The TV Column

More hopeful Fear the Walking Dead returns

Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC for the second half of Season 4 today and stars Maggie Grace as Althea and Garret Dillahunt as John.
Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC for the second half of Season 4 today and stars Maggie Grace as Althea and Garret Dillahunt as John.

Here's a perfect example of a series that has reinvented itself. And for the better.

Fear the Walking Dead returns with the eight-episode second half of Season 4 at 8 p.m. today on AMC. It promises to be an even wilder ride.

Fans of the series had initial concerns when it was learned that Morgan Jones (Lennie James), a main character of The Walking Dead, would cross over to the spinoff. What would this mean to have one of Rick Grimes' stalwarts joining a new group in Texas?

Well, it was a good thing since Fear was in the process of exhausting the storylines of several major characters and killing them off.

Dead and gone from the early days are Travis, Madison and Nick (Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane). Our main stars going forward are Alycia Debnam-Carey as Madison's daughter, Alicia Clark, Maggie Grace as mysterious journalist Althea, Garret Dillahunt as the love-struck John Dorie and Jenna Elfman as the enigmatic June/Naomi/Laura, object of John's devotion.

They join Danay Garcia as Luciana Galvez (Nick's former girlfriend) and Colman Domingo as former conman Victor Strand. All are on the road now that the baseball stadium sanctuary is walker-infested and uninhabitable.

As AMC says, "Characters who started their journeys in isolation collided with each other in unexpected ways and found themselves in one of the last places they ever expected to be -- together."

The second half of the season will continue to explore these characters as individuals and as part of the blended family. They will continue to wrestle with new dangers -- "human, walker and even nature itself."

And by "nature," we mean a nasty, havoc-wreaking hurricane. The AMC tagline teases: "No calm after the storm."

At Fear's recent panel session at the Comic-Con convention in San Diego, Garcia hinted that there would also be room for some levity in the episodes ahead.

"I think there's a lot of comedy," she said. "There's a lot of drama. There's a storm. The stakes are really high. I think for something to be funny it needs to be very dramatic, very hard to overcome.

"We have to wait until the storm passes to keep going and funny things happen. Characters will come up and they bring so much to the show and a different perspective of how to survive, and that really adds to this second half. It just fills the second half with so much life, because we lost so much."

Debnam-Carey added, "Because of the loss of Madison and Nick, Alicia is now the only remaining member of the Clark family and that allows her to finally be her own person. I mean, it's a harrowing and awful place to be for her, but it allows her to find her own narrative, which is very exciting."

Elfman summed things up by saying fans will see "new little green sprouts of hope" in this post-apocalyptic world.

Talking Dead returns at 10 p.m. today to chat about the Fear episode just aired. Host Chris Hardwick will also return. Hardwick was accused of abusive behavior by a former girlfriend in June but strongly denied the charges. He was relieved of any Comic-Con duties while AMC conducted a "comprehensive assessment" of the accusations.

AMC, along with an independent outside agency, cleared Hardwick of wrongdoing and he's back.

• Teen Choice Awards 2018 airs from 7 to 9 p.m. today on Fox. Would you like to know what all the cool kids are into these days? The special honors all the year's most popular stars from film, TV, music, fashion and comedy.

Nick Cannon and Lele Pons co-host. Lele who? Exactly. I've made my point.

Performers include Khalid, Lauv and Meghan Trainor. Tune in and you'll learn that Lauv is, in reality, singer Ari Staprans Leff.

By the way, 22-year-old Eleonora "Lele" Pons Maronese is a Venezuelan-American Internet video star with a social media following exceeding 35 million.

HBO returnees. Ballers returns at 9 p.m. today with Season 4. The series stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Spencer Strasmore, a retired football superstar trying to reinvent himself in Miami as a financial manager for current players.

Insecure premieres Season 3 at 9:30. Creator Issa Rae plays Issa Dee, a career gal trying to make it in Los Angeles with the help of her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji).

• The Last Ship. For all the fans who keep sending me emails asking if the show will ever be back -- Yes, TNT has ordered a fifth season. It's already in the can. Sadly, it will be the last season.

The series stars Eric Dane (Grey's Anatomy), Bridget Regan (Agent Carter) and Adam Baldwin (Firefly).

The last season sets sail at 8 p.m. Sept. 9. That's a Sunday, so clear your DVR.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 08/12/2018

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