Tag: Lauren Cohan

Series Review: The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3 (AMC Studios/Skybound Entertainment/Vahalla Entertainment/Circle of Confusion/Schneibot)

By: Jesse Striewski

I’m really not sure why I even continue trying to convince myself that each new Walking Dead spinoff or as with this case, sequel series, will somehow improve, when each time it’s more of the same tired formula; good guys find a new home that gives them a temporary false sense of security, then bad guys (often someone from within their group these days) threaten that safety.

Dead City is really just more of the same; it starts out promising enough, but just ends up more of the same as previously mentioned. This time our hero leftovers from the original show Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) team up to reinforce a New York hospital with brother and sister duo Luis (Raul Castillo) and Reneta (Aimee Garcia), a doctor and “community leader,” respectively, at the helm.

There’s even an interesting, eccentric new character in the form of Dillard (Jimmi Simpson) who’s spent his time in the apocalypse in a lonesome bar with a couple of walkers, that befriends Negan. But where there’s potential, there’s more of the same, predictable developmental let down as usual.

Perhaps the only real standout of the season is the “what if,” zombie-less episode that has Maggie and Negan meeting in the pre-apocalypse real world that also features a guest spot from Maggie’s long-since deceased sister, Beth (Emily Kinney). The only downfall with this is the weak portrayal of Negan, who instead of being seen as some tough-as-nails, outlaw biker type that we all grew to hate when initially introduced, is reduced to a sensitive teacher type in order to make him more like-able to audiences prior to his going bad. (A huge misstep in my opinion.)

I’ve actually been re-watching a lot of the older Walking Dead seasons (the pre-Negan days, a.k.a. the show’s prime), and the difference is night and day, with the writing, acting, and overall quality declining more and more with each new passing season and iteration. If these characters must continue on (as I’m sure they will), perhaps the writers of these episodes could go back and take some lessons on how things were done when it was actually in good hands what now feels like a lifetime ago.

Rating: 2/5 Stars

Series Review: The Walking Dead Season 11 (AMC)

By: Jesse Striewski

When The Walking Dead premiered on Halloween night 2010, I was a single father at the time, in need of some definite escapism to fill the void after completing a full night of trick-or-treating with my son and dropping him off to his mother’s place for the rest of the night. The show was the perfect remedy I needed, not only that very night, but for many more to come.

Since then I’ve never seen a show climb so steadily (and painfully) down hill before in my life. What once was a concise series filled with relatable characters and plots worth emotionally vesting in, became muddled with far too many ridiculously tedious and (often non-sensical) subplots, as well as the addition of far too many unlikable characters that it became impossible to keep track of them all, many just being added for no better reason other than to show how “woke” the show could be. Even the special effects have suffered an immense loss of quality.

The show had been on a noticeable decline for several seasons now, ever since the writing staff started going through changes and main characters like original boss man Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincolin) left (no doubt seeing the writing on the wall). But this latest season has just been so predictable, and just plan weird at times. You’ve got all these different communities (or “Commonwealth”) intertwined together, with these storm-trooper looking morons walking around now that it all just feels like, frankly, a joke. There’s even an episode that featured a full-on wrestling match in the zombie apocalypse, if you can believe that.

The core trio of early cast members that consists of Darryl (Norman Reedus), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), and Carol (Melissa McBride) hold it together as best as the can among the noise and chaos, but are given little to nothing to work with here. It’s not until the very last finale episode that anything of any real interest actually occurs, with some standout emotional performances from the likes of Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) that offers some sort of closure at least.

But it doesn’t really end there now, does it? With multiple spin-offs still very much in motion, we’ll still be seeing more from this “dead” horse for years to come. Let The Walking Dead be a lesson to AMC of exactly what not to do to a once-flawless show. Hopefully at least one of said spin-offs (I’m putting my money on the one about Rick and Michonne) will manage to bring some integrity back to the brand, instead of just continuing to tarnish it.

Rating: 1.5/5 Stars