As we reach the half way point in The Walking Dead’s latest spin-off series, Dead City, it’s still something of a case of same old, same old as our characters, both new and established, go through some very familiar motions. As already established, we have two characters who bear a sizable grudge trying to work together, we have a psychopath who leads an army through a mixture of intimidation and reward, we have a smaller tribe of good people who find it hard to initially trust and we have a child character who acts like a wild card because they simply won’t do whatever the fuck they’re told.Oh, and there’s zombies every now and then – if you’re lucky.
It’s a formula people people behind The Walking Dead have used ad nauseam to the point that the entire show feels like a Walker trying to eat it’s own ass, but as Dead City progresses, I can only hope that all this familiar material is actually being used as a spring board to something a bit more unpredictable.
After using the story of how the Militia defeated the Saviors to gain their freedom (while leaving out the detail that Negan was leading them, of course), Maggie and the man in question convince the tribespeople that an assault on the Burazi and the deranged Croat is an achievable task and gain their trust – mostly. While Tommaso reveals that he knows of a way in via abandoned railway lines in Penn Station after once escaping after a nasty bout of capture and torture, Luther still regards Negan with about as much trust as you’d afford Australian wildlife.
Meanwhile, marshal turned captive Perlie gets to spend some quality time with the Croat who not only shares his origin story with him, but also reveals that he has discovered a new natural fuel source that runs off the world’s most plentiful resource – the dead. That’s right, by sticking the Walkers in tubes of fluid, the Croat is harvesting the methane gas the rotting corpses give off in order to run his operations and get some people a little high on the side… But telling stories of his family bring eaten by cannibals and showing off his business plan comes at a price and soon Perlie finds himself in a fighting area and handcuffed to a pole as Walkers advance and onlookers cheer.
Unbeknownst to everybody, Ginny, Negan’s mute, clingy ward, has followed everyone to Manhattan Island and is wandering around the streets looking for her surrogate protector, but after she leaves her beloved dinosaur lying around, it eventually falls into the hands of Maggie who puts two and two together. Also doing some rudimentary math is Luther, who has discovered a wanted poster on Negan’s person that details exactly how untrustworthy the former leader of the Saviours can be; however, the subsequent confrontation reveals something that’s already been heavily hinted at: the old Negan still isn’t that far away.
While we get some much-appreciated backstory and a couple of cool revelations, People Are A Resource finds this Walking Dead sequel once again spiralling the drain when it comes to offering up anything new. However, with that being said, there are a few nuggets that lead me to believe that once Dead City gets all of its ducks in a row, there’s a chance it could become something thrilling. There’s a sense that the third episode is trying to get some backstory squared away before the series make it’s big push into storming the Burazi and resuming Hershel as everyone seems to be locked firmly into story telling mode; not only is Negan and the Croat ready and able to relate their various, tragic past occurrences but Tommaso also weighs in on his time spent being brutalized by the villainous Burazi. It’s all necessary stuff of course as it deals out character beats that go some way to establishing some much needed motivation and even clears up a couple of plot holes as they go.
The main issue that’s addressed is that of Annie and Josh, Negan’s wife and child, who, I have to admit, I only partially remember but Jeffery Dean Morgan gives the tale the gravitas you’d expect. Relating the fact that Annie was berated, robbed and raped by five attackers, the tale not only reveals that his family has since relocated to Missouri, but Negan subsequent murder of the perpetrators is the whole reason that Marshal Perlie is after him in the first place.
Speaking of Perlie, his introduction to the Croat finally allows Željko Ivanek to do something more than just fix people with the thousand yard stare of an utter lunatic, but while his villain origin story is suitably harrowing (having your family eaten by cannibals near the start of the apocalypse will certainly twist your noodle), he still seems like a pale imitation of all the antagonists that have come before. But then, maybe that’s the point – bearing in mind that he’s learnt his twisted methods from Negan himself, maybe the writers are intending the Croat to be a thrift-store reworking of The Walking Dead’s bad guy greatest hits, even his habit of sticking people in a death arena stinks of the Governor and his views on how to utilise the dead mirrors Alpha’s vision of a future reliant on living corpses. However, what is interesting about Dead City’s antagonist is how he intends to turn the living dead into a source of fuel, which is a detail that feels like it could have a seismic effect on the entire franchise from here on in – imagine a world where the greatest threat become it’s most valuable asset.
Something that doesn’t feel like a valuable asset is the Ginny side-plot that feels awkwardly tacked on in order to seemingly provide a counterpoint to Negan slowly reverting to his old, brutal ways. I simply can’t stir up any interest in the saga of the missing dinosaur toy, regardless what it’s a metaphor for and Ginny is just too new a character to actively root for out of the blue. Still, Negan’s murder of Luther, while technically accidental (cheese grater in the face, aside), still Carrie’s an air of menace when he callously finishes of his mortally wounded foe without a shred of remorse.
It’s all presented, as usual, with slickness, style and a nice dollop of gore (decapitation by handcuffs), but for a spin-off that was supposed to narrow the show’s focus, Dead City seems oddly flabby. Considering the actual focus of the story is the saving of Hershel, he gets no screen time at all this episode and the mission to resue him hasn’t even begun yet. However, this could mean that the final three episodes could be one mad, edge-of-the-seat dash that could throw endless Walkers and peril at us as our heroes flee the island in a relentless drive for survival – but who knows at this point.
Dead City needs to do something big, and fast.
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