I have seen the first 6 out of 8 episodes of AMC’s The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2. After watching the season premiere last Sunday, I was intrigued by the direction the rest of the season would go. After reaching out to AMC, they let me screen the first 6 episodes. My followers on Instagram voted that they wanted to see episode reviews on the season. Here’s the plan: I will be covering the first two episodes today, then each episode per week before its release date up to its season finale on June 22. When episodes 7 & 8 premiere, I will watch it ASAP on AMC+ and release my reviews when I can. I have seen the first two episodes twice. Once, it gave me the opportunity to enjoy the story. The second time around, it’s given me the opportunity to be more critique.

In the first episode, in the war for control of Manhattan, Maggie and Negan find themselves trapped on opposite sides. In episode two, Maggie begins a treacherous journey back to the island. Negan reluctantly joins the fight. We are 15 years into a franchise that has seen a lot of high’s and a lot of low’s. As of lately, it feels like the franchise has been mediocre at best. As of lately, the show has been more geared towards fans rather than gaining new ones. While that is the best way to keep the franchise going, I am of the belief that this franchise needs to find a way to end properly soon rather than crash and has an incomplete ending.

As mentioned, I did like the direction this first episode had to offer. It has its flaws as it feels like the franchise has now fully embraced its absurdity, but I still like the direction and storytelling presented here. I haven’t felt that way in quite some time in this franchise probably since The Ones Who Live. There’s no doubt this show is retreading old waters, but it’s also going towards something that I find exciting. The writing here feels like it’s going in a direction that makes me want to see what happens in the end. I may be a completion-ist to the franchise, but I don’t find that way here. This may be one of the best spinoff’s the franchise currently has to offer.

The second season opens to a solid start where we advance in time to see where people are using the walkers as a resource of technology. At this point, you just have to accept the disbelief of realism here. The franchise used to be more realistic as it focused more on the characters. Here, you have accepted the characters for who they are, and just have to accept this new world for what it is. I mean, it’s not like we have ever lived in a world with zombies before.

I do love how this season opens up as it shows the characters in a new light with Maggie preparing for war as Negan finds himself having to pull himself up from being imprisoned once again. It feels like familiar territory, but in a different direction. Where Maggie has having to prepare for war, it involves the love of her son where for Negan, he’s being imprisoned not to be a better person like before, but to make him into the villain he used to be. I personally enjoyed Negan’s redemption; however, in order for this show to work, I understand the creative decision. At least Negan’s redemption still gives him an emotional touch that makes his journey even more conflicting.

Where the latest season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon felt like it focused more visually than story, this spinoff feels like it’s focusing more on story that visually. Characters have motivation to their actions to help set this season up, but the production design feel more like film sets than they feel like authentic locations. The outside locations still look as real as ever, but whenever it focuses on individual set pieces, it’s clear AMC isn’t as interested as putting in much of a budget as they are with Daryl Dixon, but I will say that I am really enjoying the music so far. It has this real Nine Inch Nails feel to it.

One of the spinoff’s strongest components is the dialogue. It’s what makes the show compelling. It reminds me of what I enjoyed about The Walking Dead in the first place. Every supporting character, good or bad, make strong arguments for why this exist in this story. I love the villains so far as they feel like real threats to the story. I also love how Keir Gilchrist is getting more work after Atypical in a role that feels perfectly suited for him. As for Maggie & Negan, they continue to feel like the same old characters as before that made you fall in love with them in the first place.

While this season already has walkers being used for electricity, there are still other goofy things that occur so far. Negan has a new baseball bat that can also electrocute people. Why this was a choice is sort of beyond me unless they are just trying to say the villains are using electricity for bad things… but these are villains. We already know they are bad. The villains can be caricatures from time to time, but the performances make up for their decisions.

Overall, the first two episodes of Dead City are off to a promising start. There is justified conflict that feels like it’s leading towards something. There are flaws that feel minimal compared to anything else this franchise has spawned lately outside of The Ones Who Live. I can’t speak on the remaining 4 episodes I have seen as of yet, but I am looking forward to speaking more on them in the weeks ahead.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)