Watched the first episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, last night. It was good! Nothing amazing yet, but it had a lot to do in one episode. They clearly wanted to kick things off with action as well as set up the new setting and season hooks. There are new zombies that seem to be acidic, there’s a spiritual mysticism / prophecy and faith elements we haven’t seen much of in TWD before, and the medievalesque French setting is really satisfying to me.

Daryl’s a great character to be the stranger in a strange land. He still clearly wants to be a lone wolf, and equally clearly still needs the purpose and belonging only other good people can provide. I was surprised in places to see him not jerking away from / being hostile to the familiarity of people he barely knows, but it’s kind of nice to think that all that time with Rick and the gang has actually helped to socialize him some.

How exactly Daryl ended up in the situation that led him to France is still a mystery, but he does say basically that he started this journey because he was searching for something more / bigger than survival in the Commonwealth. As readymade as the divine(?) mission the nuns want him to take on seems for this, it’s consistent with his character that he’s not buying into it, but the aligned interests of the help he needs and the fact that they clearly are in need of help still hooks him in.

The villains of the season haven’t shown much personality yet, and the nun Isabelle (who seems setup to be the co-lead) hasn’t hooked me yet. She’s had a lot of exposition to deliver so far though; I’m hoping that’s not the main thing they use her for throughout the season, or Daryl’s going to have to carry a lot more performances than his usual range of sarcasm, stoicism, rage, and brooding mystery can really cover. 😆

But I’m still cautiously optimistic. When I was still watching the original TWD, the on-the-road story that this plot is promising was always the kind of thing the series delivered best on. This new setting is showing a ton of promise, and I’m intrigued to see how the Laurent storyline, with these new elements of prophetic mystery and hope for humanity, plays out.