The Walking Dead: Dead City isn't hiding its ambition in its second season. The spinoff of the legendary original Walking Dead series resets the status quo in its sophomore outing to essentially "do it all again", but it does so with much more vision this time around, allowing the series to break out in new ways. It's refreshing.
All three of the new TWD Universe spinoffs were exciting ahead of their series premieres, but there was the fear that Dead City might be too much of a retread. After all, Maggie and Negan had reached a place in the original show's final episode that saw them officially put their feud to rest, with Maggie acknowledging that although she could never forgive him for what he did to Glenn, she could see that he had changed.
For Dead City to work, that needed to be undone, meaning that there had to be new doubts, new ways of creating that mistrust. And that is where the first season faltered as that had to be engineered. In season 2, however, those doubts are earned.
The season finds Maggie at odds with how she "betrayed" Negan when she lied to him to obtain his help in saving Hershel, trading him to The Croat in return for her son. Does she feel genuine guilt for sacrificing the freedom of the man who once killed her husband? Then there's Negan himself; is he really imprisoned if his captors want him to return to his old Lucille-wielding days as the front-facing leader of their new movement in Manhattan? And if he really has returned to his old ways, how will that inevitable reunion with Maggie go? She surely won't like the idea of seeing the "reformed" villain back to his old ways.
The Walking Dead: Dead City is built on the complicated history between these two, but the second season offers a new layer to that story that truly feels earned. It complicates things further and makes the anticipation for their inevitable reunion all the more compelling. And with a feud this long-running, those new layers are important to furthering the story, which the season effectively shows us. These are two very complex characters and it leans into that.
That's not the only thing that season 2 pulls off effectively. It's a bigger season this time around with a more ambitious storyline, and that means that more is going on. We have a bigger cast of characters, with new villains like The Dama casting a huge shadow over the season, and Hershel and Ginny now being more actively involved in the show, too. It's a lot to juggle but Dead City season 2 pulls it off. In fact, it highlights how these new TWD spinoffs benefit from ensemble casts. Yes, we're tuning in for Maggie and Negan, but if they can provide us with more characters to care about, viewers might enjoy the experience more. This is something that season 1 didn't quite get right, but the second outing delivers on that front with flying colors.
Although the story does have similarities to the first season, there is one big difference: Maggie and Negan are separated. They aren't travelling together and they aren't attempting to survive together. They are technically on opposite sides this time around, but they are also on a collision course, destined to cross paths at some point in time. That inevitable element creates some high-tension moments - both for us as viewers as we don't know if they will collide when they do cross paths, and for each of them when it comes to the other threats like The Dama, The Croat, and even the New Babylon Governors. Granted, the show does struggle with this from time-to-time because the chemistry between Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is what makes the Maggie/Negan dynamic so interesting in the first place, but for the most part, the concept doesn't outstay its welcome.
Speaking of the actors, Lauren Cohan is a powerhouse at every turn and that is no different here. She's as badass as they come, bringing the hardened, veteran survivor that Maggie is to life with such raw emotion and grit. She embodies the character's take no prisoners demeanor to an even greater extent here. There is one moment in particular that just reiterates that Maggie isn't to be messed with and Cohan nails it.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is captivating as Negan, ensuring that the former villain's struggles to avoid the demons of his past feel fresh and new in spite of the fact that he is always haunted by them. The show provides him with an opportunity in an interesting character study on Negan and he runs with it, taking a different approach while also being unafraid to occasionally dip into his greatest hits. It's been a minute since we've seen the traditional larger-than-life Negan but Morgan hasn't lost a step.
The Walking Dead: Dead City's sophomore outing manages to justify its own existence by offering up a premise even more interesting than its first season. It did go to the well again, but it doesn't shy away from switching things up in other ways to make up for that. There are unexpected twists along the way and some intriguing character dynamics that help flesh it out beyond what we saw before. Maggie and Negan are the main characters, but they aren't the only characters, and that helps the show - and its New York City setting - to feel a bit more "lived in". That's necessary because the visuals alone aren't enough to keep us invested since we saw all of those the first time.
All in all, Dead City season 2 is pure entertainment with solid drama, plenty of thrills, and some surprising twists and turns that manage to make a show set two-decades after a zombie apocalypse feel more fresh than expected. The separate arcs for Maggie and Negan might frustrate in the beginning, but it's worth it in the end, as the gripping story at the center of it delivers on most fronts.