Critics call Fear the Walking Dead a snorefest

Cliff Curtis (front right) stars in Fear the Walking Dead.

The first reviews are in for The Walking Dead prequel, Fear the Walking Dead - and they're mixed at best.

Starring Kiwi actor Cliff Curtis, the series takes places in Los Angeles at the very beginning of the apocalyptic zombie outbreak we're thrown into in The Walking Dead.

Critics have seen the first few episodes in America, which has been described as being more slow-burning than the original series.

Esquire's Calum Marsh praised the performances of Curtis and co-star Kim Dickens, who play married couple Travis and Madison.

"Dickens (who's been in everything from Deadwood to Gone Girl) and Curtis, in particular, are terrific, deepening a husband-and-wife pair that on paper may have come off as slightly thin," he wrote.

"By the end of the second episode, as the dead start walking and the two find themselves half a city apart, I felt thoroughly invested in seeing them reunited and ready to survive. That's a good sign."

However, Variety's Brian Lowry said the creators of the show had "a long way to go in terms of conjuring anything approaching that sort of emotional investment in these characters", compared to characters in the original series.

"Granted, the obvious goal was to see these extraordinary events unfold through ordinary people, but Dickens and Curtis, both fine actors, are left to dine on a too-thin gruel," he wrote.

Indiewire's Ben Travers also praised Dickens and Curtis' talents, but said in the context of the show they were "largely wasted opportunities".

"Both have enough charisma, presence and talent to carry a show, but neither are given a lot to work with here. (I'm still hoping they'll get a chance to flex their dramatic muscles later on.) The writing is tepid, with tried and true horror cliches driving the simple if serviceable action."

Tim Goodman of the Hollywood Reporter found the prequel "less magnetic" than the original.

"There are, undoubtedly, moments in the first couple of episodes where it's just not nearly as much fun as the original and, because viewers want to see zombies, the whole thing feels like a lurching story we already know being told too slowly," he wrote.

Fear the Walking Dead makes its New Zealand debut on August 24 on Sky TV's SoHo channel.

- nzherald.co.nz