If I’m being honest, Dead City, the newest attempt from The Walking Dead to try and keep life pumping through its moldy body, wasn’t really up to snuff. The first of a bunch of miniseries each focusing on the lead characters of the long running zombie survival drama, it saw Maggie and Negan attempting to bury the hatchet wherever they can as they snuck onto Manhattan Island on an ill-fated rescue attempt. However, while the attempt to simultaneously simplify and build on the established world was a decent watch, it only succeeded in making a lot of the same mistakes the main show made in its final years, overcomplicating what could have been a taunt and gripping six episodes of zombie television.
However, next up to bat is Daryl Dixon, another spin off that locks its attention solely upon Norman Redus’ fan favourite, shaggy maned ex-biker and walking contradiction. However, where Dead City took great pains not to rock the boat, Dixon’s solo voyage takes great pleasure in sinking that boat entirely from the opening scene. Literally.
Daryl Dixon wakes, lashed to the side of an overturned lifeboat as it drifts onto an unknown beach. We have no idea how the solitary lug has gotten himself into this situation and we also don’t know why he’s left the safety of the settlement known as the Commonwealth, but one thing we do know is that he’s washed up in France.
Unsurprisingly, Daryl doesn’t know the lingo, but in the plus column is the fact that hes always been a hell of a survivalist, so after grappling himself a few provisions from a local marina, he heads off into unfamiliar territory to see what’s what.
Firstly, it seems that the invasion of the dead has progressed slightly differently than it did over in the States with Daryl finding out the hard way that over here, there’s a Walker variation known as a Burner whose caustic blood causes them to sear flesh at the merest touch. However, in many other ways, life is very much the same with our bedraggled hero running afoul of both duplicitous scavengers and a couple of brutish soldiers from a group named the Cause. In the melee, Daryl kills the two men but is out maneuvered and knocked unconscious by the scrappy young woman and her grandfather.
Dixon wakes in a convent run by the Union Of Hope after being saved and healed by Isabelle, a nun who believes that the American has been sent to them to help them fulfill a prophecy – you see living among the nuns is Laurent, a young, highly intelligent young boy who the Union believes is the new Messiah and begs Daryl to escort him on the dangerous road to Paris to meet up with the rest of the order. Of course, there’s a major speed bump in the form of Codron, the brother of one of the murdered soldiers who naturally wants a steaming serving of payback and is willing to go through the Union to get it.
If you were to have asked me my thoughts about the Daryl Dixon show directly after finishing Dead City, my honest answer wouldn’t have been exactly hopeful – after all if a show about Maggie and Negan trying to settle their grudge in the backdrop of a ruin New York hardly got the pulse pumping, then watching the monosyllabic Dixon stomp around France while giving everyone the stink-eye probably had no chance – however, much to my surprise, L’ame Perdue (aka. The Lost Soul) not only proved me wrong, but is also the most gripping episode of The Walking Dead I’ve seen in at least six years. Despite his rise to fan favorite over the years (remember the If Daryl Dies We Riot movement?), I’ve personally never overly warmed to Redus’ sensitive anti-hero, mostly finding his constantly moody demeanor, greasy fringe and bizarre knifing posture a bit annoying, but while his Man With No Name swagger didn’t really endear him to me in the main show, his antisocial tics and sullen mood end up being perfect when you drop him in an entirely new scenario.
Going full steam into the stranger in a strange land theme by dumping him into a place where he doesn’t know the terrain, he can’t speak the language and he’s even unfamiliar with the new breeds of Walker that seem to be roaming around europe, Dixon now has a status quo worthy of his temperament, especially as he left the Commonwealth in the original series due to a restless need to find himself. Simply put, he’s a man who constantly needs a mission to survive, even if he never seems to want to do it when he’s first asked and while the transportation of a precocious child across an unfamiliar land may not be the most original of plots, the way the showrunners handle it breathes new life into a tired format. Hell, it even wittily reworks some of the franchise’s earliest moments by having its lead suddenly wake up in an unfamiliar scenario and wandering into Walker lairs by ignoring signs. Nice.
The story covers ground repeatedly worn by virtually every iteration of the series thus far, setting up ravaged landscapes, dueling communities, glowering villains and isolated spots of Walkers, but the shift to another country all together makes everything feel shiny and new – well, as shiny and new as anything can look in a zombie dystopia. The Union of Hope and its small cadre of sword wielding nuns adds a spirituality to Dixon’s story that feels completely natural and the fact that everyone wields older, single shot weapons give a retro-futurist vibe that feels vaguely medieval. Also, the notion that the little smart-ass in their midst could be the messiah reborn may sound horribly out of place on paper, but it perfectly slots into the notion of a “higher calling” being necessary to drag a doubtful Dixon out of his slump. Key to this is the character of Isabelle played by Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire’s Clémence Poésy and she plays the role of what could be read as a religious zealot with the care, balance and subtlety The Walking Dead often lacks in its quieter moments.
Elsewhere, on the villain side of things we find that even though Romain Levi’s tattooed, vengeance seeking sibling, Codron, hardly break the mold when it comes to bad guys, he’s still an incredibly effective heavy and will no doubt give way to the even more nefarious big bads hinted at in the closing moments of the episode.
Whether Daryl Dixon manages to stay on this refreshing path will remain to be seen, but a season preview that hints at bigger threats to come, a bunch of flashbacks and way more characters on the way means there’s plenty of opportunities for show to lapse back into some of the familiar bad habits that marred Dead City. But as it stands after its first episode, Daryl’s managed to get things back on track and he doesn’t even have his crossbow to fall back on!
Vive les Morts-Vivants!
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