Fear the Walking Dead - Shiva - Review: "Unseen In Modern Times"

     Well, all that just happened. In Fear the Walking Dead’s worst outing since its second season premiere, all sense and logic was thrown out the window in favor of nonsense and stupidity beyond reason. First, let’s review the stuff that I actually enjoyed.

     Madison locking Celia in with the walkers was kind of cool. Now with that finished, let’s move onto the bad parts. There are plenty of them.

Chris

     I hereby decree, Chris Manawa, the moronic son of Travis the Fool, The Walking Dead universe’s single worst character. Not since Andrea of The Walking Dead have we seen a character who acts so outlandishly stupid that I actually want to punch my television screen. Chris has never been an interesting character, but in the last two episodes, the writers took his character, molded him into the forced plot that they wanted, and created a monstrosity unseen in modern times.

     What makes Chris’s transformation so much worse than the average writing derailment is that it’s very easy to see what the writers are attempting to do. In the flagship series, Carl went through a time when his trigger finger was just a bit too itchy and Negan even referred to him as “the future serial killer” in the season six finale. Fear the Walking Dead’s writers are doing their best to make Chris another Carl. The problem with this prospect is that they haven’t actually earned any right to do it. His character has not been built up enough to warrant anyone actually caring and the only emotion it evokes from me is absolute boredom.

Daniel

     I have said many times in previous reviews that Daniel Salazar is the greatest character on Fear the Walking Dead. Well so much for that…

     In this week’s episode, Daniel Salazar decided to burn the whole place to the ground…because the writers said so. Daniel Salazar has been the greatest part of this series until now which is why I’m so absolutely furious at the writers for running his character into the ground. His motivations in this last episode were akin to Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman. We don’t know why he does things, but it moves the plot along and it causes stuff to happen. I’m honestly more disappointed in Daniel’s story in this last episode than I am in Chris’s because with Chris it wasn’t surprising. Daniel's implosion shows very poor judgment on the writers’ behalves.

Nick

     Nick’s character is definitely interesting because of his relationships with other people. His friendship with Strand is cool. His relationship with his mother is somewhat interesting and even his relationship with his sister is intriguing. The prospect of a future relationship with Ofelia could even be interesting, but his character is so strange that he’s very difficult to relate to in a meaningful way. When I wrote this review, I did not honestly believe that Nick had developed an addiction to painting himself in blood. In this episode, Nick basically begged the other cast members to give him an excuse to do it. Nick’s choice to just up and leave the group didn’t do anything for me since he seems to do it just about every week.

Rating: 4.6/10 - A mess of characters and an atrocious amount of disjointed storytelling sealed the deal for this midseason finale in one of my lowest ratings for any show I’ve ever reviewed. I feel more sympathy for the bug that I just stepped on than I do a single one of these characters.

About the Author - Brandon Rowe

Brandon is a sophomore in college and enjoys watching a lot of TV. Brandon likes to write articles about his favorite shows which include Fear the Walking Dead, True Detective, The Americans, and more than can be written on this page. Brandon also managed the "In the Hot Seat" competition here on SpoilerTV in 2012 and would like to do it again in 2016 if possible. Feel free to use the Facebook, Twitter, or G+ links below to contact him.

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