The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 review: "Almost 350 episodes into this franchise, it's nice to know it can still surprise us"

Having sold fans on it being the "Negan and Maggie Show" in season 1, The Walking Dead: Dead City sees Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan take a bit of a backseat in season 2, as it deepens its dive into the New Babylon Federation and the slippery team-up between The Croat and Dama, and hones in on an unexpected character stepping up to bat: Hershel Rhee.

Any longtime fan of the franchise will be quick to tell you that Negan and Maggie's tension has been stretched thinner than a walker's decomposing skin clinging desperately to its exposed ribcage, so it's a smart move for showrunner Eli Jorne to keep them as separate as he does here. Instead, it concerns itself more with how Maggie's intense nostalgia, feelings towards the man who killed her husband, and grief has affected her son. At what point do you let go, and what happens if you don't? The lad never even knew his dad after all, so his emotions surrounding his murder are complicated and confusing. It's a refreshing, logical ripple set in motion by Glenn's death almost 10 years ago now, and makes for some genuinely eye-watering scenes between an always-excellent Cohan and competent young actor Logan Kim. All of which are gorgeously scored by returning composer Ian Hultquist.

Like mother, like... son?

As The Croat and his Burazi start to bring power back to the Big Apple using methane made from churned up infected, a similar, poignant theme sees almost every character wrestle with their rose-tinted attitude towards the past. "When I got back from Manhattan, I wanted to take my family and go," Gaius Charles' Perlie Armstrong explains to Maggie in episode 4, which Cohan helmed herself. "But where? Strange to think I'm fighting so hard to bring back a world that my daughters never knew. Is that what they even want?" Maggie and Perlie aren't the only ones holding onto the old world, either; in season 2, we meet eyelinered art collector Bruegel, played by Kim Coates, and historian Benjamin Pierce (Keir Gilchrist) – whose constant reminders of what came before really rub some up the wrong way.

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Their involvement doesn't go down any smoother for viewers, either. They're just two major newbies in this fresh batch of episodes, alongside Pooya Mohseni's Central Park-dwelling cult leader Roksana (the writers have almost certainly watched Yellowjackets) and no- nonsense New Babylon marshal Lucia Narvaez (Dascha Polanco). Quite frankly, it's just too many people to keep track of and repeats the mistakes made in the original show's later seasons; The Walking Dead works best when you're deeply invested in the characters, and when each of 'em only gets a few minutes of screen time per episode, it's a tall order. It also means that some storylines, arcs, and even deaths wrap up as quickly as they're established, making it hard to understand certain motivations and figure out what's going on from one scene to the next.

As it leans into being more ensemble led, The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 sees Željko Ivanek's The Croat and Lisa Emery's Dama (both brilliant here) enlist Negan to help them form an alliance between Brugel's camp, gang guy Christos (Jake Weary) and NYC's other factions against New Babylon, as they push the former Saviors leader to embrace his showboating villainous side – and reunite him with an electrically-charged Lucille. And if you think that sounds a little close to The Walking Dead season 7, you'd sadly be correct. Elsewhere, making up the more interesting side of the plot, Perlie and Maggie go all Ethan Hunt as they ditch Narvaez and attempt to take over The Croat's methane operation themselves – all while side-eyeing an increasingly suspicious Hershel, whose previous run-ins with Dama are potentially harboring dark secrets.

 Battles and boats, and bears, oh my!

In the six of eight episodes shown to critics, it's not all charged dialogue and political power plays, though. Early on in season 2, we see Maggie, Perlie, and more New Babylon soldiers attempt to invade the city by boat, setting the stage for an explosive set-piece that wouldn't look out of place in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It makes way for some interesting uses of the camera by director Michael E. Satrazemis, as well, as Negan and co look out at the ship through telescopes – a viewpoint revisited when Maggie uses some binoculars in a later episode. Gorehounds are sure to be satiated by Bruegel's bloodsoaked zombie fight clubs, too, but the biggest showstopper of the season has got to be Maggie facing off against a bear – a moment AMC wisely teased in the trailers. And yes, the CGI is as good as the unmatchable SFX we've come to expect from The Walking Dead. Considering we've spent more than 350 episodes in this apocalypse, it's nice to know it can still surprise us.

At times, The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 can't help but echo hit video games The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II, which are currently being adapted to TV by HBO, with its sprawling narrative and examination of how vengeful thoughts can disease everyone they touch. There's even one fire-lit woodland moment that could've been lifted from a Seraphites scene. It obviously doesn't reach the same heights as its inspiration (which was arguably a riff on the original Walking Dead when it came out in 2016), but to come close to its greatness so far into such a familiar franchise.

While it gets a little bogged down with too many characters, and sometimes prioritizes ambitious action sequences over cohesive storytelling, there's plenty here to enjoy: most notably in how it manages to, though Hershel's inherited trauma, find a genuinely novel way of once again dining out on one of TV history's most shocking moments. RIP, Mr. Rhee.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 premieres on May 4 on AMC and AMC+ in the US. For more, check out our guide on how to watch The Walking Dead in order.