The back-biting in Los Angeles just got a lot worse. The face-biting, too. But that's to be expected as Fear The Walking Dead begins to reveal the untold story of the undead apocalypse.
The show is a companion series to The Walking Dead, America's most popular television hit, the fifth season of which attracted 17 million viewers. With figures like that, it's no surprise that makers AMC would want a spin-off.
"Fear The Walking Dead is an apocalyptic education," says David Erickson, the showrunner and executive producer. "It's essentially covering the time frame in which Rick Grimes – from the original show, from the comic – is in a coma. In that version, Rick is shot, falls into a coma, wakes up four to five weeks later and the world is over.
“What it gives us the opportunity to do is to show the audience what happens in that window of time.”
The first season of six episodes, which begins tomorrow with a special 90-minute premiere, will trace the collapse of civilisation as seen through the eyes of a dysfunctional family – a teacher, a guidance counsellor, a drug addict and a high-school student – who have no clue what is going on as things turn weird and terrifying in their city of 14 million souls.
“Our characters haven’t gone through Zombie 101,” says Erickson. “We have a group of people who are completely ill-prepared for the onset of the apocalypse.”
Single mother Madison Clark is played by Kim Dickens, an American actress best known for her roles in acclaimed HBO series Deadwood and Treme.
Her son Nick (played by Frank Dillane, who will soon be seen in director Ron Howard's historical drama In the Heart of the Sea) is a college dropout and a drug addict. Her daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey; star of Into the Storm and the CW TV series The 100) is an overachieving high-school student often at odds with her slacker brother.
Hoping to start a new life, Madison moves in with her fiance, Travis Manawa, played by Cliff Curtis, an actor from New Zealand best known for his roles in the films Whale Rider and Blow, and as the star of ABC's short-lived mystery thriller TV series Missing. Travis's rebellious son Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) resents his Dad for divorcing his mother.
“They’re a family on the brink of falling apart,” says series producer Dave Alpert. “They’re barely keeping things together as it is now – and we add the apocalypse. “
Rounding out the main cast are: Elizabeth Rodriguez (Orange Is the New Black) as the free-spirited Liza Ortiz, Travis's ex-wife; salsa musician and actor Rubén Blades as Daniel Salazar, an immigrant barber; Mercedes Mason (Chuck) as his protective daughter Ofelia; and Patricia Reyes Spíndola (Bleak Street) as his ultrareligious wife Griselda, who views the undead catastrophe as punishment for the sins of the world.
“I think that the fact that the audience knows more than our characters is part of the fun of telling this story,” says Erickson, “and part of the chip that we had in terms of how we could play with audience tension and expectations.
“For me, it’s equivalent to when you go and see a horror film and everybody knows that the bad guy’s hiding behind the closet and up comes the innocent blonde not knowing he’s there and there’s this great excitement and thrill and titillation to like, ‘no, no, please, don’t go in there’.”
The monsters in this chilling family drama won't be called "walkers", as they are in The Walking Dead – instead, meet the "infected", as those who have the "virus" will become known.
What gives this series a fresh dimension of dread is that many of these newly dead infected look normal.
“These are fresh ‘turns’,” says co-executive producer and make-up effects wizard Greg Nicotero, already well known to fans for his work on the original series. “We’re not constantly surrounded by hundreds of walkers. They don’t have the same decomposed-for-a-year-and-a-half look.”
“The reality is this,” says Erickson. “We’re so early in the apocalypse that when people are infected and walkers turn, they seem, for all intents and purposes, human … So we’re dealing with people who are confronted with their friends, their family, their colleagues – people they have a cup of coffee with the day before – and they have to process: ’Is this person on something? Is this person sick?’
“Their go-to is not: ‘This is a zombie and I have to put this person down.’ It’s to try to wrap their brains around what’s going on.
“What’s interesting to me and, I think, interesting for our [characters], is processing this level of paranoia. This level of tension. This anxiety. What happens if the people we know are no longer the people we know?”
"With Fear the Walking Dead, [the] family is growing even more," says Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead comic book and co-creator of the original television series, "and I know we're all going to open our hearts – and guts – to give these new additions a warm welcome."
AMC has already ordered a second season of 15 episodes, to be broadcast next year.
The early buzz
Orlando Sentinel
"Fear the Walking Dead feels like a worthy extension because it gives another perspective, from Los Angeles, on a global crisis. There are stories beyond Rick Grimes and his fearless, tested band."
Collider.com
"Legitimately scary. Not just the artful gore that The Walking Dead has become known for, not just jump scares or 'humans are the worst' psychological horror, but genuine tension. A can't-sit-still-in-your-seat, nerve-racking, skin-crawling fear that earns the series its title."
New York Daily News
“Nothing serves a horror story like a good build. Or, in the case of LA itself, a slow crumble.”
Variety
“The 90-minute premiere … initially feels too much like a snore, narrowly following a single, not-terribly- interesting family, and leaning heavily on musical cues to stoke a sense of suspense.”
