very awkward and forced to me. Really enjoyed the rest of the episode tho. As the new characters I thought Garet Dillihunt and Maggie Grace gave really engaging performances, to the point where I didn't mind not seeing the main FTWD cast till the end.

Given how they left things at the end of season 3 and the time jump, reintroducing them in this new context was the best way to get the audience to re-engage with these characters and make us wonder what brought them to that point.

Sidenote:

Maggie Grace should never go blonde again . The short black hair suits her and helps puts some distance between her and the damsel in distress rut she was in with Lost and Taken.

I didn't even recognise her at all. I rarely look at the credits so I never saw the name pop up.