6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
What did the world look like as it was transforming into the horrifying apocalypse depicted in "The Walking Dead"? This spin-off set in Los Angeles, following new characters as they face the beginning of the end of the world, will answer that question.
Starring: Kim Dickens, Lennie James, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-CareyHorror | 100% |
Supernatural | 58% |
Melodrama | 23% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Five-disc set (5 BDs)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Asking Fear the Walking Dead to the match the dramatic intensity, purpose of story, scope, and overall excellence of The Walking Dead is perhaps asking too much. Few shows that spin-off from classic originals don't often live up to expectations. AMC's own Better Call Saul is one of the precious few exceptions. But Fear's abbreviated six episode first season was a disappointment in most every way, a show packed with potential that crawled out of the gate rather than capitalized on the low hanging fruit at its fingertips. Granted, six episodes seemed hardly room to accomplish much in such a gritty, complex world beyond setting the proverbial ball in motion, which in hindsight it did well enough, particularly with a fuller fifteen episode season two under the belt to better understand its start. While many missed opportunities remain, and season one's shortcomings can never be fully repaired, season two settles the show into a drawn-out transition state from the immediacy of the zombie outbreak to a more settled, and more traditionally Walking Dead, sort of expanding narrative where nobody is safe, no plot turn is off the table, and characters begin to settle into a new world that, in some cases, fundamentally alters who they are. It's hardly absorbing stuff, at least not in the way the main show remains endlessly gripping, but Fear's potential is slowly realized as it wades through the waters of its open and settles into a growing expanse of death and despair that will leave viewers eager to see what season three has in store.
Everything's different now.
Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season was digitally photographed, a radical change from the base series' 16mm film shoot. That said, the digital photography, here, is attractive and more reflective of a film-quality texturing than it is the typical flat and glossy digital look. The series plays with a fairly regular warm-ish golden/bronze filtering about it. Bolder colors still impress, particularly large splotches of blood, rich natural greens, blue waters and skies, and assorted clothing accents. Black levels are attractively deep and honest, well detailed in the shadows and never pushing too debilitatingly dark. Flesh tones are fairly even, though usually influenced by the series' lighting and inherent contrast. Detail is very good. As noted, it's rather filmic in texture, enjoying a natural, effortless sharpness countered by only a few scattered fuzzy shots. Clarity is steady and detailing is precise, particularly facial scruff and pores (Travis in later season episodes is a great example), while smoother human hair is tangibly flowing and individually visible. Wood, rusty metal, grimy surfaces, tattered clothes, zombie makeup and gore, all sorts of textural goodness abounds. The show looks great on Blu-ray.
As with season one, Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season features a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's plenty active but very naturally balanced. Ambient effects are commonplace, including sloshing water off to the sides and into the rears during the season's early aquatic episodes. The stage opens up to other little supportive details at the various locations throughout the season, whether shuffling about at camps or a hotel or more generalized on-land insects, birds, and winds. Musical clarity is impressive. Detailed notes spread nicely along the front, and the surrounds often carry enough information to help draw the listener into the world. Positive depth of bass is evident when the track demands. Moaning and screeching zombies frequently litter the stage in spine-tingling cues, particularly when large crowds gather (though diversity of the sounds isn't all that great). Gunshots pop with fair presence and authority, and placement around the stage is appreciably wide and deep and matching of the on-scren action. Dialogue is clear and front-center focused and prioritized; a bit of naturally occurring reverberation spreads the position partway through episode seven.
Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season contains commentaries on most episodes on discs one and two, and they
vanish thereafter. Disc five houses several additional extras.
A UV digital copy voucher is included with
purchase.
Disc One:
Fear the Walking Dead's second season is a more mature, interesting, deep, and dark world than is its six-episode first season. It puts the show at a pivotal turning point, more so than even following up on its lackluster first go-round as it seems now at a crossroads where it could simply become a regurgitation of the superior main program or take the best elements of that world and the world it has created and do something seriously exciting and novel in season three. Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season features excellent video and solid audio. Supplements are fine, through the sudden disappearance of commentary tracks beyond disc two is disappointing. Recommended.
2015
Special Edition
2015
2015-2023
2017
2018
2019
2020-2021
2022
2023
2017
2010
2018
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1990
2019
2005
2012
1997
Collector's Edition
1985
Ben & Mickey vs. The Dead
2012
Ultimate Undead Edition
2009
2015
1968
1978
Les Raisins de la Mort
1978
2018
2016
1994
2014
2018