Scott D. Pierce: ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ starts slowly

Millions of "Walking Dead" fans are going to tune into the premiere of "Fear the Walking Dead" on Sunday (10 p.m., AMC). And they're going to have to be patient.

Very patient, because "Fear" starts out slowly. Very slowly.

In the first two episodes, there's precious little action. There are precious few zombies. Which is exactly what co-creator/executive producer Dave Erickson intended.

"We purposely built the show a little bit more slowly than the original," he said. "We tried to slow-burn the story, make it as much about the anxiety and tension and paranoia that goes with this outbreak as much as it is about the actual confrontations with zombies."

And the writers have some fun with the audience's expectations. There are times when viewers expect to see zombies … but don't.

Your patience will be rewarded. "Fear" shows every sign of developing into as watchable a series as the original.

And it isn't actually a prequel, it's a parallel story that begins a bit earlier than "The Walking Dead." The original series' narrative launched as Rick (Andrew Lincoln) awakened from a monthlong coma to discover that the world had been overrun with zombies.

"Fear" opens about when Rick went into that coma. It centers on East Los Angeles teachers Madison (Kim Dickens) and Travis (Cliff Curtis), a couple attempting to blend their lives and their teenage children from previous relationships.

Madison's daughter, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), openly disapproves of everything her mother does; Travis' son, Christopher (Lorenzo James Henrie), is a troubled kid who prefers to stay with his mother, Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez). And then there's Madison's son, Nick (Frank Dillane), a heroin addict who — as the series opens — sees a zombie eating another guy's face.

He thinks it's just a crazed drug addict, and reports of a virus — the zombies are called "infected" in "Fear" — are just beginning to trickle in.

Rick was in a coma for four or five weeks; the first six episodes of "Fear" cover about three weeks, according to Erickson. While he's not ruling it out, there are no plans for the new series to catch up to the original.

There are also no plans for any crossovers between the two series, although — again — Erickson didn't rule that out.

AMC has already ordered a 15-episode second season, and after 21 episodes, it might catch up to about the beginning of "The Walking Dead."

But, like the original, "Fear" is never going to be a series about fighting zombies. It's about the characters.

"We conceive of the show as a character drama set against a zombie apocalypse as opposed to a show about the zombie apocalypse," said executive producer David Alpert.

Scott D. Pierce covers television for The Salt Lake Tribune . Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.