Dead City remains a very average TV series that mostly works only for fans of TWD for the most part although even at that very niche group there might be critics on how Dead City is trying to mimic in a way the original series and not making a good job at it. Episode 3 of Season 2 had some really beautiful moments but also some stuff that just felt off and weird, called "Why Did the Mainlanders Cross the River?" and it focuses heavily on Hershel's backstory with Dama, which was probably the saving grace of this whole episode because without those flashbacks this would have been a complete slog of an episode, there were moments that could have been exploit like when Hershel meets Negan at the park, that moment right there could have been better but they kept it short.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33480027
- Platform: AMC+
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I'm gonna be honest, the pacing felt really slow at times and there were moments where I was tempted to fast forward, but then we had these snippets into Hershel's past that made everything start moving again. The episode does give us some gorgeous shots of New York, especially during Hershel's flashback scenes with Dama that had this mystical very apocalyptic version of "Shadow and Bones" like quality, the way they showed the destroyed city from that elevator room was probably one of the best sites we have seen this season although the CGI was not that good considering its a distant image, may be at 4k it could look better. Lastly on this episode we get to this cult like group who controls Central Park, at first I though it was full of zombies only but it ends up that the ones alive and the Zombies come from the same group, they use their death ones and the tall grass to protect from the Croat and the rest at the city.
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The story keeps with Maggie and the other survivors from the Croat attack while they were trying to cross the river, now they trying to cross Central Park both avoiding the Croat goons and the Zombies, I got to say the way people die from walker attack at this point look very stupid, the whole concept of TWD has change drastically since its not about the Zombies anymore, at least not on this spin off where Zombies have not change or evolve like on others. Every single character is suppose to be a survivor and child some others who have survive this world for over decades and they still been taken down by a single walker at the park, its very frustrating as it feels like the story falls short on creativity and now walkers are the perfect excuse to kill time. The inconsistency takes you out of the immersion, like why does Maggie get to wrestle with a walker for 30 seconds while some random soldier gets killed instantly, it just doesn't make sense from a storytelling perspective. Meanwhile Negan is playing this dangerous double game with the Croat, pretending to be loyal while secretly trying to protect Hershel and this story line could be way more engaging if they just let Negan spread his legs again and be the villain he is for some time instead of fighting with himself at not trying to be the savage he was. The scene where he kills Waylen and then lies to the Croat about it was ok but the way Waylen dies is what bothers me from the series, although this scene does show a snippet of the old Negan trying to be three steps ahead of everyone on the game, there is a lot of tension between him and the Croat as he reports back.
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But the real meat of this episode comes from the Hershel and Dama flashbacks which finally give us some insight into why this kid has been acting so strange since he got caught, I really though it was something to do with Maggie but its just him trying to get attention, been a spoil child. Dama's manipulation of Hershel is satisfying and disturbing at the same time because she is using his feelings of abandonment and neglect to turn him against his own mother, she also gives him this vision of rebuilding New York into something new and better like he is the architect on a blank canvas and you can see how interesting that would be to a teenager who feels ignored and overlooked. The way Lisa Emery plays Dama is perfect because she does a great job at pretending to be this caring revolutionary woman, an understanding figure who really sees Hershel for who he is but at the back there is this sinister agenda that becomes more apparent as the the series unfolds. The elevator room scene where she shows him the view of the city and talks about making new rules and being new people was awesome, there was something creative about it, an elevator on a building that has been falling apart for some time, the fabric on the elevator walls pretending to cover up and the the "window" when they go all the way to the top a very seductive idea of her offer, you can understand why Hershel would be drawn to this vision of the future. What's really heartbreaking is seeing how Maggie's obsession with Negan has affected her relationship with her son, when Hershel tells her about his encounter with Negan and her immediate reaction is to bombard him with questions about Negan instead of focusing on her son's well being, you can see the hurt and frustration in his eyes.
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