‘Fear the Walking Dead’ stars: Where you’ve seen them before

All the components are there to make it the next big show, from interesting characters and great acting to an intriguing premise.

The impression that the episode ultimately leaves is that of a mildly expressive melodrama, one that troublingly links the rise of the undead to drug addiction.

Although co-creator executive producer Dave Erickson says that this show is more of a true ensemble, a leader will emerge.

The trick will be finding the right balance between the two. After his horrific first encounter with a zombie at a church, he wakes up in the hospital and delivers a string of smug, unfunny wisecracks.

However, his vehicle was still definitely there, so Nick knows he’s not entirely insane. Signs of his issues quickly surface in the premiere: He has a bad relationship with Travis, he’s been restrained at the hospital, and he’s been expelled from school.

It’s there that we are introduced to the rest of the cast: Nick’s mom Madison (Kim Dickens), his sister Alicia (Alycia Debnam Carey) and Madison’s boyfriend Travis (Cliff Curtis), who just moved in with them.

“They don’t know if it’s a virus or a microbe, but it’s spreading“, one boy says. Madison is a guidance counselor at the local high school where her daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) goes to school.

Nick, and the actor that portrays him, is quite likable and easy to watch.

To its credit, Fear clearly wants us to care about these characters, though its premiere is so ludicrously overstuffed that we don’t really get to know anybody. Apparently Chris and Nick have bad blood too – the former makes it clear that he isn’t interested in spending time with Madison’s son.

And here’s Amy when she changed early in the series.

After Nick left, it seems Calvin had been turned, and he came lurching back toward Travis, Madison, and Nick in the main characters’ first face-to-face moment with the undead – and it was bloodcurdlingly scary.

Travis, however, decides to check out his story and goes to the church, where he discovers a whole lot of blood. I can’t share what my causes were because I may go back to them – if I’m still alive in five seasons, I may try to return to it if I can get Robert in a state of mind where he’s open to such a thing. The second time, as she and Travis are speeding off to the church to try and find Nick, it’s deserted except for a lone figure ominously shambling forward.

Meanwhile, Nick has tracked down his drug dealer, who turns out to be Calvin.

The next day, a video begins to circulate showing what all the gunshots were for: the cops were trying to stop a guy who was attacking and eating another guy- just like what Nick said he saw. Anyone who knows anything about zombies probably can guess what happened next – Calvin was gone.

They try to kill Calvin and he. won’t. die. He tells Nick that he’s going to give him a fix, but instead drives them to a secluded location along the LA canals.

On their way home, Madison and Travis get stuck in a traffic jam behind a vehicle accident.

After dealing with his own family drama (a son who doesn’t want to see him), Travis heads to the church where Nick was getting high. “They will both embrace or not embrace the apocalypse in different ways….”

Also, in the 90-minute premiere, you get an hour of Madison’s denials and Nick walking around like a cross between Heath Ledger’s Joke in The Dark Knight and Johnny Depp’s touched, eccentric character in Benny & Joon.

Nick then revs up and hits him again, sending him off the edge of the ledge. They take place in the same fictional universe with no overlap, and given the sheer difficulty of travel after a zombie apocalypse, there’s basically no chance the two shows will ever cross over. Well, relatively bright. Any show about the slow death of humankind is bound to be a bit of a bummer.

Hopefully, they work out the kinks, because they have something worth watching.

Do you think this show has potential?

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