Note: This is a no-spoiler review (not a recap) of the Season 8 premiere of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD on AMC.

Fear The Walking Dead is back for one final season and I’m here to let you know whether or not it’s worth watching—or maybe at least worth hate-watching. The Season 8 premiere lands on AMC+ Thursday and on AMC the television network this Sunday. It’s a fragmented world of TV-watching these days, that’s for sure.

It’s tricky because I have screeners again (for the first time since Season 4, after which I was blacklisted) but that means my embargo is Sunday after the episode airs. If I was just using AMC+ instead of screeners, I could post reviews earlier, each Thursday when they stream online.

I’ve settled on a balance instead. I’ll post a non-spoiler review of the episode earlier in the week, then update with recap/spoilery additions on Sunday when embargo lifts or just post a separate recap post that day. That way I can still offer up some thoughts on the episodes as they release on AMC+ but wait to drop any spoilers until Sunday (though obviously there will be tons of spoilers readily available since tons of viewers will be watching on Thursday—like I said, fragmented, weird time to be a TV viewer or critic).

So here’s my first go at double-posting, with the first part of this review spoiler-free, and then an update Sunday with spoilers. Consider this an experiment. I may or may not continue with this format throughout the rest of Season 8. This will also inform how I cover Dead City when that airs this coming June.

Again, no spoilers in this section other than basic premise stuff that we already know based on trailers and what the show’s creators have discussed publicly such as the big time-jump between now and Season 7 and the fact that we’ve sailed from Texas to (I think) Louisiana. Deep South.

Okay, let’s dive in . . . .

The Season 8 premiere is okay. It’s fine. It’s a big step up from Season 7, but that’s such a low bar that I’m not sure it says much. There’s nothing egregiously bad here, but also nothing to really convince me that the showrunners and writers have learned any important lessons from their previous mistakes.

I’ll start with things I liked:

Stuff I didn’t like:

There’s some good action, some tension, some fun scenes in the Season 8 premiere but it’s just very, very difficult to care about any of it. The fact is, this is still New Fear, and that’s always been less compelling than Old Fear. Season 3 Fear. The vibe is just . . . so different. Everything feels artificial and contrived. Which is too bad. We’ll see if things can pick up as the season progresses, but my hopes are down there in the swamp with the dead, drowning in the muck.

What did you think of the Season 8 premiere? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

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