Yahoo! TV
"If The Walking Dead is a horror story, Fear the Walking Dead is a mood piece, more artful than the original series."
Spot the differences
Family comes first
Unlike The Walking Dead, which features a battle-weary, ever-changing group of strangers thrown together and struggling to survive, Fear The Walking Dead focuses on the changing dynamic of a dysfunctional family – dad, mum and teenage kids – that finds itself blindsided by the zombie apocalypse.
A city without pity
We leave the forests of rural Georgia behind to explore the densely-populated concrete jungle of Los Angeles, where it doesn’t take much for a spark of infection to ignite a riot of undead slaughter among 14 million Angelinos.
Fresh dead & dying
Don’t expect the oozing, putrescent skeletal “walkers” of The Walking Dead. In this spin-off, the newly “infected” in LA look relatively normal until they are mere inches from your face – and then it’s too late.
Fear the Walking Dead is on at 5.10am and 10pm on Monday, August 24 on AMC
artslife@thenational.ae
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Mobile phone packages comparison
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
More on Quran memorisation:
more from Janine di Giovanni
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Left Bank: Art, Passion and Rebirth of Paris 1940-1950
Agnes Poirer, Bloomsbury
BIO
Favourite holiday destination: Turkey - because the government look after animals so well there.
Favourite film: I love scary movies. I have so many favourites but The Ring stands out.
Favourite book: The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t like the movies but I loved the books.
Favourite colour: Black.
Favourite music: Hard rock. I actually also perform as a rock DJ in Dubai.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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RESULTS
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3E5pm%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EWathba%20Stallions%20Cup%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(PA)%20Dh70%2C000%20(Turf)%202%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAl%20Hazeez%2C%20Saif%20Al%20Balushi%20(jockey)%2C%20Khalifa%20Al%20Neyadi%20(trainer)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E5.30pm%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EShams%20Gate%20Tower%20%E2%80%93%20Maiden%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20ES%20Sudani%2C%20Antonio%20Fresu%2C%20Hamad%20Al%20Marar%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E6pm%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Al%20Bahr%20Towers%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20AF%20Musannef%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Ernst%20Oertel%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E6.30pm%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Capital%20Gate%20%E2%80%93%20Maiden%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C600m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shugga'A%20Baynounah%2C%20Dane%20O%E2%80%99Neill%2C%20Nisren%20Mahgoub%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E7pm%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEtihad%20Towers%20%E2%80%93%20Conditions%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C600m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAF%20Maqam%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Ernst%20Oertel%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E7.30pm%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fairmont%20Marina%20%E2%80%93%20Maiden%20(TB)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C600m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETempesta%20D'Oro%2C%20Xavier%20Ziani%2C%20Salem%20bin%20Ghadayer%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 395bhp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: from Dh321,200
On sale: now
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Essentials
The flights
Return flights from Dubai to Windhoek, with a combination of Emirates and Air Namibia, cost from US$790 (Dh2,902) via Johannesburg.
The trip
A 10-day self-drive in Namibia staying at a combination of the safari camps mentioned – Okonjima AfriCat, Little Kulala, Desert Rhino/Damaraland, Ongava – costs from $7,000 (Dh25,711) per person, including car hire (Toyota 4x4 or similar), but excluding international flights, with The Luxury Safari Company.
When to go
The cooler winter months, from June to September, are best, especially for game viewing.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
The Bio
Favourite place in UAE: Al Rams pearling village
What one book should everyone read: Any book written before electricity was invented. When a writer willingly worked under candlelight, you know he/she had a real passion for their craft
Your favourite type of pearl: All of them. No pearl looks the same and each carries its own unique characteristics, like humans
Best time to swim in the sea: When there is enough light to see beneath the surface
UAE v Zimbabwe A
Results
Match 1 – UAE won by 4 wickets
Match 2 – UAE won by 5 wickets
Match 3 – UAE won by 25 runs
Match 4 – UAE won by 77 runs
Fixture
Match 5, Saturday, 9.30am start, ICC Academy, Dubai
PRO BASH
Thursday’s fixtures
6pm: Hyderabad Nawabs v Pakhtoon Warriors
10pm: Lahore Sikandars v Pakhtoon Blasters
Teams
Chennai Knights, Lahore Sikandars, Pakhtoon Blasters, Abu Dhabi Stars, Abu Dhabi Dragons, Pakhtoon Warriors and Hyderabad Nawabs.
Squad rules
All teams consist of 15-player squads that include those contracted in the diamond (3), platinum (2) and gold (2) categories, plus eight free to sign team members.
Tournament rules
The matches are of 25 over-a-side with an 8-over power play in which only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle. Teams play in a single round robin league followed by the semi-finals and final. The league toppers will feature in the semi-final eliminator.
Five films to watch
Castle in the Sky (1986)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Pom Poki (1994)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)
