The season follows a heroic group of teens sheltered from the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world leave the safety of the only home they have ever known and embark on a cross-country journey to find the one man who can possibly save the world.
I was a big fan of the original “The Walking Dead” from its inception in 2010 but in the last few years, the show segued into mediocrity as each season seemed to reflect the season before, with very little in the way of originality being added. Even the inclusion of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan, the sadistic and ruthless leader of the Saviors, wasn’t enough to bolster the ratings and as a result, this year’s upcoming Season Eleven will be its last. When “Fear the Walking Dead,” a spin-off to the flagship series premiered in 2015, expectations were through the roof but it gradually lost viewers as every episode was bogged down with a plethora of repetitive exposition and dialogue that we had all heard before in the original series and while it is now up to Season Six, ratings for the show have listlessly declined over the years. In 2018, a new series was announced, “The Walking Dead: World Beyond,” a show that would take place in Nebraska ten years after the zombie apocalypse and focus on a young group of survivors who have grown up in the apocalypse. The premise seemed intriguing but after watching the first season, it became apparent that the idea should have stayed a thought in the heads of creators Scott M. Gimple and Matthew Negrete. It is tedious, unimaginative, and monotonous, filled with unexciting scenes of supposed zombie peril and the customary human conflict that has infused each show.
Two sisters, Iris and Hope Bennett (Aliyah Royale and Alexa Mansour), live their lives within the walls of a university campus in Omaha, Nebraska, thriving in a colony that has given them a relatively normal, safe life. Outside the walls, zombies move about lazily, waiting for their next human meal. The colony has joined forces with the Civic Republic, a mysterious, advanced authoritarian organization of survivors who have a highly advanced military. Iris and Hope’s father Leopold (Joe Holt) willingly agrees to travel to the Civic Republic’s headquarters, where he will assist their scientists in trying to create an antidote to reverse the zombie outbreak. Sometime later, Iris receives a secret message from him, telling her that his life is in danger. She and Hope decide they must travel to the Civic Republic’s headquarters, located in a secret facility in New York, in the hopes of rescuing him. Two of their friends, Silas (Hal Cumpston) and Elton (Nicolas Cantu), agree to go with them and so for the first time in their lives, they must brave the dangers and perils that await them outside the campus walls and hope they can reach New York before it’s too late.
“The Walking Dead: World Beyond” takes place in the same universe as its two predecessors but the dangers and hazardous situations our protagonists constantly come up against, never truly feel as tense or precarious as they should be. Like “The Walking Dead” and “Fear the Walking Dead,” the zombies have been relegated more to the background while the humans quarrel and disagree with each other, and naturally, we are introduced to distinct characters who are immediately shone in a suspicious and skeptical light who might as well be wearing an eye patch while twirling a handlebar mustache and laughing maniacally, they are that obvious. The four young lead protagonists do well with their respective roles but the show spends too much time reverting to flashbacks for each character, giving us insights into their past while simultaneously following their trek to New York. This is fine for the first few episodes but it continues throughout the entire first season and quickly becomes redundant. While the season’s finale actually elevates the show somewhat, it’s a shame it took ten episodes for something exciting to happen. In the end, “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” might appeal to a younger audience, given its youthful stars, but beyond that, don’t expect a show that will live up to the hype of its two predecessors, which were more entertaining even during some of their excessively listless episodes.
Now available on Blu-ray and DVD
