“Fear the Walking Dead” is off and running, in a leg dragging walker type jog. That’s the speed I expected going in, a slow build up to the world we know in the original Walking Dead. I’m anxious to see how the zombie apocalypse started out and I don’t need anything rushed. After all, we can’t have Fear the Walking Dead get anywhere near the scenarios faced by characters on the original series.

What would be the point of that? All new situations are called for in this new series. I imagine we will see many connections to authority on both series, and how it works with the world melting down, and in the post melt down world.

The show begins with another form of walking dead as a young drug addict stumbles his way around after waking up. This guy named Nick wakes up to find his girlfriend to be a monster, a real life one, not just a psycho who complains about the toilet seat.

Nick ran away like a maniac then got hit by a car, which was much better than having his face eaten off by his lady. Not surprisingly no one believes Nick’s story. Dude is a junkie so no one is ready to buy his story with society still fully intact.

The blended family in this series is headed up by Travis and Madison (Maddie….Nick’s mom). The sis is Alicia and they all have the normal issues associated with divorce and new relationships for mom and dad.

During the show there are hints that a virus of some sort is going around. A freaky little guy (Tobias) at Maddie’s school believes something big is happening as he has been reading plenty on the web about it.

Tobias tells Maddie about it but the lil guy looks like a serial killer so she tells him to focus on college plans. A trivial matter for the near future.

*I tried out AMC’s story sync on their website and was hit with a lot of ads and zero extra information. Maybe I’m a moron, but I didn’t get the benefits.

Travis did go check out Nick’s story at the drug haven. He found a bloody mess there that backed up what his girlfriend’s son told them. Travis didn’t bother calling the authorities however, which would be a logical next move. The guy wasn’t even that freaked out over the nasty scene after the initial shock.

I had a flashback of Rick Grimes leaving his hospital bed in the original WD when Nick bounces from the hospital. We got a few hints about the possible seed of the virus as we see smog in the distance, some pigeons on a ledge, and some other possible clues that may mean absolutely nothing. If it did start as a virus, the cure could have just as easily been the cause of the zombie effect.

We’ve seen that before in I Am Legend.

Nick is just looking to score some drugs, but asks his dealer Calvin if his product might have been laced with something? That offended Cal and he was already worried that Nick mentioned his name and drug dealer in the same breath to the cops.

I like the “awaken” text on the old van as Alicia waited on her boyfriend who stood her up…..likely because dude was sick or being eaten.

Travis shows he is a man of action as he speeds off from the traffic jam with Maddie by his side. Many people just sat there as shots rang out expecting everything to be fine since the cops were there!

Shooting is my cue to leave any location no matter what authority figure is around. They’re not going to protect me. I’ll do that.

Later we see the footage from the traffic jam with the first known walker on video. Pretty scary stuff, but many people consider it fake. That’s the trouble with a world changing event. How do you know it’s real?

Oh and isn’t it strange that no one on the original WD ever finds any camera phones with footage that holds clues to what happened? They have had power sources available to charge such devices.

Nick, who resembles a drugged out Johnny Depp, takes a ride with his dealer only to see he is going to get capped. Pretty drastic move by Cal! This dealer went from low level dealer to murderer in mere minutes.

Nick manages to wrestle the gun from Cal and ends up capping him. Cal is a bad business man for trying to kill his own client and now he is dead….actually walking dead.

Nick had no choice but to call on Travis for help. The two guys along with his mom head out to where Cal was left for dead. Only the body is gone so Nick thinks he really is going insane.

When they head out they see an “injured” Cal walking up behind the truck. He attacks Maddie and Travis so Nick runs the guy over. Before ramming Cal with the old truck once again, we get to see the drug dealer as helpless like we saw Nick when he was strung out. Shoe was on the other foot.

After the last vehicular homicide attempt by Nick, the three watch Cal raise up again. Dude is a mess but living so they decide they have seen enough. Now might be a good time to call the cops Travis.

Although I can see where the authorities are going to start sweeping all this info under the rug. Can’t have national panic. That’s exactly how this type scenario would go in reality. The internet and cell service would be cut so people couldn’t spread the bad news of the apocalypse.

That’s a dirty thing for our “leaders” to do, but they are all about self preservation….just like every other human.

I’m excited about the next episode. This is a great premise for a show. I hope the show runners do it up right.

The previews looked good going forward. We are going to witness real fear that is relatable to us in 2015. Sure we’re creeped out when we see Rick have to bash walkers’ heads in with garden tools or Michonne slicing through groups of zombies with her Samurai sword. But that’s not something we see ourselves doing.

Fear looks to focus on the slow collapse of our modern world as chaos reigns, the internet goes down, and the world turns dark as the power grid fails. We can all relate to that as we sit comfortably on our couches watching Fear with ice cold drinks in our hands, and connecting to the world with our second screens.

UPDATE:

“Fear the Walking Dead’s” premier wound up giving AMC a record 10.1 million viewers which was higher than the “Breaking Bad” prequel “Better Call Saul'” premier in February. This is a huge number, and this makes the series the most-watched launch in cable history.  “Better Call Saul’s” premiere had the advantage of a lead-in from “The Walking Dead’s” season premiere then giving it 6.88 million viewers.

AMC may have lost “Mad Men,” but they aren’t starving for original content now.