Back in 2010, The Walking Dead roared onto the scene with a spectacular premiere episode. Director and original showrunner Frank Darabont wasted no time getting to the zombie apocalypse that drove the show, skipping over the initial outbreak and jumping right to the action. He also settled us in by following Rick Grimes, a character who woke up after the outbreak. This way we got to discover the world alongside Rick, and his journey from the suburbs to the city gives us a great idea of how things had changed across all of Georgia

What’s interesting about the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead is that it doesn’t even try to go for scale or excitement. Instead, it uses almost the entirety of its extended length to establish its characters before the shit really hits the fan. On the surface, this is a smart move; unlike The Walking Dead, Fear didn’t need to impress its fans right off the bat. It’s already an extension of the most popular show on television, which shows no signs of slowing down. Fear the Walking Dead was almost guaranteed to set cable records simply by existing, so forming an attachment to the characters before putting their lives in danger could really help the show in the long run.

Unfortunately, this premiere episode doesn’t do a lot of strong work with those characters, despite focusing on them for its full extended length. We’re introduced to the Clark family, and each member is given a basic introduction. The mother is a school guidance counselor who’s most consistent personality trait is skepticism. The step-father is a teacher, apparently liked by his students, who is more trusting and believing than his wife. The son is a drug addict, and the daughter is really smart and has a boyfriend. Also, the step-father has a biological son who is only seen once and seems to be a bit of a jerk.

That this is the extent of my knowledge of these characters after spending a full hour with them (minus commercial breaks) is perhaps not the most encouraging sign for Fear the Walking Dead. Neither is the general stupidity and lack of communication between characters. Take, for instance, when Daniel (the step-father) visits a drug den after Nick (the junkie son) tells him about seeing a girl eating people there.

Even putting aside the fact that going into abandoned junkie hideouts is a generally bad idea, Daniel’s complete failure to convey the important information he finds there is absurd. “Something really bad happened there,” he later tells his wife Madison. That’s nice, Daniel, but maybe you could have said something about the giant pool of blood, the general blood-splattered nature of the hideout, and the terrified junkie that ran out while you were there. Details matter, dude.

Characters continue to do irrational things throughout the episode. Madison assumes that Nick must have returned to the junkie den, despite his complete fear of the place scenes earlier. Then Nick himself goes and immediately tells his dealer about what he saw and, when the dealer freaks out that Nick may have told somebody about his business, Nick completely misses any signs and gets in his car with him.

So we’ve got stupid characters who don’t communicate and a slow-paced premiere. Still, I haven’t written off Fear the Walking Dead. For one, it makes great use of its location. While a lot of shows and movies are set in Los Angeles, most fail to really give an idea of what the city feels like. They focus on the prettiest and most iconic locations and let the general look of the city fall away. Fear the Walking Dead spends plenty of time away from iconic locations, giving an idea of what LA is actually like. Even when the show does visit well-known sites like Venice Beach, it doesn’t glamorize them. The city is allowed to be gloomy or dark on occasion without the generic seediness portrayed in other shows (prime example: True Detective Season 2).

There’s also the fact that this is an incredibly important franchise for AMC, so they will course correct if they deem it necessary. Fear the Walking Dead is a guaranteed success for at least one season, but it can’t be a cheap show to produce. If the audience were to get bored and not return next year, AMC would be in trouble. Despite any early shortcomings, I have little doubt that Fear the Walking Dead will develop into a great show. It’s just not there yet.