QUICK PILOT GLANCE INTO FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

2015 grade: B

There's one point when FEAR THE WALKING DEAD finally comes alive, having to do with the prologue that improves when brought back up through dialogue, way more spooky than the catapulting bloodshed. 

Kind of like watching the first, and original, PLANET OF THE APES. You know what the movie is about directly from the title: Yet there's a good twenty-five minutes before the characters know anything, and that's where the important stuff lies.

This highly anticipated pilot attempts a crime series vibe combined with a teenage/dysfunctional family melodrama and of course... zombies. The biggest drawback is the fact we learn too many things at the final stretch. A possible drug-fueled hallucination (which is anything but) holds more implied interest than the ultra violent news footage viewed by High Schoolers later on. It's like going from Hitchcock to You Tube. But hey, nothing's perfect. And for imperfection, this left a decent (if subtle and fitfully underwhelming) impression overall... So far, so pretty good.