TV Review: “Fear the Walking Dead” and “The Strain”

Two Sunday night horror shows that had their season finales last night (small world). However…well, the news is more mixed than positive.

Fear the Walking Dead…This spin-off of The Walking Dead is less about the breakdown of civilization and more about the panicky overkill that might result in the early days of a crisis. It differentiates itself nicely by being more about fascism than anarchy, and the suburbs of L.A. sub in for the pine trees-and-crickets wilderness of Nowheresville, Georgia. Although some of the scenes with the military (who may not be there strictly to help) play off our current fears, FtWD suffers being weirdly non-suspenseful and has an odd sense of inertness. And I’d be lying if I said there was even ten seconds in the entire first season that scared me. Turns out those creepy, dread-soaked woods in TWD added a lot more atmosphere than we realized. Grade for Season: C+…Grade for Season Finale: C

The Strain…Man, how great was that first season of “The Strain?” It’s just too bad I can’t really say the same for this season. Although the show remains enjoyable and there’s now a strange coziness to watching it, the first season’s sense of mystery and suspense were largely absent this year, as we watched the characters (mostly) spin their wheels in different variations of a plot that is becoming somewhat repetitive: Team A must kill Team B, they hatch a plan to do so, they execute that plan in which a lot of background extras die, but all the major characters get away (with one horrible exception in the season finale). This season felt much more guilty of padding things out than the first one did, and I suspect a few subplots might have been added from the books to fill up the episodes. Still, I liked the flashback scenes, Eldridge Palmer (the great Jonathan Hyde) was a much livelier antagonist than in season 1, and adding the character of Quinlan in mid-season was intriguing. But major demerits for the horrendous re-casting of Eph’s son Zach into a loathsome brat, the repeated refusal to kill off Eph’s ex-wife, and yet somehow killing off the (spoiler alert) radiant Mia Maestro who I will really miss as Nora, pretty much the only person to get Corey Stoll to be likable for a few scenes. The one time this season a significant character dies and it’s one of the best ones…oh well…Grade for Season: B…Grade for Season Finale: C [Although I’m mostly reacting to who did and did not die in that subway tunnel.]