The Walking Dead: Dead City
2023
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71% Avg. Tomatometer 33 Reviews 67% Avg. Audience Score 250+ Ratings Following his departure from The Commonwealth, Daryl Dixon washes ashore in France, raising the ire of a splintered but...
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Sep 5, 2023 · The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Critics call it 'The Last of Us Lite,' but say the six episodes are still some of the best 'Walking Dead' in years.
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- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1 Review
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By Matt Fowler
Updated: Sep 5, 2023 9:20 pm
Posted: Sep 5, 2023 9:06 pm
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premieres September 10 on AMC and AMC+. This is a non-spoiler review for all six episodes of season 1. The series has already been renewed for a second season.
The newest Walking Dead spinoff is a minor triumph. Admittedly, that's grading on a bit of a curve, considering the original series' languid and wasteful final few seasons. But The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon feels markedly different from the rest of the franchise, to its extreme benefit, and gives the franchise's most terse and unwashed hero his most emotionally gripping story in over a decade. It's a winning hero's journey featuring a weathered character in desperate need of illumination and purpose.
In fact, go ahead and watch this series even if you're a lapsed Walking Dead-ite and skipped the past couple years. All you need to know is that when The Walking Dead closed up shop, most everyone (who survived, which is still most everyone) lived in a place called the Commonwealth and Daryl left to go exploring. Daryl Dixon relies on you a) liking Daryl, and b) knowing he's close to Carol. That's kind of it.
Dead City
Fear the Walking Dead
Tales of the Walking Dead
World Beyond
There's a running theme in Daryl Dixon of broken characters who've been "fixed" by a broken world – and Daryl winding up in France is part of that mix. Often in zombie movies, broken people thrive in a world gone mad, but the emphasis here is that civilization falling changes some of these traumatized folks for the better and allows them to grow in ways they couldn't previously.
Daryl seeing Paris, even as it exists 12 years into the zombie takeover (there's a very specific marker in the series letting us know this), is just… nice. And as brusque and untrusting as he can be, Daryl makes for an excellent centerpiece for this particular offshoot. Way better than when The Walking Dead tried to shift leading man responsibilities over to Reedus when Andrew Lincoln left. This show, from former ER showrunner David Zabel, has figured out how to use Daryl better than the mothership ever did. Sure, its bread and butter is still violence and conflict and zombies and yada yada, but there's a recurring joy here that really hasn't been expressed much before.
After being shipwrecked, and drifting to the shores of Southern France, our reluctant hero finds himself torn between two families, forming new connections that begin to rival his close attachments back in the Commonwealth. For a while he's insistent upon finding a way home, and brokers a season-stretching deal to do so, but ultimately the series is about someone with strong loyalties finding out… they might belong somewhere else. Is Daryl about to learn the lessons from the last two Toy Story movies? It seems so!
It's a touching, winning adventure for the guy who's arguably the saga's most popular character. And it allows Reedus to play with, and expand upon, Daryl in ways he hasn't done for a while. Or even… ever? Look, Daryl has, for many fans, been the "coolest" character on The Walking Dead. He's a gruff, handsome, leather-vested biker who kills with a crossbow. Ultra cool. Charisma-wise, though? Eh. Let's just say it's rare for a character to become so well-liked (remember the "If Daryl dies, we riot!" movement?) while providing so little.
This isn't Reedus' fault. This is just how Daryl was treated over 11 seasons: Daryl didn't massively arc like his BFF Carol did. He was basically the guy who wound up being best suited for a world gone to shit because he was already an isolated badass. He's been angry, he's been tender, but it's usually been portrayed within the same minuscule spectrum. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon allows him to break free from that like never before. Without betraying what makes Daryl Daryl, the series opens up his world, his world view, and his emotional capabilities.
Also, and this is just an interesting reward for those who've watched Walking Dead this long: Daryl is a champion. Like, he's a superior fighter here and people gravitate toward him like a foretold hero of mythic stature. It's just a fun payoff to all the wrenching adventures he's endured through the years and all the fighting he's had to do. You would hope he's the best of the best.
What did we say about The Walking Dead: Dead City?
The Walking Dead: Dead City thins the herd, allowing for a tighter, more-focused story. Setting things in an obliterated city also nicely whisks the saga out of the stale farmlands and into dire, dystopian wreckage. Stars Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan got here for a reason, and it's because they fully inhabit these characters and work amazingly with each other. However, too much of the healing and forgiveness achieved in their relationship during The Walking Dead’s final season gets taken back and undone, which makes Dead City feel like an unsatisfying loophole was created around moving their story forward. It's not a full Alien 3 situation, but it's close enough that it sours the first chunk of this season, and even the interesting new villain can’t bring it back to safe territory. – Matt Fowler
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is the best thing the franchise has done in years. Too many years, in fact. Daryl felt like a lost cause for a while, despite him being given more to do on the original series after Rick's departure, but this series, for as ridiculous as the "Daryl in Paris" logline sounds, is solid as heck. The story is both foreign a...
Review scoring
good
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is an enjoyable rehabilitation of the Daryl character, taking him on a hero's journey through France that allows him to open up, enjoy life, be a badass, and genuinely change his zompocalypse footing.
Matt Fowler
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Sep 10, 2023 · TV REVIEW. ‘Daryl Dixon’ Finally Gives Us a Fun ‘Walking Dead’ Spinoff. This AMC spinoff follows Norman Reedus’ grizzled hero as he navigates France, and features a dynamic turn from the...
- 2 min
- Chris Vognar
Buy The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — Season 1 on Fandango at Home, Prime Video. Centering Norman Reedus' fan favorite character in a fresh setting, Daryl Dixon can be a wobbly shot across the ...
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- Norman Reedus
- Daniel Percival
- September 10, 2023
Sep 8, 2023 · The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon may not quite deliver an adrenaline shot to the heart of the stagnated Walking Dead franchise, but the new six-episode series is absolutely the television...
Sep 8, 2023 · “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” which premieres on AMC on Sept. 10, builds on the tentative good will established by “Dead City,” even arguably improving on some of its strengths.
