AMC TV channel has finished airing another spinoff of The Walking Dead. This time, the storyline concerns Daryl Dixon, once an indispensable member of Rick Grimes’ group and a favorite of the main show’s fans. In this review, we state that the endless bombardment of viewers with spin-offs has long since led the Walking Dead universe to a dead end.
After crossbowman and motorcycle rider Daryl Dixon leaves the Commonwealth, he finds himself on a new adventure, and a sea one at that. The result is a drift all the way to the coast of France, where the gloomy loner regains consciousness. Before he has a chance to properly explore the local scenery, Daryl finds himself with new problems, and with them he makes another enemy.
Fate brings the overseas traveler to a well-fortified monastery, where a bunch of nuns dressed in unusually clean robes take care of the suffering man. Later, it turns out that the intruder has arrived just in time to help with an extremely important mission. At first, Dixon refuses to accept this fate and seeks to find his way home as soon as possible. But later he will have to change his mind and still join the war that he considered alien.
“Daryl Dixon is the fifth spinoff and the sixth series in the Dead City TV franchise. Moreover, it’s the second one in the last three months, so the adventures of Negan and Maggie that took place in Dead City are still quite fresh in our minds.
The creators of this show are following the example of their predecessor, as they are also trying to diversify the established setting. But while the characters of Dead City had to sail to Manhattan, which is teeming with walkers, the writers of Daryl Dixon sent the titular character to Mother Europe. Where, as you might expect, it is no less dangerous.
This is precisely the main problem with the franchise in general and Daryl in particular: the story follows the same well-trodden path with no chance for an unexpected maneuver. Globally, each subsequent plot cannot offer something that has not happened to the long-suffering characters before.
Sometimes you just don’t have the strength or desire to watch Daryl automatically stabbing a millionth zombie in the head, everyone around you being terrorized by a hundred thousand bad guys, the characters constantly running, fussing, punching each other in the face and not being able to share a kilogram of apples. It simply doesn’t matter who survives, who will be betrayed or eaten again, or who will get the damn fruit.
The trouble is that Daryl Dixon is not only an average Walker framed in an updated setting, but also a little bit of HBO’s The Last of Us, because the plot borrows certain elements from there as well. Suffice it to mention at least the journey of the protagonist and teenager Laurent, who needs to be protected and brought to safety at all costs.
Carefully filmed, the majestic French landscapes look magnificent. They seem to be completely indifferent to the fact that the world is plunging into the abyss. Ancient fortresses and castles, ancient carriages, a monastery armory, etc. convey the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. So it might seem that this is not a bloody post-apocalyptic movie, but a historical drama. The filmmakers also emphasize how much civilization has fallen back, both technologically and mentally.
Over the course of the six episodes, small moments flicker that evoke strong associations with other films. There is the sight of more powerful zombies spitting acid like xenomorphs; gladiatorial fights with a hostile audience that changes its mind, as in the fourth Rocky; and an episode with a severed arm that instantly brings to mind Saw.
In one of the scenes it even rains dead people, though not as much as in Dead City. There are also references to Romero, in particular, his Land of the Dead (hellish musical ensemble included). And the little Laurent acts as a kind of John Connor in minimalist clothes, who also needs parental care.
There is something strange and incomprehensible in the series, such as the presence of the Russian actress Lukeria Ilyashenko. There is also something beautiful, like the contextually profound scene at the American Military Cemetery in Normandy. But in general, almost all of the airtime is filled with the standard wanderings of the survivors, diluted by short-term clashes with those who have already died. Or, rather, partially dead.
