Fear the Walking Dead (TV Series) The Beacon (2021) User Reviews

A bit of a slow pace, but introduced a lot.

[caityelizabeth-54157 · 8/10 · 11 October 2021]

I'm still shocked over the ending but anyway here's my review:

It was overall a great premiere episode. It introduced a lot with the Stalkers (the people stripping walkers), what Strand has been up to the last 50 days after the bombs, and they spoke a lot about Alicia. I think one of the main storylines with Strand is going to be about finding both himself and Alicia, all while having conflict with Morgan, which is exciting. The scenery, shots, and colors were great as well. It's a big upgrade from the grey filter used in seasons 4 and 5. There were a few cons as well though. The opening credit scene was about 5-8 minutes of pure silence and Will searching for food and encountering the Stalkers, and then eventually giving up, only to be rescued by Strand and his rangers. That's fine, but I just don't think all that time was necessary for just a guy that (SPOILER) died at the end of the episode anyway. Although it introduced quite a bit in that sequence, it still felt slow. Other than that, the rest of the episode had a lot of action and surprises, and it opened a new mystery to where Alicia is and what "padre" means.

Overall, I'm super excited to learn about what everyone else has been up to and how they're surviving a nuclear fallout. I'm most excited to get deeper into the CRM in Fear the Walking Dead and to see how much it expands The Walking Dead universe. I give this episode an 8/10.

Good Cinematography, Weak Writing

[heartableoff · 7/10 · 11 October 2021]

The cinematography is at its peak this season with the fabulous colors & lovely directing...

The writing, however, is NOT. So weak. So forced. The dialogue is unrealistic and there's a sense of "you have to be a better person" vibes in every single line uttered.

Overall, better premiere than 401 & 501. But that's not saying much.

Am I the only one ?

[tristan_19 · 7/10 · 10 October 2021]

Having mixed feelings... The more I think about it, and the more I'm disappointed. Still giving it a high score, because the episode was solid overall, and the visuals were absolutely stunning. Strand's character is well-written as always. But at the end of the day, we didn't really learn anything new. We go on this journey with Will and Strand to find out Alicia left, and then go back to the tower, and Strand kills Will, and that's it. That's your season premiere seven seasons in.

Once again, I absolutely enjoyed some aspects of it, like the fog and how Will kinda deceived Strand at the beginning, faking he didn't know him, giving him the collar on purpose. But then again, he is supposed to be smart, giving how he was presented to the audience in the first place, but doesn't suspect anything near the end, and isn't on his guard at all, after Victor already tried to kill him three times.

So, it was a good character study on Strand, and sets up the Padre storyline, providing cool visuals. Kinda felt unnecessary, as we already knew who Strand was, and what his philosophy was at that point. Hoping the producers do something interesting with the rest of Season 7. I'm thinking an 8.5-8.7/10.

Good starting, but 1 big default

[christopherhq · 8/10 · 11 October 2021]

Well after having a season 6 that i found 7/10 imo, iwas really hyped to see that season 7. And for now, i want to see more of the rest of the season and all the characters left.

Positive point : It's really beautiful to watch, great camera, colors... It has a great ambiance, all feels dead. Even if it doesn't move all the episode, i found it good to discover this "new universe".

Negative point : Radioactive fallout seem random. The writing of Victor seems so brutal, i thought that Victor was more like sending someone to death than killing directly and throwing Will, that i liked and was too bad that he died in 1st episode, was a bad idea. Maybe they could have keep him and doing a duo then a conflict with Victor to finally dies but many episodes after.

This is still a good episode and i want to see what will happen to everyone (we have surviving, Alicia's mystery, morgan vs victor and CRM). I put an 8 stars for now, i need to reanalyse it to see if it goes down or not.

