The Walking Dead: Dead City

What do you get when WALKING DEAD heroine Maggie is forced to hook up with arch-enemy Negan in order to save her kidnapped son from the clutches of a rat-like psychopath who fancies himself as the warped ruler of Manhattan? Answer: the latest kickass spin-off in the seemingly never-ending franchise.

Ironically, THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY (Season 1) was the first spin-off which aired across the Atlantic but the last one to air here in the UK. Which doesn’t matter, seeing how it’s now out as a 2-disc Blu-ray / DVD set. Of course, the great thing about these spin-offs isn’t just that the favourite Walking Dead characters get their own series (so far six episodes per season) but the potential for future seasons and possibly even sub-spin-offs seems almost endless! Just like WALKING DEAD stars Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira and Norman Reedus functioned as executive producers in their own spin-offs, so too did Lauren Cohan and Jeffery Dean Morgan in DEAD CITY. Another great thing is that each of these spin-off adventures has a distinctively different vibe, setting and flavour to them.

In the case of DEAD CITY, the initial premise starts simple but we know that as the series progresses, things will get more complex and new characters appear on the horizon. Emotionally and psychologically, it’s raw and it’s also bleak to look at, with a post-apocalyptic Manhattan deliberately dipped in subdued hues. At the helm of the saga is Maggie (Lauren Cohan), leader of New York’s Bricks community (better known as Hilltop Colony) who is forced to make her way to the island of Manhattan. Reason being that her teenage son Hershel (Logan Kim) has been kidnapped by local Manhattan psycho ‘The Croat’ (Zeljiko Ivanek) – a former leader of the Saviors who now is the leader of the so-called Burazi – a nasty bunch of survivors whose aim it is to gain control of the island. Originally hailing from Croatia, the Croat has concocted an evil plan as to how to achieve this aim and Hershel is only a pawn in Croat’s devious plan…

Enter Hershel’s mother Maggie, who is still traumatized over the death of her beloved husband (and Hershel’s dad) Glenn when he had his head bashed in by super-bad Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) back in Season 7 of the original series. Unfortunately and of all the people who might be able to help Maggie get her son back, it’s Negan who is her ticket to possibly save Hershel’s life…for one specific reason: Negan and the Croat know each other, in fact, Negan too used to be a leader of the Saviors, before he and his pregnant wife had planned on a life together away from the Commonwealth at the end of the final season of The Walking Dead. Well, that didn’t work out, as we will find out over the course of time. Perhaps there’s karma after all? Maggie lost the love of her life and Negan his. Either way, right now Maggie needs Negan to get her to the Croat, though ideally she would much rather kill the man responsible for the shockingly brutal death of Glenn! So deep is her hatred of Negan, her hate more than once jeopardises the planned rescue mission… but that’s a fair old stretch away anyway because first of all, Negan is wanted for the murder of five men and it’s Marshal Perlie Armstrong (Gaius Charles) who is adamant in hunting down Negan. This in turn would spell bad news for Maggie, who relies on her arch-enemy. But those concerns are a mere trifle compared to what really lies in store – namely the usual army of Walkers (who even happen to fall from rooftops like rain from the sky) and of course the Croat’s henchmen, who relentlessly hunt Maggie and Negan (and later Pearlie, too, after he joined forces with the duo). The whole situation is made even more complicated when Maggie and Negan join a group of nomadic survivors led by Tommaso (Jonathan Higginbohtam) and his girlfriend Amaia (Karina Ortiz) – they know all the various ways which will bring Maggie and Negan to the Croat, or do they? Meanwhile, Negan demonstrates his softer side courtesy of Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), a young girl and ‘selectively’ mute who is taken under Negan’s protective wing after the death of her father. If only she knew…

There are twists and turns galore, interspersed with flashback sequences offering further clues to some of the character’s current behavioural patterns. As always, action is never in short supply and in one particularly tense scene, Maggie must fight off a gigantic hybrid-Walker morphed together out of multiple Walkers. While Negan makes numerous attempts to bury the hatchet once and for all, Maggie seemingly can never forgive him for what he did to Glenn - though her obsession runs into the danger of derailing her sanity and sense of judgement. As he remarks: “It’s a shame you can’t forget, Maggie, because you and I would make such a great badass team!”
Of course, the sting in the tail is the actual reason as to why the Croat kidnapped Hershel. Negan, unbeknownst to him, has been part of Croat’s game all along. But wait for the real twist in the shape of ‘The Dama’ (Lisa Emery), Croat’s megalomaniacal accomplice who is the real puppet master pulling the strings…

Some viewers might consider DEAD CITY rather bleak, with the emphasis too much on the hatred that Maggie feels for Negan (who saved her ass several times in this spin-off, though the psycho in him still surfaces when he feels a situation requires it). And yes, compared with DARYL DIXON, some of the new characters here don’t get enough screen time to unfold their potential, for example, when it turns out that Tommaso isn’t the great guy everyone thinks he is. Some more explanation and background info regarding his character and his motives wouldn’t have gone amiss. Maggie is almost reduced to a one-dimensional character here who has grown cold and bitter, whereas Negan’s is much more nuanced though at the same time, his unpredictability prevails. You never know what he’s going to do next. As for the main villains: the Croat and the Dama will no doubt get ample opportunity to further display their warped minds in Season 2.

Bonus material consists of the 2023 WonderCon Panel footage.