The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

“Daryl Dixon” is a fun, compelling example of that well-worn story, putting a long-underused icon right in the spotlight amid a novel, unsettling environment. If you were put off by the endless seasons of "The Walking Dead" and desperately want to return to the glory days of Daryl, this might be a good enough excuse to send you shambling back.

The good news is that Daryl Dixon is a considerably more gripping experience than the disappointing Dead City spinoff. [4 - 24 Sep 2023, p.6]

If Daryl Dixon is a glimpse at the types of ambitious swings The Walking Dead franchise is looking to take in its new era, I’m all for it. This is a big, weird story that it’s exciting to see told. It’s easily one of the best Walking Dead things in years (and that’s including the last few years of the original series, too).

The focus that Daryl Dixon puts on character rather than empty spectacle is its greatest asset. It isn’t the richest or most unique of emotional journeys, with many elements still feeling rushed, but at least there is more thought to how it all plays out this time around. While the season's best acting comes from Poésy, Reedus still settles into his gruff role well.

With Reedus doing his usual stellar job as the brooding but caring Daryl, TWD: Daryl Dixon is on pretty solid dramatic ground.

The best reason to watch Daryl Dixon is not Reedus, as the taciturn title character, but Poésy, who has an uncanny, implacable quality that serves her both in flashbacks, as a grifting, soul-deadened hedonist, and in the present, as a true believer who still keeps both feet on the ground. Isabelle is a deliciously complicated creation, more so than the other survivors and bands of outsiders here, many of whom feel like refugees from similar projects.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is a decent little show and has several moments that are significantly better than that.

With only six episodes in which to tell a more or less complete story, there should be no room for a slow burn, yet “Daryl Dixon” doesn’t find its true rhythm until it hits a soap-opera-worthy plot twist midway through the third episode.

As ridiculous as the "Daryl in Paris" logline sounds, is solid as heck. The story is both foreign and familiar, both unsettling and natural. Daryl having misadventures in a land so far away is fun in its own right but then watching him discover that this is where his true heart might belong is a deeper level of delight.

Daryl Dixon is by no means perfect. There are some murky motivations, eyebrow-raising coincidences, and here and there dialogue that is more mystifying than it can possibly have been intended to be. .... Despite my quibbles, I never got to an installment that made me reluctant to watch the one after it.

As with any franchise, from Subway to Pret, the sameness is the point. Daryl’s branch is as good a place to hang out as any.

"Daryl Dixon" expands the geographic contours of the map, but it doesn't add much to its underlying blueprint.

AMC’s spin-off is capable enough, and the French setting provides a somewhat distinct feel... As a whole, however, Daryl Dixon could use a little more panache.

Daryl Dixon gives the character new accessories and new counterparts, but it doesn’t change the formula of the narrative he has been stuck in for years. This ride may be different, but The Walking Dead franchise is still spinning its wheels.