Review of the new AMC+ spin-off of the TWD series titled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and focused on the character of Norman Reedus in France. Premieres September 11.
And Daryl Dixon was your favorite character on The Walking Dead, something very likely despite how mistreated he was by the writers back in the seventh season, then the spin-off focused on him is definitely for you.
So far, he has achieved that, being one of the few characters not extracted from the original comic, his projection has been spectacular in audiovisual fiction. Not even the fact that Melissa McBride (Carol) got off the wagon has caused the series to be suspended… We must recognize the strength of Norman Reedus and the excellent job he does giving life to such an ostracized man.
The series starts by forcing us to take a leap of faith using the suspension of disbelief, but from the moment Reedus makes an appearance and begins his solo adventure, he has us in his grasp.
You deserve a happy ending too
The indomitable biker arrives on the French coast after having had problems on a freighter, but this is something that we will discover little by little as his antagonists will be on his trail.
The shadow of Rick Grimes’ disappearance lengthens and he seems obsessed with finding him and Michonne and bringing them back to his own. As she drifts until she reaches solid ground we can hear the voice of Judith Grimes resonating in her mind, who precisely in the last episode told her “You deserve a happy ending too.”
Does this mean that he will be able to complete his mission and join the others in Alexandria or that he will find his own destiny outside the community by forming relationships that allow him to put down roots? We do not know yet.
Dixon will fall into the hands of a religious group (the Union of Hope) obsessed with the idea that he has found the new Messiah, a boy named Laurent who claims to have the ability to “feel in his stomach” how others feel and is called to guide Humanity to overcome the Apocalypse, if the prophecy of a Buddhist monk is fulfilled.
The idea of his protector, the nun Isabelle, is to send him to the north of the country towards a secure network of contacts that can keep him safe and since the shadow of Codron, a bloodthirsty guy, hangs over the convent, it will fall on Daryl. the task of taking care of him until he leaves him in good hands.
In summary, the starting point of the series already gives us two sources of villains (those on the freighter and those on land), emotional ties (Dixon quickly connects with Isabelle and Laurent) and a purpose, in addition to that vague hope of find happiness whether in distant lands or back to their roots.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon It does several things very, very well. The first of them is to leave your comfort zone in a way that we have never seen before.
It is true that Dead City, the spin-off focused on Negan and Maggie, already knew how to explore new spaces, but The walk through Europe allows the creators of the series to introduce new iconography, exploit emblematic locations and pull out very cool novelties like those “hungry burners” from their hats. which appear to expel acid and burn the skin on contact.
This also leads us to relive one of the episodes of World Beyond, in which we saw a scientist being shot dead in a laboratory in France, where experiments with the virus were being carried out. The woman revived quickly after this, showing great strength and speed. So it looks like the fast walker variants are going to be a highlight here.
But, even more interesting, the bite won’t be the only way walkers will be a threat: Your touch can also spread that poison until it infects the victim.
Daryl experiences it firsthand because Isabelle has to cauterize the burn caused by the acid of this new variant. And be careful, she points out that it’s just one more… we can expect shocks because we will also see runners, which is a bit reminiscent of certain creatures we saw in The Last of Us even though the series is very different.
The executive producer of the series Greg Nicotero has explained that they have echoed the complaints of fans of TWD that they were tired of the fact that the walkers had stopped being a threat and confirmed big changes to generate new concerns in the protagonists and the audience.
“The walkers we have in this program are all dancers. They’re not extras, they’re dancers, so they bend and move in strange ways. It’s a combination of a horror movie mixed with Cirque du Soleil. “It’s crazy.”
If we stick to the technical bill of the series, it must be said that with Daryl Dixon we are looking at a very careful product. Narratively it is much lighter to the extent that there are not as many characters as in the original series and therefore it is not necessary to develop several story arcs simultaneously in a five-ring circus.
Additionally Both the photography and the soundtrack are exquisite, and the different settings add layers to a character that is already interesting.. Daryl Dixon, the eternal wanderer, deserved such a change of scenery and does not completely abandon his background protagonist rolesince we soon discover that he will be Laurent’s squire.
It is worth investing the time to watch the six episodes that make up the first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon broadcast by AMC+: It offers new aspects and knows how to direct the viewers’ attention, even if the episodes are quite long.
VALUATION:
Daryl Dixon’s spin-off exploits the charisma of the indomitable character with a lot of interesting new features: unprecedented locations, new walkers with different characteristics than those we had seen so far and a new gallery of characters. It fits well into the eyes and surpasses the results of the last seasons of the mother series.
THE BEST:
The soundtrack, the setting and the technical workmanship of the series: it is a very well finished product that takes advantage of the locations.
WORST:
It is an imaginative series, perhaps too much so; The drift of the protagonist is not very credible. The episodes are quite long and rather slow.
