Collector's Corner: Star Wars

In the second episode of "Fear the Walking Dead", LA is continuing to fall, as societal collapse due to the viral zombie outbreak causes wide-spread violence, confusion, and the reanimated dead attacking still-alive humans in and around the city. Riots, looting, protests as the police and quarantine-scientists try (and fail) to maintain order in LA, "Fear the..." further communicates and emphasizes that the come-apart-at-the-seams has overtaken the city and is all-too-obvious destined to reach out to the entire country (if not the globe). Madison heads to her abandoned school (Artie is there but he's no longer among the living but walking dead) to look for "pharmaceutical relief" for her "ill" son, Nick, meeting up with a student. Artie, Zombie Principal, interrupts their attempt to grab supplies and meds, but Madison and the student eventually do get away. Travis (Cliff Curtis) separates from Madison so he can go and find his son from a previous marriage with Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez), Chris (Lorenzo Henrie), ending up in the middle of the LA protest, recording camera in hand. Rubén Blades is cast as a barber, Daniel Salazar, holed up in his shop with wife and daughter, agreeing to allow Travis, Liza, and Chris refuge inside. The episode shows signs of a city in disarray as smoke goes up from burning buildings and cars aflame, bodies accumulate to raid stores and complicate the police's efforts to subvert the eventual societal deterioration. Madison gets home with the meds but Nick had already fell to floor vomiting in a heap while Alicia had to tend to him the best she could, denied her desire to revisit boyfriend, Matt (Maestro Harrell). Matt was bitten and as a result he's got the sweats and weakness, unable to any longer move, but Alicia loves him so she wants to be with him...and the dangers of that she can't quite accept. Heading for the desert seems to be Madison's next plans, having to leave behind home for a future unknown. Of course, "Fear" fans know what lies ahead for her, sigh. Still seeing life before the zombie apocalypse is a bit jarring, although the decline is quite visualized such as when Chris is on the bus looking out the window, or later when he concerns himself with what is going on outside the barber shop. The auto traffic, police and ambulance sirens, and foot traffic just further echoed the downfall of society at large. The student, Tobias (Lincoln Castellanos), informs Madison of how technology, the grid, the power, communication avenues will all fall, sort of planting the seed in her mind towards leaving for the desert. Nick's issues are a problem Madison hopes to solve when they get away from the city while Alicia's patience is tested as her beau's health will ultimately lead to his demise and turn. The birthday party that soon results in the father chasing down the mother (due to the ensuing passage of the zombie virus) is used to spotlight how family activity in suburbia, something once typical and normal, is forever altered by the apocalypse.

....Fear the Walking Dead, So Close, Yet So Far 
First season, second episode.

Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) had an iconic poster of a bald zombie with rotted face. The zombie was just featured in a rather nondescript scene, killed by Foree. However, that zombie has maintained quite a long-standing recognition that continues to this day. If Fear the Walking Dead were of the same quality as that iconic film, the poster above perhaps might achieve similar status. I like this poster, but I don't recall this ever happening in the first three episodes.