Much-anticipated “The Walking Dead” spin-off miniseries finds Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan returning to their respective iconic roles as Maggie Greene Rhee and Negan Smith, having to put their bitter enmity aside as they perilously venture into a walker-infested Manhattan in search of her kidnapped son Hershel (Logan Kim). Željko Ivanek, Gaius Charles, Jonathan Higginbotham, Mahina Napoleon, Trey Santiago-Hudson, Michael Anthony, Karina Ortiz also star.
What We Thought:
Like most people I eventually gave up on The Walking Dead. I have no idea how the series ended, who survived, who didn’t. The Walking Dead: Dead City is a direct sequel to the original series so with Maggie and Negan being the stars of it, it looks like they survived The Walking Dead. If like me you gave up on the original series before it ended you shouldn’t have that much of a hard time following along with this new series. If you made it through enough seasons to know who Maggie and Negan are, you’re fine.
All you need to know going into this new series is that Maggie’s son Herschel is a teenager at this point and he is kidnapped and brought to Manhattan. The bad guy has his own sanctuary there and he has ties to Negan’s past. He wants Negan and convinces Maggie that in order to get her son back she must find and deliver him to Manhattan.
Negan was always an interesting character having been the bad guy to the crew you rooted for in The Walking Dead at first, but soon realizing he’s not the bad guy to his crew. Jeffrey Dean Morgan always played him brilliantly so it’s nice seeing the character again. Lauren Cohan’s Maggie had a huge character arc eventually becoming a tough hero who hated Negan for killing Glenn. She has to put her disdain for him to the side because she wants her son back and is willing to do whatever is necessary to save Herschel.
Dead City introduces a bunch of new characters who are either trapped in Manhattan and are just trying to survive or who work for the bad guy referred to as The Croat. Most are disposable because you really only care about Maggie and Negan if you were a fan of the original show. The bridges and tunnels had been exploded by the government so Manhattan makes for a good post-apocalypse environment ala I Am Legend.
I will say I didn’t love the look of the show. The Manhattan scenes are super dark and look super fake. The Walking Dead being in the south was very outdoorsy and looked clean despite taking place during the apocalypse. With Dead City a lot looks like it was shot on a soundstage with CGI backdrops or at least a lot of VFX. Maybe I’m wrong and a lot was shot on location, but it looks a lot darker and a lot more fake compared to TWD.
Despite giving up on The Walking Dead I overall enjoyed The Walking Dead: Dead City: Season One. It’s only six episodes so I actually binged them in one day. It leaves the door open for a second season and I’ll check it out if it eventually comes my way. There are some annoying characters. The Ginny character could probably be cut, but I understand it shows Negan’s humanity, but ultimately she doesn’t feel useful. I hated Herschel because he’s just a terrible teen character so hopefully some new characters in future seasons are better. It only being six episodes helps because it gets right into where it needs to go and doesn’t wander too far. If you liked Negan or Maggie in TWD you’ll probably like it.
The Nerds Templar 