Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water

This six episode mini-series or webisodes, call them what you like, was actually a fun way to pass the time while waiting for the "Fear the Walking Dead" series to start again. The people behind these series have been good as dishing out these small mini-series to stoke the fire and keep the fans anticipated and baited while waiting.

And it works. Oh yeah, it definitely works.

"Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water" follows the crew and the fate of the submarine USS Pensylvania in the early days of the zombie outbreak. It was actually a nicely enough written storyline from writer Jacob Pinion and director Kenneth Requa.

Running at about 41 minutes, these six episodes actually do make for adequate entertainment, especially when binging through all six episodes in one rapid succession.

It was nice to see cast members return to reprise characters from the days before the time we saw them in the ongoing "Fear the Walking Dead" series, and especially good to see Nick Stahl (playing Riley) and John Glover (playing Teddy Maddox) back on the screen.

The special effects are good in "Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water", as they have been in all the various series in this franchise. However, I just never comprehended why the face would be so sullen and sunken mere moments after someone has died and turned into a zombie. Sure, I get it that it visually makes for a more menacing zombie and lets the audience have no doubt about whether or not someone has turned, but come on, the human body just doesn't decompose and deteriorate that fast.

All in all, then "Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water" is a good way to stoke the interest of the "Fear the Walking Dead" franchise. And it certainly is a mini-series that you should sit down to watch if you enjoy the ongoing series.

My rating of "Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water" lands on a six out of ten stars.

TWD Webisodes have not always been great. The original ones by Greg Nicotero (Torn Apart, Cold Storage and The Oath) were all very great! But after that, they went downhill. Flight 462, Passage and Red Machete were meh. Dead in the water was a great standalone short that shed light on an intriguing villain and expands the universe. I was seriously expecting to hate this! But wow this was loads of fun. Nick Stahl absolutely killed it! If it's possible to get him an Emmy for this, do it! The ending was brilliant to. Awesome work team.

Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water is a good example what's wrong with the whole TWD franchise since season 5 or 6 of the mothership TWD - the writing is lazy and not only occasionally plain stupid. I never was on board of a submarine but can't imagine that a zombie outbreak would overtake the crew in such a way (the show makes a convenient time jump, so the writers don't have to explain how the infected take over the sub), I just mention all those bulkheads, close them and you are save and/or you can confine the infected, on top, secure and control the Combat Information Center - easy work for a military crew, one might think. Anyway, the little show is not a total fail and not worse than the regular Fear the Walking Dead show (I must admit, that I do not watch that one anymore and missed the last two or three seasons) but you get just served the same lukewarm characters like in all the other shows, nothing really makes sense or provides real suspense, it's like eating a cheeseburger while you still do some stuff on your machine.

The premise in the show decription makes it look like it all takes place inside a submarine. It only STARTS in a submarine. Great cast, though the dialogue mostly sounds wooden in the first episode. The timing was way off in some scenes. But the thing that really botthered me was the atrocious makeup job done on the undead. I swear, the white makeup is no better than circus clown makeup. A couple zombies looked like they had zinc oxide cream thickly spread on their faces. I could actually see the THICK outline of the cake makeup. This made it impossible to take them seriously.

The director needs to quit his damn job as he obviously doesn't seem to pay attention to detail. Go back to being a producer, dude. Money is your wheelhouse, not directing.

Sure there are flaws in this series, but if you just sit back and relax, it's an enjoyable back story that we should've had before we met Riley.

It's a shame he was wasted on FearTWD, 8/10.