The Walking Dead: Dead City is the latest entry in what is quickly becoming a multi-series Walking Dead expanded universe. It began airing this June on AMC, about seven months after the final episode of the main show dropped.
I was actually pretty surprised that AMC was pushing a new spinoff this quickly, especially one that featured two of the main characters from the original show—Maggie and Negan.
I’m even more surprised since the second spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which also obviously follows one of the main characters from the original show, will air later this year as well.
But the biggest surprise of them all is that Dead City doesn’t suck. This is a pretty big change from The Walking Dead and its various offshoots lately. AMC has been pretty determined, it seems, to keep offering its audience bad TV when it comes to the zombie franchise.
The first spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead, got off to a decent start and actually became a pretty terrific show in Season 3. Then the original showrunner left and new showrunners were brought onboard. The show fell apart almost instantly. The writing fell through the floor and the stories they came up with were goofy and implausible, fundamentally changing the tone of the entire show, and ruining its original characters.
But AMC did nothing. For five seasons the show has steadily declined into increasingly bad writing, plotting and production. In its final season, Fear The Walking Dead is barely watchable. It’s almost as though everyone involved actively wants it to be terrible.
World Beyond wasn’t any better, though it at least seemed to try. And even The Walking Dead, after recovering somewhat from its disastrous 7th and 8th seasons, fumbled its final season in the most spectacular fashion possible—by being just dreadfully boring.
Dead City, three episodes in, is bucking this trend. It appears that for the first time in a long time, the creators of the show are doing their best to not make it suck. Granted, the first episode was pretty bad, but it came back swinging in episode 2 and 3.
I approve of this change, AMC. Perhaps you could continue making your future Walking Dead shows not suck for a change. If this involves bringing in new talent with new visions of how to make The Walking Dead universe feel fresh and exciting again, all the better.
We have three more episodes of Dead City to go in Season 1, and for the first time in years I’m actually excited to see what happens next!
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