The Walking Dead’s latest spinoff is delightfully weird
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
Daryl Dixon was probably the “Walking Dead” character that was most primed for a spin-off. Norman Reedus stumbled upon the role of a lifetime in 2010, and while the franchise’s flagship show became more of an ensemble affair following Andrew Lincoln’s departure in late 2018, it’s hard to argue that Daryl wasn’t the show’s new central character. Reedus stepped up to the plate and gave “Walking Dead” a great final few years, and was rewarded with a spin-off of its own.
And that spinoff is truly bonkers.
“Daryl Dixon” is set in France, which isn’t a bad setting for a spinoff. Fans of the franchise may forget the post-credits scene of “World Beyond” where it was revealed that France may very well have been ground zero for the so-called “Wildfire” virus. Daryl never visits the so-called Ground Zero that we saw in “World Beyond” in this first season, but finding the source of the cure is never what “Daryl Dixon” chooses to focus on. Instead, the main crux of the plot is Daryl, after mysteriously washing up on the shores of France, choosing to accompany a child named Laurent to a place called The Nest, which is the real-life island of Mont-Saint-Michel in the city of Normandy. Laurent is proclaimed by a group of nuns who raised him at a convent to be the savior of humanity, and Daryl just goes with it.
It’s easy to draw comparisons to “The Last of Us” and those comparisons aren’t necessarily unfounded. It’s the easiest apocalypse story to do. But where “Daryl Dixon” shines, much like this year’s “Dead City” did is its impressive cinematography.
AMC must have gotten the hint and put some real money behind its spinoffs, because Daryl Dixon and all of its eccentricities are absolutely gorgeous. It helps that almost everything was filmed on location; the show shot within the Paris Catacombs, and at the actual Mont-Saint-Michel. Among other locations, including the outskirts of a dilapidated and deteriorating Eiffel Tower, they even visited the grave of Jim Morrison, which gave Daryl a bit of amusement.
It’s not the only grave that Daryl visits, either. In one of the most surprising, and perhaps ludicrous twists in the history of the entire franchise, it’s revealed that Daryl’s grandfather stormed the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion of 1944, dying almost instantly on the beach. Daryl manages to find his grave in the season’s closing minutes, and it’s implied that he may stay in France.
That may be quite a problem, as Carol (Melissa McBride) is revealed to be hot on his trail back in America, stumbling on someone in the state of Maine who knows more than he’s saying about Daryl’s whereabouts before retaking possession of Daryl’s bike as U2’s “Seconds” played in the background.
It’s not much of a spoiler to say that Carol makes it to France in Season 2, and she may be confronted with a Daryl who is content to stay right where he is.
With Season 2 currently in production once more after AMC’s deal with SAG-AFTRA, and the continuous shooting at real-world, notable locations like the Louvre Museum (here’s to hoping no walker guts get on the Mona Lisa), “Daryl Dixon” is a big winner amongst AMC’s new offerings. If the show can keep up its incredible cinematography, its fantastic writing and its nail-biting action, it’s a spin-off that may air for years to come.
