I’m all for long running TV shows mixing things up narratively speaking, but for a show that’s been running as long as The Walking Dead has, Dead City’s rather bold choice of storytelling has me a bit confused. Up until now, season 3 of the Walking Dead spin-off has been putting some serious work in, trying to build up the show’s reputation after some scrappier past seasons. What’s more impressive is that it’s actually succeeded, and has even made the long-standing characters of Maggie and Negan the most interesting they’ve been in years.
However, with “Genesis”, there’s a sense that the show may have overshot its remit a tad, thanks to a sudden plunge into the worlds of what ifs and alternate histories as we get a meeting between Maggie and Negan in a reality that never got waylaid by the hordes of the undead. Randomly distracting misfire, or intriguing cosmic gamble? You decide, I guess – because I’m still not sure…
When we last saw Negan, it seemed that his more brutal instincts had once more resurfaced, after executing Fabian for plotting to kill Maggie and Renata. However, while Negan warns Dillard not to come in, we seem to see a thought in the murderer’s eye that seems to zero in on an earlier conversation he had with Maggie. Suggesting that they probably would have both been friends if the end of the world hadn’t forced them into being occasional mortal enemies, we are flung into a scenario that asks the question: what if Maggie first met Negan in New York in a timeline where the dead hadn’t ravaged the world?
After her father’s recent passing, Maggie has taken a short break from trying to save the family farm from bankruptcy in order to visit Manhattan and watch her sister, Beth, perform as she attempts to live out her dream as a singer songwriter. While they discuss the finer points of Christmas and hot chocolate, Beth is disappointed that her sister can’t stay too long as her near-obsessive plan of saving the farm eats up so much of her time. However, in a chance meeting, she bumps into a man named Negan whose easy going charm and roguish sense of humour sees her letting down her walls and opening up to him about her life. But while she tells him about the farm, her sister and her failed marriage, there’s a feeling that Negan’s story doesn’t quite ring true. While the fact he became a business consultant after the death of his wife certainly holds water, Maggie soon finds that Negan has an ulterior motive to be in NY.
It seems that during his tenure as a gym teacher, there was a man named Alan who was abusing one of Negan’s students and after physically assaulting him, Maggie learns that he spent two years in prison.
Well, now Negan wants revenge; but can the proximity of these two actually cause them to realise that both of their respective quests are nothing more than fool’s errands that should be abandoned? Is the universe truly telling us that both Maggie and Negan are their better selves when keeping each other in check?
I guess your opinions of “Genesis” will likely differ depending on how receptive you are to the risky, big swing Dead City has decided to indulge in. But before people start screaming about The Walking Dead utterly jumping the shark (again) and completely losing sight of what made the show so great, it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t so much a multiverse sort of deal as more of a Sliding Doors style question that’s put together to fully examine the relationship of the core pair without the distraction of hordes of rotting people. But regardless of what you ultimately feel about the episode, you can’t deny that they put some serious thought in, switching the entire opening credits to be a more positive begining and bringing back Emily Kinney for the first time in ages to play Maggie’s sister Beth.
Simply put, the whole point of “Genesis” is to give us a whole new angle on the effect that both Maggie and Negan have on each other and suggests that, in some cosmic way, one is able to balance our the other if they can just stick together. When we meet this Maggie from “universe B”, she’s literally wasting her life away while tirelessly coming up with various plans to save the money pit her family farm has become. She has no kids and a failing marriage under her belt and sister Beth is visibly worried that it’s all consuming her. On the flip side, Negan still has those murderous urges as he’s itching to murder Alan for his misdeeds, but to do so would obliterate what little life he has left and ensure that he’ll never see his son, Joshua, ever again. Both are driven by their hopeless tasks and yet it’s their chance meeting that finally (if temporary) pulls them out of the spirals they’re both stuck in.
It’s a fascinating concept and it gives both Lauren Cohen and Jeffrey Dean Morgan plenty to play with as the script flirts with a sort of Christmas romantic drama vibe that wisely stops way short of a romantic kiss in a well-timed snow flurry. However, while the showrunners should be given top marks for attempting something so incredibly left-field that manages to strengthen the characters bond without actually being real, there’s still the issue of it existing at all when there’s actual major plot lines that need addressing. There’s been a long history of of TV shows taking a sudden, bold swing, only to deliver something that inadvertently affects the momentum of the season in a negative way. There’s also the danger that viewers will disregard any insightful views into the characters that are raised simply because the whole thing occurs within the confines of Negan’s imagination.
It’s actually quite telling that Dead City’s third season has managed to regain so much goodwill that the notion of an alternate universe episode didn’t suddenly cause me to roll my eyes so hard, I could see my own brain. However, while the more cynical part of me can’t help but argue that any such episode, no matter how good, can’t help but damage the flow of the season – and that’s not even going into that fact that more exasperated viewers may just skip this zombie-free episode altogether. However, this would be a mistake, as while it’s existence is somewhat awkward, it gives the show, the actors and the franchise in general, licence to try something completely different – which is pretty rare when you consider that the show has been going on for as long as it has. It’s execution can’t be faulted, and the suggestion that Maggie and Negan are destined to keep each other in check is fairly epic, but I’ll be glad once we return to our regularly scheduled timeline…
While probablly working better in a vacuum, all the credit in the world should be given to those involved, as Dead City continues to switch things up in order to pump life into show that’s notoriously long in the tooth. However, while I’ve ultimately opted to reward the risk with a four-star rating, there’s a chance that Dead City’s ambition may ultimately do it more harm than good.
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