15 reasons you should be watching ‘The Walking Dead' spin-off

Justina Mintz/AMC

The INSIDER Summary:

• The prevailing rule of "The Walking Dead" universe is that no one is truly safe and there are endless stories to share. 
• AMC's "Fear The Walking Dead" returns this year and fans are anxious to see what happens to Madison and Crew.

AMC’s award-winning series The Walking Dead has spawned a devoted worldwide following and crushed viewership records year in and year out. Now in the middle of its seventh season, the show continues to follow up the success of Robert Kirkman’s critically acclaimed comic book series of the same name. Going into its sixteenth year, TWD has raised the bar for comics unrelated to superheroes, and has been a consistent best seller for Image since its introduction in 2002.

All this undead success has led to variations on the franchise, and AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead tops that list. A departure from the formula that has propelled TWD to its stellar heights, FTWD has struggled a bit in terms of popularity since its debut in 2015. Fans expecting a carbon copy of Rick Grimes and his group have been disappointed, and many viewers have tuned out on the zombified spinoff altogether. The show continues to soldier on, however, and will enter its third season in 2017. For fans of the Walking Dead franchise, FTWD remains another integral piece of the continuity that has turned an entire genre on its ear. Click the slideshow to begin! 

15. FTWD's story stands on its own two feet

The premise of The Walking Dead is a chance to examine the human animal and how it reacts and adapts to a scenario like this. A female guidance counselor approaches the predicament very differently than a male police officer, yet somehow they end up in similar places. Fans of the spinoff series should never expect to see a different cast of characters reacting to a situation in the same way that Rick Grimes and his group does — and this is a good thing.

The overarching theme of TWD is that the characters who survive will change and evolve over time, and may soon be completely unlike who they were when introduced. By this standard, Fear The Walking Dead is able to stand on its own two feet, as opposed to just being a rehashing of ground already covered by its parent show. The depths to which Madison Clark is willing to go in order to protect her son takes her to a very different place than where Rick Grimes winds up in his efforts to do the same thing.

14. FTWD expands The Walking Dead franchise

The Walking Dead franchise so far has been predicated on a small group of people trying their best to survive in a world where the dead have risen to consume the living. At first, it was enough that something had happened, and these were the people viewers were introduced to in order to tell the tale Robert Kirkman was spinning.

In the decade and a half since, the world has outgrown the microcosm of Rick Grimes and his group’s struggle to find a safe haven. More is needed, and Fear The Walking Dead not only reveals fragments of the early days of the outbreak, but also sets the story far away from the relatively rural climes of Georgia. Other tales set in the world of The Walking Dead have had backdrops ranging from murky swamps to a nondescript storage facility. What remains constant is each iteration’s contribution to the greater whole, forcing the readers and viewers to experience the entirety of this world the same way the various characters are…one piece at a time.

13. It isn't about zombies, it's about characters

The cornerstone of Robert Kirkman’s vision of a world overrun by reanimated corpses is that the stories don’t lie with the walkers. It’s the people that have managed to survive the undead outbreak that make this world compelling, even to the most devoted lover of zombie fiction. The various flavors of humanity, each with their own moral compass and backgrounds, set the stage for an endless array of stories as diverse as the people themselves. The stories range from the characteristically tragic, to stories of courage, tenacity, and triumph of the human spirit. Those last few tend to be in rather short supply, but they do exist.

The character of Nick, heroin junkie and possible pre-cursor to the Whisperers, is an excellent example. The first character to be introduced in FTWD, Nick goes from being a burden and an endless source of misery to his family to a decent, resourceful leader and an important player wherever he ends up. This sort of ongoing character progression is integral to the Walking Dead franchise, and a big reason to tune in.