Whereas the pilot episode to The Walking Dead began with a bang and a shuffling zombie girl clutching a stuffed bunny, Fear’s pilot takes the more nuanced approach of showing us the world of despair and decay, only for the sake of watching it be torn down even further.
Opening in dank, darkened church but strange sounds, heroin addict Nick stumbles around to find a few of his mates eviscerated and his friend Gloria munching on a dude’s face. Unsurprisingly, Nick is shocked and appalled and runs his ass right out of the church into oncoming traffic.
Nick is the son of Madison, the level-headed guidance counselor, who has long given up on her son’s drug problems. When Nick turns up in police custody after the accident ranting about what he has seen, Madison is quick to renounce them as ravings of a drug addict and not a looming threat to the world at large. Oops.
For as much as this series was built upon the premise of a first-hand report of the collapse of civilization, very little happens as of yet. Of course, this is just the pilot and just getting things started but the lead characters of Madison and her live-in boyfriend Travis only learn of, and finally believe Nick, when a man with a gunshot wound and multiple major injuries continues to pursue them, even glancing in their direction after his ambulatory ability is removed.
The rest of the episode is mostly getting to the know the protagonists and their living agenda which also plays into AMC’s emphasis that this series is at its core about the family unit. Madison and Travis appear to be relatively new to their live-in relationship, much to the chagrin of Madison’s daughter Alicia and Travis’ son Something-or-another. But they do sell the genuine feeling of a family, whether it be sitting beside Nick’s hospital bed or out scouring the city after Nick disappears again.
There are some fleeting moments of zombie carnage, though the biggest reveal (to the world at large at least) is fleeting as a squad of police attempt to take down a walker only for him to get up and keep coming. Perhaps as a commentary on the permeation of social media in the lives of youth today, Alicia and her friends see the footage and think it to be a hoax. Little do they know.
Like I mentioned, this is very much a slow-burn for a pilot as the threat and dangers seem to be peeking around the corner but not yet ready to reveal themselves in full-force yet. But we still have five more episodes to go this season and a commitment for an entire new slate next year to keep society crumbling as the zombies rise.
All in all, the pilot alone doesn’t carry the same weight as that of the original but the promise of what is to come will keep me tuned in.
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