‘Fear the Walking Dead’ 1.5 “Cobalt”

‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Episode 1.5 “Cobalt” (6.5 out of 10) Created by Dave Erickson & Robert Kirkman; Starring Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Rubén Blades, Mercedes Mason; Sundays on AMC.

To the show’s credit, “Fear the Walking Dead” ventured into some pretty grim territory tonight—and none of it really had to do with zombies. It feels like it’s a little closer to the vision that it set out to portray, but it still feels a bit like the show is trying to grow up too fast. Working in the shadow of a show like “The Walking Dead” is going to create a need to explore dark territory, but it felt a little bit forced tonight.

Travis (Cliff Curtis) and Madison (Kim Dickens) haven’t been getting much screen time together, which serves to illustrate the rift that appears to be growing between them. The motifs of compassion vs. pragmatism are strong between the two characters, and it helps define them as characters, but it’s getting a little stale to see how both characters would approach a problem. Case in point: When the National Guard runs off with Griselda (Patricia Reyes Spíndola) and Nick (Frank Dillane), there are two paths for the group to take. Travis’s way is to take the high road and try to reason with the powers that be to get a little more information, where Madison seems to be more in sync with Daniel’s (Ruben Bladés) plan which involves torturing a soldier for more information.

These deviating pathways do lead to some interesting scenes. When Lt. Moyers (Jamie McShane) asks Travis to shoot a zombie with a sniper rifle and homeboy can’t take the shot, Moyers asserts his dominance by way of the gun. Sure, it ends up putting his platoon in a nasty situation, but it somehow still feels like Travis lost that pissing match. On the more torture-y part of the spectrum, it appears as if Madison isn’t on board until Daniel explains his philosophy on using violence for a purpose. Here’s where the show hurtles too quickly into a bit of contrived darkness. While Ruben Bladés kills these scenes with Madison, it feels like we haven’t gotten enough justification with Daniel’s character. He’s explained his traumatic past, but it’s the type of character wrinkle that begs for a disturbing flashback.

After watching yet another episode in which Travis, Madison and Daniel pursue different moral directions, my interest was piqued with the introduction of a mysterious, well-dressed man who called himself a “closer.” He’s interested in Nick, he vaguely mentions a place called Cobalt, and he just oozes upper management-type evil. If I have a reason to keep watching the show, it’s because of this guy right here, and whatever the hell Cobalt is.

I’m not quite sure how to process this series right now. It’s introduced some interesting subplots, but the overall episodic storytelling feels like it’s rushing to catch up with “The Walking Dead.” The acting continues to be great—I just wish the writers had ironed out their character development a bit more.

There’s only one more episode this season, which will coincide with the premiere of a webisode series called “Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462” that will assuredly have some mutha-effing zombies on a mutha-effing plane. Between you, me and the dead guy, however, I’m just biding my time for the premiere of “The Walking Dead.” The world’s gonna need a man like Rick Grimes.