The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1 (2023) Review
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1 (2023) Review
The Legend of THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON lives on in this ‘epic and entertaining’ (Comicbook.com) spin-off from one of the biggest TV franchises of all time. Series favourite Norman Reedus (THE BIKERIDERS) reprises his role as the titular Daryl Dixon – a crossbow-slinging, rough and tough zombie slayer who, this time, must battle baguette brain-eaters in France.
With fresh iterations of fear and a new location, THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON SEASON 1 arrives on Blu-ray, DVD and digital on 30 September 2024, courtesy of Acorn Media International and follows its transmission on Sky. With a second season on the way, now is the perfect time to sink your teeth into this acclaimed series starring Clémence Poésy (HARRY POTTER, THE TUNNEL, IN BRUGES), Adam Nagaitis (CHERNOBYL, THE TERROR) and Melissa McBride (THE MIST, DAWSON’S CREEL).
Following his departure from The Commonwealth in THE WALKING DEAD finale, Daryl Dixon washes ashore in France – where the zombie virus originated. Thousands of miles from home, The Undead States of America, he struggles to piece together how and why he got there and embarks on a quest to find his way back.
Alone in a foreign, fiendish landscape and after several run-ins with various militaristic factions and flesh-hungry walkers, Daryl seeks shelter in a convent. There he comes face-to-face with two members of the Union de L’Espoir (UNION OF HOPE) – nun Isabelle (Poésy) and 12-year-old Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi – SHOW ME MORE) – a young boy believed to be the Messiah destined to save humanity.
Daryl agrees to shepherd the child and his caretakers on their pilgrimage to The Nest, the Union’s resistance stronghold in Paris, in return for their help in securing his passage back to America. With the stakes as high as the undead are hungry, will Daryl be able to protect the chosen one, is Laurent really who the Union believe him to be and will he find his way back home? Hope is worth fighting for in THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON.
THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON is, at the time of writing, the fifth spin-off to the hugely successful WALKING DEAD franchise and for my money it is the best of the bunch so far. Anyone who has read previous review postings on this site connected to WALKING DEAD releases will be aware that it is not a franchise that I have readily warmed to so it is pleasing to report that this is head and shoulders above the rest.
With SEASON 2 already airing and a third season recently given the go ahead evidently I am not alone in thinking this to be one of the better entries in the franchise. Whilst it is still by no means binge-worthy or perfect, for this viewer it gave me more of what I would hope for with WALKING DEAD within its title and more importantly it entertains rather than be as dreary and plodding as a couple of the preceding spin-offs.
There are moments that soar – such as watching the undead being conducted to play the music of Ravell’s Bolero – and elsewhere there are underwater scuffles with the undead, a chained up zombie’s head exploding and a thrilling face-off with hordes of the moaning, groaning, shuffling undead that sees them flinging themselves from windows above to the concrete floor below. There are elements of TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY and CHILDREN OF MEN within the main story thrust of getting the chosen one to the safety of The Nest but ultimately it still only coasts along offering up lukewarm drama with the occasional and fleeting thrill of a zombie encounter thrown in to brighten things up.
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1 comes to Blu-ray, DVD & digital 30 September
