Fear the Walking Dead: Unable to Recreate The Horror & Suspense of The Walking Dead
For fans of The Walking Dead, not the story ended well in Season 10, and neither the plot could cover its unforgivable mistakes. Rick is missing. Magie came back to the story without any reason in the same way she disappeared in season 8. And Morgan is still hanging between sanity and insanity. Neegan who should be vanished from the story is still playing an important role, more as a hero than a psychopath.
By all these disappointments, the audience is still eager to hear the end of the story. They have to wait for the new seasons or watch a side-story named Fear The Walking Dead.
The first impression of watching a few episodes of Fear The Walking Dead is that characters and casting are not as attractive as The Walking Dead. Comparing Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes and Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes versus Cliff Curtis as Travis Manawa and Kim Dickens as Madison Clark gives the vote to The Walking Dead.
Madison and Travis are the leading characters at the beginning. Travis who is connecting his ex-family and current family after the outbreak is a father-husband whose only goal is to protect his family. But he is not a charismatic person who can even lead a family; set aside a group of survivors. That is why Madison gets the leading position in the series. Trying to rebuild a community inside the hotel is her first role as a leader that continues until the end.
Nick (Frank Dillane) and Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) grow up in the story and play more important roles in the coming events. Nick who was a junky before the outbreak, feels more meaning in the current horrific situation.
It is not clear why Nick should survive after exploding the dam and then gets killed in an unnecessary and unbelievable scene by Charlie (Alexa Nisenson). It feels like a waste of a character who is developed in several seasons and saved from many events.
Alicia also turns into a brave worrier after a while who doesn’t follow anyone’s decision and judgment and tries to live in solitude. She gets a more central role after Madison disappears but after a lot of fighting and killings to compensate for wrongdoings in the past, suddenly she stops fighting. She shows some signs of PTSD but it is not convincing at all. It looks like some illogical changes in character that we have seen in the series.
Victor (Colman Domingo) and Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) are grey characters who are swinging between good and bad. Victor’s practicality and survival instinct save him during the whole story and also let the creators find an escape way whenever the characters reach a dead end. Like his swinging in the dam’s fight that saves Madison and Alicia.
Unlike The Walking Dead, its successor is more realistic in telling the story of an apocalypse. In The Walking Dead, finding and consuming fuel and water is not considered as a matter of life and death but in Fear The Walking Dead, the biggest fights happen upon the control of these resources.
The water dam and oil well are the only supply sources and facilities that remained from the pre-pandemic era. They are crucial for the survival and functionality of survivors. Still, the never-ending conflicts between competitive groups lead to the destruction of both facilities.
When we compare villains of two series, The Walking Dead has the upper hand. Saviors and their leader Negan and Whisperers with Alpha are more vicious and horrifying than Virginia and her army in the Fear The Walking Dead.

The casting here is the main problem. Colby Minifie who plays Virginia is the worst casting choice for a strong leader of a semi-military group. Her face and body language are suitable for a submissive woman who obeys others. She doesn’t look smart or brave or cruel and these are all the characteristics of a commander like Virginia.
Al (Dwight’s wife) is also leading her group of strong men. Her role contradicts her submissive character as one of Negan’s abused girls who had to distance herself from his husband and sleep with Negan.
The idea of empowering women and giving them a higher position in decision making has a negative impact in the story of Fear The Walking Dead. History shows us that in a crisis when the rule of law disappears, women are more vulnerable. They get abused and treated lower than men because they can’t fight as well as men.
In Fear The Walking Dead, we see Madison, Alicia, Al, and Virginia as leaders who are not questioned by strong men around them. It is absolutely unrealistic and in contradiction with the level of violence, we see in this story.
Creators of Fear The Walking Dead tried to avoid some of the mistakes in the plot of The Walking Dead but they could never recreate the level of suspense they created in the first series.
The truth is that fans of The Walking Dead are still waiting to experience the same horror they felt in the first six seasons of the series. No doubt that the current pandemic also makes them closer to an apocalypse situation and they are putting themselves in the shoes of survivors of an outbreak.