Fear the Walking Dead: Shiva
May 24, 2016 10:10 AM - Season 2, Episode 7 - Subscribe
The family faces their biggest test yet. Nick, Madison, Travis and others try to stay close to each other.
Thus ends the first half of the season. The show will return in August.
Thus ends the first half of the season. The show will return in August.
Remember last week when I said that I couldn't believe that a Los Angeled-area guidance counselor wouldn't know the word for "asshole" in Spanish? Replace that with the father of a Latino boy not knowing the word for "son".
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:13 AM on May 24, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:13 AM on May 24, 2016 [7 favorites]
Yes. As a conventional drama this fails for me. With this episode I realized that it is more enjoyable to view it as an art film of some kind, a series of almost disconnected vignettes occurring outside plot/character logic. The "mise-en-scène" of recent episodes is kind of neat, I just have very little idea of what I am supposed to be understanding about plot and character motivation.
The punishment even extends to the subtitles, which are in a tiny white typeface, often against light backgrounds. I have been wanting to get this off my chest for a while now.
posted by sylvanshine at 11:19 AM on May 24, 2016 [5 favorites]
The punishment even extends to the subtitles, which are in a tiny white typeface, often against light backgrounds. I have been wanting to get this off my chest for a while now.
posted by sylvanshine at 11:19 AM on May 24, 2016 [5 favorites]
why do i keep hatewatching this show?
posted by entropicamericana at 11:51 AM on May 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 11:51 AM on May 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
The subtitle font choices are outright criminal.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:17 PM on May 24, 2016
posted by tobascodagama at 3:17 PM on May 24, 2016
Something about the way the Travis/Chris sequence was put together gave me the impression that it was meant to be longer.
The thing with Travis' feet was very weird and sudden, for sure. One moment they seemed fine, the next they were a bloody mess.
posted by Pryde at 4:55 PM on May 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
The thing with Travis' feet was very weird and sudden, for sure. One moment they seemed fine, the next they were a bloody mess.
posted by Pryde at 4:55 PM on May 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
Last episode I was wondering why Madison was a total asshole to Celia, someone she just met and whose shower she had just finished using, only because Celia gave her son some food and said he's a nice boy. Later in the episode and culminating this episode, we see it was just a lazy set up for his otherwise inexplicable 24 hour transformation into a bloody zombie wannabe.
Not sure how much longer I can hatewatch. But I like the Mexican post-apocalypse enough to stick around a little longer.
posted by p3t3 at 9:22 PM on May 24, 2016
Not sure how much longer I can hatewatch. But I like the Mexican post-apocalypse enough to stick around a little longer.
posted by p3t3 at 9:22 PM on May 24, 2016
Flawed end to a flawed season, but I'm still liking it better than its parent show.
Stuff:
* The main thing I appreciate with this show is that there's no hero. TWD suffers greatly from the presence and nigh-infallibility of Rick Grimes. Nobody here is like that: Travis and Madison are regular people, Daniel was portrayed as flawed and Strand is a complicated and amoral con artist. Nobody's being set up as Always Doing The Right Thing. That's good.
* The thing with Nick is dumb, but it reminds me of two interesting plots from other zombie stuff that I'm sort of curious to see played with here: quislings from WWZ and The Whisperers from Comic-TWD. I don't feel like there was nearly enough setup, and it's very likely that they're going to drop the ball there, but it's possible this will go in fun directions. (I would be particularly interested to see small-screen Whisperers.)
* The thing with Chris has the potential to shake out to good tragedy. They've made it pretty clear Travis doesn't have the tools or perspective to help him, and that his actions are getting steadily worse. I hope they finish that out in a good way. (It's been fine so far - probably my biggest pleasant surprise this season has been Psycho Joseph Gribble.)
* Didn't like Daniel's end, and I will miss Ruben Blades on the show, but I did like that they were willing to kill off a main character. The cast needs pared down and rotated periodically, and he was the character most likely to belong on TWD. Killing him off shows promise.