Good story but illogical climax

[The_Foiler · 7/10 · 18 October 2021]

When you kill someone, even if you are a villain, there is usually a valid reason. Your wife slept with someone, so you throw her off a roof. Your friend steals money from you, you off him with a gun. I don't get why Victor kills off Will. What strategic advantage does he gain from that? Whether there is an Alycia arc within that reason, is still irrelevant. Creators/writers made Strand kill off Will for only one reason-and that's for shock value. I'm good with shock value, but the events still need to make sense. When Michael Corleone killed Fredo at the end of Godfather 2, it was a shocker, but it also made sense.

Terrible kill theses show off now

[Howlie08 · 12 October 2021]

How bad has twd franchise become,nuclear bombs everyone's got protective gear 10 years into the apocalypse I thought the world beyond was bad but fear twd has just took on a whole new meaning in senseless story telling.it's about time this shambling monstrosity was but to sleep for it own sake.

Will :(

[jgillis-54425 · 10/10 · 11 October 2021]

Loved this episode so much, but very sad Will is dead. I was really hoping he'd become a cast member. Strand is clearly being set up as the main villain, and I feel like this will be his last season.

Colman Domingo completely steals the show in an episode full of suspension and tension, yet the writing is flawed and it's not a good premiere

[Holt344 · 7/10 · 18 October 2021]

The Walking Dead veteran, Michael E. Satrazemis returns to direct the season 7 premiere of Fear TWD. He does an amazing job at bringing an engaging episode with his great direction and visual storytelling, the camera work and cinematography are great. But honestly the sets was kind of disappointing with the unnecessary smoke making the scenes seen worse and not the visually appealing scenery that we got in the previous seasons. The bunker set was incredible though. The writing is mostly good, but some of the writing was flawed. Like I wrote in my review for the season 6 finale, this episode have both the good and bad writing from the showrunners. But I just felt like the dialogue was kind of unrealistic and not as great as the previous season. The overall writing for the aftermath wasn't what I anticipated it would be in terms of writing, with a big thing like a nuclear aftermath, you have to be careful and place logic before entertainment but the showrunners placed the latter before logic.

While most of the landscape is destroyed by nuclear warheads, Strand thrives in one of the few inhabitable places left; Strand's search for survivors uncovers a stranger with an unexpected connection to his past. It's what the episode is about and spending an entire episode with Victor Strand, one of the best characters of Fear TWD and seeing what he had accomplished during the time skip was nice to see. The performance Colman Domingo brought to the role of Victor Strand was the highlight of the episode, the writing for him is great and a nice change of who he was in season 4 and 5 that was a complete character assassination but season 6 improved immensely and brought a character arc that I like and the actor himself it seems like. Truly terrific. But having said that, I just didn't find it worthy of 40 minutes of screen time. The new character of Will made us see the nuclear aftermath from a different perspective and was enjoyable. But not showing any of the other perspectives hurt the episode, hugely. It's a season premiere after all.

But what it was worth "The Beacon" was overall a good season premiere, but it didn't meet my expectations. I was disappointed. The episode included a plenty of suspension, tension and action, thus making the episode entertaining. I just didn't find it to be a great premiere as a premiere to me is how you should grab the attention of the audience and making them want to come back. If I wouldn't have been a big fan of the TWD Universe, I would have thought hard if it's worth coming back. But luckily I think the season has promise and I'm here to stay, we can only hope the writing gets better and a more focused story. The anthology format worked for season 6 because of how big it was. They could have easily added in another perspective of for example June Dorie and John Dorie Sr. For a much better premiere. Some scenes in this episode felt unnecessary as it added next to nothing to the story or characters.

Great Opener

[revieweranarchy75 · 10/10 · 10 October 2021]

I love the cinematography, acting, and dialogue of Strand.

He's gone be the villain this season for sure. I just hope Alicia is the one to kill him.

Alright episode

[ethanjjacobs · 7/10 · 11 October 2021]

The episode was quite boring until the last scene, which was brilliant, i thought the rest of the episode just didn't have anything exciting, and we only got to see 1 main character, hopefully there are more main characters in the next episode.

