Being a follower of The Walking Dead can be pretty exhausting. One minute you’ll be starting a new season which bristles with promise, only for it to gradually let you down. But then, you’ll either get the occasional entry that gives you hope that all those tropes that made you so tired (plot threads dragged out to infinity, painfully convoluted twists, Hershal’s bullshit) are finally dispering, or there’ll be a season finale that doles out a cliff hanger or status quo change that sounds legitimately awesome. And just like that, it manages to sink it’s rotting bicuspids into your flesh once more and won’t let go.
Possibly pulling this shit more than the other two spin-off shows combined is Dead City which, in my mind, has always been the weakest of the three. However, with a brand-new season upon us, it seems that the powers behind the show have done some reshuffling in order to keep things a bit streamlined. Some of it makes sense, some of it doesn’t (yet), but after utilising some of those bad, storytelling habits for a good cause, could it be that Dead City is on the verge of a renovation?
In a perfect example of swiping some major pieces off the board before they’re even allowed to be played, the invasion of New York by New Babylon is brought to a sudden halt before it even starts when someone plants a bomb on those all-important methane tanks and wipes out most of Midtown whilst scattering that problematic army. Of course, while all this is going on, Maggie and Negan are in the midst of yet another of their trademark spats as the latter is both physically and emotionally wounded after Maggie’s knife wound and the death of Ginny. But while the two bicker like a murderous brother and sister, they are taken captive by siblings Renata and Luis who are on a desperate mercy mission.
As one of their party is on the verge of a premature birth, they need one of those methane tanks to fuel an incubator and are hoping to steal one, but after the explosion happens, they’re all forced to take refuge in a basement as walkers swarm the place. In a prime slice of plot convenience, joining them are Hershal – who just shows up after seemingly abandoning the Dama – and the Croat, who it turns out was the one who blew up the tanks in the first place to prevent New Babylon getting them; but as they cool their heels, various issues are raised and settled.
Finally dying from a sizable wound, the Croat reveals that there’s one more hidden tank left (plus instructions – because of course there is) stashed away in a secret location, and the group head out to save this unborn baby, but as they do, some long awaited revelations seem to come with it. With Maggie and Hershal on the same page seemingly for the first time in recorded history, Renata suggests that maybe our weathered lead should think about staying and making something of the battered Big Apple. As sizemic as that is, what’s even more shocking is that Maggie finally seems to want to put her endless feud with Negan behind her – but with everything that’s happened, could such a reconciliation be possible?
So there’s admittedly a fair bit of plot wrangling you’ll have to simply just accept and forgive to enjoy the opening salvo of Dead City’s third season, but for the most part, “Trillium” proves to be a very entertaining opening for The Walking Dead’s most inconsistent series. Like I mentioned before, there’s a fair amount of overly convenient plot fuckery in order to bring things into line. The threat of New Babylon is wiped out almost instantly by a bomb; Hershal has seemingly cast off the influence of the Dama off-screen; the methane tanks are mostly no longer an issue and despite a rather lengthy farewell, Željko Ivanek returns for one last episode as the Croat in order for any of this stuff to make a lick of sense. However, The Walking Dead’s habit of suddenly flipping the script whether it makes sense or not is seemingly only a bad thing when the results end up being frustrating; so the fact that this all results in a noticable improvement means I’m cool with this habit of furiously rewriting the rules – even if it means that the character of Perlie (remember him?) has all but disappeared without a trace.
The main benefit is that after countless seasons of both The Walking Dead and Dead City, both Maggie and Negan have finally reached some emotional accord, which is a good thing considering it had become fucking obvious that the writers would never let them kill one another ages ago. While I’d hardly described them as “besties” (Negan has been recently stabbed by her, remember?), watching the two move toward something more hopeful finally gives Lauren Cohen something to play with other than pure hate and simply reacting to walkers, or her ungrateful son. Speaking of Hershal, while I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be trusting his 180⁰ personality turn that’s seemingly occurred out of the blue, he’s far less annoying now that he’s become a more agreeable sort as teenage temper tantrums aren’t overly compatible with zombie dystopias. Even the new additions of Renata and Luis feel like the avenue to a new beginning, rather than a couple of fresh characters who just show up to provide a new plot point and then die like hapless NPCs.
However, the best things about this season premiere by far is the new character of Dillard – played by It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Jimmi Simpson – and a character overhaul of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan, which manages to restore some of that cynical swagger of old (plus that talent for rampant swearing) while still keeping him a “good” guy. Whether dropping in an unnecessary amounts of “shits” into a conversation, or absently minded playing with a ball and cup while important discussions are being held, he’s suddenly more fun he’s been in years. Additionally, while Simpson stops short at making the eccentric Dillard an unofficial member of the McPoyle family, the fact that he has his own bar, complete with neutered zombie patrons his hardly a sign of mental stability. However, thanks to his unconventional food system that utilises Walkers, maggots, frogs, turkeys and coyotes as a mini, food providing chain, again he feels a little less like a throwaway, oddball character and helps keeps things feeling fresh. Of course, all the old issues are still swirling around out there (the Dama’s revealed recruiting scattered members of New Babylon), but the influx of new characters, the readjustment of the old characters and some satisfying walker setpieces mean that for all of it’s dubious continuity issues, the writers have managed to do what their characters hope to create – a better world. Let’s just hope that it lasts, yeah?
Once again, a strong season premiere lifts some of that well-earned cynism that hangs around this long running franchise like a bad smell. Whether or not Dead City can use it’s new outlook to turn a significant corner will no doubt be revealed over the next couple of weeks. But as of right now, New York seems to once again be the place to make it.
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