Fear the Walking Dead Review: We All Fall Down (Season 2 Episode 2)

Another week, another episode of Fear the Walking Dead (titled “We All Fall Down”) to wade through — because that’s honestly what it feels like to watch this show: like an uphill battle where we’re all just hoping that whatever is at the top is worth all this effort.

Here is the thing about this show: they’ve skipped over the things about the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse that could have been insanely interesting. When the show was first announced, fans were excited to watch the fall of the world as we know it. We were excited to witness the chaos of the initial outbreak.

What have we gotten instead? This slow paced attempt at a character driven narrative wherein we watch the emotional struggles of flat, lifeless characters while everything that is actually exciting is happening off screen.

On land.

While we’re trapped on a boat with these people.

Why did the choose to do it this way?

It does sometimes look like they’re trying to follow The Walking Dead‘s format and tone, but they’re missing the mark over and over again by having the show’s heroes avoid the dangers of the apocalypse. They aren’t in any immediate danger! I mean, sure, there’s some sort of boat following them and Stand is apparently super sketchy (shocker) — but it would be far more interesting to watch them face this head on, rather than simply hearing about how all these major cities have been burned to the ground after the fact.

It’s not enough to just hear about how everything is going to hell. We want to see it!

This particular episode has the potential to be good, if not for the fact that it is somewhat poorly executed. The idea of a man who intends to euthanize his entire family is so fascinatingly dark that it could be so intense…

Except no one really has any sort of visceral reaction to it. His wife seems mildly freaked out by the idea, and he seems kind of off his rocker, but there’s really not much to be afraid of when it comes to these people, and none of our heroes seem appalled or afraid. There’s nothing that really makes us nervous. When it all goes down toward the end of the episode, it’s just…flat.

On a positive note, at least someone is learning how to take out walkers! That’s something that would be exciting if we hadn’t already seen all of this before on The Walking Dead.

Honestly, if I want to watch The Walking Dead, I’m going to watch The Walking Dead. 

Fear the Walking Dead needs to figure out what it’s doing, where it’s heading, and start moving in that direction sooner rather than later before people start losing interest. It needs to find some way to deviate from The Walking Dead and become its own entity, otherwise it’s just going to be tedious and repetitive for those of us who have watched The Walking Dead since day one.

From a character interest standpoint: Nick is still wonderful. Alicia is also fairly interesting once you get her involved in a real conversation. Everyone else is still just broody and boring.

Do better, Fear the Walking Dead.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments below!

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Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.