Stan’s 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' is part of TV’s most impressive franchise, yet it manages to stand alone.

At the end of 2022, one of my most important long-term relationships came to an end.

I knew it was coming, and even though I’d emotionally prepared myself for the feeling of intense loss that was about to crash down upon me, it didn’t stop the tears from coming thick and fast when the end finally came.

I am talking, of course, about The Walking Dead airing its final episode after 11 brilliant seasons on our screens.

Now, before you shake your head and mutter to yourself, "I don’t watch zombie shows, I’m better than that", allow me to point out two things.

The first is that the term ‘zombie’ is never used throughout The Walking Dead universe, and this series is not based on any sort of supernatural lore or magical.

The second is that, despite its subject matter, this series is very much a masterclass in storytelling and character building, grouping different people together in dire situations and watching as they attempt to build a new world and form a new family.

And yes, there’s plenty of action and gore thrown in for good measure.

Take a look at the trailer for The Walking Dead: Dead City on Stan. Post continues below.

When The Walking Dead came to an end last year, there did appear to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon when Stan announced that three spinoff series, each following the next chapters of the show’s most beloved characters, were soon coming to their platform.

These spinoffs included The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, which will follow Norman Reedus’ fan-favourite character to France; the currently untitled Rick and Michonne series, which will reunite series leads Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira; and the newly released The Walking Dead: Dead City, which is airing weekly on Stan.

When I sat down to watch the first episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City on Stan I have to admit that it was with an enormous amount of trepidation.

It was hard to imagine this tight-knit group of characters embarking on such different and separate stories, and yet the premise of Dead City was too alluring to ignore.

Set years after the finale events of The Walking Dead, Dead City introduces us to a whole new post-apocalyptic world and teams up two of the franchise's lead characters who share a truly complex and controversial history.

In the series, Lauren Cohan returns as Maggie Rhee (nee Greene), a character who was technically first introduced to us in the opening moments of the second season of The Walking Dead, but who then went on to become such a vital part of the series, right up until its final moments, that we basically count her as a founding character at this point.

After being on our screens for more than a decade, Maggie evolved from a resourceful farmer's daughter to a fearless warrior and leader in this post-apocalyptic world. Her enduring love story with Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) also became one of the franchise's most beloved storylines, as the young couple endured the brutal loss of family and friends, and became separated after the prison that had become their home was attacked and effectively blown apart.

And yet they managed to find their way back to each other. Give or take a few cannibals...

But just after Maggie and Glenn had finally found a home behind the high walls of Alexandria, married and then chose to have a baby in order to push forward with the new world they wanted to create, the most hated episode of The Walking Dead aired. 

An episode that introduced audiences to Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, a new villain in the series who ended up brutally murdering Glenn as a pregnant Maggie sobbed and screamed nearby.

Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in The Walking Dead: Dead City. Image: Stan

It's hard to imagine from the outside I'm sure, but over the years, Maggie and Negan's relationship changed from outright enemies to a grudging partnership after they found themselves fighting against a new foe.

What Stan's The Walking Dead, Dead City does so well is take Maggie and Negan's fraught and fascinating relationship and make it the central storyline in this new show, devoid of the original characters who used to provide something of a buffer between them.

In Dead City Maggie is forced to seek out Negan after her son Hershel (Logan Kim) is abducted by "The Croat" (Željko Ivanek) and taken to Manhattan.

Negan's past dealings with The Croat make him the one person who can potentially help Maggie get close to where her son is being held, but the tentative truce these characters may have cultivated at the end of The Walking Dead appears to have evaporated over time. 

Making their new partnership a dangerous and captivating one to watch unfold on screen.

The backdrop of Manhattan also gives Dead City its own distinct style and feel away from the original setting of The Walking Dead, which was always the green and rural back roads of Georgia.

Instead, Dead City introduces us to a metropolitan apocalyptic setting, and because every bridge into Manhattan was destroyed during the initial outbreak of the virus, the people left on the island have formed their own brutal new society.

I admit, I was nervous to step into this new chapter of my favourite TV franchise, but now that I've fully immersed myself in the first few episodes of Dead City, I can confirm that I am completely invested in this series and the story it's here to tell.

The chemistry between Maggie and Negan is electric on screen – a special kind of storytelling magic that can only come from years of fraught emotional history occurring between them, and two actors who have perfectly honed the characters they play.

If you have not watched The Walking Dead, then you might be wondering if you can jump straight into Dead City and watch this new show as a standalone series.

The answer is, while I highly recommend you watch The Walking Dead at some point in your lifetime, you can jump straight into Dead City and enjoy it as a show in its own right.

This world is exciting enough to pull you in without needing to know the entire backstory of the series, and the relationship between Maggie and Negan is so clearly defined in the opening moments of the series that you won't feel like you're missing any key plot points.

Dead City also introduces enough new characters, and enough new threats, to make it feel like a fully formed world, rather than an extension of one.

But speaking as a diehard The Walking Dead fan, I'm just so happy to be back in this world. 

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City drop weekly, same day as the U.S., only on Stan.