The new “Walking Dead” spin-off can be something special, but what audience is it aiming for?
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Online Editor
The Walking Dead: World Beyond | “Brave”
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate: 10/4/2020
After being delayed from its original April 12, 2020 air-date, the second spin-off of The Walking Dead, subtitled “World Beyond” is finally here.
And I’m not entirely sure what to make of it.
The series, like the others, is rated TV-MA, but I’m not sure that’s the audience that the show is aiming for. If anything, other than a few curse words and obscene gestures, this show seems a little tame, especially when compared to The Walking Dead finale episode that immediately preceded it.
And these characters feel more like stereotypes than real people. To be fair though, “Fear The Walking Dead” also started this way back in 2015; I did not care for the first season of that show largely because I couldn’t invest in the characters. That changed over time, and I now look back at that first season a lot more fondly. Hopefully, this show does that same kind of thing in the extremely limited time it’s on the screen.
The show does promise some answers regarding the CRM (otherwise known as the group that whisked Rick Grimes away from the flagship series), and it delivers on some of those answers in this premiere. First things first: CRM stands for “Civic Republic Military” and they seem to be based mostly in the western United States. Secondly, they’re definitely bad people. Third, they’re also a part of a network of communities including Portland and Omaha, Nebraska, the latter of which is where this series is initially set.
The Ohama community is contained within the boundaries of Nebraska State University, and is affectionately known as the “Campus Colony.” This colony may be the community that Rick is informed about all the way back in Season 2 of The Walking Dead. The community’s therapist says that 9,671 people live there, and that number is about to become a bit smaller. More on that later.
Iris and Hope are two sisters who live in the Colony, along with their friends Silas and Elton. Iris is somewhat of an overachiever, while Hope is more of a rebellious troublemaker. The girls’ guardian is Felix, who is head of security for the community and was taken in by their father before the apocalypse began, making him an adopted brother of sorts.
The girls’ father, Leopold, is teaching at an undisclosed CRM Research Facility in the state of New York. Elizabeth Kublek, a visiting Lutenintant of the CRM, drunkenly reveals this information to the girls, and they decide, with Silas and Elton, to go save their father when they become convinced he’s in trouble. Felix and his partner Huck also leave the Colony in order to track them down.
An unplanned, scathing speech given by Iris further puts the sisters and their friends in Kublek’s crosshairs. Kublek looks to be the series’ main big bad, and actress Julia Ormond seems to be up to the task.
And so does the Kublek character, as the end of the episode shows that she has directed the CRM to massacre and destroy the entire community, sparing no one. It’s a good thing all of the main characters left on time.
SCATTERED THOUGHTS:
- This series has gotten a significant amount of negative reviews, including a few that label it “boring.” This show seems like a lot of things, but I wouldn’t call it boring.
- It’s worth noting that Iris and Hope’s mother was killed, by accident, by Elton’s mother at the start of the outbreak… and none of them have any idea. Hope saw her do it that night, and I’m sure when she finds out the tension will be something.
- “Walkers” aren’t walkers on this show, they’re “empties.” Sure, that’s fine.
- I can’t believe they destroyed that community so quickly. The Walking Dead shows almost always do better from a storytelling perspective when everyone is out in the wild though.
- Why is the Civic Republic Military so secretive? Seriously, it seems like a bit much. Then again, if I were trading supplies for people with a lady that lived in a junkyard, I probably wouldn’t want anyone to know about that.
- It would be super funny if one of those soldiers accompanying Kublek was Heath from Season 6 of The Walking Dead.
- It’s clear that most of these kids have never seen combat.
- Felix is gay, but you would never know it by watching the episode. In a way, that’s refreshing. Sexuality doesn’t always have to be at the forefront of a character or a show.
- “World Beyond” is only supposed to produce two seasons, which feels a little strange. But if they have a gameplan, it could turn out to be something really special.
