How About: The Strolling Corpses?

Last year AMC announced they were producing a spinoff of their popular series The Walking Dead. This week they finally released the title of new series.

So what's the title, I hear you asking? The official title of the new Walking Dead spinoff series is... Fear The Walking Dead.

Well. That's... certainly a title alright.

This sound effect sums up my feelings for that title perfectly.

I probably would have gone with a title that wasn't 75% identical to the original show, but I'm not a TV producer.

Long time readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead, (hence the weekly recaps), but I'm not sure this spinoff series is a good idea. I'm afraid it could end up being too much. "Diluting the brand," as they say in the TV biz. Will the audience become "zombied-out" with not one but two undead series airing on the same network?

Who knows? Back in the 1990s both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine aired at the same time, so maybe it'll work out OK.

My other concern is the time frame of the series. Supposedly it takes place in the early days of the zombie apocalypse, showing how the characters deal with the fall of society and the rise of the undead. OK, I get why they're doing this— to distinguish the show from its parent. But how long can they drag out that premise?

Follow me here. The first episode of The Walking Dead begins shortly before the zombie apocalypse. We see Officer Rick Grimes and his partner Shane as they attempt to apprehend a criminal. Rick is accidentally shot in the shoulder and loses consciousness. He wakes up in a deserted hospital, some time after the rise of the zombies. 

So how long was Rick unconscious? A month? Two? Three at the most? However long he was out, that's the time frame in which the new series has to take place! Even if it runs for five seasons.

I guess it's possible. In the early days of LOST, each season equaled a month on the island. And the first two seasons of Under The Dome chronicled just a few days in the lives of the characters. It just seems like a bad idea to me though, hamstringing the series with a time frame like that.

I'm betting if the series is successful, they'll eventually have to directions and open up the time frame, showing how the characters deal with a full blown zombie apocalypse.