I am not the first one to admit that the idea of Negan and Maggie being paired up for a Walking Dead spinoff is farfetched due to the circumstances of Glenn’s death. After watching The Walking Dead: Dead City’s first season, I came away feeling this was one of the best franchise decisions to date.
Unlike Tales of The Walking Dead, World Beyond, and Fear, Dead City’s story is grounded and does not waste its time to get to the point right away. The straight forward story focuses on why Hershel was kidnapped, what lead to Maggie meeting Negan again for the first time in several years, Negan’s connection with The Croat, and Perile’s reasoning for being a marshal of New Babylon.
The dynamic between Maggie and Hershel is complicated. Hershel is almost at his pre-teen age and is starting to gasp the harsh reality of the current days of the apocalypse. With that, he is trying to figure out why Maggie still has the grudge against Negan all of these years later. Meanwhile, back on the main show, we saw tiny bits of Maggie still suffering PTSD from Negan killing Glenn. Here on Dead City, it is on full display from her point of view and it comes out very often when these two are in the same scene with eachother.
Negan on the other hand, is more strategic with his planning now and has the same goal with Maggie with rescuing Hershel. We also get a small sense of old school Negan on Dead City as he has some of the funniest lines that he ever said. Plus, one of the most gruesome kills he has done for a long time happens in the middle of the season and it makes you question the high budget for the show.
The other characters are also interesting. Amaia, played by Karina Ortiz, was a tourist in New York when the zombie outbreak began and she had to learn everything about New York City from the transit system, to the iconic locations. She even adapted the New York accent due to her being with Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbotham) and his group for so long. Perile is a high ranking marshal as he, along with everyone else is looking for Negan. I will not go too much into specifics for spoiler reasons, but the way him and Negan interact is just priceless. I cannot say too much about Ginny as she barely speaks on the show. But her and Negan have a few good moments. Also, a character from the past will return as a cameo in Dead City to give a little more context to the overall story.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan being executive producers on Dead City really helps the show with its narrative and pacing. Not just for their own characters, but also everyone else they worked with. I feel that these two brought out the best of the supporting cast as their stories really mattered to the overall plot instead of a “one and done” structure. As far as these two actors in the same scenes go, I can see why they got a spinoff because Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan have great and natural chemistry together. Chemistry does not always mean that every scene needs to be a happy scene. These two just click well together to bring a believable hatred feeling of the two characters have against each other and I think that needs to be studied for years to come in regards to this style of acting.
The entire vibe and set design of Dead City makes me think what would a zombie outbreak would happen in the movie Escape From New York. Places such as Wall Street, Upper Midtown, The Staten Island Ferry, and Madison Square Garden are filled with the dead and the environment also factors into how everyone encounters the walkers. Also, Dead City features the most disgusting walkers i’ve ever seen and it fits due to the reputation of New York has being a not-so-clean city. From roaches, to the rats, and the sewers, it is gross.
By the end of the season, it seems like there will be a second season of The Walking Dead: Dead City based on how the first season wrapped up.With that said, Dead City is the best spin-off of The Walking Dead universe, introducing two of the most popular characters to an unsettling, horror-filled adventure with an engaging story to keep the viewer watching.
