AMC continues to pitch “The Walking Dead” to death. It’s been nearly 13 years since the original series first aired, and yet none of its three spin-offs — with four soon to be in the works, as well as an additional two in the works — resemble those early Rick Grimes-led seasons. The magic has been recaptured. After “The Last of Us” revived the iconic zombie genre earlier this year with impressive quality and creativity, AMC’s emphasis on franchising continues to undermine the zombie drama du jour.
The latest spin-off, created and written by “The Walking Dead” creator veteran Eli Zorn, isn’t likely to convert any new fans. For viewers still languishing through the eighth season of “Fear the Walking Dead,” there’s a six-episode season of “The Walking Dead: Dead City” for you to watch and even raise an eyebrow. There are enough spooky thrills, especially if you’re already invested in the rich dynamic between Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) — a strained relationship that leaves “The Walking Dead” awestruck.
This might be the best spin-off of the franchise ever. The problem is, the bar is so low that unless you’re “The Walking Dead,” you’re going to drop it too.
The series begins on the outskirts of New York with Negan’s recruitment when his son Hershel (Logan Kim) is taken hostage in Manhattan from Negan’s days as leader of the Saviors of the Sanctuary from the original series.
As we know from “The Walking Dead,” Negan is still haunted by his violent dictator-like past, and “Dead City” has enough exposition to bring you up to speed on his more reformed present. Under the pressure of survival, Negan isn’t afraid to tap into his more violent instincts, and Dean Morgan still nails the role with his trademark cynical one-liners and a flash of comedic relief as he and Maggie navigate Manhattan together. Are.
Cohan is also in top form as Maggie, a character hardened by years of damage and mistreatment over the past few seasons of “The Walking Dead.” Returning from a multi-season hiatus, Maggie got lost through the cracks of a large, relatively new ensemble cast and some intricate world-building. Fortunately, “Dead City” brings out one of the more memorable aspects of her “Walking Dead” arc — her unforgiving anger toward Negan.
Both Dean Morgan and Cohan sell the hell out of this transactional relationship, and the show relies on their shared history to provide the bulk of the emotional depth throughout the season.
The Croat, played by Emmy-winning actor Zeljko Ivanek (“Damage”), is the season’s villain and leader of a Manhattan-based faction. Ivanek does what he can with some clichéd writing, all too familiar to anyone who’s seen the rotating cast of villains on this universe over the years. It’s a shame the show waited until the end of the season to introduce an always-phenomenal Lisa Emery (“Ozark”), but her role certainly sets up future seasons if “Dead City” is already in the works. Beyond is renewed.
Some of the most thrilling episodes of “The Walking Dead” take place in the city environment of Atlanta. “Dead City” makes the most of its Manhattan setting by showcasing some fun ziplining between building rooftops and thriving cockroaches. We also get to learn a little bit about how the New Yorkers (Karina Ortiz and Jonathan Higginbotham) survived the apocalypse after the military tried to quarantine the island by destroying all points of access via bridges and tunnels.
With only six episodes which is impressive enough, it’s hard not to feel that the “Dead City” version of Manhattan is woefully short. Characters move from place to place (seemingly without getting lost), and some New York streets stretch the limits of believability: Where are all the overgrown plants?
The pursuit of Negan through Manhattan stars Marshall Pearly Armstrong as one of the better-developed characters of the season, helped by a strong performance by Gaius Charles. He is employed by New Babylon, a confederation of states attempting to rebuild a violently enforced, legal society. His pursuit brings urgency to Negan and Maggie’s hostage rescue but with more depth than standard bounty hunter fare.
Negan is accompanied by Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), a young girl who is too traumatized by life in the apocalypse to speak. Without dialogue, it’s hard to invest anything in poor Ginny, and her actions seem random and convenient for a plot wrinkle.
Overall, the show is definitely darker, grittier and even gorier than its predecessors. But those thrills are hampered by a story that feels too predictable for anyone who still watches the franchise. Not to mention the insistence on pulling more story out of the corpse of the Saviors, which certainly eases the narrative, but is a tiresome return to an arc that took so long to resolve on “The Walking Dead” — and it The first led many viewers to fall into despair (ratings dropped significantly after season 7).
Other elements seem so “walking dead” that AI could start to take over scriptwriting duties: a cultural clique of violent kill-or-be-killed survivors with a strange aesthetic and strange customs, without question. Nameless grunts with guns that follow their leader, inconvenient zombie hordes, and a handful of new characters who are only given enough generic backstories to follow you when they’re inevitably killed.
It’s a formula “Fear the Walking Dead” stuck to over the years, with each season feeling like recycling previous story structures despite compelling performances from the central cast. The saving grace of “Dead City” for viewers will likely be the investment in Maggie and Negan’s tumultuous relationship, a testament to the chemistry between the two actors and the careful digging of their shared history.
Six episodes provide a well-paced story and less commitment to a franchise that has pushed its fortunes with 16-episode seasons, so there’s no great loss. Progressing the show’s mythology (what happened to the rock-throwing variant zombie last season of The Walking Dead?), or reviving the corpse of a franchise you wish AMC would slowly put to rest.
‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ premieres Sunday, June 18 on AMC.