Fear the Walking Dead

Network: AMC
Episodes: 113 (hour)
Seasons: Eight

TV show dates: August 23, 2015 — November 19, 2023
Series status: Cancelled

Performers include: Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Lorenzo James Henrie, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Rubén Blades, Mercedes Mason, and Patricia Reyes Spíndola.

TV show description:      
Sharing the same universe as The Walking Dead, this gritty drama explores the onset of the undead apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counselor Madison Clark and English teacher Travis Manawa have managed to find.

The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and our dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories.

Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) is a popular guidance counselor at a high school in El Sereno who, prior to the zombie apocalypse, helped students prepare for their future. A widowed mother, she raised two children named Alicia and Nick single-handedly, but has recently found love with a high school English teacher. The pressure of survival brings clarity for Madison and she is quick to make the hard choices that will keep her family alive. The outbreak reveals a past to Madison that she had tried to bury. Now, in this new world, she can’t hide who she really is.

Alicia Clark (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is a model student who overachieves with frustrating ease. She wants the hell out of Los Angeles, and she has her sights set on graduating and escaping to college where she will be free of her family’s drama. Her ambition is in direct proportion to her brother’s screw ups.

Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) is a 19-year old drug addict. His mother has sent him to rehab several times, but now Nick has reached a point where no one can tell him what to do or force him into recovery — he has to do that all by himself. Nick wants to prove he can rebuild his life – and the apocalypse may provide him an ironic opportunity to do so.

Madison’s boyfriend is Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) who’s also a father, a high school English teacher, and a good man. As the group’s patriarch, he is protective, pragmatic and resolute in his conviction that anything can be fixed. He maintains a relationship with his ex-wife and their resentful son while trying to become a father to Madison’s children. Travis wrestles with the challenge of blending a family — a challenge that is exacerbated by a new, unforeseen chaos.

Travis’ ex-wife is Liza Ortiz (Elizabeth Rodriguez), a single mother who’s working to put herself through nursing school and she has no time for BS. For many years she was trapped in an unhappy marriage, but now that she’s on her own she’s finally chasing her dream. Liza is a multi-tasking whirlwind that doesn’t give herself any breaks when it comes to her future or raising her son.

Their son is Christopher Manawa (Lorenzo James Henrie), a rebellious teenager with a cause. He has both his father’s do-good attitude and his mother’s edge. Christopher often feels that he and his mother are his father’s forgotten family and he resents his father’s insistence on bringing the two families closer together. he wants to be his father’s sole priority.

A refugee from El Salvador, Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) will protect his family at any cost. He owns a barbershop and takes great pride in his business but mostly keeps to himself within the community. Some of Daniel’s regulars have been going to Salazar’s Cuts for years, but they barely know the man who cuts their hair. When people begin rising from the dead, Salazar reverts to the man he once was, a man who will do anything to ensure the survival of his family.

Daniel’s devoted wife is Griselda (Patricia Reyes Spindola) who came to the United States with her husband to escape the political turmoil of El Salvador. She waited to start a family with her husband until she got to the States so that she could give her daughter a better life than the one she had. Griselda is deeply religious and finds solace from her past with prayer, but prayer won’t protect her in this new world.

Their daughter is Ofelia (Mercedes Mason), a hardworking professional who is protective of her parents. She is quick-witted, devoted and always ready to stand up for what she believes in. When faced with the apocalypse, Ofelia clashes with her father’s opinions on the best course of action — identities are about to shift.

What do you think? Do you like the Fear the Walking Dead TV show? Do you think it should have been cancelled or renewed for a ninth season?