I have no idea what is happening in The Walking Dead these days. What started as epic and unmissable television became such a chore and an avalanche of unrelenting misery, that I checked out shortly after the latest of the “big” deaths happened in such an irredeemably mean-spirited way it made me question why I was spending my time with it. I never went back.
Nobody seemed to be talking about it anymore, so I just assumed they had finally killed the show off. So I was surprised to learn that The Walking Dead lives on through an ever-increasing number of spin-offs and continuation stories. The latest is The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Catchy title.
I must be early alone in my cynical miserableness about the show, as it turns out these spin-offs are actually a big thing. The AMC+ streaming service says that based on the data so far, this new show centered on Norman Reedus’ character is their biggest hit. What did it overtake to get there? The Walking Dead: Dead City. Another spin-off.
That series followed Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Maggie and Negan. This is a surprise to me, as the last thing I can really remember about those two characters is watching Negan put a baseball at through the head of Maggie’s boyfriend.
There’s even more coming. A Rick and Michonne-led series called The Ones Who Live, starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, will air in 2024.