6.8/10.

Stranded

[vam-vm · 5/10 · 19 October 2021]

Strand has been all over the place on this show, character wise. Mostly unscrupulous, untrustworthy charlatan. But then there were times when he was an important member of the group who redeemed himself on more than one occasion. So it was a stretch to make him a villain but to make him a villain that could carry on a pleasant and constructive conversation with an amiable young man and then brutally and gleefully sling him off the roof to his death. Why writers? Did y'all run out of ideas for villains? It was almost laughable to see Strand strutting around in his dictator outfit ( where did he get the dictator jacket and hat?) boasting to Will about what he's built there as his minion shuffled behind them like a loyal puppy. Fresh strawberries. How? It just doesn't pass the sniff test. He's having a meaningful conversation with Will that was going along nicely. Then off the roof goes Will. Strand has shown he can be a prick but slinging a guy off the roof who is not a threat and then bragging about it like a juvenile killer just doesn't jive.

Ok I guess

[swadwolf1 · 8/10 · 11 October 2021]

Ok this episode was ok but why concentrate on will so much just to have him die? Also seems victor is going to be the bad guy? Is he leaving? Saw Colman Domingo in candyman and on his page where it shows what he's been in it says fear the walking dead 2015-2021 so is he out this year?

Mixed Feelings

[betterhelm · 7/10 · 10 October 2021]

On one hand it's an upgrade from the last episodes of season 6, on the other hand it's a slow paced premiere that didn't progress much...

Please End Victor

[lbroskay · 2/10 · 19 October 2021]

So we finally get a promising new character and he is killed off by the annoying predictable uninteresting Victor. Please end him. I'm not sure I'll continue watching if he continues to be a major character. Nothing changes and his storyline is very boring. We've seen it time and time again.

This is way better than original TWD ...

[nikitamedianik · 9/10 · 13 October 2021]

After all, that spin-off is dramatically superior to the original series in the scenario plan. You can complain about the plot with radiation, immortal horses and a car in which you can remove the mask, but this is all one big convention necessary for the formation of a suitable post-apocalyptic atmosphere. To demonstrate the consequences of the landed warheads through a completely new character is the most reasonable decision. My boy Strand, meanwhile, is purely the best character that reflects our true essence. Every time we strive to be heroes, but in fact pursues exclusively personal goals, knowing that sometimes it even leads to repulsion of close people. A powerful start to the season 7!

More of a midseason finale ish

[elias-34013 · 6/10 · 14 October 2021]

This episode added in several new characters including Will, the stalkers, Victor's group as well as Howard

It includes several new details such as how Alicia escapes the bunker, that Will and Alicia developed a relationship and that Strands group is flourishing in the tower.

I feel this would be been a good mid season finale if the season had built up to these details. Instead they're crammed into a cheap time jump and killing off a decent character who had some potential in joining Strands group.

Strand Is The Leader

[ZegMaarJus · 8/10 · 6 April 2023]

This Episode begins with Will, he killed a walker. Will is crying in the middle of the night at the campfire. Will almost got killed by a walker. Will got ubducted. Victor points a gun on Will. Will tells his real name to Victor. Victor build a new base together with Howard. Will tells what he knows about Alicia to Victor. Victor fights with Will. Will and Victor got surrounded by walkers. Victor fights with the walkers. Victor pushed Will down, he died instantly. Nice First Episode of Fear the Walking Dead Season 7, such a great beginning of this Season. Victor build his own settlement and he is so cruel!

Gus Halper

[meltingmel · 6/10 · 5 June 2023]

So here I am... spending an entire episode falling deeply in love with Will (Gus Halper). That man is an ACTOR. The actor who plays Strand has been acting painfully bad in this show for years - no depth. But Gus? So much depth. So here I am thinking we are finally getting a really high quality actor on the show (to add to the other late arrivals we've gotten over the years) and BAM! Last two minutes... Strand throws him off a roof.

