This article is not about “The Walking Dead” (TWD) smash-hit series. Nor is it about the “Fear the Walking Dead” (FTWD) series. It’s about the webisode series for both shows.
What’s a Webisode Series?
AMC produced a webisode series for both shows! They feature stories that aired between each season of each show. Some of these stories are prequels and some link up during parts of each show. There are backstories about characters and certain recognizable scenes. (If you haven’t heard of FTWD or TWD, not only can we never be friends, but you may as well stop reading now and go and do something else.) Remember the famed “Don’t Open Dead Inside” spray painted across a doorway? Well, there’s a webisode for that.
Slap me sideways and call me Sally… Before binge-watching the entire webisode series for both shows, I’d never heard of the darn things. I didn’t see these tiny breadcrumbs for my all-time favorite series until after many seasons had aired. Mother of Movies lives in the land down under (Australia for those not familiar with the term.) Australia doesn’t get HBO, Shudder, or AMC. I do have many tricks up my sleeves to partake in many great platforms though, one of which is a VPN. Now let’s get into some.
Fear the Walking Dead Webisodes
Flight 462 (October 2015)
Parts: 16 untitled episodes. These cross over into season two of FTWD and two main characters from the full series appear.
This ran from October 2015 to March 2016.
- Jake is in the airport and already the tension starts to build. His mum and dad are in contact with him via phone, promising “everything will be ok” and they ‘will see him when he lands’ but that he really must get on the plane. After the plane takes off, a few other people on board are sick. Already (being zombie fans,) we know the signs when we see them. A guy Marcus is ill, his wife is telling worried passengers it is just reflux, and another passenger asks if he has the flu. We all know better, we’ve seen this before. And so it goes…
Passage (October 2016)
Parts: 16 Untitled parts which were finalized in March 2017.
- This series features characters Sierra, Gabi, and Colton. Sierra is a hardened survivor trying to make her way anywhere safe and easily able to kill Zombies. Gabi is a clever but weak survivor heading to Mexico to find her boyfriend Colton who left her behind to find safe passage.
The two end up traveling together, with Sierra trying to teach Gabi how to protect herself.
Final Thoughts on ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Webisode Series
My favorite series to watch is The Walking Dead, I adore the show, the characters, and the plot lines, so imagine my sheer delight when I discovered there would be a spin-off called Fear the Walking Dead. It was as though the powers that be, heard my disappointed whimper every year at the end of the season and decided to put me out of my misery. Discovering webisodes, again had me all a-quiver.
I loved this. Some fans of the show have said this extra-bonus round of zombie goodness of 15 minutes was better than the entire series of FTWD. I think the series and the webisodes are pretty cool but no way is a 15-minute run better than the full show.
The webisodes are like having an apéritif before a good meal and surely that’s a good thing.
Watch it on Directtvnow.com, YouTube.com, and spoilertv.com.
The Walking Dead Webisodes
With news articles popping up everywhere about the series and where it is headed, having these to fall back on is a welcome distraction.
Webisode 1 Torn Apart
- Parts: (6) A New Day, Family Matters, Domestic Violence, Neighborly Advice, Step Mother, and Everything Dies.
- Released in October 2011 (before season two).
- Runtime: 20 minutes
- Takes place before season 1.
Go back and watch Days Gone By or see the clip below. This is the story of the girl behind the zombie, Hannah. In Days Gone By, Hannah is the first zombie Rick sees in his hospital gown. Seeing Hannah’s half-zombie body try to crawl towards him, he grabs a bike and rides away, scared out of his wits. Later, of course, Rick comes back to her, this time armed and dressed in real clothing (his uniform) instead of a bare-assed gown, and shoots her.
Zombie Stick Family From Amazon
Webisode 2 Cold Storage
- Parts: Hide and Seek, Keys to the Kingdom, The Chosen Ones, and Parting Shots.
- Released in 2012 (before season three).
- Runtime: 25 minutes.
- Takes place before season 1.
Glimpse the back story behind the main characters. Centers around Chase trying to find his sister. During events, Chase barters with a guy called B.J. and ends up fixing a generator for him. There is a storage unit within the facility and we find that it belongs to none other than Rick Grimes. Cold Storage shows how other survivor groups are getting along (or running things) as well as giving us a glimpse of Rick before everything went to hell.
Webisode 3 The Oath
- Parts: Alone, Choice, and Bond.
- Released in 2013 (before season four).
- Runtime: 26 minutes.
- Takes place before season 1.
- Shows the history of some graffiti we see on the cafeteria doors of the hospital where Rick starts his zombie adventures. ”Don’t Open – Dead Inside.” How this ended up being painted here gets recounted through this last part. We meet Paul and Karina who are desperately trying to find a medical station
Red Machete (October 2017)
- Parts: 16
- Released from October 2017 to April 2018.
- Runtime: 7 minutes.
- This takes place before episode 1.
This episode of the webisode series was set around Rick Grimes’s red machete used to kill Gareth from Terminus in Season 5. It began before the apocalypse began.
Final Thoughts on ‘The Walking Dead’ Webisode Series
For me, The Walking Dead (TWD) and anything affiliated with TWD can do no wrong. I would watch it even if they killed everyone (except Daryl because…just because ok?). I am a little biased here, but I loved every second of every webisode. I’m kind of glad that I saw these later because I feel it had more impact had I watched it in sequence when the networks wanted me to.
You get to remember again, who each character was. You get to re-visit Rick having empathy for zombies, and feeling sorry for the ways things are. Before he and others get charred by events on their journey throughout the series. I thoroughly recommend re-watching the webisodes and then re-watching the first episode of TWD.
Fun fact: the highest amount of viewers for the Walking Dead so far was season five, episode 1 (No Sanctuary) with 17.5 million tuning in to see what’s up. (FYI, it is the one when we first encounter Terminus and the gang, trapped in a train car.)
See it on Youtube.com, tvweb.com, and spoilertv.com
