‘Fear’ without ‘The Walking Dead’ isn’t very scary or interesting

It’s been said that “Fear the Walking Dead” isn’t the most exciting show on TV. While the series is set in the world of “The Walking Dead,” it often misses the mark in building the dramatic tension of its parent show.

It’s not all bad, of course. There are some shining lights on “Fear,” whether it’s Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) and his slide into darkness or Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and her rise as a post-apocalyptic warrior. Unfortunately though, the show doesn’t always add up to become the truly entertaining series it can be.

The latest episode, Sunday’s (Sept. 25) “Date of Death,” is a perfect example of that. There were interesting pieces that simply didn’t add up to a whole. And to make matters worse, the “Walking Dead” these survivors are supposed to be fearing were completely absent. There wasn’t a walker in sight as the drama in this episode unfolded.

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That’s a big problem.

There’s plenty of room on this show for the drama to take place, but at the expense of its namesake zombies? Where’s the fun in that? A lack of walkers is a problem “The Walking Dead” had in certain episodes early on and it’s an issue that show learned from. While the small parts of the story are important, “Fear” needs to remember what it is — a show about people attempting to survive a zombie apocalypse.

What’s most unfortunate is the pieces of the story put in place in this episode were good. Travis (Cliff Curtis) was separated from Chris but found his way back to Madison (Kim Dickens), while the group Chris left with reappeared at the end of the episode without him. It leaves many questions going into the next episode.

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Without the constant threat of walkers trying to eat them though, the world Chris is lost in — the one everyone’s simply trying to stay alive in — isn’t that scary. Instead, an episode with no walkers feels unimportant. That’s surely not what the producers are aiming for as the end of Season 2 rapidly approaches.

“Fear the Walking Dead” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.

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