Spoilers below for The Walking Dead: Dead City’s series premiere, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched!
It’s somehow only been seven months since The Walking Dead mothership officially wrapped up its eleven-season saga, with the franchise’s initial spinoff Fear the Walking Dead set to bow out later this year. But this post-apocalyptic universe isn’t dying off anytime soon, with several upcoming TWD series on the horizon, starting with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan reprising the fan-fave rivals Negan and Maggie, respectively, for AMC’s newest offshoot subtitled Dead City. Having watched the new horror drama’s linear premiere, it’s safe to say I have a few thoughts about this new chapter.
Kinda Weird To Start This Show Off With Maggie Nearly Getting Taken Out By A Chunky Walker
While I do realize this cold open was all about setting up Maggie going all 2001: A Space Odyssey ape and letting a little bit of rage seep out, I feel like that could have been done without her getting snuck up on by a big sloppy walker that would realistically be terrible at stealth. This premiere managed to have two of these moments, as Negan himself would have easily been chomped out of existence later in the department store thanks to a bizarrely silent zombie that didn’t immediately try to feast. Regardless of such tropes, I just didn’t want to see Maggie’s survival skills get called into question so soon after she returned to audiences.
I Would Watch A Whole Show Centered On This (Or Another) Post-Apocalyptic Bar
I’ve been readily anticipating the arrival of a watering hole in The Walking Dead: Dead City since the bar locale was first announced, and its arrival didn’t exactly disappoint, even if it was pure TV blasphemy to introduce a Michelle Hurd character only to kill her off ten minutes later. The bartender was a bit of a creepster, and this place’s clientele maybe wasn’t ideal, but the scene more or less proved that the post-apocalyptic bar scene is worthy of more exploration. I especially loved that this place also had a motel attached, though that almost definitely doesn’t help with the quality of the regular customers. Negan notwithstanding, but only halfway. I wish the bar would have been on Manhattan island, and would have served as Negan and Maggie’s homebase each week, but here’s hoping we see it again in the end, and Hershel can do a kegstand.
Beyond Flashbacks To Negan’s Arrival, I’m Kinda Surprised There Weren’t More Callbacks
Negan might think he’s all good and forgiven for his past transgressions while swinging his old pal Lucille around, but Maggie’s flashback-induced nightmare about Glenn’s murder made it quite clear that this is not the case. But beyond that murder, a Hilltop mention, and Maggie’s inquiry about Annie, Dead City didn’t really dish out a whole lot of callbacks or references to the flagship drama, and thus didn’t delve into much exposition to fill in the timeline blanks. Which could obviously change in future episodes, but I was fully ready for this spinoff to immediately go hard on tie-in connections. Hopefully this show will pull off a franchise return for actor Stephen Yeun, as unlikely as it seems, with that head-smashing flashback setting the stage for it.
I’m Not Actually Against Armstrong Just Yet
As a symbol of civilized authority, Gaius Charles’ Marshal Perlie Armstrong automatically has a veneer of antagonism, which is strengthened by his central task of apprehending one of the characters that viewers were already familiar with. But I have a feeling he’s going to end up being a much better person, generally speaking, than either Negan or Maggie, and that the onus will be put on audiences when it comes to choosing whether or not to see him as an actual villain. Of course, that prediction might end up being laughably far from the truth, seeing as how he accidentally killed his deputy already, but I like the idea of Morgan and Cohan’s characters being trapped between ostensibly “good” and “evil” threats, as it were.
Nope Nope Nope Nope To All Those Roaches
This isn’t the evil that was spoken of in the previous entry, but that scene with all the CGI roaches was pure ungodly wickedness, just as Lauren Cohan teased it would be. It started with the extended pacing, in which the characters were each way too casual at first about brushing roaches off of their arms and out of their hair. Approaching walkers or not, the only way my body would know how to react to that situation would be to haul ass in the opposite direction while shattering any nearby crystals with my disgusted screeching. And that’s before the actual nightmare of Pulsating Roach Mountain was uncovered. If The Croat really wants Hershel to talk, he’ll push his face into Pulsating Roach Mountain, and that kid would soon run out of confessions to offer up.
Željko Ivanek Always Plays Great Villains
Željko Ivanek is the kind of actor who is so good at playing bad guys that even when portraying genuinely moral protagonists in movies and TV shows, I’m unable to completely shed my skepticisms and suspicions. So he’s was absolutely a top-tier choice to take on a villainous role with the Walking Dead universe, as he’s capable of playing scenes as chillingly understated, while also being able to spin things on a dime to go far bigger and scarier with his performances. With his first scene in Dead City, his character was threatening torture on a child that he’d kidnapped, and while I’d never believe Ivanek himself would do such a thing, I didn’t for a second question how far The Croat will end up taking things if Hershel doesn’t offer up some info.
The Walking Dead: Dead City airs new episodes on AMC every Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. ET, and can be streamed early with an AMC+ subscription. Head to our 2023 TV schedule to see what other new and returning shows are on the way soon.