Take Three: Fear the Walking Dead

Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Dog” (B-)

This show premiering when it did and taking a week off for Labor Day stilted its start so we didn’t really have the chance to get into the groove of it. Now, episode three doesn’t necessarily feel forced, but there is a sense that not much is happening and that, in order to keep its premise as it is, things have to occur at a slow pace that doesn’t give any of the characters certain knowledge of both what exactly is going on and how it’s going to affect them in the future. There is plenty of conflict, namely Travis and his band of tagalongs having to wade through a sea of rioters to get to their miraculously untouched vehicle and drive home, arriving coincidentally just moments after Madison and her children inexplicably left the house, allowing an undead neighbor to waltz right into their living room. This show is supposed to be about people not realizing that the world as they know it is coming to an end, and therefore Madison, Alicia, and Nick sitting down to play Monopoly is far from thrilling but does get that point across. This Salazar family doesn’t seem to have ulterior motives, but lying about cousins coming to get them and Daniel proclaiming that it’s already too late is definitely foreboding. It seemed like our heroes would be on the run for good as of a few minutes before the end of this episode, but now a certain disconcerting tranquility awaits them, one which hopefully won’t dictate the pacing of this show too much.