The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1

The Walking Dead: Dead City is another Walking Dead spin-off you didn’t know you needed (or perhaps didn’t want), set in the twisted landscape of post-apocalyptic Manhattan! This one follows the odd couple, Negan and Maggie. 

You’ll remember Maggie, she’s the one who’s husband got his head rearranged by Negan’s Baseball Bat “Lucille”. 

Well in this, Maggie’s son Hershel (named after her dear old dad), gets kidnapped by some of the usual post apocalypse scumbags, and she’s got no choice but to go into New York City to get him back. She needs Negan to get her in as the kidnapper is a new antagonist called The Croat, a former underling of Negan’s from the old Saviour days. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

Negan’s on the run himself, from some wild west style Marshalls. These separate threads could easily get confusing or mess the series’ pacing up, but they get out of the way of each other nicely and you forget about them until they’re mentioned again. 

It’s only six episodes long, which is perfect for keeping things tight and intense and thankfully means there’s not a lot of filler. It’s mostly action, conflict, and plot twists. With a few nice new variations on the zombies.

The series focuses on the complicated dynamic between Maggie and Negan. It’s a game of reluctant trust – Maggie wants nothing more than to return the favour of smashing his head in, but he’s one of her best options for saving her son. And, well, Negan has his own mysterious reasons for wanting to help. There’s tension, uneasy alliances, and a lot of that dark humour Negan’s known for, offset by Maggie’s simmering rage.

Manhattan itself is practically a character The Big Apple is now maggot filled, towering skyscrapers filled with walkers and feral survivor gangs.– there’s something about seeing those iconic locations turned into walker-infested nightmares that adds an extra layer of grimness. Think Madison Square Garden filled with corpses, the subway tunnels transformed into death traps, and the general sense of claustrophobic despair that a big city in chaos would bring.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan really shine in their roles. There’s a lot of intense dialogue between them, with Maggie trying to hold her hatred back while Negan is both regretful and unapologetically himself and in some scenes we get a glimpse of the OG Negan (which was largely lost after season 7 of the main show). It makes for some great dramatic moments – you’re never quite sure if Maggie will eventually forgive him, or if Negan’s really changed.

I can’t help but ask, why does everyone have such lovely white teeth? Why does Maggie’s leather vest look brand new? How do the muscle bound young characters get so much protein? Why aren’t the majority of the dead just puddles after all these years? You know, the usual questions.

The series looks gorgeous and the dark parts aren’t too dark so you can actually see what’s happening. The Blu-ray is hardly packed with extras, just a thirty odd minute Wondercon panel. At times is hard to hear what Chris Hardwick is asking. You’d think they’d nail the audio and video on these things if they know they’re going to use them on the home releases. It’s an O.K. panel which was shot before the series released. 

Note to all production companies Subtitles should NOT be classed as an extra!

It’s gritty, it’s got a lot of action, and if you’re a fan of the Walking Dead universe, it’s a solid continuation. Plus, it leaves you with a fair few questions by the end, which, knowing this franchise, is probably intentional to set up even more spin-offs. It’s not quite about who gets to live anymore; it’s more about whether they can ever truly live with the things they’ve done – especially Negan.

I gave up on The Walking Dead after around the mid point of season 8 but this and the recent Daryl Dixon spin off have almost made me tempted to watch the last few seasons of the original… 

Almost.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1 arrives on Blu-ray, DVD and digital on 7 October 2024 courtesy of Acorn Media International, following its transmission on Sky Max.