Fear The Walking Dead - 8 Talking Points From The Premiere

7. Family Dynamics

After the break, we're given our first introduction to what will presumably be the main protagonists of the show. Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis, as Madison and Travis respectively, are the parents in a blended family with some obvious complex relations at play. Madison is a high school guidance counselor and the single mother of the aforementioned Nick and the teenage Alicia. Her fiance Travis is a teacher at the same school and has a son named Chris with his ex-wife. There are a lot of moving parts in this family, and clearly some underlying resentment. Alicia tells her mother it's time to cut ties and give up on Nick - who she seems to favour quite a bit despite his faults - which is obviously met with resistance. Travis and his son, Chris have an embattled relationship and Chris doesn't appear to want to have anything to do with his father's new family. And the parents themselves are caught up in this whirlwind of teen angst and trying to navigate their way through it all while still taking their own feelings into account. It's a lot to digest and quite honestly they didn't give us anyone to really root for in the premiere. The kids are all self-absorbed and Madison is abrasive and overbearing while Travis seems totally out of his depth. It's too early to pass judgement, but no one in this cast stands out as someone the audience can rally behind during the deadly events that are about to unfold. These people are the anti-Daryls. And maybe that's the point.