I SAW DEAD CITY: SEASON 3

At first, The Walking Dead: Dead City, Season 3 left me muddled. It didn't seem western-esque like the prior seasons. It felt rather patchworked, in fact, and thus, lacked focus. The idea of letting any outside faction enter Manhattan was too risky for the sake of the calamity it would bring, and once it arrived, it fizzled in the worst, allegorical way. (As far as Maggie's bold invite went, it's as if she'd never heard of that Monroeville Mall incident and the biker army that assaulted it, and well, you get my drift.😉)

Then there was that alternate-reality, Carnival of Souls, dark-Christmas installment, "Genesis." I can't deny that it enthralled me, if only for its uniqueness, and it was even sugared up by Emily Kinney's song-bird Beth, but at the end of the post-apocalyptic day, the insert was too disjointed for the time it lasted. I'm still trying to follow its intent, beyond the reveal that Negan despises pedophiles, and I sure won't fault him for that.  

Things turned around big time, though, in Episode 7: "Hourglass," where Dillard switches from a zombie-lovin' Festus into a take-charge, ex-cop antagonist, intent on killing his once-buddy, Negan and anyone else who got in the way. Man, the standoff proved to be pure Peckinpaugh.

The character interaction no doubt helped Episode 7, 8 and 9's final-blow impact, but in all sincerity, for the sake of the season's entirety, everyone was tiptop, no matter the snags: Raul Castillo's Luis (an honorable, would-be Glenn); Amiee Garcia's Renata (a respectable, Maggie proxy); Logan Kim's Hershel (a decent, lad, if ever there was); Folake Olowfoyeku's Trader (cut straight from the Trash Queen's cloth, though nowhere near as greedy); Jimmi Simpson's aforementioned Dillard (a multi-dimensional Ed Gein: sardonic for the longer haul, but unhinged when it did count; "Tenebrae" displayed it in spades); and it was swell to see Zeljko Ivanek's Croat back (though I'd have liked more of him than the mere, come-and-go shot we got).

Of course, Lauren Cohan's Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan are the glue that kept it all together, whether testing each other's loyalty or conversing like fledgling friends in their "serene," Big Apple reverie. I suppose their strained relationship (even if it's always been hard for me to wrap my head around) hit the offbeat mark enough to make their implausible bond acceptable. 

I should rewatch Season 3, now that I know how it culminates. I bet I'd still find it uneven, but hey, a rousing payoff can make all the difference with any bumpy ride. Dead City's third round more than entrenched it, and I imagine showrunner Seth Hoffman deserves a good chunk of the credit in that respect. Oh, and contrary to all the agitating, know-it-all bull, this may not be the end of Dead City, even if an official renewal has yet to be confirmed. (Perhaps NY's Comic-Con will seal the deal or at least toss fans a promising bone to gnaw on.) 🧟

Big Apple Walkers: The Dead City Opens on AMC

The new Walking Dead has premiered, featuring Lauren Cohen's Maggie Greene/Rhee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, as they enter New York City, The Dead City. I suppose the dead-city reference stands for real-life NYC these days, albeit with no Walkers, only more vile vermin, but that's a discussion for another time.

The opening Dead City episode, "Old Acquaintances," like most ushering outings, is a warmup, but a good one. It plays like a western and even has a Wyatt Earp/Bass Reeves wannabe involved, Gaius Charles' Perlie Armstrong. I say he's a wannabe because this marshal goes down faster than either Earp of Reeves ever would allow, but he appears to be a decent enough lawman all the same. In other words, he has potential to grow on this show (fingers crossed).

The idea behind Dead City is for Maggie to retrieve her son, Hershel (Logan Kim), who's imprisoned by a madman (a Negan protégé), Zeljko Ivanek's The Croat. (Yeah, the name sounds menacing and for the record, has Slavic/Iranian roots.) The Croat reminds me of Stuart Wilson's Walter Marek in No Escape: smart, personable, but beneath the surface, something treacherous thrives. 

It's obvious that Dead City is another variant of  John Ford's The Searchers. A lot of stuff is, most notably, Taxi Driver and Return of the Jedi. The formula works and in this instance can be tweaked enough to become its own thing. 

Though derivative of other sources, Walking Dead always has been its own thing and in its various parts, a western of sorts. Any version of Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead is. Escape from New York is, too, and its designation figures into Dead City. Even Dead City's prime poster looks like Escape's. Hmmm. 

If you haven't caught the Dead City premiere, you can view it on AMC+. See if I'm not right about the cowpoke implications. I bet you come away spoutin' the same: Yee-haw!