The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1 Review: Not Loving It

"The Walking Dead: Dead City" dropped on NetFlix recently. It is a continuation of AMC's "TWD" universe and focuses on the characters of Maggie and Negan. "Dead City" is one of three spinoffs from the original. The other two are "Daryl Dixon" (follows Daryl and Carol) and "The Ones Who Live" (follows Michonne and Rick). There are three other series that occur in the same universe but arent spinoffs. They are: "Fear The Walking Dead", "The World Beyond" and "Tales of the Walking Dead". See my previous reviews here and here A new show called "More Tales from the Walking Dead Universe" is currently in development.

In "Dead City" Maggie (leader of Bricks-- previously Hightop) and Negan (who was the leader of the Saviors) head to Manhattan to save her kidnapped son Hershel. Negan has asked Maggie to take in a mute girl named Ginny. He has taken care of the teenager since her parents were killed. As you'll recall, Maggie and Negan are mortal enemies. Negan killed Glenn (Maggie's husband) by bashing his head in with Lucille (a baseball bat covered with barbed wire). It was one of the most shocking moments of the original series. I know Maggie desperately wants to find her son and Negan might be her only option but is this remotely realistic? It seems that Maggie has had no character development since Glenn's death. Yes it was devastating but a character has to grow in some way for us to care about them.

The plot of "Dead City" also seems to be the same old, same old. They find a new bad guy to hate. He's called the "Croat". He and Negan have a past (and Negan cut off his ear). The Croat is actually working with someone called Dama. They kidnap Hershel in order to get to Negan. Maggie trades Negan for Hershel at the end of the series. I know children are our future but they're really irritating in the "TWD". They're always running off and/or getting into trouble.

Grade: 3 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). I understand what they're going for with the "TWD" spinoffs but I'm not really feeling it for "Dead City". It's probably because I never really cared for either Maggie or Negan. While I enjoyed the change of environment (from the woods to a city), the plot is the same thing we've seen 10 times already--encounter new people, fight with some, partner with some, then most of the supporting characters die. At least there are a few fun walker scenes. i enjoyed the zombies dropping from the sky and the "mashup" zombie (which is a number of walkers fused together). I also like the idea of using the dead to produce methane to create electricity. Season 3 of "Dead City" is due out in May. Not sure if it will also have six episodes or not. Maybe "Dead City" will grow on me more the second time around. I hope so.