The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 Review

This is simply a non-spoiler reappraisal for each 8 episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3. The 3rd play premieres Sunday, July 26 astatine 9pm ET/PT connected AMC and AMC+.

The Walking Dead: Dead City has yet stumbled upon a mostly-winning look for its 3rd season, delivering compelling caller elements and a bold caller absorption that should person been portion of the show's DNA from the start. Outside of a messy premiere occurrence "reboot," of sorts, the Season 3 communicative — and wherever we find Maggie and Negan arsenic frenemies-to-friends — is what this bid should person been each along.

Season 3 is arsenic adjacent to a do-over arsenic the amusement tin muster fixed the sloppy tapestry of the past fewer years with the Croat, the Dama, bitter Hershel, and New Babylon — and with Maggie and Negan pretending similar they already hadn't travel to a affable coexistence by the extremity of the mothership Walking Dead's last season. Hopefully, you'll forgive the archetypal hastiness to undo the missteps of the archetypal 2 seasons, but erstwhile that particulate settles (literally, benignant of), the caller way our characters find themselves connected is rather good. And successful the backmost fractional of Season 3, you're going to spot a phenomenal occurrence dissimilar thing the Walking Dead beingness has ever done before.

Season 3 is acold little cluttered than the archetypal two, and support successful caput that the extremity of Season 2 was already working to reset the missteps of Season 1, awkwardly shuttering that weird Last of Us-style apocalypse father/daughter acceptable up with Negan and Ginny — a bonehead thought meant to thrust the coattails of a inclination astatine the disbursal of Negan's ain erstwhile idiosyncratic maturation and actual caller family. Pairing Maggie and Negan up for a caller bid was a expansive idea, but Dead City started disconnected the blocks by pretending that Walking Dead: Season 11 ne'er happened, and present we've yet gotten to the constituent wherever it's narratively acknowledging that was a dickhead move.

In a zompocalypse story, there's lone 1 existent endgame. Posed arsenic a question, it's: "How bash we rebuild?" Dead City present goes a measurement beyond that and explores whether oregon not a existent utopia is truly possible. Should a assemblage ever person to unrecorded successful fear, successful hiding? Is a non-lethal attack to assemblage relations really achievable? Scarcity causes panic and conflict, truthful tin we really get to a spot of comfortableness and camaraderie — thing amended than adjacent Alexandria, Hilltop, et al.?

Even if the thought of "Neggie" makes you wretch, you person to admit these 2 characters are connected astatine the deepest level. “

Manhattan continues serving arsenic the backdrop present arsenic Maggie and newcomer siblings nicely played by Aimee Garcia and Raúl Castillo effort to make a assemblage that not lone thrives, but besides intelligibly advertises itself to the satellite arsenic a beacon of hope. This effort to earnestly determination guardant means that past scars indispensable get buried, and it allows Lauren Cohan to tackle her champion Maggie worldly successful years, confronting her grief implicit Glenn and yet settling into a dynamic with Negan that makes consciousness fixed each they've endured and experienced together.

Admittedly, I'm a "Neggie" shipper; I'm a sucker for this peculiar slow-burn enemies-to-? team-up. I would beryllium implicit the satellite if the "?" meant lovers oregon adjacent smoochers, but I get wherefore the amusement wouldn't privation to spell there. I besides wholly recognize wherefore astir sane people, tried and existent romance tropes aside, inactive can't forgive Negan and would ne'er ever privation this. That being said, and without spoiling immoderate large things, Season 3 breaks down respective walls and offers up intriguing, affectional avenues and scenarios you won't expect. I was simultaneously delighted and deflated, truthful marque arsenic overmuch consciousness of that arsenic you can. At the precise least, adjacent if the thought of "Neggie" makes you wretch, you person to admit these 2 characters are connected astatine the deepest level. That's the itch Season 3 is yet scratching, and not to sensationalize oregon marque headlines either. It's thoughtful and fantastic and the 1 aforementioned backmost fractional occurrence is the champion happening the Dead beingness has done successful years.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, who has immoderate beauteous atrocious "shittin' pants" Negan-isms this play (oof), is simply a quadrate peg successful a oversea of circular holes, believing successful Maggie's caller imagination and wanting the champion for her, but besides excessively trapped successful his ain pessimism to beryllium thing different than adjacent to it all. Though present that Dead City has matured past these 2 being astatine each other's throats, and adjacent past their uneasy frenemy phase, Negan figures himself arsenic Maggie's protector adjacent if she ne'er asked for it and adjacent if it undermines her caller societal values. Negan's not disconnected to the broadside sulking, no; helium does nevertheless find himself slinking backmost into wastoid slacker Negan mode, befriending Dillard (Jimmi Simpson) — a erstwhile bull who's been surviving successful a barroom successful immoderate beauteous harsh isolation and who's had to twist his psyche into immoderate unsocial shapes successful bid to past emotionally. It's a amusive but analyzable bromance.

Season 3 doesn't person a long-form villain; there's a 3rd enactment antagonist, but for the astir part, the conflict involves trying to beryllium a agleam virtuous airy successful a swamp of misdeed and selfishness. The play isn't a location run, considering the embarrassing dense lifting done successful the premiere to hitch the slate, and the messaging astatine the precise extremity feels a small reductive and regressive. Nevertheless, the bulk of it is affluent and meaningful; the caller characters are good presented and good tended, immoderate clunky aged characters go non-issues, and Maggie and Negan — astatine agelong past — person the narration they should person had since Dead City began.