With Dead City recently airing its first season finale, AMC's next The Walking Dead spin-off, Daryl Dixon, is set to premiere on September 10, and the review embargo has now lifted.
Considering the majority of critics soured on the original series after a few seasons, the initial reception has been surprisingly positive, and the show is currently sitting at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes - though only 10 verdicts have been added so far, so that score is sure to fluctuate.
Daryl Dixon is being hailed as "the best Walking Dead in years," but even a lot of the positive reviews mention how similar the premise is to another recent post-apocalyptic/zombie TV series.
Here's an unofficial description of the basic story (via THR): “Daryl must escort a young girl who might be humanity’s savior across a treacherous zombie-filled landscape in France.”
Sound familiar?
“I remember watching the first episode of The Last of Us and going, ‘Ummm… guys? … [But] we were already deep into production when The Last of Us came out,” says executive producer Greg Nicotero.
The first The Last of Us video game came out in 2013, so some may find it difficult to believe that the team behind Daryl Dixon were completely oblivious about what its storyline entailed. That said, all of these zombie-themed projects share a lot of the same tropes, and it sounds like DD excels in many important areas.
“Daryl (Norman Reedus) washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan.”
In addition to Reedus as the title character, Daryl Dixon stars Clémence Poésy as Isabelle, a member of a progressive religious group who joins Daryl in France where Isabelle has a dark past in Paris; Adam Nagaitis as Quinn, the owner of an underground nightclub in Paris called the Demimonde who has become a powerful figure after the zombie apocalypse.
The supporting cast includes Anne Charrier as Genet, Eriq Ebouaney as Fallou, Laika Blanc Francard as Sylvie, Romain Levi as Codron, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent, Paloma as Coco, and (possibly) Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier.