Why the Dave Erickson era of Fear the Walking Dead was perfect

When I say FTWD is my favourite tv THIS is what I mean (seasons 1-3)

[Tempsdg]

Ericksons ftwd is my favorite in twd universe. Beautiful camera work, beautiful color, top tier story telling with top tier Characters. But the thing that really sells it is the realism for me. No conversation was out of concept and had meaning.

[MVGalias]

I remember still being so excited for nick’s next journey when season 3 ended. even though Troy was killed who became my no.2 character in a single season(very impressive), I didn’t lose hope in the show. Then when Nick died, that was the final straw for me. There was no possible way to salvage the show for me at that point. I will forever cherish the first 3 seasons & the fantastic work of frank dillane & the rest of the cast(don’t know them by name) & crew did. I know that allegedly frank wanted to leave the show himself, but the way this show turned out is just pain…

[Kwjl]

I miss the old fear it had so much potential

[NeveleNachtschrank]

Seeing Nick hurt so much man...he was my favourite character

[HE]

One of the biggest problems with Fear is that each season seems to be in a completely different location and has a different look it. Season 6 has a western theme, season 7 is nuclear wasteland with a disgusting orange filter and season 8 has a green swamp theme. Whereas TwD after season 5 is mainly set around Alexandria. Which is easier to follow

[charger]

FTWD s1-s3 was above the main show for me, loved everything about it

[tjdw]

I love so much about Season 1-3 but for me one of the biggest biggest downgrades we got from Season 4 onwards was the cinematography. The handheld beautiful cinematography and look of Season 3 is one of my all time favourite looking seasons of anything and certainly of anything Walking Dead related and then Season 4 opens with its:
1) Fucking horrible grey filter (ngl when I re-watched Season 4 and 5 with my friend I added a mode on my television to bump the colour up 300% and it actually looked similar to Season 6 colours in the end and was a completely different to watching it normally, actually felt like I was seeing it in colour for the first time and yes if i hadn't done this I would have kms)
2) Boring, still, stable tripod shots and emulates the style of The Walking Dead and immediately removes any uniqueness from the show.

From the first frame of Season 4 all life is literally drained out of the show reflected in its new look and style. And this reflects the insane downgrade that we continued to get for Season 4 onwards in writing, characters, story, engagement, pacing, atmosphere, focus, characterisation and of course being a good show.

I will NEVER forgive the firing of Erickson fucking ever. I will NEVER forgive AMC for what they did to this show because it was exceeding TWD and on its Season 3 trajectory uninterrupted it could have been just utterly incredible and undeniably the superior Walking Dead Show. HOW THE FUCK DO YOU FUCK THAT UP!!!! Enter Andrew Chambliss, Ian Goldberg and Scott Gimple. OMG I love Season 1-3 it is one of my favourite things. Season 3 is literally the most ROCK solid season of any Walking Dead show and one of the best seasons of any show honestly. Season 1 as well it was really great I love those starting episodes so fantastic.

The other thing that I don't think gets enough credit was the Season 1-3 music from composer Paul Haslinger. Look at the Napalm scene from 2x01 and the lights going out scene from 1x03. Just great moody fantastic score, and this was another one of the huge downgrades from Season 4 onwards, I miss that soundtrack so much can't believe they had to change all of the fucking behind the scenes crew for the Dave Erickson switchover as well, so much greatness disappeared after Season 3 and half of it isn't even because of the writing, the change in look, feeling and sound its such a whiplash moment going from 3x16 to 4x01. I am just never going to understand what the fuck they did. 6x06 Bury Her Next To Jasper's Leg was the ONLY time the cinematography returned to the pre-Season 4 look and cinematography and that episode looks really good. They made so many poor changes and decisions going into Season 4 that it is actually insane to think about and honestly thinking about all of the crazy behind the scenes decisions it makes me buy into the theory that they were intentionally trying to kill the show because they had to know that they made 10000 negatively impacting decisions.

Btw normally I am ok with other opinions not in this. People that think that Season 4 onwards is superior to the Erickson Era I am convinced have Brain Damage because it is literally objectively kind of horrible in every way and just clearly the BIGGEST downgrade in history when it comes to consecutive seasons in any TV show.

Thus concludes the rant that I guess I guess I have been holding in for a few years.

[brianachim]

I agree, it was way better than Dumb and Dumbers version of Fear. He gave us unpredictability, awesome characters and visuals unlike the clowns nows.😒

[brookiie]

The biggest thing for me is I absolutely hate that they put color filters on the show after season 3 I loved how crisp and vibrant and beautiful seasons 1-3 were it gave everything so much more life

[Daron]

The one man I wouldn’t want coming for me is Daniel Salazar. He’s fucking ruthless. If you’re his friend, he’ll ride with you, but if you’re An enemy, Lord help you. The Natives were obsessed about their land largely because 1. It’s rightfully theirs and 2. The bones of their ancestors were on the land the Ottos were occupying.

[Cakelovez]

Nick is still my most favorite character in all of the walking dead universe

[CallMeElChapo]

glad to have finally found an account based around long style Fear content, keep it up man

[MCPE_YT]

Nice there are still fans of the dave erickson era of fear

[bostownent]

Hate to break it to you but Mexico is in North America.

[swirvin_]

Fear was special and season 1 was even more special

[AB-mwoz]

What made Fear so good at the start was it was the end of the world, the first 3 seasons took place over 9 weeks. Season 1 and 2 alone take place over 37 days. Don't get me wrong, Seasons 4 and 5 were my personal favourite seasons of the main show. but the best part in the entire TWD franchise is watching society collapse.

The writers didn't trust the audience to stay, so they had to write a character from the main show into Fear, and to accommodate this move Fear to be chronologically in line with the main show. Whenever I rewatch fear I only watch the first 3 seasons.

[BackyardTreePeople]

The intro or the title screen was so good in the first couple seasons. In my opinion the show gets bad the minute Madison disappeared. Its funny how FTWD went from so good to so bad. I can't even sit through ftwd after Madison leaves the show

[dalegend]

I rewatch S1-S3 from time to time, it had so much potential, after mid S4 i stopped watching FTWD.

[Daron]

Omaha, Nebraska (My home town) was still standing until the CRM destroyed it in The World Beyond. Small nitpick: Mexico is in North America same as USA and Canada. They were in Baja California and Tijuana, Mexico bordering San Diego in the USA. As we know Los Angeles and San Diego were both rendered to ashes by Operation Cobalt conducted by the US Military.

[talkingonyoutube]

I think season 3 is one of the best seasons of TWDU, third on my personal ranking. However, s1 and s2, while being good, they are not as great as s3, both have some problems, still miles better than 4-7,