The budget had become constrained by the time The Walking Dead ended its 11-season run on AMC.
The sets and action sequences bordered on quality more akin to a CW drama, and the overall scope of the show had diminished from its heyday.
Then, The Walking Dead: Dead City came along, armed with plenty of money in the budget, a New York backdrop, and some of the best storytelling in the TWD-verse in years.
Now, we’re taking a trip to France with Norman Reedus on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which is more proof that AMC made the right call to end the original series.
TV Fanatic got the chance to screen all six episodes, and the best news off the bat is that the show is visually stunning, taking us on a journey to some of France’s most iconic locations.
We previously got a taste of France in the coda for The Walking Dead: World Beyond, which teased that things in France are drastically different from the places we’ve ventured to across the expansive franchise.
Thankfully, there’s a lot to love about this detour for Daryl. When he arrives in France, he’s a fish out of water, so we’re following the bulk of this journey through his eyes.
If you watch The Walking Dead online, you know Daryl can work as part of a team or as a lone wolf. That’s on full display throughout the series.
How Daryl found himself washing up in France has been the topic of much debate ever since the series was confirmed to take the veteran character to France.
While time has passed since Daryl rode off into the sunset on The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 24, he continues to be resourceful and cunning.
He knows he’s outnumbered in France and has to adapt quickly if he has any shot at survival, and TWD: Daryl Dixon excels when he’s thrust into unique situations that drive the narrative forward.
While the U.S. and other parts of the world have lost their sense of civilization, parts of France remain bustling with survivors.
That’s not to say there’s any semblance of the real world. Instead, the series tells us how the apocalypse hit the country, including the various groups that formed in the aftermath.
There are also new variants of zombies thrown in for good measure, but they don’t get the attention they deserve after so many teases.
After the conclusion of TWD: World Beyond, we knew France was poised to have different versions of the walkers, but there isn’t as much emphasis on them as expected.
Daryl is forced to come to grips with these different zombies quickly, which adds to the heightened stakes.
He’s out of his element and understands that he needs to keep his wits about him to survive and return to the Commonwealth.
He meets Clémence Poésy’s Isabelle early on, and they forge a friendship.
Isabelle quickly emerges as a fan favorite because it’s clear she’s harboring many secrets. She’s kind enough to try to help Daryl in his time of need.
Through Isabelle, we learn much about how the zombie outbreak hit Paris — and beyond.
Poésy and Reedus share a lot of screen time and quickly sell the bond between their characters.
Louis Puech Scigliuzzi plays Laurent, a young boy Daryl is tasked with transporting across France, and that’s about the only similarity to The Last of Us.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’s official trailer showed similarities to the Naughty Dog video game and its HBO adaptation. Thankfully, they’re two very different universes, so there’s no overlap.
The rich tapestry of characters in a very different location keeps this new spinoff from going stale.
This could be your first time watching a show in the franchise, or it could be that you’ve watched them all. The series is a perfect entry point for people curious about what happened in other parts of the world.
The series is a valiant effort at giving the expansive universe back its bite, but there are some pacing issues in the early episodes.
With TWD: Daryl Dixon Season 2 confirmed, they should be ironed out once the show has established the characters and conflicts.
And believe me, there are plenty of characters and conflicts. Daryl racks up plenty of enemies on this new quest.
AMC’s decision to split up some of the best characters into their own shows is paying off in a big way because the franchise is slowly reclaiming its former glory.
While The Walking Dead: Dead City was more of an extension of an established franchise, TWD: Daryl Dixon is more like a rejuvenation because it establishes plots that could be sustained for years.
It’s surprising we’re only now leaving the U.S. behind because what happened in France makes me wonder about other places in the world. Hopefully, we get much more information about different parts of the world.
That’s all I got, TWD Fanatics. I’ll have a full review of the series premiere on Sunday, September 10, timed to the East Coast airing on AMC.
Before that, we’ll have cast and EP interviews, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, check out the promo below.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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