This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
The series follows Maggie and Negan traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan cut off from the mainland in search of Maggie’s kidnapped son, Hershel. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.
For thoughts on The Walking Dead: Dead City – Season 1, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:
Video Quality
The Walking Dead: Dead City comes to Blu-Ray with a fetching 1080p presentation that brings the series to life with confidence. With a series such as this, it is important to have strong black levels, and luckily for fans here they are very deep and do not lose object outlines. Highlights are likewise well-contained and never succumb to blooming. From the brighter outdoor scenes to the numerous shadowy sequences, skin tones and facial details are deftly rendered to reveal so much texture. Facial features such as cuts and scrapes from living in this world teem with detail. Colors from the lighting, clothing, and environments make a good impression in terms of saturation. No instances of intense banding or compression artifacts showed up throughout the season. The new location for this particular series offers up some hefty detail within the production design. Fans should be stoked that this series is presented with care in high definition.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that brings this series to life well. This series ramps up the zombie action a touch more than the universe has accommodated in recent iterations, and the soundscape matches that intensity. When characters are fighting for their lives, the track digs deep. Dialogue is primarily anchored in the center channel with some exchanges from off-screen standing out clearly. The track does a fine job of making sure neither sound effects nor the score ever overshadows this element. The score settles the mood as it permeates the room with great fidelity. There is some welcome ambient activity in the rear channels, especially as you hear the sounds of zombie moaning approaching. You could not ask for better from the track. There are optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles provided.
Special Features
- WonderCon 2023 Panel: A 35-minute panel hosted by Chris Harwick with showrunner Eli Jorné, actress Lauren Cohan, and actor Gaius Charles, who discuss the series in as much depth as possible without spoiling anything since this was held prior to the premiere. There are some good insights into why they wanted to tell this story, what sets it apart from the mothership, and plenty of other great anecdotes about production.
Final Thoughts
The Walking Dead: Dead City is a series that conjures conflicting feelings. On one hand, we feel that the seemingly endless spinoffs are a desperate attempt to hold onto an audience who have long since moved on due to many years of inconsistent creativity. On the other, there is a lot to enjoy throughout this season if you can get past the fact that it undoes some of the emotional labor earned in the final season of the mothership series. The new location feels fresh and the villainous turn from Željko Ivanek is an instant classic within the franchise. A more focused approach also helps the series not feel spread too thin, yet there are still characters who feel a bit poorly written. This series does not need to exist, but the creatives are doing their best to give us a good reason to give it a shot anyway. RLJE Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray set featuring a great A/V presentation and one cool supplemental feature. Recommended
The Walking Dead: Dead City – Season 1 is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: RLJE Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.