The Best Walking Dead Spinoff Is Dominating Netflix

While Breaking Bad and Mad Men were far more critically acclaimed and brought home countless television awards, the most popular and most in-demand show in the history of AMC is undoubtedly The Walking Dead. Set in an alternate universe where a zombie-like virus has caused the recently deceased to reanimate, the series instantly struck a chord with viewers who were looking to satiate their horror craving. By 2015, the series reached its peak popularity, hauling in over 17 million viewers for its Season Five premiere, “No Sanctuary.”

With AMC hitching its entire trailer to The Walking Dead franchise, the network developed Fear The Walking Dead, a prequel series that aired its first season in the weeks leading up to the premiere of Season Five of The Walking Dead. Although the prequel series never quite reached the popularity heights of its predecessor, it became a reliable hit for AMC and has now reached the eighth spot of Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched TV shows. Fear The Walking Dead was created by Kirkman and television writer Dave Erickson, who also served as the series showrunner for the first three seasons.

Fear The Walking Dead kicks off right before the chaotic and world-changing events of The Walking Dead takes place. The prequel series takes place in Los Angeles, California, and follows the adventures of a small family as they attempt to stay alive and stick together while a horde of zombies, known as “Walkers,” ravages the entire country. The family consists of Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and her fiance Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis), as well as Madison’s children Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Nick Clark (Frank Dillane).

As Madison looks to find safety in an increasingly bleak and cruel world, she struggles to keep her family out of harm’s way. She quickly learns that the remaining human survivors are just as capable of death and destruction as the Walkers that they are fleeing from. Hopping from settlement to settlement, Madison and her small family gradually begin to adapt to their new surroundings, pushing their final strands of humanity to the brink.

Initially teased as an interesting and kinetic lead-in to the original series, Fear The Waking Dead eventually fell victim to becoming just another run-of-the-mill zombie adventure series. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, as there were plenty of compelling storylines that helped set it apart at first, but by the later seasons, the show became unrecognizable from its premise. Season One offered exactly what was promised, albeit in a rushed and sometimes haphazard fashion.

REVIEW SCORE

Many fans of The Walking Dead, including me, tuned in to the prequel series to watch how the zombie virus grabbed hold of the country, seeing how society gradually crumpled under the intense pressure. But after a handful of episodes, the show already began to recycle through plots that had already been seen countless times before. More time spent in the strange and unfamiliar and frenzied early hours of the zombie apocalypse could have steered the show into truly unique territory.

In the end, Fear The Walking Dead is still a very solid zombie show that was able to create some very interesting episodes on television, but it just never reached groundbreaking status. The prequel series is the best spin-off series created in the Walking Dead franchise so far, running laps around the under-cooked and disappointing The Walking Dead: World Beyond.