The Walking Dead is over, after 11 seasons and more than 100 episodes. That's old news, of course. But in its place, AMC is expanding what it calls The Walking Dead Universe (TWDU), following a Marvel-like roadmap of interlinked storylines and characters so that those who are in for a penny may be in for a pound. But as the first of these post-mainline projects, Dead City makes some of the same mistakes the main show committed too often. What could've been an interesting coda for Maggie and Negan is instead an overt ploy to keep TWD fans subscribed to AMC's subscription service.
Cynically, one could argue all content is just that. My favorite Onion article says as much. But some artistic enterprises hide it better than others. As a six-episode first season, my hope was Dead City would serve as a way to hone in on two characters I still find very compelling. But the season meanders between its first and last episodes--a TWD staple--spending too much time on characters we only just met and who feel inauthentic and unnteresting. I ought not slight the endeavor for not serving as an epilogue. I should critique what it is, not what I want it to be. But even as the first chapter of what is clearly designed to go on longer, it just doesn't work, despite some occasional moments that pull on my deep appreciation for its main duo.
In Dead City, a few years have passed since the mainline finale. Maggie has tracked down Negan to the outskirts of Manhattan after a former disciple of his nicknamed The Croat--who is retconned to have left Sanctuary before the events of The Walking Dead--has kidnapped Hershel using similar methods that Negan used to employ when the Saviors were bullying everyone just south of the Mason-Dixon Line. To Maggie, Negan's familiarity with the villain and his undeniable craftiness make him a necessary accomplice in her trek to save her son. For Negan, Maggie offers his new ward, a voluntarily mute young girl named Ginny, a safe haven at The Bricks, which is basically Hilltop North.
Together, the pair cross the river into Manhattan, giving the series an obvious makeover by swapping the abandoned highways of Atlanta and the threatening woods of Virginia for the decrepit skyscrapers of New York City. The show uses this new setting well, like an early setpiece in which zombies faceplant from atop the tall buildings en masse due to noise the characters are making at street level. In another example, survivors herd the undead by Pied Pipering them with a Thanskgiving Day Parade float. Naturally, the series finds its way to Madison Square Garden eventually, too.
These scenes are the low-hanging fruit of such a change in scenery, but they're still fun, even as others are poorly scripted. There's an odd number of instances in which characters are simply walking through danger zones, never appearing ready for attack, even when they reasonably suspect there will be one. These moments feel like poor direction above all else. Side characters are ushered in and out to the extent that none of them feel vital or even well-reasoned for having been there in the first place.
In general, Dead City feels like late-stage Walking Dead in that it becomes more interested in setpieces and creative zombie kills rather than its characters. With so few main cast members compared to the ensemble series that precedes it, I'd hoped Maggie and Negan's spin-off would be an opportunity to let the pair work out their differences in more intimate, dialogue-heavy scenes. Instead, the show quickly elevates glorified Redshirts into supporting roles in ways that almost never add anything to the story. The one exception is Gaius Charles' character, Armstrong, a Marshal for a community called New Babylon, who is on the hunt for Negan due to crimes he committed. I'd love to have seen more of him, but the story doesn't often demand it, so he winds up underutilized.
There's some thrill in seeing new settlements. Learning bits and pieces about The Croat's community and New Babylon feel interesting by default for longtime viewers. They more often than not deliver on the foundational promise of TWDU--that we will see more of the undead world after years of seeing it only through the eyes of a few communities--even if they don't exactly explain much more about the wider world. There is one standout moment in which characters detail the early days of the plague according to New York locals, giving viewers something akin to the Fear The Walking Dead pilot as told by campfire.
Still, to make (or even appreciate) the show only for its action scenes and its new setting feels like merely half of the assignment. Where Dead City needs to also deliver is in its character work, and that's where it frequently stumbles. Maggie and Negan have too few interesting moments together. It's not that they don't often share the screen--they certainly do that. It's just that they're usually fighting off walkers, human enemies, or both. The show's six-episode format doesn't give them enough time to breathe and expound on why this show even exists in the first place, especially since it certainly ends in such a way that teases more.
After The Walking Dead had a strong finale and now Fear The Walking Dead is mercifully being euthanized, I was really excited to see what's next for the TWDU. I'm always in for more zombie media, especially when they're utilizing characters I've spent over a decade of my life with. Sadly, Dead City neither justifies additional seasons--despite a cliffhanger--nor does it memorably tell us more about Maggie and Negan than we already knew. It feels like a rehash of the issues they already basically worked through in the main series.
I now find myself expecting to tune into Season 2 not because I strongly enjoyed Season 1, but because I'm desperate to see Maggie and (especially) Negan get some sort of proper final chapter. This wasn't that, and I'm worried about how many more years I may be waiting--and how much worse the storytelling may get in the meantime.
