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Ecklyn
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The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023)
An absolute blast
The incredibly awful writing just made this series even more entertaining to me. I never felt bored once, waiting for the next absurd plot hole to happen. Like Daryl randomly stumbling upon his grandfather d-day grave or the villain deciding he's not feeling like executing his brother's murderer today for... reasons that I guess will be explained in the future? What really sells this series though are the amazingly corny ideas behind the concept of "zombie apocalypse in France" seen from the eyes of someone that still thinks people live in castles here in Europe. I'm not french, but I am european and it was interesting seeing how many stereotypes they could fit into the story. Nuns fighting zombies, a post-apocalypse cabaret, halberds and flintlock pistols instead of knives and guns... so good. The scene with people singing the Marseillaise and "vive la france!" almost made me throw up from laughing. The post-apocalyptic France depicted here is so over-the-top that I couldn't help but love the aesthetics and production design. It is very competently shot and some sequences are amazingly executed, like the beginning of the apocalypse in Paris. It certainly isn't a homage to the country, but if the same thing was done in a japanese anime people would be losing their mind on how cool it is. The story is entertaining for all the wrong reasons. A "the chosen one" cliché being the primary one. The scene with Laurent cutting the rope to the boat and saying "I just did that so I can stay with you" with Daryl losing his mind is comedic gold. And the fact that Daryl immediately starts comforting him makes it even better. They really ruined the character of Daryl here. He is looking out of place in almost every scene, the badass american thrown in France to help the religiously zealous and dumb europeans survive the apocalypse and confront reality. The other characters are god-awful too, especially the villain, which is sad considering that one of the redeeming qualities of the original TWD were the memorable villains. If you are looking for quality writing, stay far, far away from this. But if you are looking for something quick and entertaining and you want to drink every time you see a laughable french stereotype materialize on screen, then you're going to have a blast. I loved this series for that. People are comparing this to The Last of Us, and I'm going to say that I'm happy of how much less self-aware this series is in comparison, because its absolute failure to be a serious zombie drama makes it equally as entertaining. I hope that the 2nd season will be even more absurd than the first, with possibly more iconic scenes and plot holes.