The Walking Dead: Dead City | "Old Acquaintances" | Episode 1 Recap & Review [Contains Spoilers]

At first thought, “Maggie and Negan together in a stand-alone series? Great!” While my stance remains to be that, here are my likes, concerns and overall comments on the first episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City.

Obviously the first thing you think about when you hear Maggie and Negan is Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, two of my favorite actors from the original series. Quick flashback to when JDM was first introduced as the super- villain to end all TV-show super-villains; I absolutely loved the choice that the show-runners went with to have Morgan play Negan. Many people, and rightfully so, thought that he should at least be beefy enough to look like the Negan from the graphic novels. But I thought JDM took the part and ran with it. Okay, side tangent

over.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is obviously reprising his role as Negan, the once head bashing in with the baseball bat bad guy, turned vital (and maybe vital is too strong of a word) part of the main group’s communities and success in the OS (original series). Lauren Cohan is reprising her role as Maggie Greene (now Maggie Rhee), total bad-ass mom/sister/daughter/wife who doesn’t take sh!t from no body. These two characters have had a back-and-forth since Rick didn’t kill Negan when he had the perfect chance, and was eventually able to walk around freely. Much of that had to do with Judith trusting that Negan wasn’t going to hurt anyone else, and the rest of the group, while having their own qualms, followed suit.

When we first see Maggie again, we are not really sure how much time has passed between this spin-off and the OS. But based on some dialog, I am assuming a couple years. We learn that Hershel (Maggie’s son) has been taken from her and is in clear emotional hell when she has to fend off a walker- now called groaners apparently? If you have listened to past “The Stalking Dead” shows on our network, you’ll know that I am a big fans of flashbacks because for whatever reason, this (the OS) and many other shows didn’t really go back to the beginning and show who was “walker #1” for example. So maybe this spin-off will go back and show how exactly Maggie knew Negan was in New York, my guess is that they will, this only being the first episode.

So that was my first initial “problem” with the first episode- how did Maggie know where Negan was. My second is also very small, but also annoys me. I touched on the back-and-forth earlier between Maggie and Negan because Negan smashed Glenn’s head in with the fore mentioned baseball bat. So I know if someone smashed my significant other’s head in with a baseball bat, that would probably be one grudge I would hold for a while, or like Maggie says in the episode, “…you don’t ever put something like that to bed.” The presumed angst that Maggie has for Negan is understandable, but can and will be annoying if it continues all series, especially if Negan helps her rescue Hershel, right?

I do like how this and the original series will be tied together, but that’s to be expected. Especially when Maggie references “The Croat”, a gentleman that was a part of Negan’s old group “The Saviors” and the one responsible for kidnapping Hershel. So not only is Maggie and Negan (and Hershel) always connected to the OS, but now so is “The Croan”. Again, please provide flashbacks for more detail!

Overall, I really enjoyed the series premiere. If I had to give it a grade a B+ or 4 out of 5 stars. Now these grades can be brought up to a 100% if some of those holes are filled in and Maggie stops nagging Negan about him killing her husband, I mean, get over it right? In all seriousness, spin-off premieres are usually some big shoes to fill. Especially following the beast that was an 11-season show like The Walking Dead. Some things I’m looking forward to learning more about: The new and re-located Hilltop, the New Babylon city or town or place-of-refuge; and also a new character, marshal Pearly Armstrong. Also, keep coming with the classic Negan one-liners, like in this first episode, “Get your shit together, dipshit.”

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