Does ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Have A Teenage Problem?

AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead has a teenage problem according to some fans. Could the introduction of two young new characters from Flight 462 tip the show over the edge?

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Season 2 of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead. Please proceed with caution if you wish to avoid spoilers.

In AMC’s original zombie series, The Walking Dead, the cast has always been varied. While AMC may have be partial to killing off black characters, they could never be accused of a lack of diversity. In the spin-off series, Fear The Walking Dead, however, some fans are concerned at the lack of diversity in the core character group. The main group is made up of eight characters, and half of these are considered teen to young adult.

And, if the cast list on IMDb for Episode 3 (entitled “Ouroboros”) is correct, fans can expect two more younger characters to join the cast for at least a short time, thanks to the miniseries, Fear The Walking Dead: Flight 462. Fans who have watched this miniseries unfold will recognize Jake (Brendan Meyer) and Charlie (Michelle Ang) as two of the characters on the doomed Flight 462. Both of these characters have been billed as appearing in Episode 3. As yet it is unclear just how long they will survive Fear The Walking Dead. If they do live beyond Episode 3, there will be six teens against four older characters. That’s an awful lot of teen angst for a show that is based in a zombie apocalypse. Can a show like this even sustain so many young characters?

For a while now some fans have been criticizing the stupid decisions made by the teen cast. Now, as Season 2 progresses, some of these teens seem to do nothing other than mope around. Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and, in particular, Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) have done little besides scowl and argue with their parents. Nick (Frank Dillane) is interesting enough with his drug problem and a more apocalypse-ready take on the world. Ofelia (Mercedes Mason), on the other hand, has managed to get mostly lost in the crowd. As for Charlie and Jake from Flight 462, Jake seems to be just another mopey teen. Charlie does, however, show some potential with her instant grasp on the zombie problem and her lack of sympathy for the undead.

But do we really need to see more teens in Fear The Walking Dead? Or is it fans are just too far in the know thanks to The Walking Dead that the often-stupid mistakes and teen angst that comes with these characters? Considering The Walking Dead just completed its sixth season, fans are used to characters that have survived the initial stupid that comes with an outbreak such as the zombie apocalypse in a world that doesn’t actually have any undead lore. Remember some of the stupid things Carl (Chandler Riggs) did as a child of the apocalypse? He even managed to cause the death of another character, Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn), thanks to being an apocalypse newbie.

Or is it just because fans are more evolved than the characters in Fear The Walking Dead that the younger cast are more grating than they would have been had they appeared in The Walking Dead six seasons ago? Forbes was concerned about this very problem right from the very start of Season 1 of Fear. Now, as fans have watched the Season 6 finale of The Walking Dead, perhaps going straight from apocalypse hardened characters straight into Fear, where the characters are not yet equipped to deal with the undead, is not AMC’s greatest idea. Maybe it isn’t that fans are annoyed with the teen cast, but that they are irritated because of the lack of knowledge of all the characters in general?

With Season 3 of Fear The Walking Dead already confirmed, AMC need to get fans more involved with the characters in Fear. If they don’t, will the show manage to survive as long as The Walking Dead? Only time will tell.

What do you think of the teenage characters in AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!

Season 2 of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead returns next Sunday, April 24, with Episode 3, titled “Ouroboros,” at 9 p.m. ET.

The official synopsis for Episode 3, entitled “Ouroboros,” is as follows.

“Madison confronts Strand about his mysterious destination. Meanwhile, Nick, Alicia and others inspect wreckage from a plane crash.”

[Image via AMC]