Season 1 - 6 episodes (2023)
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Created by: Eli Jorne
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Zeljko Ivanek, Gaius Charles, Mahina Napoleon
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer
Plot
Maggie and Negan travel into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland. The city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world.
Verdict
Setting it in New York is a great idea where the area is crowded and vertical, as is taking two favorite characters from the original series in Negan and Maggie. With only two characters and a shorter episode count this series has a focus that the original lacked towards the end, but it's not a unique premise. This lacks those big moments to make it memorable. It's a competent adventure that coasts on the original characters. While we get a few surprises, this ends up being a precursor to the larger story that will unfold in future seasons.
It depends.
Review
Jeffrey Dean Morgan was great as Negan in the original series. That alone is enough of a prompt to watch this spin-off. It picks up after the original series where Maggie (Lauren Cohan) decided to let go of her desire for revenge against Negan and left to build a new community. Negan, at one point the primary villain, had reformed and married. This series should provide a recap or introduction as I had to look up how the original series ended.
This starts with Maggie observing a large city. She runs into a walker but for some reason she wasn't prepared with weapons. That seems incredibly short sighted. Like the original series, it seems this will just manufacture drama.
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| Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan play Maggie, Negan |
Maggie's kid Hershel was taken by the Croat (Zeljko Ivanek). She wants Negan to help her find the guy as the Croat used to be part of Negan's crew. Negan agrees, feeling guilty about what he did to Maggie in the original series before he reformed. Two enemies have to work together, heading to New York so that Negan can make amends and Maggie can find her son.
It's a great setting, the density and height of New York providing new terrain. Of course in The Walking Dead no mission is every simple. Characters always run into people they feel obligated to help. While Negan assists by fending off attackers, Maggie sees that he's still bloodthirsty. The Croat runs the city, so he's easy enough to find. He expects old Negan, but that's not who he gets. Initially it's unclear why he's interested in Negan.
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| Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan play Negan, Maggie |
This is yet another The Walking Dead adventure, along with The Ones Who Live, Darryl Dixon, Fear the Walking Dead, World Beyond, and Tales. At least this one has a focus. The original was so scattered and broad with too many characters near the end.
The original series had a Negan redemption tour, and this series provides glimpses of old Negan. He may not be a complete psychopath anymore, but he can still be harsh. At the end we discover exactly why Maggie wanted to team up with Negan and why the Croat was interested in him. This season is a precursor to a larger Negan arc that should expand over the next season. Negan is wanted so that he can unite the disparate tribes of New York to create a formidable community. While Negan is good at uniting people, he doesn't seem like someone you could trust. We now have this remorseful Negan, so what will unfold is the question for season two.
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