The following contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 10, “Mourning Cloak,” which aired Sunday, April 24 on AMC.
Fear the Walking Dead has a character problem. It’s nothing new, which adds another layer to the issue, but the show’s resistance to just focus on its central characters is a hindering annoyance in Season 7. There are too many people on this damn show.
There’s no doubt that Fear the Walking Dead is suffering in quality, especially in these latest seasons. The early seasons were so special because of the Clark family and their few allies (or enemies), but that didn’t last for long. The too-swell-for-his-own-good Travis was a goner early in Season 3, Nick literally took a bullet to dodge a bullet that would’ve ruined his character in future seasons, and Ofelia (remember her?) tragically died for her father’s character development, only for him to disappear for a number of years. Madison “died” to save her children, but is returning in Season 7B to try to give the show some of its sparkle back.
Madison returning isn’t the issue. In fact, the show needs another Clark to offset Morgan’s weird philosophical impact. The problem is that Fear the Walking Dead is committed to their anthology structure that focuses on one character per episode, accompanied by a dozen uninteresting supporting characters. This structure was the guiding force in Season 6, which received positive responses from fans, but the showrunners took it too far by continuing it in Season 7.
The anthology structure is ignoring the should’ve-been-protagonist Alicia Clark — who only appeared in six episodes of Season 6 and three episodes in Season 7 so far — in favor of making room for characters that are suffocating the show more than its radiated wasteland. Take Episodes 9 and 10 of Season 7 as an example. Alicia actually gets a solo episode with Episode 9, but has to share it with some guy named Paul, who’s one and done. Charlie is the star of the next episode as seen at WonderCon (because she’s turning 13 and that’s the biggest concern in Fear the Walking Dead‘s world right now) and has a romantic subplot with newcomer Ali. And what a surprise, Ali gets chucked off the roof of Strand’s Tower in the same episode.
It seems like Fear the Walking Dead knows it has too many characters, so the writers just kill these unimportant side characters with no hesitation. But why waste time on them anyway? Why not just focus on the characters they got right now, who fans are literally begging to see on-screen? Not to mention that there are too many “main” characters already. Morgan, Dwight and Sherry don’t even belong on this show (and it’s very obvious); Sarah, Wendall and Wes are just… there. And worst of all, the core characters from Seasons 1-2 pop in like guest stars every now and again.
One could say this all started when the most insufferable Walking Dead character, Morgan Jones, was demoted to Fear the Walking Dead. Somehow, his transfer to the show created a trend where characters just don’t stop rolling in, and viewers don’t get to care for them long enough for their deaths to be impactful. In addition, this cycle is making the plot move along at a slug’s pace — to the point that the writers are writing vital scenes off-screen to make time for these pointless characters.
Amongst all the deserted characters this show has produced, there should be some concern over Madison’s return to the Fear the Walking Dead. Will she be sidelined just like her daughter, or will she take some initiative and make this show hers again? All signs unfortunately point to the former, and viewers will continue to feel endless frustration every Sunday when no plot or character development has moved forward in these filler episodes.
To see who will be the next “one episode and done” character, tune into Fear the Walking Dead Season 7. New episodes air Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and are available to stream early on AMC+.
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