"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 Finale: Water Water

Fear the Walking Dead concluded its all-too-brief first season last night, and although The Walking Dead will be starting its next season next week, I'll be missing Fear TWD and wishing it was continuing on television screen - beyond its webcasts - too.

The most significant development in this last episode for a year was the luxury ship off-shore, and its holding of some hope of distance from the walkers.   Ultimately, the question is whether the walkers can't be swimmers.  It certainly seems they can't - I mean, what kind of stroke could they do?  They lack the coordination to do any of the swimming strokes that at least I do at the pool.

But there's a further implicit question here: can the walking dead drown?  If not, then couldn't they just stagger into the water and out to any boat, in water over their head?  I suppose they could - but they would likely be swept away by any decent current.   I'm pretty sure we've already seen them swept away in river currents on The Walking Dead, and ocean currents would be much stronger.

Still, our human survivors finding impregnable safety on the water seems too easy a solution - though, hey, solution is something that comes from water, right?  Anyway, it'll be fun to see what's in store next year.

My other favorite part of this season finale was Nick telling his mother that he was more ready for the apocalypse than anyone else in the family, because was already somewhat out of his mind, and was coping with the insanity of being an outsider even when the world was relatively sane.   This was reminiscent of Robert De Niro's' character Michael in the excellent 1978 movie The Deer Hunter - Michael fares the best in the  insanity of fighting and getting captured  in Vietnam because he was already somewhat crazy at home.  It's impressive to see Fear The Walking Dead picking up on this profound and counter-intuitive aspect of human nature.

The Walking Dead does this too, but as I said as soon as I saw the first episode of Fear TWD, there's something about the greater proximity of this story to our reality that makes it more riveting to me.

See also Fear the Walking Dead 1.1: Great Beginnings ... Fear TWD 1.2: Tobias Leads the Way

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