If I’m being completely honest, I’m not entirely sure how to describe what state the Walking Dead franchise is currently in. It’s not for the want of trying as I’ve been sticking with the new clutch of series and spin-offs fairly closely, but everytime it seems to be measuring up to past glories or in danger of becoming the most frustrating it’s ever been, something else counters it to send my opinion the other way. The first salvo of The Walking Dead’s new, multi-pronged attack on our Sunday nights started with Dead City which soon squandered its Maggie vs. Negan promise by delivering the exact, same, muddled world building and lazy plotting that scuppered the previous incarnations – however, with the following shows – Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live – it seemed that the franchise was finally clawing itself back to a good place. Then disaster struck as Daryl Dixon’s second season fell pray to the storytelling issues that’s hampered the Walking Dead for the better part of a decade. With the fate of the franchise further in peril by the accolades being heaped on its chief rival, The Last Of Us (coincidently showing on the same night of the week), it’s now down to the weakest spin-off show to prove it’s mettle. Can the Dead City possibly hope to keep the dead walking?
Months after the events of season 1, we find that New York’s revelatory method of extracting methane from decomposing Walkers is continuing apace, but with the benefits of light, heat and lots of other cool, electronic shit becoming useful again, the Dama and her subordinate, the Croat, realise that soon others will come and take their prize under the pretext of the common good. Simply put, they know that the New Babylon Federation will be flexing their muscles sooner or later and they need to combine the three gangs that populate New York in order to form an army. However, their best chance of doing that is with the leadership skills of the man Negan used to be, but after being imprisoned by the Dama months ago, the former baseball bat waving tyrant has still repelled all offers of once again going full despot.
Meanwhile, after getting her son Hershall back from the Dama (minus one toe) and taking in Negan’s formally mute ward, Ginny, there’s still a lot of unresolved tension between Maggie and her angry spawn. But while Hershall acuses his mother of simply not being able to shit or get off the pot about Negan, representatives from New Babylon, accompanied by Perlie, arrive looking to conscript “volunteers” in order to join their forces in storming New York. To protect her settlement, Maggie reluctantly goes with Ginny in tow, but while the forces of Babylon mass for an invasion of Manhattan, Negan finally puts on a show to convince the near-ferral gangs of New York to unite and reap the electrical benefits. But even with a brand new Lucille clutched in his mitts, how much of this display is the old Negan and how much is a measured act?
So, if this new wave of Walking Dead has proven us anything with the four various seasons they’ve released so far, the show is usually at its best when it’s setting things up, rather than knocking them down. If we don’t get an enticing first episode to truly set the scene, we definitely get a finale that lures us back for the next season with shifts in status quo that play far better than most of the season we would have just finished watching. It’s terribly frustrating, but it does mean that Dead City season 2 leaves the blocks with a confidently solid premier that makes the promise of the next seven episodes seem pretty enticing. If anything, Power Equals Power proves to be more of a nicely economical prologue that brings you nimbly up to speed with characters both old and new while never falling too far into overly earnest pontificating or rushing too fast through the good shit. Whether or not Dead City’s return has learned a timely lesson from the missteps of Daryl Dixon’s flawed sophomore season is too early to say, but it’s certainly the balanced start the series certainly needed.
While we never get much time to burrow more completely under the character’s skin, separating both Maggie and Negan has proven to be a godsend as it means both have room to breathe without the other stepping in their heels. Lauren Cohen goes back to memorably playing her warrior mama with an extra degree of family drama as Logan Kim’s Hershall (now finally getting some real screen time) continually calls her out on the generational trauma that hating Negan has caused.
Meanwhile, Negan has been sitting in a cell, nonchalantly crunching down cockroaches as he stubbornly refuses to go full arch villain. However, when the suitable leverage has been found, the former leader of the Saviors agrees to put on a show in a way only that he can, but despite the fact that he’s putting on an extravagant act (a greatest hits act if you will) and still manages to unite the gangs, he’s still resisting that pull to the dark side.
However, the rest of the episode is chiefly about building up (or reinforcing) that all-important status quo off the back of the methane production made from Walker corpses which still possibly remains the greatest idea the series has had in a decade. It’s a plot devise that’s relevant to the times we live in as we madly scramble for fuels of all kinds and it means that the sizable cast will all gradually be forced to be drawn into one location as the series continues, which will undoubtedly be a smart choice considering all the moving parts at play already. Not only does New Babylon have a bigger part to play with the introduction with the reintroduction of Perlie and head honcho Charlie Byrd, but we also get Dascha (Orange Is The New Black) Polanco’s steely Major Narvaez who immediately is giving everyone the distrustful stink-eye and is getting it back in return. However, zipping back over to New York and we have both the Dama and the Croat already established, but now also have new gang leaders Bruegel and Christos to deal into the pack, but it seems that the show will use this influx of characters as if you would the infrastructure of an army and hopefully the show won’t suddenly veer away from the main aspects of the plot to suddenly give us unnecessary flashbacks – I mean, not everyone requires a traumatic back story guys, so let’s not ruin this extended, 8 episode run by cluttering things up with a origin story log jam again, yeah?
With the pieces in place, Dead City’s second run benefits from a tidy introduction that even remembers to include some zombies into the bargin which is always the quickest way to realise when a season is floundering . On the strength of Power Equals Power, it seems that the actual power struggle between Dead City and Daryl Dixon has suddenly swung in favor of the former, which is something of a pleasant surprise. However, at the risk of sounding glass half empty, they’ve also got 7 more weeks to screw this up – fingers crossed then that Dead City continues to be my kinda town…
🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 