Fear the Walking Dead? I don't think so...

I had been enjoying the original Walking Dead series, and I was thinking the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead might be a good series to watch while waiting for the original to resume. But after seeing the first few episodes, I have concluded the writers must not be the same writers, since the plots of the episodes and the actions of the characters have been very poorly written by comparison.

Fear's main character, Travis, for example, beats someone to death, after it had been established that he was a kind and gentle soul, a high school English teacher, even, and a proponent of non-violence. Now, he's a berserker who beats a soldier to death with his bare hands. It took Rick, the main character in the original series, four years to reach that point, and Rick was a Deputy Sheriff who was involved in a shootout with criminals in the very first episode. And despite his constant and continuous confrontations with zombies and evil humans, it still took him near five years to reach the point that Travis reached by episode six of season one.

And the reason Travis beat the soldier to death with his bare hands was just as stupid. The soldier takes a shot at the daughter of a man who had tortured him, even though he had been romantically involved with the girl, and he had the man at gunpoint. In addition to that, the man had admitted to the soldier that he was a torturer in San Salvador, during the civil wars that occurred over there. So the soldier had every reason to shoot him. But instead he shoots the innocent daughter, who he had been kissing and hugging the episode before. But so as not to worry the audience it turns out he only winged the girl. She's only shot in the arm, so no real harm done, except for the fact that mild mannered Travis beats him to death with his bare hands. It made no sense.

Furthermore, the soldiers themselves are portrayed as cowardly, dastardly, and scummy, quick to abandon their duties and their posts, and quick to abandon each other. Still, I'll stick it out to the end, since the original resumes this coming Sunday. Here's to hoping the original will stay true to its original quality of character development and plots. We'll see.