Critic Reviews

Surprisingly, there is enough great storytelling here not only to keep that door open, but actually to inspire a little hope that the next era of “The Walking Dead” might be its best since the flagship’s early days.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 pushes itself in a slightly absurd direction, but that only helps to give it a firmer identity.

If the future of the series is anything like this first season of Dead City, with its recentering of a core group of characters and the strongest story that The Walking Dead has had in years, then there may just be some life to be found in this dead world.

For an undead adventure to the isle of Manhattan, Dead City is a trip worth taking for The Walking Dead fans, and kicks off an exciting—if still a bit too familiar—new chapter for our favorite survivors.

“Dead City” isn’t perfect, but after “The Walking Dead: World Beyond,” “Tales of the Walking Dead” and even the long-running “Fear the Walking Dead,” this first of several planned spinoffs following the series finale offers the best reason to reenter this post-apocalyptic world in years.

Too much of the healing and forgiveness achieved in their [Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's] relationship during The Walking Dead’s final season gets taken back and undone, which makes Dead City feel like an unsatisfying loophole was created around moving their story forward.

Frenemy energy between the leads is what helps this series rattle along like a disreputable B-movie. If it cannot match John Carpenter’s blackly comic Manhattan suicide mission Escape from New York – an obvious influence – it at least has fun trying.

Dead City's new batch of episodes brings in new factions, fresh ideology, and different terrain to traverse, but it's still really for Walking Dead die-hards only. There are still exciting moments here and there, but the most interesting part is just how much of a contrarian punk Hershel's become.

“The Walking Dead” shows prior were ensemble dramas that often weaved their narratives across dozens of central characters; the narrative of this six-episode season is more focused, and the better for it. That’s not to say it’s all rainbows, though; if you were tired of the “Walking Dead” formula, “Dead City”’s modest modifications aren’t quite enough to save you.

Transforming Madison Square Garden into a staging ground for postapocalyptic mayhem is inspired. But what Dead City lacks is a compelling human element. [3 - 23 Jul 2023, p.6]