The Walking Dead: Dead City made its debut in 2023 and I can say that I really enjoyed its first season.
The second season is a solid effort with a few new characters that added flavor to the show. Though there are a few annoyances that made me question some decision making based on what I saw and how it got past the production room.
I got the opportunity to watch the first 6 out of 8 episodes of Dead City’s second season. Here are my thoughts.
Let’s start with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). He always has great chemistry and charm whenever he is on the screen. This time, it is a different Negan. He does not want to revert to his old self that who was on the main show. The only reason he does is due to The Croat (Željko Ivanek) and The Dama’s (Lisa Emery) wanting him to so he can convince other groups to join them for the fight against New Babylon. What are they fighting for? The power, methane, and energy supply in Manhattan.
Negan is dead set on just putting on a show to get it over with. He told this to Maggie (Lauren Cohan) in the first episode of season one. Now it is on full display and it starts inside the church and he has a few memorable lines that I chuckled at. Especially since he likes movie posters over historical art. More on this in a bit.
While Negan evolved, I cannot say too much for the same with Maggie. Yes, I get it. Negan killed Glenn nearly a decade ago. Yes, it was a bad thing. But her obsession of trying to take him down really affects Hershel (Logan Kim) as even he is over it. Despite that, Lauren Cohan is great in bringing that anger out of Maggie so there is that!
Lucia Narvaez (Dascha Polanco) is a lieutenant of New Babylon and when she needs to make an example out of someone, she does it. I did like what I saw out of Narvaez as she is a no-nonsense character and made public executions on people who either break the rules or do not follow commands. And also, everyone has to watch it happen.
Speaking of The Croat, I do like the decision of giving him more of a backstory to what led up to him meeting The Dama, how he ended up in Manhattan, and why he is into old art. Good to add layers to a character that seemed one dimensional in the previous season of Dead City.
There are also a few good moments. Using walkers as cannon artillery in one episode was different and I can tell that this scene had to be shot once. That whole sequence was very tense. There is also another scene where Maggie, Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles), and Hershel reminisce about Kit Kat. Call it cheesy, but the fact that the three have not had chocolate since the start of the apocalypse is a good feeling once you see it. And also, Herschel and Ginny (Mahina Anne Marie Napoleon) being fascinated about information about what the world was like prior to it going to hell was good.
I also wish AMC did not show that bear in the recent trailers. That is something the fans should have waited to see in their own eyes for the first time. I will not say who it encountered, but it kept my attention and I loved it.
Now, I want to express my grievances. Kim Coates, as Brugel, is poorly cast. I appreciated his performances in “Sons of Anarchy,” “Mayans M.C.,” “Bad Blood,” and other shows and films. However, in this role, it just doesn’t work. He plays the leader of a group connected to The Croat. It’s one of those instances where his casting seems great on paper, but the execution falls short of my expectations. You’ll have to see for yourself. His group is based in a museum in Midtown, Manhattan.
Also, there’s another group residing in Central Park. These people are all about nature, but they speak in a weird way. While I’m on this topic, I’m really tired of seeing woods in every Walking Dead-related show. I won’t excuse it this time. Just because Central Park is portrayed with its trees and grassy areas, it does not mean it needs to be a canvas to justify having a majority of the episode in this environment. This is Dead City, not the Dead Woods. I want to see more of the devastated city and less of the greenery. This is a huge annoyance for me.
Speaking of groups. There is a third one and its leader also has children there. My main question is, why are these two groups dressed like The 100 on CW? Season one of Dead City felt more grounded because it was stripped down and urban like New York City is. Season 2 introduced more gimmick groups that are not needed.
Despite my issues with those and some of its pacing, The Walking Dead: Dead City’s second season is solid and it packs in a good punch of walker kills, comedy, a tight plot-driven narrative, and a story that is for Walking Dead fans.
