by Jason Mack, Contributing Writer
There is a fine line between stretching because you believe there is more story to tell and milking a property for all its worth. The Walking Dead: Dead City, and the rest of the vastly expanding universe, are the latter, and the line is nowhere in sight.
The second season of Dead City carries over many of the same strengths and flaws of the original. It has a strong lead performance that feels out of place in a borderline soap opera level of craziness and overacting from bit players. It has an interesting premise of looking to rebuild Manhattan, while also mostly wasting the opportunities of the iconic setting. It has cartoonish villains — that one is confusingly both a positive and negative.
Dead City centers on Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who should have resolved their story long ago, but much like the franchise as a whole, the creators refuse to let that plot point die. Swap relationship for revenge, and this is essentially a modern will-they-won’t-they on par with Ross and Rachel on Friends. Much like on Friends, Dead City keeps going back to the well long after we all stopped caring. Mentions of how Negan killed Glen feel as repetitive and stale as the “We were on a break!” line.
Evaluating Dead City is tricky as you try to decide the curve on which to grade it. The original Walking Dead series didn’t exactly hold steady to the gritty realism of the early seasons. It got bonkers and jumped the shark, then somewhat righted the ship, then jumped the shark again, and after a few rounds of that, it kind of stuck the landing. Any expectations these spinoffs would return the franchise to form are unrealistic.
Adjusting the mindset to expect some off-the-wall plot is reasonable. What I can’t understand is undoing quality character development. One of the highlights of the original show’s final season was the development of Negan as he overcame the mistakes of his past, and was willing to sacrifice himself for the family he built.
The first season of Dead City undid that, as he abandoned them out of fear he would fail them. It was a dumb answer to figuring out how to get Negan and Maggie together in Manhattan. Season Two inspires some hope early, with Negan being leveraged by threats to his family. It shows he still cares. But when an opportunity to reunite presents itself, he again sends them away.
The strengths of this season lie in a few quality acting performances and a few wild action sequences. Morgan is at his best embracing the duality of Negan. When forced to adopt the façade of his old persona, you feel the adrenaline the taste of power gives him after all these years. However, he continues to embrace his altruistic side, and finding the balance between the two is intriguing. Morgan crushes the few heavy emotional beats. They are few and far between, and they don’t fit the absurd tone of the show, but he does elicit some tears.
Unfortunately, Cohan does not elicit the same response. It is more a knock on the writing than the performance. She is believable, but the character is so one-dimensional with played-out story arcs and confusing motivation.
There are three primary antagonists who are over-the-top characters. It is a bit much, but they clearly understood the assignment of the show. Lisa Emery as The Dama and Kim Coates as Bruegel are rival socialites and art enthusiasts who somehow rise to prominence. They constantly chew scenery to great effect. You don’t want to enjoy the performances, but you can’t help yourself.
Zeljko Ivanek is another highlight as The Croat, the emasculated number two to The Dama. It’s an intriguing dynamic having a former Negan lieutenant continue to idolize him and try to coax him out of retirement. Having that fanboy get caught in the subtle power struggle between his metaphorical mommy and daddy adds to the fascination.
Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) and Major Lucia Narvaez (Dascha Polanco) are one-note characters with differing motivations for the New Babylon Federation. Both are undone by uninspired writing, though Polanco unfortunately seems happy to lean heavily into the tropes of her character.
The action in the series also seems to reside on opposite ends of the spectrum. There are great sequences like a shocking animal attack and a man melting as he is filled with methane and internally set ablaze. But the limited walker sequences feature several times where characters who have survived this deep into the apocalypse somehow react as if they’ve never encountered one before.
Some action beats also defy logic. This season features a battle ring where two walkers are pitted against each other like a cockfight. Unless I missed it, I don’t think it was ever explained how or why they were made to show aggression toward each other, something never seen before. Also, there is an odd sequence where Negan walks through a hospital’s children’s ward filled with little walkers, and none of them try to attack him.
A longer series would have made these flaws feel unbearable, but thankfully Dead City is limited it to eight episodes. This is not a high-level drama, nor is it so off the rails that it becomes must-see craziness. It lies somewhere in the middle.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
The Walking Dead: Dead City is currently streaming on AMC+
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