Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Fear the subpar spinoff.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 3, 2015

AMC's spinoff of the hit show The Walking Dead enters the fray in a condensed six-episode season debut to, surprisingly, mixed-to-poor results. Fear the Walking Dead presents audiences with a different look at the zombie apocalypse, traveling across the country from rural Georgia to urban L.A. and backwards in time from a dead world to the point that the world first began to decay with the rise of the walking dead. And that's not all that's changed. Fear the Walking Dead seems only able to hint at the dramatic depth, complex characters, social commentary, and grisly excitement of the main show. While part of that comes understandably from both the change in venue and change in timeframe, Fear never finds more than a trace of that desperate intensity, that ever-waning hopelessness, that incredible characterization and camaraderie that has come to define big brother.

Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) and Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) are doing their best to keep their patchwork family together. He's divorced but still in contact with his ex Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez) and teenage son Christopher (Lorenzo James Henrie) and she's a widow and mother of two teenage children, the highly accomplished Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and the drug-addicted Nick (Frank Dillane). An overdosed Nick witnesses a grisly scene of cannibalism at his crack house. He can't put it together, but Travis investigates and finds evidence that points in favor of Nick's wild claims. Cell phone video of a man who cannot be put down by police also paints a disturbing picture of something out of the ordinary. But anecdotal evidence quickly becomes a very real phenomena. Schools close early. Panic hits the streets. Travis hypothesizes that a move to the desert might be his family's safest course of action to wait out and survive the pandemic, but his efforts to reunite with his ex-wife and son hit a roadblock when they find themselves caught in the middle of street violence. They shelter in place with a barber (Rubén Blades) and his family (Patricia Reyes Spíndola and Mercedes Mason) and form a loose alliance that could help keep them alive in a quickly collapsing society.

Fear the Walking Dead plays out more like fan fiction and less like, well, The Walking Dead. There's nothing really wrong with the show, per se, on the absolute foundational level. It's a great idea and it has a lot going for it, most of which seems to be lingering below the surface rather than fully realized on the screen. And it's not even that it cannot live up to the gargantuan expectations that come with following one of the all-time great shows. That's almost to be expiated. It's that it's a fairly flat and soulless show, one that presents some great ideas that never go anywhere or elicit much of a response. There's precious little risk-taking, and with the rather pedestrian character roster, what darkness the show does explore and what boldness that comes from it -- particularly along its final episode -- feels less organic and emotional and more procedural, killing off this character or that character because that's what The Walking Dead does, not because it furthers the story, deepens the characters, evolves the world, or pushes emotional buttons and boundaries. Granted, there's going to be more room for that in a second season, with a deeper character establishment and a more settled and "traditional" Walking Dead landscape where the dead have taken over and the living struggle to live on, and not only in the physical definition of the term.

On the other hand, season one accomplishes what it needed to accomplish, even if it doesn't do so with much aplomb. That is, essentially, to introduce the characters and establish the world, which it does rather succinctly within the tight confines of six episodes. The core idea behind the show is fantastic and a natural companion to the universe. The urban setting and past timeframe allow for a unique set of challenges and circumstances for the characters and audience to explore, the former going in blind and without an established method of survival or understanding of what's happening and what to expect and the latter armed with a greater awareness of what it is the characters are facing, which would seem to only heighten the sense of on-screen peril. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Combine dull characters with unimaginative scenarios and jerky progression from "everything is fine" to "society has collapsed" and the show squanders most every opportunity to more powerfully and engagingly explore civilization's downfall. It feels so microscopic, which wouldn't be a bad thing if that also meant "intimate," but that's not the case, either. The "big city" angle seems squandered at every turn. Sure there are some cursory street protests, clashes with police, and some basic overhead shots of the city on fire, but much of the action takes place in the suburbs, away from the grimmer, tighter confines of real urban America.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season's 1080p transfer isn't problematic. It's just bland. The 1.78:1-framed image leaves behind the grit and grain of the companion show and instead presents a fairly flat, nondescript sort of HD image that produces adequate detailing and color. Basic facial features and clothing textures are fine, though generally absent the sort of precision texturing and intimate, tactile features reserved for the best transfers. There's not much appreciable depth to the image, either, whether in lower light, amber-hued interiors; bright sunny exteriors; or darkened nighttime segments. Colors don't pop but aren't dull, either. The bland urban landscape doesn't offer much beyond some signage and graffiti, while clothing hues and shades around various locations, like homes and schools, are sufficiently robust and natural. Natural greens and bright blue pool water are amongst the highlights. Light noise lingers but banding, aliasing, macroblocking, and other bugaboos are absent. Technically, the transfer leaves little room for complaint, but the show's production design, lighting, and photographic stylings don't encourage a robust visual experience.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack capably handles the show's needs, even if it comes up a bit short when it's time for gunfire. Basic musical definition is excellent. The opening title notes are deep and haunting, with a wide front end spacing and good bit of non dominant surround immersion. Atmospherics are plentiful, both casual and chaotic. Basic school hallway din -- students shuffling around the building -- is effortlessly recreated. General street level sounds, like honking horns and passing traffic, don't dominate but do well to give shape to the bustling Los Angeles roadways. Some of the more aggressive elements find a great sense of sonic urgency and definition, including rowdy protestors and swarms of zombies in the final episode. Gunfire is never all that aggressive. A shotgun blast heard partway through episode three offers little more than a dull thud. A grenade explosion in episode five is likewise puny. Even the report of a .50 caliber rifle round isn't anywhere near as deafening as one would expect. Automatic weapons fire in the final episode offers a little more pop up close, and the rat-a-tat sounds heard in the distance nicely fill the back speakers. Dialogue is clear and well defined throughout, playing with a consistent center placement. Like the video quality, there's nothing all that exciting going on, but the track handles the show's requirements well enough.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season contains two featurettes on disc two.

• A Look at the Series (1080p, 4:11): A brief look at the series' timeframe, setting, characters, and trials.
• Inside the Characters of Fear the Walking Dead (1080p, 2:55): A cursory main character overview.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fear the Walking Dead works well enough as an isolated glimpse into the world from a radically different perspective, but it's a disappointingly flat entry that suffers under the burden of dull characters, a slow pace, and a dearth of emotional complexity. The series has its moments and flashes both potential and brilliance, but it has a long way to go before it can stand alongside its long established classic companion show. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete First Season yields technically good, if not a bit underwhelming, video and audio. Supplements are sadly limited to two very brief featurettes. Worth a look as a rental or a purchase at a reduced price.