As longtime readers know only too well, I’ve been a pretty staunch critic of The Walking Dead over the years. It’s one of the first TV shows I started writing about regularly, posting reviews and recaps as far back as Season 3 of the original series. I’ve stuck with it ever since, though sadly things started to go very badly in Season 7 and most of the spinoffs have been disappointing. Fear The Walking Dead had a promising start, but collapsed into parody by Season 4. The first season of Dead City showed promise, but Season 2 was largely a massive misfire. Production values aside, the Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) series, The Ones Who Lived, was rushed and lackluster.
Daryl Dixon has been a mixed bag. The first season had real potential, giving fans a new kind of story set on an entirely different continent. The premise was a bit on the preposterous side – Daryl (Norman Reedus) in France? – but we were introduced to some great new characters like Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) and the production values were a huge step over most everything else in TWD universe.
Season 2 took a decided turn for the worse, largely because of the reintroduction of Carol (Melissa McBride) whose own journey to Europe was even more ludicrous, and who spent the entire season lying and manipulating people in ways that make her character less and less likable. The story felt rushed as if the writers were in a hurry to kill off the villains (and some of the heroes) and move on to Spain as quickly as possible. It felt very much like they had one story in mind and changed all that to wedge Carol into the plot.
‘Daryl Dixon’ Made ‘The Walking Dead’ Fun Again
Fortunately, Season 3 was a return to form. Sure, lots of old and annoying Walking Dead habits were present, like killing off the best new characters right away (sorry Julian) and post-apocalyptic groups that are far too outlandish for what’s meant to be at least a somewhat gritty, realistic zombie show. I was irritated by the portrayal of Spanish people in the apocalypse, most of whom dress like late 19th-century Mexican villagers (leading me to compare the season to the classic comedy The Three Amigos).
Then again, we also got some very cool stuff that – while hardly recognizable as TWD – still checks the “badass TV” box:
There were also many great action sequences. Daryl and the villagers fighting off ‘los primitivos’ – a group of barbarian survivors that feel like they’d be more at home in Mad Max or Game of Thrones than TWD – in one of the most epic battles in TWD history.
Or Daryl taking down a bandit train and then fighting side-by-side with the bandit leader as zombies flooded its corridors. The entire palace sequence with the zombie marionette show was pretty awesome, and the costume and special effects and makup for those zombies was among the best we’ve ever seen.
Even just scenes of Daryl riding his motorcycle through the hillsides of Spain. These and plenty of other action scenes were actually really fun to watch, and it’s that more than anything that’s been missing from this entire franchise for so long.
The Walking Dead just hasn’t been very much fun in years. Aside from all its other flaws, it’s just been a chore to watch. The main show and its spinoffs have been mostly quite dour and often boring to a fault. There were boring moments in Daryl Dixon Season 3 also, but at least we also had plenty of fun along the way. Ambushes, shootouts, betrayals, and a really tense execution sequence in the season finale all gave us at least something exciting to enjoy each episode. The season’s primary antagonist, Fede (Óscar Jaenada) was also one of the best villains we’ve had in TWD in a very long time. Partly this is because he wasn’t all bad, and that his motives weren’t all wicked. He made some very awful choices, but he did it for the right reasons. And his character gets darker as the season progresses. An actual villain arc! Will wonders never cease?
Perhaps not. I mean, I’m writing an upbeat article praising The Walking Dead. Bet you didn’t have that on your Bingo card today! (Put that in your pipe and smoke it, reddit).
I think the finale is what really won me over this season. Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of complaints still, and if I could go in and change a few things in the script I would do so in a heartbeat. Even the way the season ended (spoilers) stranding our heroes in Spain once again, felt very silly to me. But it was still fun and Reedus was at his very best, both in the big action set-pieces and in the quieter moments. Daryl is such a fun character, and often so underutilized in the main show, that it’s nice to see him given room to shine in Season 3.
It’s also beautifully filmed. There are some shots in the finale that are genuinely breathtaking, and I hope this level of cinematography carries over in the fourth, and final, season when it comes out – presumably in 2026.
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