I’ll put it out there right away: I’m not a fan of The Walking Dead. I tuned out of that show during season two, which is a shame as I really enjoyed the first season. But the sophomore offering, which upped the episode count from six to thirteen, felt bloated and boring in comparison. So I tuned out, keeping up with major events via social media reactions over the decade. Now, my favourite character from the show, one who was written exclusively for the show I should add, has his own series. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon may not be very original, especially in 2023, but I found myself reinvested in this story.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon opens up with our titular lead, once again played by Norman Reedus, drifting in the ocean on a lifeboat. We’re not sure why he’s out at sea or how he got there, but we do learn very quickly that he’s washed up on the shores of Southern France. Right away, the setting enhances this show. Daryl, by his very nature, is a drifter but now he’s in a land where he can’t communicate with the locals unless they happen to speak English. The “stranger in a strange land” trope may be old, but it works well and gets us invested in Daryl’s arc this season. France is also a great setting, moving the franchise (largely) away from derelict farms, country roads, and makeshift American towns to abbeys, churches, villages, and even major cities. With that, the weapons are novel in that the survivors rely heavily on flintlocks, bolt actions, and muskets that they’ve pillaged from these museums and chateaux. Does it make complete sense? Nope, but it’s awesome, so much so that when automatic weapons make their debut in the show, it feels wrong.

It doesn’t take long for Daryl to come into the protection and care of a group of nuns. Running point on the recovery of Daryl, who is suffering from a burn from an acid zombie, is Isabelle Carriere (Clémence Poésy). Prior to the outbreak, Isabelle was a thief and a drug dealer but found god after the outbreak. She’s the guardian of Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), a compassionate and intelligent child she says the future Messiah for humanity and that Daryl is the messenger, and protector, who will deliver Laurent to a contingent in Paris. Naturally, Daryl initially rejects this plan, wanting nothing to do with the nuns and their mission, but is quickly swayed and the group, along with another nun named Sylvie, hit the road in search of their destination.

The Walking Dead boasted a rather large cast and a lot of clashing personalities, but Daryl Dixon’s smaller cast of characters works well for the pacing of the show, allowing much more time for the leads to grow and bounce off each other. Isabelle is just as interesting and as important as Daryl but since she’s a newcomer to the franchise and a local, a lot of the wider narrative is focused on her. Thankfully, she’s a very engaging character and Poésy plays the character with a quiet confidence that speaks of her troubled past. What’s more, is that she pairs very well with Reedus’ gruff portrayal of Dixon and the two end up having great chemistry together on screen.

One of the biggest roadblocks the show faces is just how similar it is to HBO’s The Last of Us, which also came out this year. Both shows feature a grizzled elder vet escorting an important child across the apocalyptic wasteland while encountering a variety of people along the way. As such, Daryl Dixon does feel mighty redundant at times. It also ends rather abruptly, setting up the next season true, but without any sense of closure on the season’s arc. It just ends. Some choppy edits and pacing issues during the midway point also stood out as a bit sloppy. The villains were also unmemorable and Laurent kind of felt more like a plot device than a person at times.

In the end, though, I largely enjoyed watching the six episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. It’s not particularly original nor does it strike a deep emotional cord like a certain other apocalypse show that came out this year, but the rapport between Reedus and Poésy, along with the fresh setting, do make this a fun and better-than-expected offering from the franchise. Coming from someone who tuned out of The Walking Dead due to sheer boredom, I think that’s saying a lot.