What a damn waste of an amazing character.

Look. I just spent two seasons watching TWD: World Beyond. That show was complete trash and had trash characters (like this show - but FTWD doesn't go as low as World Beyond) except for the last five episodes - which were saved by the character of Jadis from TWD. I watched The World Beyond basically kill off the few good, high quality actors/characters in the show and leave the POS bad, cringe actors/characters alive.

SMH. That is Strand. He has not been worth leading man material. The man cannot act. He has no depth. He is being paid TO DO A BAD JOB.

Here comes someone brilliant like Gus Halper - someone that could have saved this show - and you kill him off ASAP? Like WTF?!

So already the show is off to an absolute **** start. I looked ahead at the reviews for this season and the future is not looking bright.

I think the ratings would have improved if it had been STRAND thrown off the roof - and not Will.

Stop keeping these absolute trash characters alive. Seriously.

Victor Strand is the King of Kings!

[kurt7825 · 10/10 · 11 April 2022]

He's the best character in the show. I am glad to see he is the boss. I hate will. I'm glad Strand met Will bwaa ha haaa! Dakota used to be my favorite character. Her and Strand would have been a great team.

Confusing but good

[frankiesilver-91836 · 7/10 · 22 June 2022]

Pretty taken aback by how good of a premiere this is. The double apocalypse concept of a nuclear fallout 5 or so years into a zombie apocalypse has breathed so much new life into this series that was already doing great in Season 6.

This episode focused on Strand, and he is easily the show's Negan from how enjoyable of a villain/anti-hero he is to watch. It was also a great idea to show us this new apocalypse through the lens of a new character- shame he dies by the end.

Also disappointed to see Alicia's group has already left the bunker before we ever got to see what happened there. I hope we get a flashback episode of those events later on this season.

Still this was a pretty amazing first episode between Colman Domingo's performance and the cinematography. It may be my favorite since Season 3 (and I loved Season 6's premiere and don't mind 4 or 5's either). I am beyond excited to see where this season goes after the amazingness that was Season 6!!!

(Originally written Oct. 2021)

What is this nonsense?

[soelir · 2/10 · 23 January 2022]

I just don't understand how there is a Walking Dead universe but none of it can fit together because a nuclear bomb went off in this but not in any of the others. Nuclear bombs don't work like that!

The whole thing is nonsense.

CONTINUA IGUAL QUE LA 7

[nilteixi · 8/10 · 12 October 2021]

Gran cinematografia, gran actuación, y lo mejor es el ambiente de la temporada. Victor contra Morgan va a ser de lo mejor de la temporada, Alicia? Espero que también.

Walking dead meets The Fog

[Lefthandblack11725 · 7/10 · 20 May 2022]

Whether intentional or not, this episode pays homage to Carpenters The Fog, from the lighthouse, to Strands sabre, to the Captain Blake Walkers, to..we'll..the fog.

Good, but predictable episode.

Time for Fear to end

[mhorg2018 · 1/10 · 17 October 2021]

They really wrote themselves into a corner with the whole nuclear missile idea. First, how come that sub took no damage being thrown ashore? How did Hannibal, er, teddy known how to reprogram the missiles to hit Texas? How come an event like this, which would effect weather patterns throughout the country, isn't mentioned in either of the other shows? Just a gas mask won't protect anyone from radiation. The horses have zero protection. Are they getting theses ideas off the street? Really. This shows been up and down for it's entire run. Now it's going downhill without a brake.

Fear the walking dead is clearly the best of the 3 branches

[llipsis · 10/10 · 12 October 2021]

While the walking dead is an endless recount of kill zombie, meet a pathological criminal, kill another zombie, and world beyond a teenage drama, fear has set up a new landmark with incredible characters. In this episode you see how Strand with his taste of luxury can take advantage of an apocalypse inside another apocalypse. When you recount the first episodes in L. A and what they have endured, it's really a fantastic tale.