I watched The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 and as a longtime fan of The Walking Dead franchise, I have to say that it’s much closer to the original series than any of the other spinoffs thus far. The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 is everything I love about The Walking Dead, and then some.
Trust me, I know that’s a bold statement, but hear me out. I’ve been covering TWD regularly since 2015 and I’ve been a fan since the beginning. The things I love about the show are how it reveals the way normal people react to impossibly challenging situations in order to survive, and how people always end up being the most dangerous threat even in a world where the undead are everywhere. Dead City takes those two concepts and puts them at the forefront, with beloved TWD hero Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) and reformed-but-not-really-ish former Savior leader Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) battling forces beyond their control in order to keep living in this post-apocalyptic nightmare.
Every TWD spinoff thus far has embodied at least one element, if not two or three, from the original flagship series. Dead City is at its best when it highlights how absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a theme we’ve seen over and over and over again in the TWD universe, only now Dead City is putting its own clever twist on it by putting one of its most ruthless villains, Negan, back in power to control the corrupted gangs of “new” Manhattan.
For all the character’s villainous flaws (he is a villain, after all), Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan has always been one of my favorite TWD baddies because he’s so damn good at being bad. The season premiere sets up Negan’s motivation for returning to power and believe it or not, it’s not his idea. The Dama (Lisa Emery) is more ruthless than Negan anticipated; she knows how to get whatever she wants by pushing on the right pressure points and she’s got Negan eating out of her hand, albeit begrudgingly.
Maggie, on the other hand, is faced with her own kind of threat. It turns out — not surprisingly, of course — that New Babylon isn’t as wholesome as everyone hoped. Again, absolute power corrupts, and it happens that the higher-ups in New Babylon want what The Dama has: power. Power, as in methane fuel to power a whole city. Maggie wants nothing to do with Negan or Manhattan ever again but she has to get involved in order to protect Hershel (Logan Kim) and the life she’s built.
Gaius Charles (Perlie Armstrong), Željko Ivanek (The Croat), Mahina Napoleon (Ginny) reprise their roles from the first season. Perlie is still part of New Babylon but his eyes have been opened to what the group is really doing, and he needs Maggie’s help to stop it. The Croat remains Negan’s biggest fanboy and Ginny is trying to figure out how she fits in Maggie's world. Dascha Polanco and Kim Coates are both newcomers to the series in season 2 and they deliver some very memorable performances.
The season premiere was written by showrunner Eli Journé and brought to life by TWD dynamic duo of director Michael E. Satrazemis and director of photography Adam Suschitzky. Without spoiling details, there are two big moments in the season premiere involving Negan and a church and Maggie fighting walkers; Negan’s scene is sweeping and bold while Maggie’s is dark and visceral, but they’re both feasts for the eyes despite being vastly different from a tonal perspective.
Here’s what I love: lots of walkers and thrilling walker kills, characters I’m invested in and a story that keeps me on the edge of my seat. It has all three and then some.
Most of all, I love that Dead City offers an exciting new location. Yes, Daryl Dixon is set in France (and soon to be Spain), but the simple fact is that Dead City is set in the Big Apple. It doesn’t get more thrilling than that. TWD fans will recall season 4 when Beth (Emily Kinney) was kidnapped and held hostage at an Atlanta hospital. For the first time in a long time, the show wasn’t set in the middle of the woods and it was so much fun seeing how the urban location impacted the characters. We’ve had several series in the TWD Universe set in different locations, but when the characters ultimately end up wandering in the woods it all looks the same. Seeing the reimagined version of New York City is a very welcome change of pace.
Here’s what I don’t love: I’m not a fan of the 6-8 episode seasons. Bring back 16 episodes per season, with a couple of season-long arcs divided up between two distinct halves. This is not to say that the series suffers because it’s only 8 episodes, rather I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if they had a full 16 episodes to play with. Give time and space to develop the story and characters in a way that doesn’t feel rushed.
All in all, there’s something for every TWD fan in The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 and I’m eager to see where the story goes from here.
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 premieres Sunday, May 4, at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and streams on AMC Plus.
