You better have some new fans in that backpack, Morgan ol' pal.
In general (in very, very general), the larger TWD fanbase has not been especially supportive of FTWD. Part of this could possibly be AMC's historically poor promotion of the show. I mean, if AMC don't care, why should fans, right?! (AMC have even been promoting season 4 as a reboot so that 당신 don't have to watch seasons 1-3 in order to know what is going on in the show. Seriously, AMC?!). But a big part of the FTWD rejection seemed to come down to the first season of the show, which TWD 팬 seemed to reject quite swiftly.
I'm in no position to explain to 당신 why people didn't like season 1. I personally loved it. Maybe part of the issue is that TWD 팬 came to FTWD with particular ideas about how the zombie apocalypse went down, and when FTWD didn't meet these expectations, they abandoned the show. I'm not sure.
FTWD also seemed to hemorrhage some 팬 through season 2; although again, I can't really tell 당신 why, because I loved it even 더 많이 than I loved season 1. Season 3, on the other hand, seems to have picked people back up again. And rightfully so: season 3 is an excellent season of television, both when compared to TWD and just 텔레비전 generally.
FTWD and TWD are not as dissimilar as the fandom seems to think. In both shows, the walkers are excellently executed, both in the sense of their appearance and their actual execution. Season 3 features a walker kill that is truly spectacular (let's just call it... an act of god...), but there are a great many awesome kills, if blood and guts are your thing.
FTWD also has bottle episodes, just as TWD does. Personally, I am largely not a 팬 of TWD's bottle episodes, but FTWD knocks them out of the park. They've only done two so far (one in season 2 and one in season 3), but both are high on the list of the best FTWD episodes. The season 3 bottle episode in particular achieved some major 팬 and critical acclaim.
Fear The Walking Dead has a number of cool characters, but not so many that 당신 can't keep track of them (which, let's be honest, happens a lot in TWD). The show focuses on the Clark family, comprised of matriarch Madison Clark and her two teenage children, Nick and Alicia. You'll also meet the Manawa family (featuring Madison's partner, Travis Manawa, his son Chris and his ex-wife Elizabeth). The Salazars, the Ottos and the lone 늑대 Strand are also key players. But remember that FTWD follows the early days of the apocalypse, so we see much less of the collecting of other survivors as they go along than we do in TWD. FTWD focuses on the immediate responses of small family groups to the sudden and inexplicable situation they find themselves in. TWD, on the other hand, largely focuses on the cooperative (and combative) efforts of built-up communities comprised of multiple families and individuals that have been gathered up along the way. TWD is very focused on the re-building of 안전한, 안전 communities, whereas FTWD, while obviously still prioritising this goal, is 더 많이 about finding a 안전한, 안전 place in the moment and surviving until the chaos plays out (TWD, however, tells us that the chaos doesn't go away, which adds another thick layer of anxiety to the Clark's (and others) various situations). With the merging of the two shows, it seems that FTWD could be moving 더 많이 towards the TWD focus on eclectic community-building, which makes sense given the confirmed time-jump.
Speaking of time-jumps, the progression of the seasons alone is a really good reason to go back and start FTWD from the beginning before rejoining us all in season 4. FTWD is a show that builds, which totally makes sense when 당신 remind yourself we are following a group from the moment the zombie apocalypse begins. They aren't all suddenly bad asses; they aren't all suddenly weary of the apocalyptic world. In TWD, we are greeted with characters who have already been beaten up and worn down 의해 the world that they have lived through for quite a while. In FTWD we are meeting characters who are trying to understand their situation with very little information, as well discovering that they are capable of extreme violence (as opposed to the characters on TWD who are mainly discovering just how much violence they can become accustomed to, enjoy, 또는 reject).
One of my favourite things about FTWD is that the line between good and bad is non-existent. TWD likes to position Team Family as the 'good guys' (while still acknowledging they do bad things), but the Clarks, as just one example, are not really consistently positioned as "good" people. At many points across the series, the characters are quite explicit about either being the bad guys, 또는 at least doing very bad things in order to ensure the family's survival. Rick Grimes often prattles on about being what is "right" for everyone (according to him), but Madison has always been pretty clear that her version of "right" is about the survival of her family and to hell with everything else. The uncertainty about whether 또는 not 당신 are watching the rise of (who some might call) villains is a big part of the fun of FTWD. Unlike in TWD, we aren't spoon-fed 히어로즈 making morally questionable decisions; FTWD asks us to think a little harder about what "villainy" might be, how people might become villains and perhaps makes us challenge our own perceptions of who villains are. Season 3 in particular does this masterfully.
So I ask any TWD 팬 who 가입하기 us to watch Morgan's journey with the Clark family to sit yourself down in front of season 1 - 3 of Fear The Walking Dead. At the very least, you'll be 더 많이 clued in to what the heck is going on! And at best, 당신 might enjoy yourself! Save yourself the trouble of thinking "who is this and why did they just do that???" every 5 초 의해 watching this awesome show right from the start.
