Fear The Walking Dead season 6 has seen big improvements - here's how the zombie spin-off turned its fortunes around. After The Walking Dead's runaway success, confirmation of a prequel series in 2013 didn't come as a huge surprise, and Fear The Walking Dead premiered 2 years later with its own separate cast, setting and tone. Centering around the Clark family, Fear The Walking Dead couldn't immediately match the popularity of its parent series, but found a solid audience nonetheless amidst mixed reviews. Fear The Walking Dead underwent a soft reboot for its fourth season, introducing new characters, advancing the timeline, and playing up the wild west aesthetic.
Heading into its fifth season, Fear The Walking Dead still hadn't escaped the shadow of its predecessor, despite adding several recognizable faces, but continued to push ahead with confidence after a strong fourth outing. Unfortunately, Fear The Walking Dead season 5 is generally considered the spin-off's weakest run yet, currently rated at 55% on Rotten Tomatoes - the lowest of all 5 seasons. The pacing was slower than the zombies, too many episodes were uneventful, and character development lurched back and forth without capturing the audience's interest.
While viewers might've been tempted to shift their attention to one of the other 94 Walking Dead projects currently in development, Fear The Walking Dead season 6 has redeemed the spin-off in spectacular fashion. By making significant changes to format and character, Fear The Walking Dead has discovered a new lease of life, justifying AMC's decision to renew the spin-off for season 7. One could even argue that with The Walking Dead heading into its final season, Fear The Walking Dead is beginning to catch up to the original's standing and reputation. Here's how Fear The Walking Dead season 6 fixed season 5's mistakes.
Spreading Out The Cast Finally Works
One recurring flaw in both The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead has been splitting up the main cast at the wrong time. While focusing on one or two characters per episode allows an ensemble cast to share the spotlight, rarely is every single pairing capable of sustaining an episode by themselves. The zombie apocalypse doesn't exactly offer much variety in terms of setting either (take your pick between abandoned building, abandoned road, or abandoned forest), so splitting the cast often leads to forgettable filler. Thanks to Ginny and her Pioneers, Fear The Walking Dead's main cast have been split once again, but for the first time, they all have a vital, distinct role in the overarching story.
Fear The Walking Dead season 6 opened with Morgan out in the wild alone, then saw Alicia and Strand attempt a failed coup, introduced 2 brand new groups with Al and Dwight, and delivered a fantastic murder mystery in CSI: Dorie. The first block of episodes ends with June choosing not to kill Ginny, while Alicia narrowly survives a horror-inspired creepy cabin episode. Where splitting the cast would usually result in some groups falling flat, Fear The Walking Dead season 6 has so far delivered 7 separate stories with enough variation in setting and tone to make each compelling in its own right. And where dividing the cast often means the long-term arc takes a back seat, each episode adds a piece to the larger puzzle of Ginny's Pioneers. For the first time since the days of Madison, each Fear The Walking Dead character is clearly defined and colorfully presented, while occupying their own place in the narrative.
Ginny Is FTWD's Best Ever Villain (& It's Not Close)
If there's one area that The Walking Dead has far outpaced its lesser-known younger cousin, it's in the bad guy stakes. Fear The Walking Dead has a patchy history when it comes to villains, from racist cowboys to a woman in desperate need of a shower. Most Fear The Walking Dead villains simply aren't afforded enough screen time to make an impact. The likes of John the Proctor, The Vultures and Martha showed enough promise to become long-term antagonists, but only appeared in a handful of episodes before the story moved elsewhere. Meanwhile, the likes of Connor the pirate leader have been swiftly forgotten. The only Fear The Walking Dead villain to leave a lasting impression is Troy Otto - a good-looking and charismatic military man with psychological issues to spare.
Troy aside, Fear The Walking Dead was bereft of a proper villain until the arrival of Colby Minifie's Virginia. Virtually unrecognizable from her role as a sycophantic PR agent in The Boys, Minifie's promotion to series regular in season 6 is a major reason behind Fear The Walking Dead's recent upturn in quality. Ginny veers from sickeningly sweet to ruthlessly totalitarian with a single withering glance, and her weaknesses are barely hidden beneath a tough exterior. Like Troy Otto, Ginny's true strength comes from her ambiguity - moments that force the audience to question whether she's really a villain (she definitely is), or just playing a part. Through Ginny, Fear The Walking Dead finally has an antagonistic force to rival the Governor, Negan or Alpha in the main series.
FTWD Finally Fixed Morgan
Morgan Jones has been frustrating Walking Dead fans almost since the moment he entered Alexandria. Debuting alongside Rick as Andrew Lincoln's character took his first tentative steps in the zombie apocalypse, Morgan is rightly considered The Walking Dead royalty, and reappeared as a broken man mourning his son. After regaining his sanity and going "zen" with a crash course in Aikido, Morgan was inducted into the main Walking Dead cast, but since then has constantly switched from being a ruthless killer who shows no mercy to villains, to an unerring pacifist who refuses to take a human life. For one reason or another, Morgan was always conflicted over his actions, whether he abstained from battle and let friends die, or whether he went overboard with his wooden stick and regretted it later. After seasons of non-development for Morgan, the character was no longer working.
Fear The Walking Dead season 6 has finally delivered the version of Morgan Jones that fans knew was always beneath the surface. After surviving a near-death experience so desperate even the undead lost their appetite, Morgan faced off against Emile the bounty hunter, and barely came out on top. Since that landmark victory, Morgan has adopted Emile's persona - nabbing his clothes, adopting his dog and fixing the head of his ax to a sharpened Aikido stick before declaring "Morgan Jones is dead." In his third spin-off season, Morgan is finally the badass he always threatened to be, but doesn't trigger a moral crisis by overstepping the mark. Morgan's the same friendly, peaceful leader as before, but with a no-nonsense attitude when the occasion calls for some heads to hit the floor.
Mysteries Everywhere
The life of a spin-off is typically a double-edged sword - one on hand, a show can dine out on the reputation of its parent, on the other, being a "side project" means working within the confines set by another series, not making any major moves that could cause disruption elsewhere. For this season, Fear The Walking Dead hasn't enjoyed the same creative freedom as The Walking Dead, and this means a lack of long-running teases and questions to keep viewers hooked. Previous seasons of Fear The Walking Dead have also moved around so often, there's rarely time to set up an effective season-long mystery storyline.
Fear The Walking Dead season 6 has remedied that issue with a series of intriguing slow-burn plot points for viewers to ponder and theorize over. The identity of the enigmatic stranger who healed Morgan (could it be Madison?) remains unsolved, there's an unidentified group running around town with cans of spray paint, and Ginny is clearly hiding something big from her followers. These tantalizing plot threads, combined with characters the audience can now invest in, elevate Fear The Walking Dead beyond the simple spin-off from seasons past. Even better, Fear The Walking Dead knows when to give answers and when to hold something in reserve. The mystery of the masked group is solved almost instantly thanks to Dwight, but neglecting to reveal the true identity of Cameron's killer in "The Key" only makes the episode more tragic for John as he doggedly investigates.
Fear The Walking Dead has been a roller coaster of highs and lows since the beginning, and a lackluster season 5 threatened to put the spin-off down for good. Thanks to the changes implemented in season 6, Fear The Walking Dead is better than ever, and hopes are high for the remaining episodes and beyond.