‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Just Aired Its Two Highest Scoring Episodes Ever

I feel like I have fallen into a parallel dimension where suddenly, after two extremely poor seasons, the same team at Fear the Walking Dead has managed to transform the series into something not just watchable, but genuinely good in its first two episodes (and I hear the third one’s good too).

Seeming to learn lessons from the past two widely panned seasons, the showrunners and writers have so far turned Fear around here in season 6, and that has translated into tangible fan love as demonstrated through IMDB ratings.

I was pretty stunned to realize that the first two episodes of Fear the Walking Dead this season are in fact the two highest rated episodes of the series on that site to date, surpassing even the peak of season 3 (where four of the top 10 are from that season alone). Before this, only a single episode in the “new showrunner” era of seasons 4-5 managed to make it to the top ten, the very first episode which had John and Morgan meet for the first time.

Here’s the list:

1. The End is the Beginning (Season 6, Episode 1 – 8.9)

2. Welcome to the Club (Season 6, Episode 2 – 8.6)

3. The Good Man (Season 1, Episode 6 – 8.5)

4. Sleigh Ride (Season 3, Episode 16 – 8.3)

5. Brother’s Keeper (Season 3, Episode 12 – 8.3)

6. What’s Your Story (Season 4, Episode 1 – 8.3)

7. This Land is Your Land (Season 3, Episode 13 – 8.2)

8. Wrath (Season 2, Episode 15 – 8.2)

9. Children of Wrath (Season 3, Episode 8 – 8.2)

10. 100 (Season 3, Episode 4 – 8.2)

What are the lowest rated episodes ever? That would be season 5’s Channel 4 and Channel 5, 4.9 and 5.6 respectively.

So are fans going overboard here? Are these two episodes actually the two best of all time? I mean no, I don’t think so. I might put The End is the Beginning, the badass Morgan episode, in the top 3, but the best episode ever is clearly This Land is Your Land from season 3. Welcome to the Club was pretty solid and yeah, I suppose it could make the top 10 overall. I do think that fans may have been so starved for new quality episodes that the ones who have stuck with the show flocked to rate these episodes highly when many of the “haters” have left, but whatever, a win is a win.

Tonight we have an episode that focuses on Dwight and Al called Alaska. Are they literally in Alaska? I haven’t watched the previews, but that would be wild. And kind of impossible to imagine, as how on earth would they have made that trek. But I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

I am happy all this is happening. I don’t want the show to be bad! I want it to be good! It’s better for everyone, those working on the show, the fans watching the show and the critics covering the show if quality improves, and I’m thrilled to see it happening in season 6. Again, it’s still early, and this could end up being short-lived, but this does really seem like a fundamental tone shift that should pervade the full season, rather than just these initial episodes, and it seems like they finally “get it” about the issues with the last two years. See you tomorrow with some thoughts on episode 3.

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