* On the one hand, the compound went down way too easily. On the other hand, yay, they're outta the compound after just a couple episodes!
* I appreciate that there's still lots of civilization in Mexico too. TWD zombies are not an overnight extinction level event - society should collapse slowly. It finally feels like it is, at least a little.
posted by mordax at 11:37 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Stuff:
* The main thing I appreciate with this show is that there's no hero. TWD suffers greatly from the presence and nigh-infallibility of Rick Grimes. Nobody here is like that: Travis and Madison are regular people, Daniel was portrayed as flawed and Strand is a complicated and amoral con artist. Nobody's being set up as Always Doing The Right Thing. That's good.
* The thing with Nick is dumb, but it reminds me of two interesting plots from other zombie stuff that I'm sort of curious to see played with here: quislings from WWZ and The Whisperers from Comic-TWD. I don't feel like there was nearly enough setup, and it's very likely that they're going to drop the ball there, but it's possible this will go in fun directions. (I would be particularly interested to see small-screen Whisperers.)
* The thing with Chris has the potential to shake out to good tragedy. They've made it pretty clear Travis doesn't have the tools or perspective to help him, and that his actions are getting steadily worse. I hope they finish that out in a good way. (It's been fine so far - probably my biggest pleasant surprise this season has been Psycho Joseph Gribble.)
* Didn't like Daniel's end, and I will miss Ruben Blades on the show, but I did like that they were willing to kill off a main character. The cast needs pared down and rotated periodically, and he was the character most likely to belong on TWD. Killing him off shows promise.
* On the one hand, the compound went down way too easily. On the other hand, yay, they're outta the compound after just a couple episodes!
* I appreciate that there's still lots of civilization in Mexico too. TWD zombies are not an overnight extinction level event - society should collapse slowly. It finally feels like it is, at least a little.
posted by mordax at 11:37 AM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Daniel's fine, there was a dumpster in the wine cellar for him to crawl under.
I agree about the lack of a traditional hero being the best thing about this show. It makes thing so much more interesting when we don't know whose "side" the show is going to take.
"Quisling" was my first thought when Nick joined the herd as well. He's just lucky he's in Baja, so it might take a while before a rainstorm ruins his little non-plan there.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:53 PM on May 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
I agree about the lack of a traditional hero being the best thing about this show. It makes thing so much more interesting when we don't know whose "side" the show is going to take.
"Quisling" was my first thought when Nick joined the herd as well. He's just lucky he's in Baja, so it might take a while before a rainstorm ruins his little non-plan there.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:53 PM on May 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
One thing I really appreciated, as well, was that Celia held fast to her belief after Madison locked her in the wine cellar. Usually the way that scene goes is that the believer realises in her last moment that her belief was a mere delusion, but not here. No fear on Celia's face at all. Though that could just be her willingly letting go of her life now that both of her sons are dead.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:56 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by tobascodagama at 4:56 PM on May 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
One thing I really appreciated, as well, was that Celia held fast to her belief after Madison locked her in the wine cellar.
Likewise. I thought Celia was a fascinating character, and that was just the sort of side adventure I want to see in long form zombie fiction - people who decide the world is completely different.
He's just lucky he's in Baja, so it might take a while before a rainstorm ruins his little non-plan there.
Hahaha.
posted by mordax at 8:30 PM on May 25, 2016
Likewise. I thought Celia was a fascinating character, and that was just the sort of side adventure I want to see in long form zombie fiction - people who decide the world is completely different.
He's just lucky he's in Baja, so it might take a while before a rainstorm ruins his little non-plan there.
Hahaha.
posted by mordax at 8:30 PM on May 25, 2016
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Did anyone else feel like this was a 90-minute episode that got cut down to 60 at the last minute? Something about the way the Travis/Chris sequence was put together gave me the impression that it was meant to be longer. (I'm glad it wasn't, though.)
Also, I feel bad for the ponytail guy who kept getting beat up by Daniel. He was just trying to feed you some pozole, bro.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:16 AM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]