Nerdly » ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City – Season 1’ Blu-ray Review

14th Oct2024

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City – Season 1’ Blu-ray Review

by Alain Elliott

Stars: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zeljko Ivanek, Lauren Cohan, Gaius Charles, Mahina Napoleon, Logan Kim | Created by Eli Jorne

After dipping in and out of The Walking Dead, I recently reviewed the first season of its spin-off The Ones Who Live and enjoyed it enough that I couldn’t wait to give one of its other spin-offs a try.

So up step, The Walking Dead: Dead City, a show that immediately feels a bit different because of its location. The Walking Dead in a city feels a little bit fresh right off the bat. This show follows Negan and Maggie, from The Walking Dead, as they travel to a post-apocalyptic Manhattan that is cut off from the mainland. Searching for Maggie’s kidnapped son, they discover New York City is filled with the dead and maybe more dangerous than anywhere else.

The promotion for Dead City seemed to focus quite a lot on the gore, and I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise because it’s a zombie show that featured a previously very violent character but they clearly wanted to make things even a little bit more gruesome. So what we get is lots of blood, decapitations, flesh ripped from body parts and plenty more. Fans of more action-based zombie media will be very much satisfied. There are lots of zombies too, there are many scenes where there are at least dozens on screen. And as you would expect from something connected with The Walking Dead, the make-up effects are all very very good. Mostly practical effects for the zombies, although I think there was a little bit of CGI, there is one creation in particular that looked both amazing and terrifying.

As somebody who dipped in and out of the original The Walking Dead show, I only really remember Negan as this brutal and horribly violent character. One of the most ‘popular’ villains of the show. So it is interesting to see him here with much more depth to his character. We are supposed to like him to a degree, he isn’t the same person he was before clearly. That said, we still see that when he needs to, he can bring that aggression right back and be as terrifying as ever. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is still fantastic in the role too. I also enjoyed Zeljko Ivanel as The Croak. He doesn’t seem the obvious actor to play that role but here’s really good and brings something different to what could otherwise be a quite boring character.

The city setting does give The Walking Dead: Dead City its own unique feel in the The Walking Dead universe. Whether it’s walking through streets, on top of buildings or underground, the locations feel a little bit different.

If you have never watched The Walking Dead before and thought you might give this a go, there are quite a few callbacks from the series. There are plenty of ‘flashbacks’ to help with this, and while you don’t need to watch all of The Walking Dead and its spin-offs, I would recommend watching a recap of some sort. Fans of the show though will get the most The Walking Dead: Dead City this and I’d imagine they’d love it. The pace is brisk and with each episode about forty-five minutes, you could easily watch this in one sitting.

With interesting characters, a story arc that fits the six episodes perfectly, but leaves you wanting (and expecting) more and zombies filling the screen, this is The Walking Dead at it’s most entertaining and most gruesome.