Fear the Walking Dead is not a prequel. It is a parallel story that takes place on the U.S. west coast (Walking Dead is on the U.S. east coast), with a completely different set of characters -- people with backgrounds very different from the Walking Dead characters. The time frame is a little earlier. Walking Dead starts some months after the outbreak and collapse of civilization, and has moved forward in time through seven seasons. Fear the Walking Dead starts at the very beginning of the outbreak and shows some of the collapse, then follows a family and the people they encounter through an increasingly devastated landscape. The characters in Fear include a father of maori descent, a strong mother whose backstory emerges slowly, a daughter and a drug-addicted son. Also a barber (played by the wonderful actor, Ruben Blades), originally from Salvador, who has a very dark background, and his wife and daughter. It really is all about the people, the kinds of moral choices that they have to make, and the diverse groups of survivors that they encounter.
It's the same producers and production team, the same world as Walking Dead, just different characters in somewhat different situations. Well worth watching, but as with WD, it should be watched from the beginning. If you jump in the middle it would be difficult to fully understand the characters and their relationships.
